A Night Full Of First Stars

Dylan Garand (Kamloops Blazers)

As we come to the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, the New York Ranger prospects in action wanted to give Ranger fans something else to be thankful for. In this case, it is four different players who earned the first star of the game for their respective teams. 

What made Saturday night so much fun was to watch the prospects in action as we got to get great performances on both offense as well as defensively. And to be honest there is no way to choose from any of these four so let's call all four our equal first stars.

The game of the night was in Everett Washington as the two best teams in the WHL's Western Conference going at it. Goalie Dylan Garand led his Kamloops Blazers against the Everett Silvertips. 

Before this game, the US Division leader the Everett was unbeaten in regulation leading the WHL's Western Conference with a 16-0-1-1 record. Kamloops the leader of the BC Division was riding a five-game winning streak.  

Garand earned this game's first star by stopping a season-high 42 out of 43 shots as the Blazers defeated Everett 2-1. Garand was clearly the reason why Kamloops won as the Blazers were out-played for most of this game.

Everett outshot them 16-6 and 14-9 in the first two periods before Kamloops would protect their goalie by outshooting Everett 14-13 in the third period. Garand who went from playing cheerleader on Friday to hero on Saturday won his fifth straight start. 

Garand improved to 14-2 on the season as he leads the WHL in wins,  is third in goals-against with a 1.76, is second in save percentage at 0.935.

Tayln Boyko (Kelowna Rockets)

Talyn Boyko stopped 34 out of 35 shots including a crucial penalty shot save with 3:42 remaining in the third to help his Kelowna Rockets stop the Prince George Cougars 4-1. The only goal that Boyko would give up would come on a Cougar's power-play otherwise nothing was getting past him on this evening.

It was a big win for Boyko and his teammates as they had their fourth straight strong performance as Boyko has only given up just four goals during that time. Since becoming a Rocket, Boyko is 4-1 with a 2.03 goals against and a 0.931 save percentage. 

Overall Boyko is now 5-7as his goals-against lowered to 3.36 and his save percentage improved to 0.904.

Brett Berard made it back-to-back 1-2-3 performances as he helped his 14th-ranked Providence Friars with the 35th annual "Mayor's Cup" contest with Brown 4-0. Berard would score his 10th goal of the season when he picked up a linemate's shot then would tuck it in for the only goal his team would really need. 

Bedard would then add a secondary assist on Providence's second goal and would earn the primary assist on the third goal of the game. Actually, it would be his skate that earned the assist as a teammate's shot would bounce off Berard's skate and onto teammate Patrick Moynihan's stick who cashed in the puck.

For Berard, the night was part of a 1-2-3 off three shots and a +3 and a roughing minor. Berard remains Providence's leading scorer with a 10-11-21 record.

Brennan Othmann (OHL Images)

Brennan Othman continued his hot play with his own 1-2-3 performance but it wasn't enough to prevent the Sarnia Sting from edging Brennan's Flint Firebirds 4-3. Berard would get credit for the primary assist on Flint's first two goals as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead.

Sarnia would score four unanswered goals to take a 4-2 lead before Othmann would respond with his 14th goal of the season to cut the lead to 4-3. That would be it as Sarnia would protect the lead as Othmann took a costly interference minor at 16:27 hurting the Firebird's chances of scoring the tying goal.

Othmann was 1-2-3 on a game-high nine shots and the interference minor. Othmann is 14-13-27 on the season thanks in part to going 6-8-14 in his last six games.

Ryder Korczak broke a nine-game goalless streak with what proved to be the game-winning goal as his Moose Jaw Warriors defeated the Swift Current Broncos 6-2. With the game tied at 2-2 and coming to the end of the second period, Korczak broke the tie with 1:49 remaining in the second period. 

It was Korczak's seventh goal of the season and in the third period, Korczak would add a secondary assist on the Warriors' fourth goal as well. The 1-1-2 evening was on six shots with a +2 while going 12-7 on his faceoffs. 

For Korczak, the two points improved his season totals 7-16-23 in 21 games. 

Will Cuylle and his Windsor Spitfires lost in overtime to the Saginaw Spirit 6-5. Cuylle scored his 15th goal of the season but was also a -3 off four shots with a tripping minor and was 3-3 on faceoffs.

Cuylle is 15-5-20 in 19 games.

Jayden Grubbe was scoreless as his Red Deer Rebels defeated the Regina Pats 4-2. Grubbe took just one shot and was 12-7 on his faceoffs.

Hank Kempf and his 10th-ranked Cornell Big Red held off the Boston University Terriers 6-4 in the annual "Red Hot Hockey" matchup at Madison Square Garden. the freshman defenseman was scoreless on one shot with one blocked shot.

Matt Rempe returned from a one-game suspension as his Seattle Thunderbirds defeated the Tri-City Americans 5-1. Rempe was scoreless on three shots and was 6-5 on his faceoffs.

Evan Vierling was scoreless as his Barrie Colts defeated the Niagara Ice Dogs 5-4 via the shoot-out. Vierling was scoreless on one shot with a -1 while going 7-7 on faceoffs.

Hugo Ollas and his Merrimack Warriors dropped a 3-2 decision to the visiting Brown in non-conference action. Ollas stopped 16 out of 19 shots in his fifth start of the season as he drops to 2-3 with a 3.14 goals against and a 0.883 save percentage

Brody Lamb was scoreless on one shot and a -2 as his Green Bay Gamblers lost to the US National Training and Development team 5-2. Lamb has just one goal in his last 12 games.