Prospect round-up: Walleye rout Quad City; Rasmussen 2A, NCAA playoffs underway

In the ECHL, the Toledo Walleye enjoyed a romp over the Quad City Mallards, winning 8-0. Mike Borkowski and Austen Brassard scored 2 goals apiece, and a boatload of players contributed to Pat Nagle’s 17-save shutout.

The Walleye’s website posted a recap:

First place Walleye blank Mallards

(Toledo, OH) – The Walleye shut out the Mallards 8-0 on Friday night in Toledo. Mike Borkowski and Austen Brassard each scored twice, and Pat Nagle stopped all 17 shots faced to improve to 29-4-3-1 on the season. The win gave Nagle his third shutout of the season. The Walleye are 41-14-3-2 on the season and 25-4-1-0 at home.

Shane Berschbach sent a pass across to Mike Borkowski who then snuck the puck behind Mallards goaltender, Eric Hartzell, on the power play to make it 1-0 Walleye at 9:55 of the first period. Zach Nastasiuk would fire his shot past Hartzell for a 2-0 lead at 17:11 of the frame.

Borkowski scored his second of the game at 3:06 of the second period to make it 3-0. Austen Brassard found the back of the net just 30 seconds later to improve the Walleye lead 4-0. Brassard’s slap shot that made it past Hartzell at 9:51 extended the lead to 5-0.

In the third period, Colin Jacobs found the back of the net at 2:28 on a rebound to make it 6-0. Kyle Bonis jumped in on the fun by making it 7-0 at 4:21 of the third. AJ Jenks sent a pass back towards Berschbach, who went top-shelf at 15:57 to give the final score of 8-0.

Head coach Dan Watson said the game was impressive for his team. “Despite a slow start, once we got going, we stuck to our systems and details and dominated through the rest of the game.”

Fish Tales:

• The Walleye are home on Saturday for a 7:15 p.m. puck drop against Quad City and Sunday for a 5:15 p.m. puck drop against Indy.
• Nagle stopped all 17 shots faced and is now 29-4-3-1 on the season. He is 11-0-2 in his past 13 games. The shutout was good for Nagle’s third shutout of the season.
• Simon Denis is on a seven-game point streak with 11 points (1G, 10A).
• Shane Berschbach has 11 points in eight of his last nine games.
• The eight goals scored tonight was a season-high for the Walleye.
• Tonight was our 189th win combined over the last four years, which is an ECHL record.

The Walleye also posted a highlight clip…

 And post-game interviews with Mike Borkowski and coach Dan Watson:

 

Elsewhere, in the Finnish Liiga, Julius Vahatalo had 2 shots and won 33% of his faceoffs in 10:30 of ice time during Jukurit’s 2-1 OT win over SaiPa;

In the OHL, Reilly Webb finished at +1 with 3 shots and Brady Gilmour did not play in the Saginaw Spirit’s 3-0 win over Guelph;

Jordan Sambrook had an assist and finished at +1 on 2 shots as his Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds won 4-3 over the Kitchener Rangers. Givani Smith didn’t play for Kitchener;

In the WHL, Michael Rasmussen had 2 assists, finishing at +2 in the Tri-City Americans’ 6-2 win over Vancouver;

Lane Zablocki had an assist, finishing at +1 with 1 shot in the Victoria Royals’ 4-3 OT win over Prince George;

In NCAA hockey, in playoff action, Jack Adams didn’t play in the Union College Dutchmen’s 5-3 loss to Princeton.

Princeton took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-3 ECAC quarterfinal series;

Keith Petruzzelli had a rough night, stopping 18 of 24 shots as the Quinnipiac Bobcats lost 9-1 to Cornell.

Cornell took a 1-0 lead in the teams’ best-of-3 ECAC quarterfinal series;

Kasper Kotkansalo had an assist and finished at +1 on 2 shots as the Boston University Terriers won 5-4 in overtime over UConn.

Boston University took a 1-0 lead in the teams’ best-of-3 Hockey East quarterfinal;

Chase Pearson finished at -1 with 3 shots and a 19-for-36 faceoff record, and Patrick Holway did not play in the University of Maine Black Bears’ 4-3 loss to Providence.

Providence took a 1-0 lead in the teams’ best-of-3 Hockey East quarterfinal;

And David Pope finished at -1 with 1 shot as the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks lost 4-0 to the University of North Dakota.

UND took a 1-0 lead in the teams’ best-of-3 NCHC first-round series.

FYI: Pope was also named a finalist for the NCHC hockey conference’s Player of the Year, Forward of the Year and Three Star awards.