A little of everything

Tuesday had a little of everything involving 5 New York Rangers and 1 New York Islander prospect.From an afternoon "educational" game to three prospects fighting for playoff positioning to 1 Ranger prospect becoming part of history in a small town in British Columbia.

It was the third Annual CN hockey hooky of the day as the Edmonton Oil Kings hosted the Kootenay Ice in an afternoon matchup in front of 5000 local Edmonton schoolkids. 'The Predator" Michael St. Croix (NYR 2011 fourth) made sure the schoolkids got to go home happy with another first star performance after he registered a goal as well as an assist to spark a 3-1 Edmonton win.

The Ice lead for most of the game scoring a first period goal and that goal held up until late in the second period. At 17:52, St. Croix set up Griffin Reinhart for the tying goal to send the game into the third period tied at one.

In the third it was St. Croix with his 34th goal of the season giving the Oil Kings their first lead of the game at 7:42 while on a 4 on 3 power-play. That goal also improved to be the game-winner as Edmonton added another goal to send the school kids happy.

St. Croix improves to 34-48-82 which leads all Ranger prospects in both goals as well as points. St. Croix also is fifth in the WHL for scoring and the game-winning goal was St. Croix's sixth tying him with Steven Fogarty for the Ranger prospect lead.

The Oil Kings continue to lead the WHL's Western Conference and pulled within two points for the overall WHL lead. St. Croix also tied his career-best with his 48th assist tonight.

BCHL history was made Tuesday night when Steven Fogarty (NYR 2011 third) and his Penticton Vees whipped the Chilliwack Chiefs for their 30th straight win 7-0. The win breaks a 22-year-old BCHL record as the Vees had little trouble with the Chiefs and this might sound crazy with a 7-0 score but the Vees defensive effort just swarmed all over the Chiefs giving them next to nothing in scoring chances.

Fogarty had an assist thanks to a shot of his hitting the post and dropping right at the feet of his teammate who had a wide-open net to tap it in. Fogarty (24-38-62)was playing with a case of the flu that is going through his team.

Despite suffering from the flu, Fogarty was more impressive on the defensive end especially on the penalty kill as he has been part of the unit and is killed off 38 straight power plays. John Tortorella is going to be like a kid at Christmas when he sees a 6'3 200 lbs+ manchild whose defensive game will be well polished by the time he shows up in New York.

We did get a little bit of bad news as Fogarty did reaffirm his decision to attend Notre Dame next year. As somebody who's watched the Notre Dame program for the last two years is not a bad decision by Fogarty and is much as we understand the Rangers logic behind wishing Fogarty playing in the WHL; Notre Dame will be as good for Fogarty as Plymouth is for JT Miller.

Friday night the Vees return home and there will be a promotion that if the Vees win then all fans in attendance will earn a free quarter lb. hamburger with fries. It's been 94 days since the Vees last lost good luck to the owner of that restaurant.

In Peterborough, Christian Thomas (NYR 2010 second) and his Oshawa Generals took on the Peterborough Petes featuring Andrew Yogan (NYR 2010 third) and Peter Ceresnak (NYR 2011 sixth) in a battle for sixth place in the OHL's Eastern Conference.

Peterborough came into this game with a one point lead over Oshawa but Oshawa came into the game having defeated Peterborough in all five of their previous meetings this season. Make it six straight wins for Oshawa as they defeated Peterborough 5-2 and jumped past Peterborough into sixth place.

This is going to be one of those nights where the numbers really will not tell the story as Christian Thomas had a primary assist on Oshawa's first goal the game a power-play goal and that would be all he scored.

Andrew Yogan responded by setting up Peterborough's first goal which tied the score but unfortunately for Yogan he wound up with a -3 when he was on the ice for two empty net goals. Sometimes they should have a separate category for empty net goals.
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Thomas (23-26-49) has quietly built up an eight-game scoring streak (5-6-11) as his Generals moved in the sixth place by one point over Peterborough. The problem with Oshawa though is that they've been playing 500 hockey as of late so they will probably give the spot right back in the next game.

Andrew Yogan (24-23-47) we can't blame for how the Petes are playing as when he scoring they start losing and we can't explain that but somebody needs to figure out before they play themselves out of a playoff spot. Teammate Peter Ceresnak was scoreless and the -1 for the evening for the Petes were gone 3-7 in their last 10 games.

Finally we have the only Islander prospect to play on Tuesday night Andrey Pedan (NYI 2011 third) and his Guelph Storm who were looking for a chance to take advantage of the games in hand and cut into the Windsor Spitfires lead for the seventh seed in the OHL's Western Conference while creating some space with ninth seed Sault Ste. Marie.

Gueph was facing the Kitchener Rangers and this was a game of streaks. The Rangers scored the game's first goals then the Storm came back by scoring the next three to take the lead. But then the Rangers proceeded to score the game's next four goals to earn a 6-3 win.

It was the fourth straight loss for the Storm and while Pedan had a goal (8-15-23) he was also a -4 and took two minors both of which resulted in Kitchener power-play goals. There's nothing much to say about Pedan as is a talented player but I would not want him on my team.

(St. Croix-Edmonton Oil Kings, Fogarty- New York Rangers, Thomas- Oshawa Generals)

A busy week with a strange start

Monday is usually an off day for the New York Ranger and New York Islanders prospects but not this week. This is going to be a very busy week but for many prospect a very important week that could be a factor in how the season winds up.

But first things first as this week's New York Ranger prospect of week. For us the choice was kind of made for us as Shane McColgan (NYR 2011 fifth) of the Kelowna Rockets was the only Ranger prospect had a good week.

McColgan only had a 2-2-4 performance in two games last week but his points were key to his Kelowna Rockets winning both games on the road in Prince George. On Friday night McColgan only had one goal, but it was the game-winning goal as the Rockets earned a 2-1 win, while McColgan was named the game's third star.

Saturday night, it was McColgan with a three point effort helping his Rockets earned a 4-1 win. With a goal and two assists, McColgan was named game's First Star in helping the Rockets sweep the two-game series.

Those wins have enabled the Rockets to build up a six-game unbeaten streak and raise the team record to above 500.

In 19 games remaining in their regular-season and trailing 5th place, Vancouver by 11 points, it does not seem as if the Rockets will be able to catch them. But getting on a roll now could help McColgan and his teammates possibly pull off a first-round playoff upset.

McColgan: for the season is now 15-38-53 which leads the Rockets and has McColgan third among the Ranger prospects.

This was a good one because we are not sure how the communication breakdown happened but we missed reporting that Chris Kreider (NYR 2009 first) had earned a share of the Hockey East player of the week for the week ending January 30, 2012.

Kreider had a five point weekend against New Hampshire (2-3-5) starring with a 1-2-3 Friday night where his goal was shorthanded one and he followed it up Saturday night with a goal and an assist.

Kreider leads Boston College in scoring with a 16-14-30.

All of this is a nice lead-in to the annual Beanpot tournament, which got underway Monday evening with Boston College facing Northeastern. What we love about this annual tournament is that Chris Kreider will provide us with a heart stopping highlight reel goal.

It didn't come out of Monday's game as Kreider was scoreless in fourth-ranked Boston College's 7-1 rout of Northeastern. It was good effort by Kreider, who was active, perhaps maybe a little too active since he was hit with a roughing and hitting from behind minors in this game.

But we'll take that kind of night from him because like we said the key to Chris Kreider is going to be him getting off no less than four shots a game.  When does things like that. It means Boston College has a better chance of winning.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that Chris Kreider, as well as his Boston College teammates Monday's Beanpot final all circled on the calendar since it will be against Boston University. Boston University has so far owned Boston College on the ice this year beating him badly this is for the Beanpot.

We also have a bit of bad news as Kirill Kabanov (NYI 2010 third) suffered a concussion Saturday during the game with the Saint John Sea Dogs. Not good news for the young Russian as we believe this is his second confirmed concussion in the last two years.

We don't know how long he's going to be out, but we have hope that Shawinigan will not rush him back to the lineup. Kabanov is a really good kid whose work really hard at changing his ways and becoming a good person.

The Islanders need a healthy Kabanov because his personality and his willingness to interact with fans will do a lot to help the Islander franchise rebuild their fan base.

Brendan Kichton (NYI 2011 fifth) has become one of our favorite prospects to watch this season. As we've said before, he's not the biggest dog on the blueline, but we can see him helping the Islanders in the next few years.

For one thing, he does know how to quarterback a powerplay something the Islanders could use. Monday night Kichton's Spokane Chiefs were hosting the Seattle Thunderbirds and yes, Kichton was a difference maker.

Kichton had a one goal, +3 effort to help Spokane earn a 7-3 win over the Thunderbirds.  Kichton's goal was a killer as it came on the power play with the score tied 2-2.

With just 5 seconds remaining on the power play, Kichton blasted one from the right face-off circle to give Spokane a 3-2 lead at 19:37. Spokane did not trail again in this game, but it was also a record-setting goal for Kichton.

It was Kichton's 41st career goal was Spokane and he became the all-time leading goal scorer among defensemen in Spokane history. It's a well-deserved honor for Kichton, but I'm pretty sure he will tell us that the two points that the Chiefs gained was more important.

Kichton improves to 13-41-54 on the season, tops among all WHL defensmen, but more importantly for the Chiefs the win gave them sole possession of fourth place in the WHL's Western Conference.

Tuesday Tuesday

While the Rangers will be taken on the Devils, it will be a rare busy night for us. The big game is going to take place in Chilliwack where Steven Fogarty (NYR 2011 third) and his Penticton Vees will be attempting to make BCHL history.

Fogarty and company will be going with it 30th consecutive win. And if you're interested, the game will start at 10 PM Eastern/ 7 PM Pacific and you can listen in for free here. It won't be high-tech but it is hockey from the heart.

Tuesday will also feature Christian Thomas and his Oshawa Generals taking on the Peterborough Petes featuring Andrew Yogan and Peter Ceresnak. That game is going to be for sixth place in the OHL's Eastern Conference; the Petes currently own it with a one-point lead over the Generals.

In the OHL's Western Conference, it will be Islander prospect Andrey Pedan and his Guelph Storm trying to break out of the three-game losing streak and try to catch up to 7th place Windsor with a trail by four points, but have four games in hand on.

(McColgan- Kelowna Rockets, Kreider- Dennis Pause, Kabanov- Shawinigan Cataractes, Kichton- Spokane Chiefs)