In this week’s prospect update, the NCAA tournaments are in full swing and Gennaro continues his goal scoring ways.

CHL

Jansen Harkins and the Cougars traveled down to Washington State for a three-game road trip and came away with a pair of wins. The Cougars only loss was a close 5-4 game in which Winnipeg product and 2017 top draft prospect Cody Glass scored two and added two assists. Harkins assisted in the loss and scored late in a 6-1 win over Tri-City.

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Matteo Gennaro scored his 40th goal of the season to start the week off, albeit in a 6-2 loss to the Saskatoon Blades, the team the Hitmen are fighting for the last Wild Card spot. The Hitmen turned it around and have now won three straight; Gennaro scored another two goals and an assist in the wins. The Hitmen now sit three points up on the Blades for the last playoff spot.

Michael Spacek is currently on a six-game point streak (3G, 7A) as the Rebels won two and lost one this week. The Rebels sit third place in the Central Division, but it is by no means a comfortable lead.

Luke Green‘s point totals had quieted down lately after his string of assists when he first joined the Sherbrooke Phoenix. After scoring just two goals the rest of the season, Green has now scored in three of the past four games. Last week, I had indicated Green was likely to see time with the Moose this month. I failed to realize that 16 of the 18 QMJHL teams make the playoffs and that the Phoenix (currently 17th place) are only one point back of three teams ahead of them.

USHL

Mikhail Berdin continues to put up great stats for a team at the bottom of the USHL standings. Berdin stopped 34 of 36 in a shootout loss to Omaha (and stopped 4 of 5 shooters) and stopped 15 of 17 the following night in a 2-1 loss to Cedar Rapids. Berdin ranks 3rd in the league in save percentage.

NCAA

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CJ Franklin and Minnesota State needed all three games to decide a winner in the WCHA semifinals. Losing 5-1 in Game One on Friday, Minnesota State shut out the Michigan Tech Huskies 1-0 on Saturday. In the deciding Game Three, Michigan Tech took the lead on a pair of second period goals and never looked back, winning 4-1. The Mavericks end their season with a very respectable 22-13-4 record. Franklin did not record a point, but was strong in the faceoff circle, winning 29 of 49 draws (59%).

Tucker Poolman and the Fighting Hawks beat St. Cloud State in two games to advance to the NCHC Semifinals. Poolman had a pair of assists in Game One in a 5-2 win and his team escaped with a 6-5 OT win in Game Two. North Dakota will play Denver in a one-game playoff at the Target Center in Minneapolis this Friday. Win or lose, they will play on Saturday in either the NCHC Championship game or the Third Place game. The team has also earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament starting at the end of March.

As an extra this week, enjoy all of Tucker’s shifts from his 4-point performance last week!

Erik Foley and the Friars dropped both games to Notre Dame in the Hockey East Quarterfinal. Providence is now playing the waiting game to see if they are selected for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The selection process has always confused me and I won’t pretend to know how it works. I created a shift by shift look at Foley from his game on February 25th below.

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Mason Appleton scored the lone Michigan State goal on Saturday in a 1-1 tie (which they would win in a shootout) with Minnesota. Friday’s game was a 4-0 shutout loss. Appleton had a fantastic nine shots on net in the two games. Michigan State will face Ohio State this Thursday in the Big Ten Tournament at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

Matt Ustaski scored again! Unfortunately for Wisconsin, this was one of only two goals they scored against Ohio State this weekend. Despite the outcomes, Wisconsin will play the winner of Michigan State vs Ohio State on Friday.

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Jack Glover was nowhere to be found this weekend, as he was scratched once again. Glover has not played in over a month.

Overseas

Pavel Kraskovsky and Lokomotiv are down 2-1 to CSKA Moscow in the KHL semifinals. Kraskovsky was dreadful in the faceoff circle again (8 for 31, 26%) and had a couple shots on goal. To start the series off on the right foot, Kraskovsky fought CSKA’s Jan Mursak and fared quite well.

Sami Niku had a single secondary assists this week, for the third week in a row. Last night’s games mark the end of the regular season. JYP will take on HPK in the quarterfinals beginning March 22nd.

Jacob Cederholm played three more games on loan to IK Pantern, as they attempt to qualify for SHL play next season. It isn’t looking likely that IK Pantern will qualify, as the team has won just one of the four games played in the Qualification round. Cederholm recorded an assist in the win (2-1 over Almtuna IS) to open the scoring.

AHL

The Manitoba Moose had a tough week, losing all three games played. The positive news from the week is that Brendan Lemieux is slowly increasing his point totals as the season moves along. Just ignore the 28 penalty minutes!

The week began with a close 4-3 loss to the Charlotte Checkers. Lemieux scored his 11th of the season doing what he does best, but the Moose surrender three straight goals to the Checkers and never regained the lead. Eric Comrie was only able to stop 23 of 27 shots.

In the rematch on Friday night, Comrie lasted just 10 minutes (stopping 9 of 12) before he was pulled in favour of Jamie Phillips. Phillips stopped 16 of 17 shots but the damage was already done as the Moose fell 4-1. Kyle Connor scored late in the 1st to instill some hope, but it would be their only goal of the game.

The Moose met up with the Marlies for a Sunday afternoon game, in a wild back-and-forth affair. Nelson Nogier opened the scoring with his second goal of the season and Ryan Olsen scored a dandy for just his fifth of the season. Unfortunately, any goals the Moose scored were seemingly answered immediately by the Marlies.

All stats current as of this morning. Until next time, keep fit and have fun.

Be sure to visit jetsprospects.ca and check out stats and prospect profiles dating back to 2011.



