OHL Thursday

A very quiet Thursday with just 2 Ranger draft picks in action starting with Scott Stajcer the goalie for the Owen Sound Attack. Stajcer the 2nd of the Rangers two 5th round picks in the 2009 draft led his Owen Sound Attack to a 4-3 win over the Peterborough Petes.

Stacjer earned his 16th win of the season (16-15-3-1) by stopping 26 of the 29 shots that he faced on Thursday. Stacjer gave up goals in the first and second period but shut out the Petes in the 3rd period as the Attack rallied from down 3-2 to earn the win.

For Stajcer the 16th win surpasses his entire total of last season when he was splitting the goaltending duties with Tyler Beskorowany until Stajcer won the starting job outright.

It was good to see Stajcer earn the win after going winless in his last 4 starts. It was Stajcer's first win since Jan 2nd but he is going to need to start playing even better if the Attack have any hope moving up from the 8th seed in the OHL's Western Conference.

Ethan Werek (2009 2nd) scored his 22nd goal of the season but it was not enough as his Kingston Frontenacs were spanked by the Barrie Colts 5-2. This one is hard to blame the Frontenacs for the loss as Barrie is walking away with the OHL Eastern Conference leading their closest competition by 24 points with 2 games in hand.

Werek's goal was with 2 seconds remaining in the 2nd period which cut the Barrie lead to 2-1 going into the 3rd period. But it looked like the goal did more to fire up the Colts for the 3rd period as they blew open the game with 3 goals in the period.

For the Frontenacs, the loss means that Daniel Maggio's Sudbury Wolves remain just one point behind the Frontenacs for 5th place in the OHL's Eastern Conference but cost the Frontenacs a chance to gain ground on 4th place Peterborough.

Werek improves to 22-24-46 in 46 games on the season.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

For those of you who would like a chance to see Ranger prospects in action on TV then you have some chances this weekend.

Friday Night

Derek Stepan, Ryan McDonagh and their 3rd ranked Wisconsin Badgers on Friday host top ranked Denver in a game that will be shown on the US NHL Network starting at 8 PM EDT/ 5 PM PDT. This is a huge matchup between 2 of the best teams in the WCHA.

Chris Kreider and his 10th ranked Boston College Eagles travel to face Boston University in the 2nd matchup of arch rivals. This one will be shown on NESN starting at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT

Carl Hagelin and his Michigan Wolverines will take on 9th ranked Ferris State in a showdown that will be shown on CBS College Sports starting at 8 PM EDT/ 5 PM PDT. The 2 teams will also be shown on Saturday night as well same time, same channel.

(Werek and Stajcer both courtesy of OHL Images)