Being too Giving

If there was one part of his development we were hoping Bobby Sanguinetti and his Brampton Battalion was going to avoid, it was the Ranger's bad habit of trying to give away games.

The Battalion really tried to give Sunday's game against the Plymouth Whalers as the Battalion gave away a 4-0 lead and were close to heading to overtime before Sanguinetti fed teammate John Hughes for the game winner at 17:26 of the 3rd period for a 5-4 win.

It was Sanguinetti's 3rd assist of the game but this is a game where he will not call one of his better efforts despite having the 3 assists. Sanguinetti was also a -2 as he was part of a power play unit that was on the ice for 2 shorthanded goals by the Whalers.

Overall Sanguinetti winds up with assists 31,32 and 33 which lead all Ranger prospects and for the season Sanguinetti is now 18-33-51 but has gone 8 games in a row without a goal. Sanguinetti will be very happy to see the month of January end as he finishes the month 1-7-8 but a -7.

Eric Hunter had an assist as his University of Alberta Golden Bears defeated the Calgary Dinos 5-3 as they made up the first of 2 games canceled due to a mumps outbreak on the Calgary campus in December. For Hunter it was his first point since returning to action after suffering a lower body injury 3 weeks ago.

David Skokan was scoreless but was 10-8 on his faceoffs as his Rimouski Oceanic defeated the Drummondville Voltigeurs 3-2 via the shootout in QMJHL action. For Skokan and his Oceanic it was their 3rd straight win as they try to improve on any possible playoff seeding moving to within 4 points of 8th seeded Shawinigan in the QMJHL Western Conference.

Antoine Lafleur moved closer to returning to action after being out 5 games with an injured hamstring but his Prince Edward Island Rocket gave away a game that might come back to haunt them down the road 4-3 to the St. Johns Fog Devils.

Lafleur was the backup goalie but his Rocket teammates blew a chance to move with 2 points of the 5th seed (held by the Fog Devils) in the QMJHL Eastern division. The Fog Devils are in lame duck status after the QMJHL announced on Friday that the franchise was sold and will play next season in Verdun which is a suburb of Montreal.

Monday is an off day for everyone but we will have the College Hockey top 10 and the nominees for the Dean Prentice Prospect of the Month for January.

(Sanguinetti picture courtesy of the Brampton Battalion)