BSH prospect report: Playoffs and almost playoffs

The News of the Week

It\'s a short news report this week, but it\'s a good one! Goaltending has been something of a trouble spot for the Phantoms this season, but reinforcements are on the way -- Alexei Kolosov has arrived in North America, and he\'s been assigned to the AHL.

What\'s Up With The Phantoms?

The regular season is winding down for the Phantoms, and they\'re continuing to put together some middling results, but those middling results have been enough to keep them well in the mix for a playoff spot. They had three games on the schedule this past week, and came away with a win, an overtime loss, and a regulation loss, in that order. That makes for three out of six available points collected on the week, and this was enough to not only help them hold that sixth place position in their division, but to create a bit of separation between them and Springfield behind them -- the Phantoms have a game in hand and are two points up.

And the big contributors for the week are both surprising and unsurprising. To the latter, Samu Tuomaala got himself back on track after a bit of a quiet spell, scoring a goal on the weekend. J.R. Avon -- another one of the pretty consistent contributors of late -- came away with an assist. Emil Andrae also got himself on the board this weekend, also breaking a quiet spell, with a goal and an assist, as did Ethan Samson (that goal for him was his second of the season, and the assist was his eighth).

The Prospect World Tour

We\'ve got a whole lot of playoff action to recap here, so we\'ll dive right in. First up, the NCAA regionals took place last weekend, the last stage before the Frozen Four, and it was a bit of a mixed bag as far as results go for the prospects taking part.

Bryce Brodzinski and Minnesota made it to the final for their regional, after defeating Omaha, but were ultimately beaten by Boston University in that final. Brodzinski had a goal and three assists in that effort though, as he once again came up as a clutch player for Minnesota in the tournament.

Devin Kaplan came out on top of the group, if you will -- on an individual level, he put up two assists across his two games played, but perhaps more importantly, he and his BU teammates came out with wins over RIT and Minnesota, punching their ticket to the Frozen Four, where they\'ll face Denver.

Speaking of Denver, they were without Massimo Rizzo as he remains out with injury, but for the sake of tidiness and continuity, we\'ll note that they beat UMass and Cornell in order to advance to the Frozen Four.

We also had a pair of prospects who only got one game in the tournament, as Western Michigan was beaten by Michigan State in their matchup, and North Dakota was beaten by Michigan, but we still saw some good individual results there -- Alex Bump had a goal and an assist in his game, and Owen McLaughlin came away with an assist.

And up North, the first round of the CHL playoffs is well underway. We\'ll start that recap with the less good news: first, Brandon is down three games to nothing to Moose Jaw and in danger of being swept, and Carson Bjarnason is having a tough go of it, as he\'s allowed five goals in his first two starts, and six in his third. St. John has also already been swept by Drummondville, so Matteo Mann is already out of the playoffs (but not before recording another goal for himself). And Drummondville may have advanced, but they did so without Alexis Gendron, who is still out with injury.

But we\'ll pivot to the good news now, before we go. Portland has already swept Victoria, so they\'re on to the next round, and Carter Sotheran had a very solid series on an individual level, coming away with a goal and three assists. And speaking of sweeps, London has a chance to sweep Flint in their first round series, as they\'re up 3-0 and set to play tonight. And, no surprise, both Oliver Bonk and Denver Barkey have been big contributors to that success -- Bonk has had a goal and two assists across these first three games, while Barkey has a goal and three assist.

Talking Points