Here we are at the last couple of days before the holiday break for the New York Ranger’s prospects. But there will be a short break for three of the prospects as Gabe Perreault and Drew Fortescue will represent the USA and 2024 sixth-round draft pick Rico Gredig is on the preliminary roster for Team Switzerland to play at the 2025 World Under-20 Championships.

Gredig has been playing on the main team of HC Davos in the Swiss National League. The 19-year-old is listed as a left wing/center and in 27 games has put up a line of 2-2-4 with eighteen blocked shots.  Not much is really known about Gredig but having spent time covering HC Davos in the past that at 19 and playing for one of the top Swiss teams says a lot about him.

Gredig will spend another year with HC Davos before the Rangers think about bringing him over for more than the development and rookie camps. At 6’1 185, he has good size and when he scores goals, he makes them count.

Here is video of Gredig scoring the game winner in his first home game with HC Davos

Brody Lamb had a goal as his top-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers (15-2-2 Big10 1st 7-0-1-1) played to a 3-3 overtime tie with second-ranked Michigan State in Big Ten play. Michigan State earned the extra point in the standings by winning the shootout 2-0.

Lamb, who scored 12 goals in 39 games last season, scored his 11th in just 18 games when he fired a shot over the glove hand of the Michigan State goalie in the second period. The junior forward was the second line right win for the shorthanded Gophers who dressed only ten forwards.

The team leader in goals and tied for third nationally, Lamb is 11-7-18 on the season as he needs just one more goal to tie his career best and nine assists/points to tie his career best in scoring. It’s a shame that Saturday’s game won’t be on the TV as this was a fun game to watch.

Speaking of fun games, imagine if you will the Rangers and Islanders as two college teams as if you did then you would have fourth-ranked University of Denver and Noah Laba’s 11th-ranked Colorado College Tigers. This too was a fun game to watch as Colorado College (10-4-1 NCHC 4th 2-1-3-1) rallied from down 0-3 to score five unanswered goals to hold off Denver 5-4.

Laba would earn a secondary assist on the Tigers second goal of the game for his 10th assist of the season and his 11th point (tie him for team lead in scoring 1-10-11). The first line center for the Tigers was credited with one shot and was 10-9 on his faceoffs.

E. J. Emery did not score as his 18th-ranked North Dakota Fighting Hawks (10-7-1 NCHC Tied 2nd 5-2-0-0) shutout ninth-ranked St. Cloud State 2-0 in NCHC play. Emery has just one point for the season as he was scoreless on two shots with one blocked shot. But Emery does have 20 blocked shots for the season.

Rasmus Larsson was scoreless as his Northern Michigan Wildcats (1-15-1 CCHA 9th 0-10-1-0) were shut out 2-0 by Bowling Green in CCHA play. Larsson, who is still looking for his first point at the NCAA level, was credited with three blocked shots to give him a team leading 33 blocked shots on the season.

The sad news is this was Northern Michigan’s 13th loss in their last 14 games (0-13-1-0).

Raoul Boilard was scoreless as his Baie Comeau Drakkar (16-12-1-1 5th Eastern) were shutout 2-0 by the Rimouski Oceanic in QMJHL play. It was the fourth straight loss for the Drakkar as Boilard was credited with just one shot and was 6-8 on faceoffs.