Friday night saw eight New York Rangers prospects hit the ice as conference play has gotten underway in the NCAA. No goals were scored but the four assists that were recorded were key to teams coming away with wins.
Before the Friday report, congrats to Gabe Perreault who shared this week’s Hockey East Player of the Week award. Perreault
Gabe Perreault had mirror image plays that helped his second-ranked Boston College (6-1 Hockey East 1-0) rally in the third period to defeat fifth-ranked Maine in the Hockey East opener for Boston College. This was the best game of the early season as both teams had great goaltending, pucks that hit the crossbar, and deflected goals.
Maine and their goalie Albin Broija kept Boston College off the scoreboard for the first fifty minutes of this game. Gabe Perreault was credited with four shots and two of those hit the crossbar and stayed out. Broija just robbed Perreault on his other two shots including a close-in shot that should have gone in but didn’t.
But the “Magician” showed why he is one of college hockey’s playmakers as he made almost identical plays to start Boston College’s goals. On the first goal with Boston College just starting a power play, Perreault picked up a loose puck at center ice and he spotted Ryan Leonard heading to the offensive zone.
Perreault hit Leonard with a pass, and he found Andre Gasseau for a goal at 10:25 of the third period to make it 2-1. After Boston College had tied the game, it looked as if the game was headed to overtime when from almost the identical spot, Perreault found himself with a loose puck.
This time it was Jame Hagen who Perreault spotted heading up ice and he hit him with a pass. Hagen would find Ryan Leonard who scored with just 1:33 remaining in regulation for the first lead of the game for Boston College at 3-2.
For Perreault the two assists improved his season totals to 5-7-12 after seven games as well as giving Perreault a seven-game scoring streak. Nationally Perreault is in a six-way tie for eighth in NCAA scoring.
Brody Lamb had a secondary assist as his third-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers (8-1 Big Ten 3-0) rallied to earn a 3-2 win over Wisconsin in Big Ten play. Lamb earned the secondary assist on Minnesota’s second goal of the game which tied the game up at 2-2 in the second period.
For Lamb, the assist was his fifth of the year to go along with five goals and the ten points puts the junior forward on the pace for a forty-point season which would be a career best.
Hank Kempf had a primary assist as his sixth-ranked Cornell Big Red (2-0-1, ECAC 0-0-0-1) skated to a 2-2 overtime tie with winless Yale in ECAC play. Call this an upset as Cornell should not have wound up with a tie.
The ECAC and Hockey East both still have ties, but they award an extra point to whichever team wins the shootout. In this case it was Yale who won the shootout 3-0.
As for Kempf, he earned the primary assist on Cornell’s second goal which tied up the game. That gives Kempf a 0-2-2 score after three games which is a lot for the guy who struggles to score points.
The senior defender did add two blocked shots to his stats giving him a total of seven in three games.
E.J. Emery was scoreless as his tenth-ranked North Dakota Fighting Hawks (4-4 NCHC 1-0) opened NCHC play with a 7-3 whipping of Minnesota-Duluth. Emery was credited with two shots and three blocked shots to give him eleven in eight games.
Nathan Aspinall was scoreless as his Flint Firebirds (7-8-0-1) defeated the Peterborough Petes 4-1 in OHL play. Aspinall was credited with two shots and two faceoff wins.
Zakary Karpa was scoreless as his Harvard Crimson (1-1 ECAC 1-1) rallied to defeat Princeton 4-3 in ECAC play. Karpa was credited with two shots and was 5-8 on faceoffs.
Ty Henricks was scoreless as his Western Michigan Broncos (4-1 NCHC 1-0) defeated Nebraska-Omaha 2-1 in NCHC play. Playing as the fourth line left wing, Henricks did not record any stats in this game
Rasmus Larsson was back in the Northern Michigan Wildcat (1-8, CCHA 0-3) lineup, but his team dropped their sixth straight game after a 5-0 loss to Lake Superior State in CCHA play. Larsson missed last Saturday’s game for unknown reasons.
Larsson was credited with two shots and three blocked shots as the Wildcats fell to 1-8 on the season. To be fair Northern Michigan lost their coach (Grant Potulny left to take over as the Hartford Wolfpack coach) and has just four players from last season’s team.
This program is a mess, and it is going to take a couple of years to fix things.
Did Not Play
Noah Laba was not in the lineup for his Colorado College Tigers on Friday. He has been dealing with a bad ankle that kept him out of last Saturday’s game. Laba is listed as “day-to-day”
The Tigers after a 4-3 overtime win are 7-0 (NCHC 1-0) and are the eighth ranked team in the NCAA.
