Hugo Ollas and his Merrimack Warriors hosted Brett Berard and his Providence Friars in a Hockey East conference matchup. It was a surprising choice to see the freshman from Sweden get the start against the Friars who entering play was in third place in the Hockey East standings.
Other than an early season start against Boston College, Ollas was typically facing weaker teams so this was a major test for him. Give Ollas a very high passing grade as he was the difference in Merrimack's 3-2 upset win over Providence.
MIH: Ollas Backstops @MerrimackMIH to 3-2 win over #17 Providence https://t.co/0Te5E3J73s
— Merrimack Athletics (@MC_Athletics) January 15, 2022
Both teams showed some rust from (in Merrimack's case) only playing three games since the holiday break. Providence would score the game's first goal at 19:56 when Brett Berard sent up Parker Ford for a power play goal.
Ollas faced nine shots in the first period making eight saves. In the second Merrimack would score twice as Ollas stopped all nine shots that he faced and took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission.
In the third, Merrimack would add a third goal as Providence would start to dominate the period. Providence would pull their goalie and score at 17:34 to make it a 3-2 game with 2:26 remaining in the game.
That was as close as Providence would get as Ollas would stop 17 out of 18 shots to earn the win. Kudos to this young goalie as the goals he surrendered would only be a power play goal or the second goal with the extra attacker.
All together Ollas would stop 34 out of 36 shots to earn his fifth win of the season. Ollas is now 5-3 on the season with a 2.47 goals against and a 0.908 save percentage. He is clearly pushing for more playing time as Ollas has won his last three starts.
As for Brett Berard, he only had the primary assist as he was too quiet for my liking only managing two shots for the game. Berard is way too talented to only have a two shot game, he needs to look more for his offense and should never have less than four shots a game.
For the season, Berard is 12-13-25 in 22 games as he is Providence's leading scorer. One stat that bares out my call for him to shoot more; Berard scores on 17.4% of his shots but he has four game-winners and six power-play goals.
Will Cuylle had his ninth multi-point game of the season with a 1-2-3 effort but his Windsor Spitfires lost to the Sarnia Sting 6-5.
This was a game of streaks as Cuylle's first point was on the game's first goal, a power-play goal at 5:48 of the first period. It was a secondary assist giving Windsor a 1-0 lead that didn't last very long.
Sarnia would score three unanswered goals to grab a 3-1 lead by the middle of the second period. It would be Cuylle who would start his team on the comeback trail with his 22nd goal of the season as Windsor would score on the power play.
Cuylle's 22nd on the year from Henault and Johnston:#WindsorSpitfires pic.twitter.com/J3DVydkJ1t
— Windsor Spitfires (@SpitsHockey) January 15, 2022
Windsor would in fact score four unanswered power play goals to grab a 5-3 lead. Cuylle would record a secondary assist on the third of those goals for his third point of the game.
Unfortunately Sarnia would respond with three more unanswered goals to earn the 6-5 win. For Cuylle, the goal extended his goal scoring streak to three games (4) and he has a total of eight points in those three games.
In fact go back to Cuylle's last 12 games and he has been on fire going 13-8-21 to bring his season totals to 22-11-33 in 25 games that includes a +13, 8 PPG, 2 SHG, 5 GWG and a 1.32 PPG average.
Ryder Korczak and his Moose Jaw Warriors had not played in 13 days due to the Covid issue in the WHL. That said Korczak had two secondary assist and was 15-4 on his faceoffs as Moose Jaw spanked the Medicine Hat Tigers.
The second leading scorer among Ranger prospects with a 12-29-41 mark, Korczak's value has been on his faceoffs. Korczak is second in the WHL in faceoffs won with 454 wins, fourth in attempts with 767 and his 59.2% win rate is leading the WHL.
With the Rangers having major issues winning faceoffs, Korczak's value is increasing with each passing game.
If you look only at the scoresheet then Talyn Boyko didn't look all that great in a 6-4 win for his Kelowna Rockets over the Victoria Royals. But the scoresheet does tell you that three of the goals that Boyko gave up were on the power play.
Unless you did deep then you won't know that when the third period started, the teams were 4x4 until Kelowna took another penalty 47 seconds into the period making it a 4X3 then yet another penalty to make it a 5X3 that led to one goal then a second goal when it was a 5X4.
In fact Kelowna took nine penalties in the game and the Royals cashed in on three of them. Boyko would wind up making 38 saves on 42 shots faced. Kelowna should be embarrassed that Boyko wasn't awarded a star as he kept this from being a bad loss.
Boyko improved to 12-11-1-1 with a 3.33 goals against and a 0.906 save percentage.
Jon Keen is the voice of the Kamloops Blazers, he is a great guy and a pleasure to work with. That said I am pretty sure Jon is regretting a tweet he sent out after the Blazers scored four times in the first period against the Tri-City Americans
What rust? Blazers first game in 13 days and they score four goals in 4:43, Verbicky (1st as a Blazer), Stankoven (2), Schmiemann PP. Shots 14-5 KAM
— Jon Keen (@JonKeenNLSports) January 15, 2022
Dylan Garand got the start for the Blazers as they played for the first time in 12 days. Facing the lowly Americans (3rd worst record in the WHL), the Blazers let a four goal lead disappear and wound up losing 5-4.
Garand stopped 25 out of 30 shots faced but he never looked sharp in this game. He got hung out to dry by his teammates as they were horrible on defense.
Garand saw his record fall to 17-5 with a 2.00 goals against and a save percentage of 0.926. In the WHL, Garand remains the leader in wins but dropped to second in goals against and save percentage.
Matthew Rempe was scoreless on four shots as his Seattle Thunderbirds fell to the Portland Winterhawks 5-4 when Portland scored six seconds into overtime. Rempe was credited with four shots, was a -1, and was 7-7 on his faceoffs.
All good things do come to an end including sadly Brody Lamb's five-game goal-scoring streak. Lamb was held scoreless as his Green Bay Gamblers defeated Team USA 6-3.
The young forward had a quiet night with no shots on goal and just a +1 to show for his efforts. His Gamblers went over the 500 mark to see their season record improve to 14-13-0-1.
Jayden Grubbe was scoreless on four shots and 13-9 on faceoffs as his Red Deer Rebels fell to the Brandon Wheat Kings 4-1. Grubbe is in a miserable slump with just one goal in his last 20 games.
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