The news of the week
We’ll get right to it: Flyers prospects seem to be simply unable to stop picking up accoladed for their great play to start the season. This week, Cutter Gauthier’s been named the Hockey East Player of the Week.
And in prospect adjacent news — we don’t really still consider him a prospect at this point, but this does help the prospects in the AHL — Felix Sandstrom is finally healthy, and has finally been waived and assigned to the Phantoms. He hasn’t gotten in for a game yet, but he should soon, and that helps give the team a real boost at the goaltending position.
What’s up with the Phantoms?
Speaking of the Phantoms, they’ve just wrapped up what was, by all counts, a very successful week. They just wrapped up their annual road trip north of the border, with stops in Laval, Belleville, and Toronto, and while this is a trip that has historically given them some trouble, this time around they were able to dispatch of each of those teams with relative ease. They’re coming home with a sweep in hand, and some serious offensive momentum (that win on Saturday against Belleville saw them put up eight goals, their highest single game-output of the season). This also — for the standings watchers out there — propelled them up into fifth place in their division.
All of this success over the last week means that we have quite a few standout performances to highlight. First up, the top scorer among the prospect group was — somewhat predictably — Olle Lycksell. With three goals (including the very nice one on the powerplay we can see below) and two assists on the week, Lycksell is continuing to maintain his role as one of the Phantoms’ most consistent offensive contributors, as well as his spot at the top of their points scoring leaderboard.
Elsewhere in the lineup, we got a good burst of offense from Ronnie Attard, which was nice to see — it’s been a bit of an up and down season for him so far, and for him to get going offensively again was certainly a welcome sight. He came out of the week with two goals and an assist.
The Phantoms also got scoring contributions from Samu Tuomaala — who continues to ride his hot streak — who chipped in a goal and three assists in his last three games played, while Emil Andrae chipped in a goal in his last two played (he missed yesterday’s game with an illness).
And to close things out, the Phantoms also got a pair of assists from J.R. Avon, and one from Helge Grans.Â
The prospect world tour
We’ll circle back around to talking about Gauthier’s week, since we already teased it a bit. In BC’s two games on the weekend against UConn, Gauthier put up three goals (including Friday’s game tying goal and overtime winning goal) as well as 14 individual shots on goal, and was once again the Eagles’ top contributor on the weekend.
But the goal scoring didn’t stop there for the college prospects, as each of Devin Kaplan, Owen McLaughlin, and Alex Bump each put up a goal on the weekend, and Bump had an additional two assists, and McLaughlin had one (and in one fewer game played).
And not to be overlooked, of course, is the pair of strong performances that came without a goal. In their last two games played, Massimo Rizzo had two assists, while Bryce Brodzinski had four.
For the lovers of continuity, we invite you to stick with us for the Canadian leg of this tour. This week, we saw a big performance from Oliver Bonk, as he put up two goals and two assists, including this goal which he scored from the bumper spot on the power play.
Also chipping in two goals on the week — if you can believe it — were both Bonk’s London teammate Denver Barkey, along with Carter Sotheran out in Portland.
The positive impacts, of course, haven’t been limited to just the skaters — Carson Bjarnason also had himself a solid week, getting in for two games and stopping 28 of the 30 shots he faced in the first, and 32 of the 35 he faced in the second. These helped to bring up his save percentage on the season a bit, and it’s now sitting at a .906.
And to close things out, we’ll move abroad to check in with a pair of the European prospects (and then let you all shift into Holiday Mode). Alex Ciernik is continuing to roll nicely offensively, as he added a goal and an assist to his season total this week.
And Matvei Michkov is, of course, continuing to do Matvei Michkov (which is to say: very impressive) things. He only got in for one game this week, but he certainly made it count, putting up a goal and two assists in it. And for those keeping track at home, this brings him back up close to the point per game scoring pace again, as he’s now sitting at 24 points in his 27 games to start this season. Not too shabby at all.
