The End Of A Good Tuesday

Wow Tuesday during the day was a much better day than Tuesday evening for both fans of the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders.

We started our day with the news that Christian Thomas (NYR 2010 2nd) was named the CHL Player of the Week and then in the afternoon Islander fans got to see Brock Nelson (NYI 2010 1st)win his 2nd straight "Red Baron WCHA Offensive Player of the Week.

Anyone want to guess which 2 prospects were our players of the week? Kind of seems silly for us to name Christian Thomas for the Rangers and Brock Nelson for the Islanders given their winning player of the week awards from others. It is though nice to see players we have been saying are going to be NHLers get some recognition though.

We also can not leave out Michael St. Croix (NYR 2011 4th) who made this week a hat trick for the prospects winning WHL prospect of the Week. It almost made the games played Tuesday night seem unimportant.

Game Action

Samuel Noreau (NYR 2011 5th) and his Baie-Comeau Drakkar took on Kirill Kabanov (NYI 2010 3rd) and his Shawinigan Cataractes with the Drakkar holding off the Cataractes 3-2.

Neither player scored as Kabanov and his linemates had a rough night defensively being on the ice for 2 of the Drakkar goals. Kabanov is pointless in his last 3 games and limited to 2 shots.

Noreau had 2 shots, 2 hits and his 5th fighting major of the year which ties him with Dylan McIlrath for the Ranger prospect lead.

Speaking of Dylan McIlrath (NYR 2010 1st), his Moose Jaw Warriors hosted John Persson (NYI 2011 5th) and his Red Deer Rebels in WHL action. McIlrath did not score but was a +2 as the Warriors held off the Rebels 6-5.

The win moved the Warriors into first place of the WHL's East Division with 41 points trailing the Edmonton Oil Kings for the conference lead due to the Oil Kings having 1 fewer loss. Persson had a secondary assist to extend his scoring streak to 4 games (1-3-4) and still leads the Islander prospects in scoring at 12-20-32.

What Persson could not do is stop the Red Deer winless streak which is now 10 games (0-8-0-2) with no answer on how to end this streak.

In Edmonton, Michael St. Croix (NYR 2011 4th) saw his scoring streak come to an end at 7 games (9-10-19) but his Edmonton Oil Kings won their 7th straight 6-2 over the Calgary Hitmen. The win moved the Oil Kings into first place in both the WHL's Central Division and the Eastern Conference for the first time in franchise history.

Think St. Croix is not too broken up over his scoring streak ending as he had several very good chances to score. St. Croix remains the leading scorer among Ranger prospects at 16-25-41.

A rare Tuesday evening game for Chris Kreider (NYR 2009 1st) and his 3rd ranked Boston College Eagles as they were hosting the Providence Friars. The Eagles really did not have any trouble defeating Providence scoring 2 first period goals and cruising their way to a 4-1 win.

Kreider had 3 shots and earned an assist on an empty net goal which sealed the win for Boston College. Kreider is now 12-10-22 which is 2 points away from tying his career high in points.

We almost missed Steven Fogarty (NYR 2011 3rd) going scoreless as his Penticton Vees needed 2OT to defeat the Westside Warriors 3-2. The Vees have won 12 straight games with their last loss coming on November 5th.

Hard not to like a team that is 24-3-0-2 on the season.

Finally Cody Rosen (NYI 2010 7th) did as he has for the previous 18 Clarkson games which is not see any action. Clarkson uses only one goalie so Rosen has seen all of 4 games over the last 3 seasons.

(Thomas- Aaron Bell of OHL Images, Nelson - WCHA)