Saturday, February 26, 2022

Boyko's 30 Saves Key Kelowna Win

We are in the home stretch for the New York Rangers prospect regular season, for those playing in the NCAAs their playoffs are a week to two away from starting depending on the league they are in. Those playing at the CHL or USHL level still have about a month or so but the race for playoff positioning is very much underway. 

Heading into Friday night's game against the Kamloops Blazers, Talyn Boyko and his Kelowna Rockets were still trying to catch the Blazers. Think of the Rockets/Blazers as the Rangers/Islanders as the two rivals really do not like each other.

On Friday, Boyko stopped 30 out of 31 shots to earn the game's second star as the Rockets made it seven straight wins over the Blazers with a 2-1 win. Since joining the Rockets, Boyko is after Friday 6-0 against the Blazers. 

Boyko wasn't just good on Friday night, he was Igor Shesterkin good as the Rockets won their four straight game and Boyko's fourth straight start. Kelowna's team defense was a huge factor as they limited the Blazers to just six shots in the first period. 

In the second Boyko stopped 16 out of 17 as the teams traded goals but in the third, Boyko stopped all eight shots as the Rockets scored the game-winner. For Boyko, the win improved his season totals to 21-12-2-1 with a goals-against of 2.95 and a save percentage of  0.912.

Boyko is fifth in the WHL in wins and 11th in save percentage. And the win pulled the Rockets to within eight points of the WHL's BC Division leaders and just one point behind Seattle for fourth place in the WHL's Western Conference.

Brett Berard and his Providence Friars entered their final weekend of Hockey East play trying to hold onto home-ice advantage for the first round of the Hockey East playoffs. The good news was they were facing the Maine Black Bears who are 10th in an 11 team league. 

Berard got the Friars going with his 15th goal of the season at 12:38 of the first period.

Just under five minutes later at 17:11, Berard got the secondary assist on what proved to be the game-winning goal as the Friars went up 2-0. They would go on to earn a 4-2 win and kept the hope of home ice alive heading into Saturday's regular-season finale against Maine. 

Berard remains Providence's leading scorer at 15-20-35. 

Ryder Korczak had two secondary assists to help his Moose Jaw Warriors extend their unbeaten streak to six games (5-0-0-1) with a 7-0 spanking over the Swift Current Broncos. Korczak's assists came on Moose Jaw's fourth and fifth goals of the game almost 20 minutes apart. 

The Moose Jaw center was 10-10 on his faceoffs as he took six shots and was a +2 with a minor for high-sticking. The assists improved Korczak's totals to 18-43-61 after 52 games. 

More importantly, for Moose Jaw is the win keeps them in the hunt for the WHL's East Division championship as well as third place in the WHL's Eastern Conference.

Brennan Othmann had two assists as his Flint Firebirds spanked the Sarnia Sting 6-0 in OHL action. Both of Othmann's assists were secondary ones as he was 0-2-2 on four shots with a +2 and minors for tripping and hooking. 

Othmann is 34-34-68 on the season, he is seventh in overall points and second in goals. The Firebirds are 8-0-1-1 in their last 10 games as they lead both the OHL's Western Conference and the West Division.

Evan Vierling played a decent game but the rest of his teammates on the Barrie Colts failed to as they lost to the Sudbury Wolves 8-5. Vierling scored his 12th goal of the season at 18:52 of the second period. 

The goal helped cut Sudbury's lead at the time to 4-3 but it was nowhere near close. Overall Vierling was 1-0-1 on fourth shots on four shots and was 11-6 on his faceoffs. Vierling is 12-20 -32 on the season.

Hank Kempf and his Cornell Big Red visited the fifth-ranked Quinnipiac in the final weekend of regular season ECAC action. Cornell was looking to lock down the fourth seed in the ECAC playoffs and the first-round bye that went with it. 

Cornell was able to edge Quinnipiac 1-0 to clinch at least a tie for the fourth seed with just one game left in the regular season. Kempf was scoreless on one shot as he has been throughout his freshman season.

Cornell needs just one point from Saturday's matchup against Princeton and they will have fourth place and the first-round bye. The end of the game was marred by all ten players on the ice earning roughing minors and misconduct penalties.

Simon Kjellberg was scoreless on three shots as his Rensselaer Engineers defeated Dartmouth 6-3 in ECAC action. Kjellberg was credited with three shots and was a -1.

The win means that Rensselaer will finish no worse than sixth in the ECAC and will have home ice for the first round of the ECAC playoffs.

Jayden Grubbe and his Red Deer Rebels scored twice in the third period to come from behind to defeat the Prince Albert Raiders 3-2. Grubbe was scoreless and struggled big time on faceoffs going 4-10.

Red Deer holds a two-point lead over Moose Jaw in the race for the third seed in the WHL's Eastern Conference.

Riley Hughes was scoreless as his Northeastern Huskies faced off against the UConn Huskies in the first of a critical two-game Hockey East clash.  At stake is one of the top seeds in the Hockey East playoffs and game one went to Hughes and his Huskies. 

Hughes was scoreless with a -1 and a high-sticking minor as Northeastern took the first game 3-1. After the win, Northeastern and UConn are tied for third in the Hockey East standings. Game two is Saturday night.

Brody Lamb and his Green Bay Gamblers went on the road to take on Team USA from the National Training Development Program. They left their game home as they gave up eight goals in the first period as they got blown out 11-3.

Lamb scored Green Bay's first goal of the game in the second period but the game was already over by then. For Lamb, the goal was his 14th of the season as he improved to 14-11-25.

The Gamblers are fighting to earn a berth in the USHL playoffs as they are currently holding the sixth and last spot in the USHL's Eastern Conference. The bad news is their lead is just one point with seventh-place Cedar Rapids holding two games in hand.

Did Not Play

Dylan Garand remains out with a lower boy injury. for his Kamloops Blazers. The Blazers list him as "day-to-day" as he has missed three straight games.

Will Cuylle sat out the second game of his two-game suspension for his Windsor Spitfires. 

Matthew Rempe sat out the first of his three-game suspension for his Seattle Thunderbirds

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