At least the Prospects can score

While the Rangers are having major problems scoring goals, the same can not be said for their prospects. If anything it becomes news when the prospects do not score.

Case in point is today's star Tomas Zaborsky (2006 5th) of the Saginaw Spirit (OHL) who had 2 goals and an assist in the Spirit's 7-2 road win over the Ottawa 67's. That performance earned Zaborsky the game's "Second Star" after his 3rd and 4th goals of the season.

It was a nice way to break out of the 2 game "min" scoring slump that Zaborsky had been in. The first goal came was an even strength goal scored at 15:38 of the first period giving his Spirit a 2-1 lead.

Zaborsky then set up Jordan Szwarz's 2nd goal of the season at 3:34 which not only was the game winning goal but triggered what would turn out to be a 5 goal third period for the Spirit. Zaborsky then finished up the scoring for the game at the 17 minute mark with his 2nd goal of the game. We also want to point out that Zaborsky was also a +2 for the game as well.

Speaking of breaking out of a mini scoring slump, Bobby Sanguinetti's (2006 1st) team leading 8th goal of the season helped his Brampton Battalion to a 3-1 win over the Sarina Sting in OHL action. Sanguinetti also added an assist while earning the game's "First Star" for his efforts.

However while we normally like to talk about his offensive skills, today might be a good time to point out that Sanguinetti has been working equally as hard on improving his defensive skills and it is clearly showing some major improvement.

Sanguinetti has remained a rather consistent +7 for the season which is a huge turn around from last season's -16 while he was a member of he Owen Sound Attack. Most (including us) have been very concerned about Sanguinetti's ability on the defensive side but with each passing game is showing that Sanguinetti is more than willing to work on all aspects of his game.

That is not to say that Ranger fans will not enjoy Sanguinetti's offensive skills as he has plenty of them as the OHL's 8th leading scorer. With the goal and assist Sanguinetti is now 8-11-19 which makes him the leading scorer among Ranger prospects.

Ryan Hillier (2006 3rd) had an assist in a losing effort as his Halifax Mooseheads lost in the shoot out to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan 4-3 on the road. For Hillier who has been the sharing the prospect scoring lead it was a tough loss as his Mooseheads blew a 3-1 lead to lose this game.

Hillier also missed his shoot out attempt remains the leading goal scorer (and tied for the QMJHL lead too) among the Ranger prospects with 11 is now 11-6-17 on the season.

Antoine Lafleur (2007 2nd) got to watch from the bench as his teammate Marc-Antoine Gelinas faced 56 shots as their Prince Edward Island Rocket defeated the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 6-2. 56 shots in a game is way too much to allow.

David Skokan (2007 7th) of the Rimouski Oceanic suffered some sort of wrist injury Saturday night and sat out today's game against the Saint John's Sea Dogs. The Oceanic lost the game 1-0 and are going though a frustrating period of losing key players to team injuries.

Finally to those who asked "What is a Pronghorn?" one of our newer friends Matt Gutsch who is the University of Alberta's Sports Information Coordinator let us know that the answer is here: The Pronghorn

Thanks Matt and keep telling how great Eric Hunter is playing