Short and somewhat sweet

The Blueshirt Bulletin is back

A nice quiet Sunday from the New York Ranger and New York Islander prospects which allowed me time to work on interviews with Cristoval Nieves on Monday and then a surprise on Tuesday. Those interviews will be in the season opening issue of the Blueshirt Bulletin.

Michael St. Croix (NYR 2011 4th) is in a bit of a slump having no goals in his last 7 games (and just 1 point in that time) but his teammates on the Edmonton Oil Kings are doing a great job picking up the slack. St. Croix's Edmonton Oil Kings won their 3rd straight game shutting out the Medicine Hat Tigers 3-0.

The Oil Kings got their goals from one player Curtis Lazar who did one of the coolest "natural" hat tricks seen in a while. For starters Lazar scored what wound up being the game winning goal just 32 seconds after the opening puck drop.

Goal number 2 came at 2:40 of the 2nd period while on a power play. Finally goal number 3 was an empty netter that sealed the game with just 1:16 left to play.

The win allowed Edmonton to leap past Calgary for the top spot in the WHL's Eastern Conference. The Oil Kings have a 1 point lead plus hold a game in hand.

As for St. Croix; don't feel so sorry for him and his scoring slump as he is still contributing like stopping a Medicine Hat 3 on 1 by himself with some rock solid defense that broke the odd man rush up. Not bad for the "defensive liability" that St. Croix is supposed to be.

Jesse Graham (NYI 2012 6th) had a secondary assist on his Niagara IceDogs 3rd goal but that was the last highlight for the IceDogs as the Kitchener Rangers scored the next 4 goals all in the 3rd period to wipe out a 2 goal IceDog lead and earn a 5-3 win.

Welcome to life without your 3 best scorers Niagara as they just don't have the firepower to match up with many OHL teams now. Jesse Graham needs to turn those assists to goals as he is now 2-16-18 but a -10 too.

Andrey Pedan (NYI 2011 3rd) was sitting out the 2nd game of his 2 game suspension as his Guelph Storm defeated the Kingston Frontenacs 4-1. Pedan will be able to return to action on January 17th but some friendly advice to Pedan, next suspension will be your 3rd of the season and it will be a lot longer.

Loic Leduc (NYI 2012 4th) missed his 4th game for the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles and the latest word is there is no timetable for his return. I am reading that as he might be done for the season.