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Comets Milita Weekly Prospect Report – March 28th, 2014

By Josh W

Mar 28, 2014, 13:01 EDTUpdated:

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Image courtesy of @VanCanucks

It’s been an exciting week for Canucks prospects. While the Canucks are trying to drag themselves out of a good draft pick, their prospects in the AHL are fighting to bring the Comets to the post season (and have a good chance of doing so), and the guys down in the Major Junior are sweeping series. Things are happening.

As always, feel free to follow me on Twitter @nuckprospects for the latest in prospect news. You’re more than welcome to send me any feedback on anything prospect related you wish for me to cover in the future.

Utica Comets

Friday: 3-4 Loss vs Adirondack

The week started off with a game versus Adirondack, the AHL Affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers. This one started off fairly evenly but by midway through the game the Phantoms were well in control.

The final score was 4-3 with the shot count in favour of the Utica Comets 39-25 (of large relevance is that the Comets outshot the Phantoms 21-4 in the 3rd with score effects ramped up to max). The goals for the Comets came from DeFazio, Huskins and Stuart. Assists were registered to Corrado, Huskins, Mashall, Pelletier, Tommernes, and Biega. Corrado lead the team with 5 SOG.

Eriksson was in net for and did not have a great game. He only made 21 of 25 saves. The PK went 2 for 4 and the PP went 0 for 6. That won’t get it done, either.

Saturday: 2-1 win @ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton

The second game of the weekend saw the Comets travel down to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to play the Penguins, the AHL Affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Comets dominated this game from the start and lead the final shot count 29-23, winning by a 2-1 score. The Utica goals came from Stuart and Pelletier. Assists were given to Grenier, DeFazio, O’Reilly, and Friesen. Colin Stuart lead the team with 5 SOG.

Cannata started this game (Utica must have listened to my rants about starting goaltenders in back-to-backs) and he earned a quality start making 22 of 23 saves. Special teams were slightly better as the PP went 1 for 7 while the PK went 3 for 4.

Sunday: 4-3 SO Win vs Milwaukee

On the final game of the weekend (in a back-2-back-2-back, a staple in the good ol’ AHL) the Comets played Milwaukee at home, the AHL affiliate of the Nashville Perds. Despite being tired from the two previous games the Comets continued to dominate possession.

They won with a score of 4-3 in the SO and won the shot count 30-23. DeFazio was the shot leader with 5 on net. Utica’s goals were scored by Grenier, Pelletier and DeFazio while assists went to Corrado, Pelletier, Marshall, Archibald, Corrado and O’Reilly.

Eriksson was back in net for this one making 20 of 23 saves. In the shootout Eriksson made 3 of 5 saves while Utica was able to score on 3 of 4 shots. The PP went 2 for 6 while the PK went 3 for 3.

Players Performance

Players stats who have played at least one game with the Comets, (X) indicates not currently on the active roster, so far are:

#	Player	POS	AGE	GP	G	A	PTS	PPG	SOG	SOG/G	+/-	PIM	SH%
17	Nicklas Jensen (X)	C	20	51	15	5	20	0.39	141	2.76	-4	24	10.6
78	Benn Ferriero	R	26	54	19	20	39	0.72	145	2.69	-19	42	13.1
10	Colin Stuart	L	31	54	17	8	25	0.46	139	2.57	-2	38	12.2
24	Brandon DeFazio	F	24	64	14	13	27	0.42	160	2.50	4	78	8.8
28	Alexandre Grenier	R	21	56	17	18	35	0.63	132	2.36	-5	48	12.9
25	Darren Archibald	L	23	47	10	12	22	0.47	106	2.26	0	70	9.4
23	Pascal Pelletier	C	30	57	14	38	52	0.91	111	1.95	-4	48	12.6
7	Henrik Tommernes	D	23	45	4	12	16	0.36	86	1.91	-14	12	4.7
3	Alex Biega	D	25	62	2	16	18	0.29	103	1.66	4	47	1.9
26	Frank Corrado	D	20	54	5	9	14	0.26	86	1.59	-7	40	5.8
15	Jeremy Welsh	C	25	37	2	5	7	0.19	58	1.57	-10	10	3.4
4	Yann Sauve	D	23	55	0	11	11	0.20	86	1.56	-16	54	0
16	Cal O’Reilly	C	27	40	3	31	34	0.85	58	1.45	3	6	5.2
19	Kellan Lain	C	24	51	7	8	15	0.29	56	1.10	1	104	12.5
12	David Marshall	D	21	54	1	3	4	0.07	59	1.09	-2	36	1.7
44	Patrick Kennedy	F	25	28	0	2	2	0.07	27	0.96	-1	8	0
8	Alex Friesen	F	22	42	2	6	8	0.19	39	0.93	2	30	5.1
11	John Negrin	D	24	12	0	1	1	0.08	10	0.83	1	8	0
29	Kent Huskins	D	34	53	3	6	9	0.17	43	0.81	3	29	7
40	Peter Andersson	D	22	46	1	10	11	0.24	37	0.80	1	14	2.7
27	Alex Mallet	C	21	48	1	3	4	0.08	29	0.60	1	26	3.4
22	Ray Kaunisto	L	27	10	1	0	1	0.10	6	0.60	1	2	16.7

Goalies so far:

#	Goalies	GP	Mins	W	L	SOL	SO	GA	GAA	SVS	SV%
30	Joacim Eriksson	44	2554:07:00	21	19	2	4	109	2.56	1154	0.914
35	Joe Cannata	23	1212:06:00	8	11	1	0	59	2.92	544	0.902
34	Mathieu Corbeil	3	116:33:00	0	1	1	0	6	3.09	54	0.9

Transactions:

David Pacan returned to Kalamazoo
Darren Archibald returned to Utica
Blomstrand called up from Kalamazoo to Utica. He’s been the highest SOG/G producer of prospects in the ECHL.

Other:

The Comets are sitting in 11th place in the conference and 20th in the league. For the first time all season they are better than a .500 team (at .508). They’re only 5 points out of a playoff spot with all three teams above them having more games in hand. Each week they draw closer and closer to a playoff position.
Their possession numbers have improved this week as they have outshot opponents 1840 to 1899 (-59) bringing their possession at approximately 49.21%. They have outscored the opposition 156 to 183 (-27).
For special teams their PK has risen to 24th place with a 79.55% success rate having gone 8 for 11 this week. Their PP dropped a place to 20th at 16.28% after going 3 for 19 on the week.
In the upcoming week the Comets will be playing three games at home, Friday and Saturday vs Abbotsford and then Sunday vs Iowa. I will be at the Saturday game, so I’ll be reporting live from! Hopefully the Comets continue to win this weekend and move even closer to the playoff spot which the Canuck’s cannot fully grasp.
Jensen has received some more opinions from scout Corey Pronman and Bure’s Triple Deke.
Grenier is now the 17th AHL Rookie to score 17 goals this season.
Colin Stuart and Ferriero were both hurt on the weekend. Top Prospect Blomstrand has been called up and will be given a chance in the AHL. Of the ECHL prospects he has the highest SOG/G.
Comets Coach Travis Green was quoted saying he really wants to see the OHL prospects (Fox, Gaunce, Horvat, Cassels) in the Comets lineup, and that they would give them help offensively but he recognizes they will likely end up going on a long playoff run.

Extra Readings

CHL Playoff Primer [Canucks.com]
Stan Smyl talks about some of the OHL Prospects [Canucks.com]
Utica Comet Rewind [Canucks.com]
The Prospector [Pass it to Bulis]
Willes analyzes the Vancouver prospect cupboard [The Province]
Shinkaruk gets a nod despite being out for the last year with injury [HockeysFuture]
Thats_Offside’s favourite prospect also gets a nod as a top pick [HockeysFuture]

OHL

Name	Position	DOB	Age	Team	GP	G	A	P	PPG	+/-	PIM
Bo Horvat	C	1995-04-05	18	London	4	4	4	8	2.00	5	2
Dane Fox	C	1993-10-13	20	Erie	5	6	6	12	2.40	4	6
Brendan Gaunce	C	1994-03-25	20	Erie	5	4	4	8	1.60	2	6
Cole Cassels	C	1995-05-04	18	Oshawa	4	2	7	9	2.25	0	6
Evan McEneny	D	1994-05-22	19	Kingston	4	0	1	1	0.25	2	4
Miles Liberati	D	1995-06-21	18	North Bay	4	0	0	0	0.00	-1	4
Jordan Subban	D	March 15, 1995	19	Belleville	x	x	x	x	x	x	x

In the OHL playoffs the Erie Otters have advanced to the second round after beating Saginaw 4-1. In five games Gaunce has earned 4 goals and 4 assists, a +2 and 6 PIM. Fox has earned 6 goals and 6 assiast in those same give games as well as a +4 and 6 PIM.
London has swept Windsor in 4 games. In four plyayoff games Horvat has 4G and 4A, a +5 and 2 PIM.
In the East, Oshawa has swept Missisauga and Cassels is now at a measly 2G and 7A in 4 games alongside his +0 and 6 PIM.
Kingston is still in action and are currently up 3-1 on Peterborough. McEneny has been quieter than his norm this year and only has 1A in 4 games as well as a +2 and 4 PIM.
North Bay is currently down 1 to 3 in their series with Niagara. Liberati, no surprise, has 0 pts in 4 games, a -1 and 4 PIM.
As a reminder, Jordan Subban is not in the postseason as his Belleville Bulls did not qualify.

WHL

Name	Position	DOB	AGE	Team	GP	G	A	P	PPG	+/-	PIM
Hunter Shinkaruk (IR)	L	1994-10-13	19	Medicine Hat	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Anton Cederholm	D	1995-02-21	19	Portland	4	0	0	0	0.00	0	2

Medicine Hat is currently tied in their series 2-2 with Swift Current. Meanwhile, Portland Winterhawks have swept the Vancouver Giants and are waiting the next opponent that they’ll feast on.
In his four post season games, Cederholm has a total of 2 PIM. [NucksMisconduct] had a good article on Cederholm. Also [the Province] covers him and Portland as they head to the playoffs. Canucks Army scout Thats_Offside was at the Vancouver games and said he didn’t notice him on the ice except when he hit Ty Ronning, took a penalty, or was the only guy on the Winterhawks dumping the puck in.

I have been working on some usage charts for the CHL / AHL so here is the Winterhawk’s defense. You can see how he stacks up to his peers. The x-axis is how tough the competition he faces is, while the y-axis is how good his linemates are. The size of the circle is ice time and the colour of the circle is rel Gf%.

NCAA

Name	Position	DOB	AGE	School	GP	G	A	P	PPG	+/-	S	S/G	PIM
Ben Hutton	D	1993-04-20	20	Hockey East / Maine	35	15	14	29	0.83	8	119	3.40	8
Jeff Costello	LW	1990-11-20	23	Hockey East / Notre Dame	40	13	9	22	0.55	9	120	3.00	73
Joseph LaBate	F	1993-04-16	20	Big 10 / Wisconsin	34	12	9	21	0.62	-2	93	2.74	16
Patrick McNally	D	1991-12-04	22	ECAC / Harvard	18	1	7	8	0.44	-5	33	1.83	10
Mike Zalewski	F	1992-08-18	21	ECAC / Rennsselar	36	12	9	21	0.58	6	65	1.81	11
Mike Williamson	D	1993-09-05	20	Big 10 / Penn State	25	2	4	6	0.24	-3	42	1.68	34
Matthew Beattie	F	1992-12-14	21	ECAC / Yale	21	4	2	6	0.29	4	29	1.38	17

Notre Dame lost 4-0 to UMass-Lowell this weekend in the Hockey East Semifinal. Costello played the one game registering 5 SOG and a -1. Their season still continues as they play St. Cloud State in the regional Semis and possibly on Sunday in the NCAA Regional Finals. If they make it they may move on to the NCAA Frozen Four.
The University of Wisconsin beat Penn State in the Big Ten Semis 2-1 and then beat Ohio State 5-4 in OT for the Big Ten Championship. LaBate was effectively shut down registering just 2 SOG, 2 PIM and a -1 in the 2 games. Wisconsin will play North Dakota on Friday for the NCAA Midwest Regionals.
Penn State University has seen the end of their season with a 2-1 double-OT win against Michigan and then losing 2-1 the next day against Wisconsin. Williamson registered 5 SOG in 2 games with 2 PIM.
RPI was eliminated and Mike Zalewski was signed with the Canucks after that. He will be travelling with the Canucks as he cannot join Utica this year as he was signed after the trade deadline. It would have been better to give him an AHL SPC / PTO with Utica this year (as many organizations are doing) than sign him to an ELC right away, but who knows what went on behind the scenes. Learn more about him from Canucks.com.
Harvard University was eliminated by Yale.
Yale was eliminated last weekend.
University of Maine has completed their season. Hutton is not a finalist for the Hobey Baker award despite success in early voting. He was named to the Hockey East First All-Star Team.

ECHL

ECHL	Position	DOB	AGE	Team	GP	G	A	P	PPG	+/-	SOG	S/G	PIM
Blain	D	1992-03-19	22	K-Wings	25	3	12	15	0.60	16	44	1.76	47
Pacan	RW	1991-03-31	22	K-Wings	57	11	29	40	0.70	16	106	1.86	24
Blomstrand	LW	1993-03-28	21	K-Wings	40	12	11	23	0.58	6	95	2.38	12
Myron	F	1992-08-16	21	Kwings	9	0	2	2	0.22	-3	16	1.78	7
Guimond	D	1991-03-28	23	Ontario	25	1	10	11	0.44	3	34	1.36	6
				Gwinnett	31	1	6	7	0.23	-14	66	2.13	12

Blain played in 3 days registered 2 assists with 4 SOG and 4 PIM.
Pacan returned to Kalamzoo playing in 3 games earning 3 assists, a -2, and 4 SOG.
Canucks Army Top Prospect Blomstrand played in 3 games earning 2 goals, a +1, and 8 SOG. He’s shooting at 12.3% on the year so far.
No games for Wes Myron this week, third week in a row without him seeing any action.
In two games with Ontario, Sacha Guimond registered 2 SOG.

Goalies	Team	DOB	AGE	Position	GP	Min	GA	GAA	W	L	OTL	SV	SV%
Mathieu Corbeil	ECHL Gwinnett	1991-09-27	22	G	6	312	18	3.46	2	3	0	133	0.881
	ECHL Wheeling			G	6	331	14	2.53	3	1	1	143	0.911
	CHL St. Charles			G	6	236	21	5.35	0	2	1	103	0.831

Another week with no play for Mathieu Corbeil. I am wondering if he will be signed in the off season by Utica again (my gut feeling is not likely).

Europe

Name	Position	DOB	AGE	Team	GP	G	A	P	PPG	+/-	PIM
Anton Rodin	W	1990-11-21	23	SHL Brynas	47	12	23	35	0.74	-11	38
Ronalds Kenins	LW	1991-02-28	23	Swiss ZSC	39	8	17	25	0.64	15	40

Brynas is in the SHL post season, in 5 games Rodin has 2G and 1A (0.6 PPG) with 6 PIM and a -3.
In Switzerland, Kenins has made the Swiss post-season with Zurich. In 6 games he has 2 goals and 0 assists (0.33 PPG) with 4 PIM.