Prospect Weekly: Saigeon Launches Bears

Most of the Avalanche prospects headed to the holiday break this week with a few notable exceptions.

Shane Bowers is one step away from officially making Team Canada for the World Junior Championship. Only one cut remains among the forward group as the team needs to make a decision on a couple injured players and will sort through that this week during exhibition and name the final roster before Christmas Day.

Bowers participated in two games including a 3-2 shootout win for Canada over U Sport as he scored the winning 9th round shootout goal as seen below. The shootout has become a large point of emphasis in international competition. Bowers has played the 4th line center role in each of his exhibition games and looks primed to lock into that role.

 

For the Russians both Nikolai Kovalenko and Danila Zhuravlyov survived the first cut and travelled with the team to North America to participate in their exhibition schedule this week.

 

Who else would make it rain teddy bears for the Hamilton Bulldogs other than Brandon Saigeon? He did just that for his 22nd goal and 54th point as seen below in Hamilton’s 5-1 loss to Sault St. Marie. It could quite possibly be the last goal Saigeon scores for the franchise which he has played five seasons for as the OHL trade deadline is fast approaching and he now takes some time off for the holiday break.

 

Nick Henry is still settling in with his new team in Lethbridge but provided this ridiculous pass for an assist in a 6-4 win against the Calgary Hitmen. Henry has seven points including a goal in eight games since the trade from Regina.

 

The Colorado Eagles traveled to the west coast last week beginning with a pair of games in Tucson. The first game was a close scoreless affair through two periods but ended in a 2-1 defeat. Ty Lewis got on the board with a rare power play tally as he was placed in his familiar right side net front position. He would later add an assist as well in the game against Ontario.

 

Rematch the following night was more successful as the 2-0 shutout this time went to Spencer Martin in his first start in nearly a month. Martin made 22 saves for his first win of the season as well. The highlight of the evening was a Logan O’Connor shorthanded goal from Ryan Graves bouncing the puck off of his stick as seen below.

 

Finally the trip concluded in Ontario with a 4-3 victory in overtime. Logan O’Connor picked up the game winning tally on a great move to the front of the net with a play started from Nicolas Meloche in the defensive zone as the whole very brief overtime period is shown below. The Avalanche certainly could use a defenseman who can be effective at both ends of the ice in the extra frame. Meloche also picked up an assist on an Andrew Agozzino goal earlier in the game.

A final note, this was the last expected game for Martin Kaut as the Czech team is anticipating his arrival in British Columbia for the World Junior Championship midweek.

 

Credit Hamilton Bulldogs for the photo