BSH prospect report: Getting work in

The news of the week

It was a quieter week in the world of newsy happenings, with the headline event just being that, after spending about a week with the big club for their season opening road trip and playing exactly zero games, Emil Andrae has been sent back to the Phantoms and will be available to them for their triple header this weekend.

Also, as a bit more Phantoms related housekeeping, broadcaster Bob Rotruck confirmed on Friday\'s broadcast that Massimo Rizzo, who\'s yet to make his season debut with the Phantoms, is working his way back from an injury. So that\'s what\'s up there.

What\'s up with the Phantoms?

Speaking of the Phantoms, this week, after an exciting season opener last weekend and an encouraging shootout win to begin the season, we saw a bit of a backslide from them. With things beginning to ramp up with the schedule, they had their first back-to-back of the season and it did not work out favorably for them. We saw Friday\'s game in Wilkes-Barre begin with an absolutely disastrous first period — Alexei Kolosov making his second start of the season and allowing four goals on the first 12 shots he faced. It was a deep hole that the Phantoms found themselves in, but credit to them, they managed to battle almost all of the way back, scoring three unanswered goals in the final two periods, but falling short of getting the equalizer to force overtime. Saturday\'s rematch took things back home for the Phantoms, and with an immediate opportunity to respond and even the season series, again they fell short. It wasn\'t for lack of trying though — the Phantoms dominated territorially, outshooting the Penguins 41-17, but they just couldn\'t seem to solve Penguins goaltender Filip Larsson. Kolosov responded to a degree, only allowing two goals in this, his second start in a row, but in the end, that deficit was insurmountable. So, the Phantoms fall to 1-2, and, for the early standings watchers, sink to the basement of their division.

With only one game on the weekend where any scoring took place for the Phantoms, the recap of offense generated by prospects will be a brief one. Ethan Samson picked up his first goal of the season on Friday, building on a good showing last weekend, which saw him create a good volume of shots, but fail to convert -- something of an emerging trend, as he also put up eight shots across this weekend\'s pair of games. We also saw each of Elliot Desnoyers, Zayde Wisdom, and Samu Tuomaala get on the scoresheet with an assist apiece (primaries for the first two, and a secondary for Tuomaala). And to round things out, Olle Lycksell didn\'t pick up any points this weekend, but it sure was not for lack of trying. He led the team in shots on goal over the weekend, totaling 10, but coming up with zero puck luck.

And now, the Alexei Kolosov report. The team really seems to want to get the longest look at him possible, and give him the most runway to get acclimated to play at the AHL level, which means they\'ve given him the start in each of their three games played, to date. And these games have been a pretty mixed bag. We mentioned the disastrous start to his second game, wherein he gave up four goals on his first 12 shots faced (and while defensive breakdowns did not help him out, his form suffered as well, he\'s not blameless for that effort. Because we saw things like this happening).

https://twitter.com/WBSPenguins/status/1847424329656512817

And while he did settle in after that first period, and did respond well enough in his second game of the weekend (though it was still a 14 saves on 16 shots performance), it\'s clear that he still has a lot of work to do.

The prospect world tour

The world tour is more of a quick detour away from North America this time around, but at least the news from the KHL is good -- Yegor Zavragin is continuing to excel since his recall to SKA St. Petersburg. He\'s played two more games since we last spoke, stopping 28 of 30 shots faced in the first and 21 of 25 in the second, but still managed to pick up wins in both of them.

Back stateside, it was a big week for the prospects playing in the NCAA. Cole Knuble is still rolling nicely, and he managed to put up a goal and assist in Notre Dame\'s win over Alaska-Fairbanks (though he was held without a point in the team\'s loss, the series evener).

Alex Bump is also starting to pick things up nicely -- a good thing to see, considering how big this season feels for him and the vote of confidence he got from the management group heading into it -- and he put up a goal and an assist in his one game on the week, a win for Western Michigan over Bowling Green.

Speaking of picking things up, Devin Kaplan finally got himself on the scoresheet and picked up his first point of the season over the weekend, this being an assist in BU\'s win over UConn. It feels like a big season for him as well -- now a junior and being given a bigger role to work with -- so here\'s hoping that this sees the floodgates open for him, even a little bit, and he\'s able to keep building on this as things continue to ramp up.

Down in the USHL, too, Heikki Ruohonen, while not on an absolute tear this week, still managed to find a bit of production. He played two games this week and picked up a goal in Dubuque\'s win over Des Moines (the other game was a shutout for them).

And finally, up North in London, things are still -- predictably -- going pretty well. While new captain Denver Barkey was held without a point over the last two games, Oliver Bonk continues to put up points. He added two assists to his season total this week, and he\'s continuing to cruise just above that point per game pace, as he\'s up to six points over the first five games.

Talking Points