It really is holiday break time as the last of the Ranger prospects played their final game before heading off to the holidays. Just three prospects saw action with Bryce McConnell-Barker forced to miss his third straight game due to injury.
Ty Henricks got his holiday gifts early as the young forward of the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks recorded his tenth goal of the season as the Lumberjacks held off the Chicago Steel 4-3. It was the third straight game that Henricks had scored in and it also was the third straight win for the Lumberjacks as they finished the first half of their season.
Henricks ends his first half with 10-4-14 thanks to a four game scoring streak (6-1-7) that doubled his season totals.
Maxim Barbashev ended his first half with a two-assist game but it was not enough to prevent his Rimouski Oceanic from dropping a 8-5 decision to the Victoriaville Tigres in QMJHL action. Barbashev is another player who finished their first half on a positive note as the trade to Rimouski has awakened his game.
The left wing started the season with the Shawinigan Cataractes and got off to a slow start going 2-7-9 in 15 games until being traded to Rimouski. In the 11 games he has played since the trade, Barbashev has gone 6-5-11 in 11 games to give himself a 8-12-18 stat line heading to the break.
Rasmus Larsson sadly is the one prospect who has not lived up to his scouting report as the defenseman from Sweden was just 1-6-7 in 25 games for the Green Bay Gamblers. The scouting reports all raved about the 16 goal, 18 assist season for Västerås IK J20 last year.
Now it is understandable to expect an adjustment period coming over to North America but Larsson is an older junior player at 19 so more was expected of him than just seven points. Hopefully he will rebound in his second half and show that there remains promise for him.
As already mention Bryce McConnell-Barker missed his third straight game and he too was on a hot streak prior to his injury. He is already under contract to the Rangers so the concern is not as great as it would be for many in his position. McConnell-Barker ended his first half with a 12-18-30 mark which leads all Ranger prospects in scoring.
