Bonk Bonk

For 4 years we have been telling New York Ranger fans about this kid from Sodertalje in Sweden by the name of Carl Hagelin (NYR 2007 6th). We have told you about his sportscenter goal against Notre Dame as a freshman, his one man gang against Miami in the CCHA finals last year, his show stealing performance against Michigan State earlier in the "Big Chill."

We have been saying since 2007 that this was a prospect who is NHL bound and in his final regular season game as a Michigan Wolverine, he showed why is everything we have been saying he is. With Michigan needing a win (and some help) to win the CCHA regular season title.

Carl Hagelin did his part with another of his show stopping performances. Hagelin with a 2 goal, 1 assist performance led his Wolverines to a 5-0 win over Northern Michigan.

The Wolverines then got the help they needed from Western Michigan who defeated Notre Dame 2-0 and earn their 11th CCHA Championship. Even better for the Wolverines is that they moved up to 4th in the ever important Pairwise standings which just about guarantees an NCAA invite win or lose in the CCHA playoffs.

Wow is the best word to say about what Hagelin did in his regular season finale, his 10th 2 goal game of his career, his 5th 3 point night of the season, his 6 game winning goal and his 7th power play goal. Hagelin scored his 16th goal of the season at 13:15 of the first period to give Michigan a 1-0 lead and they never looked back.

Any hope Northern Michigan had was wiped out when Hagelin scored 17th just 41 seconds into the 3rd period for a 3-0 Michigan lead. Hagelin finished off his evening with a secondary assist on Michigan's final goal at 19:37.

Hagelin leads off a strong night for Ranger prospects which you can find right here.

For the New York Islander prospects, they had their moments tonight as well but the best came from their 2010 1st round pick Nino Niederreiter who scored with 33.4 seconds remaining to give his Portland Winterhawks a 4-3 win over the Seattle Thunderbirds.

His 29th goal of the season helped the Winterhawks retain first place in the WHL's Western Conference with 87 points as they try to hold off the Spokane Chiefs and Tri-City Americans.  It was part of Niederreiter's 2 goal performance (his 8th multi-goal game of the season) that rescued the Winterhawks from a loss to the last place Thunderbirds.

Nino is in a "no-win" situation as being the 5th pick in the NHL draft is tough enough but when you get returned back to your junior team more to save your contract than your play makes the expectations higher.

29 goals in 45 games is not something to dismiss either but as we said Nino is in the "no-win" situation here as if the Winterhawks do not win the WHL we are sure someone will blame him for it.

Before we tell you to check out the rest of the Islander report, we got to point out how sometimes "Stars of the Game' get ruined by how they are selected. Really Nino does not get a star or Swen Bartschi (1-1-2)?

Sorry check out the Islanders right here.


(Images: Hagelin/Michigan Wolverines, Niederreiter/Portland Winterhawks)