Prospect Weekly: Fireworks

Some really nice goal scoring filled the highlight reels for Colorado Avalanche prospects over the past week.

Nikolai Kovalenko escaped the shackles of a KHL team which is marginalizing him in order to participate in the Euro Hockey Tour with the Russian senior national team. They won all three games against Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. Kovalenko was noticeable in all with his soul stealing brand of tenacity plus the puck skill to make things happen. The reminder that he still has game was capped off with this goal and assist in the final match as both required great plays on his part.

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Sampo Ranta had himself a weekend as Minnesota rebounded from a poor one from the previous week. This time Notre Dame was the victim and Ranta pretty much did what he wanted over the two-game set amassing two goals and an assist plus eight shots on goal. From Saturday the assist was a ridiculous between the legs pass and the goal looked like a Mikko Rantanen one timer. Ranta is currently tied for second in the NCAA with 14 goals.

Update: Ranta was named Big 10 third star of the week

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Drew Helleson is riding an incredible high and is full of confidence following last week’s SportsCenter highlight overtime goal. Now he’s jumping into the play and creating offense like never before to go along with his physical shutdown defense. Here’s his goal scored during a great rush in Saturday’s win.

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Alex Newhook scored his first goal of the season on Friday night on a rush and then followed it up with a power play snipe over the glove as he works his way back up to full speed from the long layoff.

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