In The End Hockey Won

Thursday night was an interesting night for both New York Ranger and New York Islander prospects but the real winners on Thursday was the sport of hockey itself.Yes right now it is hard for Canadian fans to feel good about a third place finish just as it is very hard for American fans and the seventh place finish.

The box scys that Sweden won 1-0 in overtime over Russia but the box score is not to tell you just how exciting this game was gold medal game. The cynics will say that nobody would care about who won this gold medal since it wasn't involving Canada.

Judging from the sounds and the intensity of the the fans who attended this game that it is doubtful that anyone walked away thinking they did not get their money's worth.It's hard from an individual standpoint to say that any of the prospects either Ranger or Islander played badly. There was no real surprise as players showed that they can hold their own.

Ryan Strome showed he could play with anybody and still produce even if he did not settle for the bronze. Johan Sundstrom offered a glimpse of the potential to be a good two way player down the road.

On the Ranger side, J.T. Miller was steady and consistent his numbers may not have set the world on fire but he showed up for every game and work hard no matter what the score was. Peter Ceresnak did not embarrass himself but didn't show that he has work to do with the skating as well as his decision-making process.

Now the world juniors heads overseas for two years and that might be good for both Canada and the U.S. 2013 in Russia than 2014 in Sweden will allow both programs to take good looks and make some changes.

Rest Of The Prospects

It has been quite a while since we saw Danny Hobb's (NYR 2007 7th) name show up because of the good play. It has not been the kind of breakout senior season that the captain of the UMass hockey team had hoped for.

Hobbs 5th goal of the season came at 19:23 of the third period tying the score at 4-4 and allowing UMass to walk away with an overtime tie against Providence.

Hobb's was named the game's first star to after a seven shot performance trying to help UMass p pull out the win. It has been tough going for Hobbs who has been battling ankle injuries since early in the season.

Next up for Hobbs and UMass will be a game outdoors on Friday at Fenway Park against Vermont. It should be interesting to see if UMass can get themselves on a run in the second half of the season.

In Peterborough which should have been and easy win for the Petes turned turned into an embarrassing 7-3 loss to to the Kingston Frontenacs. There really no nice things to say about this game as Andrew Yogan (NYR 2010 3rd) that the Petes going in the first period when Yogan set up Steven Trojanovic for an even strength goal at 17:23 of the 1st period.

It was Yogan's 17th assist on the season and his 35th point but that is where the highlights end and the lowlights begin. First Kingston grabbed a 2-1 lead in the 2nd before Peterborough tied the game at 2-2.

Yogan took a penalty for roughing that led to a power play goal for Kingston but Peterborough got that goal back to end the 2nd period tied at 3-3. In the 3rd period; it was all Kingston as they scored 4 goals to earn the road win.

The loss cost Peterborough a chance to increase their lead over 8th placed Mississauga and 9th placed Oshawa who were both idle. 

(Sundstrom- New York Islanders, Hobb- Masslive.com)