Prospect Weekly: On the Edge of Glory

First off, the biggest news of the week was Shane Bowers electing to turn pro and sign his Entry Level Contract with the Colorado Avalanche. Additionally, he signed an Amateur Tryout agreement with the Colorado Eagles and is expected to begin his pro career finishing out the season in Loveland. The Avalanche provided a nice compilation seen below of Bowers’ goals this season to celebrate the occasion.

 

After the disappointment if the loss in the Hockey East semi-finals, Cale Makar and UMass were back with a vengeance in a 4-0 drubbing of Harvard in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. Makar showed all the aspects of his game offensively and defensively in one dominant performance including this touch pass for an assist as seen below.

 

The tournament hero strikes again as Cam Morrison contributed another huge goal for Notre Dame, this time in overtime against Clarkson in their opening round match of the NCAA tournament. The goal which clinched the 3-2 victory was Morrison doing what he does best as he had parked near the crease all period but as seen below the positioning gave him the opportunity to use his shot to chip the puck past the goaltender.

Thus, a meeting between UMass and Notre Dame the following evening to determine which team would claim the Northeast regional crown and a ticket to the Frozen Four.

 

UMass continued their domination to another 4-0 victory over Notre Dame. Makar scored an absolute rocket of a goal as seen below to add insurance to the victory. Makar also added more honors to his trophy case including Northeast regional All-Tournament team and Most Outstanding Player. Morrison received team honors as well for his clutch performance in the opening game. Makar was also named Hockey East co-player of the week as well.

Next up for UMass is 10 days rest before taking on the University of Denver in the semi-final of the Frozen Four on Thursday, April 11th at 8:30pm eastern on ESPN2.

 

Another Avalanche prospect defenseman made a contribution in the NCAA tournament and that’s Nate Clurman who made a play in the neutral zone to pick up his third assist of the year on Notre Dame’s opening goal of the tournament against Clarkson as seen below.

 

It was a mirror image of the Avalanche game on Friday night for the Colorado Eagles with coincidentally the Arizona Coyotes affiliate Tucson. The Eagles also blew a two goal lead in the third period against the team right behind in the standings but then won 4-3 in a shootout thanks to Scott Kosmachuk. The highlight of the night was Dominic Toninato‘s short handed goal as seen below with some incredible finish.

 

The following evening wasn’t as successful as the Eagles were buried in the game from the start with the only real highlight contributed by Michael Joly who has been hot since returning from injury. He gets the dangles working in this individual effort seen below. After falling 5-2 the Eagles will need to scoreboard watch and hope for a little help as they hope to hold on to a playoff spot.