Home for the Holidays

One has to wonder if Tomas Zaborsky really wants a vacation at this point in time. On a personal 4 game goal scoring streak while his Saginaw Spirit are on a 3 game win streak.

The Spirit edged the Brampton Battalion (minus Bobby Sanguinetti who is heading to join Team USA) 2-1 thanks to Zaborsky's 18th goal of the season.

For Zaborsky, it was his 4th game winning goal which is tops among Ranger prospects. The Spirit win also ended a 7 game winning streak for the Battalion.

For Zaborsky the goal moved him past Bobby Sanguinetti into second place among Ranger prospect goal scorers. Zaborsky now is 18-17-35.

Then there is Ryan Hillier and his Halifax Mooseheads who were looking at the possibility of heading into their holiday break on a 6 game losing streak. Ryan Hillier helped to make sure that did not happen.

The Mooseheads thanks to Hillier's 21st goal and 22nd assist ended their losing streak with a strong 4-1 win over the St. John Fog Devils. Both of Hillier's points came in the last 30 seconds of the first period and basically put the game away for the Mooseheads.

As for Hillier, he ends the first half of the season as the leading goal scorer with 21 goals and 2nd in overall points with 42 just one point behind Bobby Sanguinetti.

Hillier is having a career season and is well on his way to earning a contract from the Rangers. Now comes his biggest test as Hillier has been known as a one half player so if he can repeat his first half numbers then look out.

On the other hand Billy Ryan of the Maine Blackbears has to be very happy to see the holiday break come. For Ryan, his senior season has not been the breakout season he had to have been hoping for.

A rebuilding Blackbear team has struggled but that does not excuse Ryan's lack of production as Ryan as a senior should have more to show than 2-4-6 after 13 games. We hope that in the second half Ryan finds a way show the world why we felt he was a legit prospect.

His Blackbears though dropped 2-0 decision to the 10th ranked New Hampshire. It was the 3rd time the Blackbears had been shut out but also the 6th time in 13 games that they were held to just one goal or less.

For the second half we hope that Ryan shows some senior leadership and helps his 5-7-2 team turn things around.

We have just one game this week to watch and that will be Bobby Sanguinetti leading Team USA into Western Michigan with Max Campbell on Tuesday for an exhibition game.