Mostly Ugly with weak efforts

It wasn't the textbook idea of a Friday night for the New York Ranger and New York Islander prospect report as it for a while was more about those who didn't play rather than those who did play. Robbie Russo the New York Islander's 2011 4th round pick saw his junior season at Notre Dame come to an end when he was declared "academically ineligible" for the rest of the season.

Russo who was Notre Dame's offensive leader on the blueline was 4-11-15 on the season for the at times offensively challenged Fighting Irish. Russo really needed a strong season to help build towards a New York Islander contract as he wasn't really seen as a legit NHL prospect. Still losing Russo is going to hurt Notre Dame as they head down the stretch of the Hockey East season.

And that is where we will begin as Steven Fogarty (NYR 2011 3rd) and 15th ranked Notre Dame were playing host to 11th ranked Northeastern and were shut out at home 4-0. This loss is especially brutal when one sees that Northeastern convert 2 of the only 4 first period shots taken into goals. Even worse for Notre Dame was that Northeastern scored all 4 of their goals with less than 11 shots.

Steven Fogarty was held without a shot and now as unfair as this might be, Fogarty has to elevate his game or the Fighting Irish's first season in Hockey East will come to an early exit.

Brady Skjei (NYR 2012 1st), Jake Bischoff (NYI 2011 6th) and Taylor Cammarata (NYI 2013 3rd) combined for just one total shot on goal but their top ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers defeated St. Cloud State 4-1 in the first round of the North Star College Cup tournament. It may not have been a pretty strong game but it was better than losing.

Adam Pelech (NYI 2011 3rd) had a primary as well as a secondary assist as his Erie Otters lost to the Niagara Ice Dogs 4-3. Erie dug themselves a 0-3 hole in the first period and spent the rest of the game trying to catch up.

Pelech improved to 8-29-37 0n the season while teammate Troy Donnay (NYR 2013 UFA) was scoreless. After leading the OHL for most of the 1st half, Erie is slumping now 3rd in the OHL's Western Conference 3 points behind the leaders the Guelph Storm.

Cristoval Nieves (NYR 2012 2nd) stopped a 5 game pointless streak with a primary assist on his 14th ranked Michigan's 1st goal of the game as the Wolverines would go on to defeat arch-rival Michigan State 5-2. Nieves moving to left wing seems to be a good idea so here is hoping that Michigan lets it run for a few games.

Doyle Sommerby (NYI 2013 5th) was scoreless as Somerby's Boston University Terriers broke an 8 game winless streak as the Terriers defeated Vermont 4-2. Somerby was scoreless with no shots but was also a +2 for the day.

Ryan Graves (NYR 2013 4th) was scoreless on 2 shots as his Rimouski Oceanic defeated the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies 4-2.

Loic Leduc (NYI 2011 3rd) and his Rimouski Oceanic had very little trouble addressing concerns about their team after the Oceanic had little trouble addressing my issues. Like having teams like the "Shawinigan, Cataractes" fall behind 4-0 in a shut out loss as what happened in Plymouth's FTP 2 bags.

Stephon Williams (NYI 1 2013) was DNP for the Minnesota State Wildcats, Victor Crus-Rydberg (NYI 2012) was sick for Minnesota State, and Kyle Burroughs (NYI 2013 2012) was unable to go due to some minor injuries.