Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Spoke too soon

Griffin Reinhart (Edmonton Oil Kings)
Guess Griffin Reinhart (NYI 2012 1st) has gotten tired of my calling Ryan Pulock the best Islander prospect as Reinhart sent a reminder to the New York Islander fans that he is the "straw that stirs the drink" (my words not his) for the Edmonton Oil Kings. In game 3 of their series against the Prince Albert Raiders it was Reinhart who took over the game and turn a 2-0 Prince Albert lead into a 4-3 Edmonton win. The game's first star Reinhart took charge of the game after the Oil Kings had fallen behind 2-0 at the first intermission.

Reinhart got Edmonton going when he set up Brett Pollock for a power play goal at 7:53 of the 2nd period. 3:35 later at 11:28, Reinhart would tie the game with his first playoff goal of the year. Prince Albert would actually regain the lead 1:21 later but Edmonton would tie and then claim the lead and victory in the 3rd period. Reinhart led a much improved Oil King defense as they blanked the Raiders on all 4 of their power play attempts.

Edmonton takes a 3-0 lead in the series as they will attempt to sweep the Raiders out on Wednesday.

In Kootenay, throw the defenses out the window as neither team has played anything close to decent defense. The Kootenay Ice behind a goal scored with just 52 seconds remaining in regulation defeated the Calgary Hitmen 5-4 to tie the series up at 2-2. Kootenay goalie Mackenzie Skapski (NYR 2013 6th) played another poor game leading to his being yanked at the 6:26 mark of the 2nd period after giving up his 4th goal on just 18 shots and after the 3rd of 3 Calgary goals which gave them a 4-3 lead.

Nobody likes to kick on a prospect when he is down so I will leave it simply as he just hasn't gotten the job done but he should have. Adam Tambellini (NYR 2013 3rd) was held scoreless in game 4 keeping him off the scoresheet for the first time in this series. Tambellini was pretty much a non-factor in the 3rd period tonight but part of that was due to his teammates playing with almost zero discipline.

Calgary gave up 7 power plays and they were luck Kootenay was not cashing them in like they have been. Tambellini is not going to see a lot of ice time when his teammates are killing penalties. This series is tied 2-2 with game 5 Thursday back in Calgary.

Loic Leduc (NYI 2012 4th)
has been playing some solid hockey for his Rimouski Oceanic as the 6'6 defender recorded his 2nd assist of the playoffs to help Rimouski earn a 4-0 win over the Chicoutimi Saguenéens and a 3-0 series lead. Leduc has done everything but score goals but his assist was the primary assist on a shorthanded goal which put Rimouski up 3-0 in the game. Both of Leduc's assists have come on shorthanded goals and that he is out on the penalty kill is saying something about his value to his team.

Rimouski will attempt to earn the sweep when they face the Sagueneens Wednesday night.

Victor Crus Rydberg (NYI 2013 5th)'s first career playoff goal tied the score at 1-1 as his Plymouth Whalers would go on to earn a 2-1 win over the Guelph Storm in game 3 of their OHL playoff series. Crus Rydberg and his 8th seeded Whalers played a strong defensive game but were helped due to Guelph missing their number 1 center who was the victim of a cheapshot in game 1.

The two teams are right back at it on Wednesday evening in game 4.

Ryan Graves (NYR 2013 4th) was scoreless on 1 shot with a +1 and 1 hit as his Val-d'Or Foreurs needed overtime before defeating the Acadie-Bathurst Titan 3-2 to take a 3-0 series lead. The Foreurs should consider themselves lucky that they escaped this one as the Titan came back from down 0-2 to tie the game and force overtime. The Foreurs even took a penalty in the overtime period that could have cost them but instead will be going for the sweep Wednesday evening.

No Anthony Duclair (NYR 2013 3rd)? No win in game 3 for the Quebec Remparts as the Rouyn-Noranda defeated the Remparts 5-2 to take a 2-1 series lead. With no word coming from Quebec regarding Duclair who at last check did not pass his last concussion check (7 days with no symptoms) then it is safe to say that Duclair is not going to make it back for this series.



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