Of prospect-related note over the last couple of days:
In the AHL, the Grand Rapids Griffins had a rough week. The Griffins, who are in tough as they battle for a playoff spot,
On Wednesday, Grand Rapids blew a 2-0 lead en route to a 4-2 loss to the Iowa Wild. The Griffins’ website posted a recap;
On Friday, things went much better. Grand Rapids beat the Rockford IceHogs 4-3 in overtime thanks to an Eric Tangradi marker, and the Griffins earned coach Todd Nelson his 300th win. The Griffins’ website posted a recap;
On Saturday, the Iowa Wild did their best to dent the Griffins’ playoff hopes, and they did so by scoring with 16 seconds remaining in regulation, winning 2-1 over the Griffins. Again, the Griffins’ website posted a recap;
In the ECHL, the Toledo Walleye had a better week/weekend.
On Wednesday, Toledo defeated the Quad City Mallards 3-2. The Walleye’s website posted a recap;
On Friday, Toledo swept their two-game series against the Mallards, winning 3-2. The Walleye’s website posted a recap;
On Saturday, Kyle Bonis’ OT goal yielded a 4-3 victory over the Indy Fuel. The Walleye’s website posted a recap;
The Walleye also signed University of Nebraska-Omaha forward Luke Nogard to an amateur try-out;
Elsewhere, in the KHL, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl is going up against the presumptive champions-to-be in SKA St. Peterburg, but the series is tied 1-1.
On Friday, SKA steamrolled Lokomotiv 4-0; Alexander Kadeikin finished even with a 33% faceoff rating in 10:13 played;
And on Saturday, Kadeikin had 2 shots and won 50% of his faceoffs in 11:39 played as Lokmotiv won 2-1;
In the Finnish Liiga, Libor Sulak’s Lahti Pelicans lost 2 games to 1 in a playoff play-in series vs. SaiPa.
On Wednesday, Sulak finished at -1 in 22:23 played as Lahti lost 4-2;
On Thursday, Sulak played 24:04 in Lahti’s 3-0 win;
On Saturday, however, SaiPa won 3-2 in overtime, and Sulak played 26:40, finishing at -1 and contributing no points in the playoff play-in;
The SHL held its playoff play-in this week, so Christoffer Ehn’s Frolunda Indians will open their playoff series against Malmo on Monday;
In the Swedish J20 league, on Wednesday, Alfons Malmstrom had an assist as HV71 won 3-1 over Leksands IF;
On Friday, Malmstrom played on the 3rd defensive pairing as HV71 won 6-2, winning a promotion to the next round of the playoffs;
In the Swedish Allsvenskan playoffs, things are a little confusing. So we’ll go with the day-to-day score as the teams basically play each other in a round robin format:
On Wednesday, Gustav Lindstrom played on the 3rd defensive pair in Almtuna IS’s 4-2 loss to Sodertalje SK;
And Malte Setkov did not play in IK Pantern’s 2-1 loss to AIK;
On Friday, Lindstrom played on the 3rd defensive pair in Almtuna IS’s 4-2 loss to SSK;
On Saturday, Setkov had an assist in IK Pantern’s 4-3 OT loss to Almtuna IS, which did not have Lindstrom in its lineup;
In the Swiss NLA playoffs, Joren van Pottelberghe’s HC Davos is tied 2-2 with EHC Biel-Bienne.
On Thursday, Joren served as the back-up in Davos’ 5-3 loss to EHC;
And on Saturday, Joren served as the back-up in Davos’ 4-2 win;
In the OHL, where almost every team makes the playoffs, only Red Wings prospects Cole Fraser and Zach Gallant, of the Peterborough Petes, won’t be playing post-season hockey. So:
On Tuesday, Givani Smith finished at -1 with 4 shots in the Kitchener Rangers’ 4-3 OT loss to Guelph;
On Wednesday, Smith had an assist and finished at +3 on 2 shots as Kitchener lost 4-3 in a shootout to Sarnia;
Jordan Sambrook scored a goal and finished at +2 on 3 shots as his Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds won 8-1 over the Saginaw Spirit. Reilly Webb had an assist and 2 shots for Saginaw;
On Thursday, Kaden Fulcher stopped 25 of 28 shots in the Hamilton Bulldogs’ 3-2 OT loss to Niagara;
Cole Fraser finished at -1 with 2 shots in the Peterborough Petes’ 5-1 loss to North Bay;
On Friday, Jordan Sambrook had 3 shots in the Sault’s 4-3 OT loss to Flint;
Smith had an assist but finished at -1 with 3 shots in Kitchener’s 6-3 loss to Guelph;
Fraser had 2 assists and finished at +2 in Peterborough’s 8-4 win over Oshawa;
On Saturday, Fulcher served as the back-up as Hamilton won 5-3 over Peterborough. Fraser finished even with 1 shot;
And Webb had an assist in Saginaw’s 4-3 OT loss to London;
In the WHL, things are more or less set playoff-wise.
Michael Rasmussen’s Tri-City Americans will play the Kelowna Rockets starting on Thursday; Dennis Cholowski’s Portland Winterhawks will play the Spokane Chiefs starting next Saturday; and Lane Zablocki’s Victoria Royals will play the Vancouver Giants starting next Friday.
On Tuesday, Rasmussen scored a goal on 3 shots, finishing at +2 in the Tri-City Americans’ 4-2 win over Everett;
On Friday, Dennis Cholowski had an assist and finished at +2 on 1 shot in the Portland Winterhawks’ 8-3 win over Seattle;
Rasmussen had a goal and an assist, finishing at +1 on 3 shots as Tri-City won 2-1 over Spokane. Rasmussen was named the game’s third star;
Lane Zablocki had 15 minutes in penalties–a boarding major and a game misconduct–in the Victoria Royals’ 3-2 loss to Everett;
On Saturday, Cholowski finished at -2 with 3 shots in Portland’s 5-1 loss to Seattle;
Rasmussen scored a goal and finished at +1 on 2 shots in Tri-City’s 4-3 loss to Spokane. Rasmussen was named the game’s third star;
I believe that Zablocki’s game misconduct carried over for Saturday’s 8-1 Victoria loss to Everett, because Zablocki did not play in the game.
Edit/update: According to the Victoria Times-Colonist’s Cleve Dheensaw, the length of Zablocki’s suspension has yet to be determined.
In the USHL, Filip Larsson did not play in the Tri-City Storm’s 5-2 loss to Chicago, and Larsson’s been injured for some time now;
In NCAA hockey, on Friday, Kasper Kotkansalo finished at +1 with 3 shots in the Boston University Terriers’ 4-3 overtime win over the Boston College Eagles, advancing the Terriers to the Hockey East Final…
And on Saturday, Kotkansalo finished even in the Terriers’ 2-0 win over Providence College, earning BU the Hockey East title.
As such, Boston University will play in the NCAA hockey playoff tournament.
