Winning The Ugly Way

Thursday night prospect action is not going to win any style points but 3 teams played and 3 teams won which is all that mattered for the 3 New York Ranger and New York Islander prospects who played.

Andrew Yogan (NYR 2010 3rd) and his Peterborough Petes entered Thursday's game against the OHL leading London Knights on an 8 game winless streak (0-6-0-2).  The Petes were missing several players because of injuries as well as the various international camps which made this the wrong time to take on the team with the best record in the OHL.

It is games like these where you want to see someone like a Andrew Yogan step up his game and for the Petes that is what Yogan did. Yogan had a goal along with an assist to help Peterborough snap their winless streak with a 5-3 win.

Yogan scored his 14th goal of the season at 7:35 of the 2nd period to give Peterborough a 3-1 lead. It was a key play as Peteborough gave up a power play goal 2:12 later to cut Peterborough's lead to 3-2 but London was not able to get any closer.

In the 3rd period while on the power play, Yogan set up Peterborough's 5th goal at 14:23 which for all purposes sealed the win for the Petes. Yogan improves to 14-15-29 and puts him on a pace to top his career bests set in 2009-2010 (25-30-55) when Yogan was with the Erie Otters.

Peter Ceresnak (NYR 2011 6th) did not play as he was on his way to join Team Slovakia for the World Under-20 Championships.

Mitchell Theoret (NYI 2011 7th) found himself as the starting left wing for his Niagara IceDogs as they took on the Erie Otters. The IceDogs were playing without Ryan Strome who earned a spot on Team Canada but they had no trouble whipping the Otters 7-0.

Theoret scored the only goal that the IceDogs would need as Theoret scored his 9th goal of the season on the power play at 3:50 of the 2nd period. It was Theoret's 2nd game winning goal of the season.

Scott Stajcer (NYR 2009 5th) and his Owen Sound Attack had one of those games which drive coaches insane. Against the Windsor Spitfires, Stajcer was not sharp giving up 4 goals on 33 shots but it was enough earn a win as Owen Sound outlasted the Spitfires 6-4.

Stajcer saw his goals against rise to 2.47 and his save percentage fall 0.927 but his record is 6-4-2-2 on the season.


(Yogan - Terry Wilson of OHL Images)