Troubling Tuesday

(CHL.ca)

Tuesday prospect hockey was an ugly affair with 3 games involving 3 New York Ranger and 1 New York Islander prospects. Only one team was able to escape with a victory on Tuesday evening but they too tried to give away their game.

Going to go coast to coast because nobody did anything to be worthy of a star.

The QMJHL semifinal series between Samuel Noreau's (NYR 2011 5th) Baie-Comeau Drakkar and the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada shifted to Blainville-Boisbriand for game 3 and the Armada took advantage of their home ice to earn a 3-0 win. The win cuts the Drakkar's lead in the series to 2-1 as this was a penalty-filled contest where the Drakkar wound up with 23 penalties for 41 minutes not including the 4 misconduct penalties that were also handed out.

Noreau was held to one shot and had only 1 hit while getting called for a hooking minor in the 1st period. It was just 1 of the 12 power plays that the Drakkar gave the Armada who converted only on 2 of them.

An ugly affair for the Drakkar who suffered their first loss of the playoffs after winning their first 10 games. Game 4 will be Wednesday night again in Blainville-Boisbriand.

In Plymouth, Tommy Hughes (NYR 2013 UFA) and his London Knights looked to rebound after losing game 2 in overtime back in London to the Plymouth Whalers. This one wasn't much better than the game in the QMJHL as London had a 3-0 lead on 3 special team goals (1 power play, 2 shorthanded) before the game was even 10 minutes old.

The Knights held the lead until the 3rd period when it was Plymouth's turn only the Whalers scored 4 unanswered goals in 10:21 to grab a 4-3 lead. But that was just the beginning of the "fun" as London caught a break with a suspect crosschecking call.

The ensuing power play led to the game tying goal just 9 seconds after the call. London went back ahead less than a minute late and tallied an insurance goal to "earn" a 6-4 win and a 2-1 lead in the series.

I have to send people over to Neate Sager as his call of the "fun" was the best (as always). As for Tommy Hughes, he was rather quiet in this game as defense wasn't exactly well played in this game.

Hughes was scoreless with a minor for slashing at the start of the 3rd period. Game 4 will be Wednesday evening in Plymouth.

In Calgary, Michael St. Croix (NYR 2011 4th) and Griffin Reinhart (NYI 2012 1st) along with the rest of the Edmonton Oil Kings find themselves trailing in their WHL Eastern Conference final's series with the Calgary Hitmen 2 games to 1 after getting spanked 5-1 Tuesday evening.

The game started out well for the Oil Kings as they grabbed a 1-0 lead on a power play goal at 6:29 of the 1st period. Reinhart had the secondary assist on the goal for his 7th point of the playoffs (3-4-7) but that lead was the only highlight of the game for the Oil Kings.

Calgary exploded for 5 goals in the 2nd period and Edmonton had really no answer for what had happened. St. Croix was held scoreless and hasn't scored a goal since game 3 of the series against Medicine Hat.

Now it is the Oil Kings who are trailing in the series 2-1 and they don't have much time to solve the Hitmen if they wish to defend their WHL title. Game 4 is Wednesday and Edmonton does not want to fall behind 3-1 in this series.