
A quiet Saturday night for the New York Rangers prospects in large part due to the Annal Beanpot tournament starting on Monday night. Only seven prospects were in action on Saturday and the results were a mixed bag.
The big matchup was in the NCHC where Ty Henricks and his third-ranked Western Michigan Broncos were looking to extend their winning streak against Noah Laba and his Colorado College Tigers. The game wound up in overtime with Laba’s Tigers earning a 3-2 win but neither prospect was much of a factor in this game.
In fact Laba was not even around for the finish as he was ejected for a “hitting from behind” major late in the second period. He did earn a secondary assist on Colorado College’s first goal but besides the 0-1-1 was on one shot with a +1 and the 15 PIMs, Laba was 4-2 on faceoffs.
He improves to a team best 7-14-21 on the season. Henricks did not score but was credited with three shots.
Henricks and the Broncos after going undefeated in January (7-0) saw their winning streak changed to an unbeaten streak (7-0-1-0).
The only goal of the evening came from Rasmus Larsson who scored his second goal of the season as his Northern Michigan Wildcats fell to Bowling Green 5-2 in CCHA play.
With his team trailing 3-0, Larsson got his team on the scoreboard with a nice snapshot aided by an even better screening of the Bowling Green goalie. It gave Larsson goals in back-to-back games
Ras’ second of the weekend!#NMUwildcats | #CCHAhockey pic.twitter.com/Kj1MBE7RlF
— Northern Michigan Hockey (@NMUHockey) February 2, 2025
If I am the Northern Michigan coach, I am telling Larsson to shoot the puck more than once a game as he has done in both games. Larsson is now 2-0-2 on the season.
Brody Lamb ended his pointless streak as his third-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers defeated the Wisconsin Badgers 4-1 in Big Ten play. Lamb had the primary assist on the Gophers first goal ending his pointless streak at eight games.
The bad news is Lamb now has gone nine games without a goal as the assist improved his totals to 13-8-21 for the season.
Hank Kempf had an assist as his Cornell Big Red played to a 3-3 overtime tie with Clarkson in ECAC play. Kempf improved to 1-5-6 and all of his points were scored in back-to-back games.
Nathan Aspinall regained the prospect scoring lead with a two-assist evening, but his Flint Firebirds lost to the Kingston Frontenacs 7-4 in OHL play. Aspinall had a secondary assist on Flint’s first goal which was a power play goal.
His second assist came on his team’s third goal which was a primary assist. Aspinall improved his totals to 13-20-33 which is one point better than Gabe Perreault.
E.J. Emery was scoreless as his 17th-ranked North Dakota Fighting Hawks defeated St. Cloud State 6-2 in NCHC play. Emery, who has just one assist in the season, has not scored anything in his last 24 games.
He is going to have to find some offense somewhere if he plans on earning an NHL roster spot.
Monday night hockey
If you have never watched NCAA hockey then here is your chance to watch one of the better annual tournaments in the Beanpot. At least three Rangers prospects will be in action (we expect Harvard’s Zakary Karpa to remain out) and in the second game of the night will feature Gabe Perreault and Drew Fortescue leading Boston College against the newest Rangers prospect Jackson Dorrington’s Northeastern University.
Both games will be live streamed on ESPN+ starting at 5PM ET for the first game and 8 Pm ET for the second.