
The annual holiday break sort of ended for the New York Ranger prospects as a most of this year’s group remains on break for a week or so. Three Ranger prospects played in games that counted, one played in an exhibition contest and two more were either injured, sick or health scratches.
Add everyone’s contributions up and you have a combined 0-0-0 for Sunday’s performances. Noah Laba did score a goal for his Colorado College Tigers but since that was an exhibition game, the stats from that game just didn’t count.
World Juniors
Drew Fortescue, Gabe Perreault, and the rest of Team USA were found guilty of looking past Finland on Sunday and paid for it with a loss. Finland sent a message to the US roster after earning a shocking 4-3 overtime win over the defending champs.
Team USA was flat out guilty of looking past Finland and ahead to the New Year’s Eve matchup with Canada. Lose to Canada on NYE and they just might fall all the way to the third seed. Neither Perreault or Fortescue as both were blanked yet again.
We expect little production from Fortescue on offense but not Perreault as he had a great opening game against Germany with a 2-1-3 effort but since then in the following three games just a 0-1-1 for a total of 2-2-4 in three games which is unacceptable. Joked about suggesting that Ranger GM Chris Drury is in Ottawa (site of the tournament) with some contracts to sign.
But just like the Rangers offense lately, it really looks like Drury will leave empty handed.
Rico Gredig appeared in Switzerland’s opening game but has disappeared to the press box since then. Even worst for the Swiss is they are in danger of going winless during the preliminary round and might have to fight to remain here. Barely saw anything of Gredig so it would be royally fair to comment on his play.
Rest of the Prospects
In Michigan they are playing the annual Great Lakes Invitational with Ty Henricks and his sixth-ranked Western Michigan Broncos facing Michigan Tech in one semi-final game and Rasmus Larsson and his Northern Michigan Wildcats facing top-ranked Michigan State in the other semi-final.
Henricks and his Broncos needed overtime before they defeated Michigan Tech 4-3 to advance to the finals. Henricks only recorded that he was 1-1 on faceoffs for any kind of stat.
Henricks was listed as the fourth line left wing.
In the other game give some serious kudos to Larsson and his Wildcats as they fought hard but it wasn’t enough to defeat the top NCAA team in the USA. Larsson was credited with two shots and a -1 while playing as the third pair left side defender.
Sadly the loss means that Northern Michigan is 1-15 in their last 16 games as their overall record is 1-17-1.
Nathan Aspinall was scoreless on four shots as his Flint Firebirds lost to the top-ranked team in all of the three Canadian Junior Leagues the London Knights 4-1. Aspinall was a third line left wing and finished with a -1.
Exhibition
It didn’t count but Noah Laba had a goal on four shots with a +1 as his eighth ranked- Colorado College Tigers spanked UNLV 8-0 in exhibition hockey. UNLV plays an organized level of club hockey and were no match for the Tigers.
Did Not Play
In addition to the already mentioned Ric Gredig. leading prospect scorer Rauol Aspinall missed his second straight game for this Baie- Comeau Drakkar. No reason was given for missing the last 2 games as hope it is an illness as not being able to play out of the holiday break is a really bad sign.
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