Greetings all! I’m here to offer a quick preview of the AHL Semifinals or as I’m calling it “The Mirasty Cup.” The matchup is the Blue Jackets’ current affiliate the Springfield Falcons versus the CBJ’s first ever AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. Now of course there’s no one left from those days probably, except owner Howard Dolgan. The Syracuse Crunch could be classified as the defending Calder Cup champs. Why the clarification? The Crunch is currently the Tampa Bay Lightning’s affiliate. Last year, Tampa Bay’s affilitate was the Norfolk Admirals, and they won the Calder Cup and had a pro hockey record 28 game winning streak. After winning the Cup, Tampa transferred their affiliation to Syracuse. Now, only 10 players remain from last year’s champs – one being AHL MVP Tyler Johnson. The Crunch also had to deal with a coaching change as Head Coach Jon Stevens was promoted to the Lightning on March 25th after Guy Boucher was fired. Continue reading AHL Eastern Conference Semifinal Preview
A tiny change of format as I will be waiting until the end of the current playoff series to write about the CHL playoffs. The all Jackets prospect OHL Western Conference Final between the London Knights and Plymouth Whalers is currently tied at 1. So that means this week will be part season review and part playoff preview for the Springfield Falcons. So without further adieu here we go.
The Falcons were busy last week playing four games, going 3-1. They finished the year second in the Eastern Conference and the entire AHL. Starting off on Sunday the Falcons would play their home finale with the team handing out its team awards with Curtis McElhinney being named MVP and Nick Holden being the only two award winner. The whole list of award winners is here. As for the game, Andrew Joudrey would open the scoring when Blake Parlett would start the rush by getting the puck to Ryan Russell who’d chip the puck cross rink, with Joudrey snapping the puck past Jason Missiaen for his ninth of the season. The Whale would score two goals and Jonathan Audy-Marcessault would get in a fight (wait what?) to close out the first period. In the second period after Spencer Machacek would win a board battle getting the puck to Dalton Smith, who would bang away at the puck before it would come out to Michael Chaput who’d bury it for his 12th of the season. The Whale would score to go up 3-2. Late in the second period Audy-Marchessault would disrupt a Whale pass behind the net passing the puck to Matthew Ford for his eighth of the season to tie the game. In the final seconds the Falcons would create pressure down low where Machacek would get the puck out to David Savard who’d fire a slapshot that would bounce to Boone Jenner who’d collect the rebound for his first pro game winning goal. Allen York made 16 saves in the 4-3 win.
Continue reading Springfield Falcons Season Review/Playoff Preview
Back again with the week in review with a minor change of format. I’m going to wait until the end of the playoff round to update the OHL prospects; otherwise, I’d only have stats for one game for two series this week, but ‘ll include how the series is with their stats. On with the show.
Starting off in Springfield as always. The Falcons could have clinched a playoff spot with a win over Albany but would fall 3-1 to the Devils. After allowing two first period goals, the Falcons’ Ryan Craig would strike for his 19th goal of the season when Nick Drazenovic sent a cross crease pass to Jonathan Audy-Marchessault. JAM’s shot would rebound to Craig who was at the doorstop. Allen York made 16 saves in the loss. Continue reading March 31st-April 6th CBJ Prospect Week in Review
Another week in the world of the Blue Jackets prospects with three moving on to the next round in their respective playoff series and another reportedly signing an ATO to join the Falcons. But in somewhat bad news we say “have a good summer” to all the Jacket’s NCAA prospects as all of their seasons have been completed.
Staring off in Springfield, on Thursday night the Birds would get into a wild one with Bridgeport with a new face on the team being the hero. Just 40 seconds after the Tigers made it 1-0, Matthew Ford would get three whacks at the puck before Jonathan Audy-Marchessault found the loose puck for his 19th of the season. The Sound Tigers scored twice to make it 3-1 before Ryan Craig made it 3-2 when he deflected a Matthew Ford shot for his 18th. The Tigers fourth goal would end Allen York’s night for about 12 minutes with Paul Dainton going in but suffering an injury stopping all four shots he faced. York would return to the crease stopping every shot he faced the rest of the way. Matthew Ford would start the comeback when he took a pass from JAM and scored on a pretty backhand for his sixth of the season (second with the Falcons) and his third point of the night. Will Weber scored his second of the season (both against Bridgeport and Rick DiPietro – Still funny!) when a Tigers’ clearing attempt bounced off a teammate’s skate right to Will who skated in on DiPietro and shot a backhand over his shoulder. A few minutes later Alex Aleardi, making his pro debut, found a loose puck after a Spencer Machacek shot for the game winner and his first pro goal. Allen York, despite the shaky start, would stop 15 of 19 in the win – his ninth win of the season. Continue reading March 24-30 CBJ Prospect Week in Review
Greetings Jackets fans! Can you smell it in the air that the playoffs are here? In the CHL, all three leagues are getting started; plus the fun that is the NCAA tournament is getting underway next week. So let’s take a look at last week’s action.
Starting off in Springfield, a quick signing note: the Falcons added Alex Aleardi on an ATO after he completed his OHL career. Aleardi put up a career high 71 points (27-44-71 in 67GP) this season splitting it between Plymouth and Windsor. In his five year career, Alex picked up 227 points in 321 games.
The Falcons would bounce back after a rough week last week going 3-1 with the three newest Falcons picking up their first points with the team. On Sunday, the Falcons would fall to the Connecticut Whale 3-2 with Matthew Ford picking up his first goal with the Falcons when he backhand a Michael Chaput rebound for his fifth of the season. The Whale would score three times before Ryan Russell would score his eighth of the season when Ryan Craig would find him in front. Curtis McElhinney would make 15 saves in the loss.
Continue reading March 17- March 23 CBJ Prospect Week in Review
Greeting Jackets fans! Fresh off my State of the Prospect Pool post from last week I’m back with the week in review.
As always we start off in Springfield. The Falcons would pick up two new players in separate deals this past week acquiring forwards Spencer Machacek and Matthew Ford. Machacek was acquired on Sunday from the Winnipeg Jets for Tomas Kubalik. This is a “change of scenery” trade for both players especially with Kubalik seemingly passed by other prospects (even though you have to note that only centers have been injured and Tomas plays wing). It later came out through a puck rakers blog that Tomas actually requested the trade and Blue Jackets General Manager Jarmo Kekalainen honored that quickly. Here’s Hockeyprospectus’ Corey Pronman with his take on Spencer from his Winnipeg top 10 last summer: he was the Jets 8th best prospect. The birds would also make a deal with Philadelphia by acquiring Matthew Ford for future considerations meaning we got Matthew for…I have no idea. Some said it could be a draft pick, it could be a player, no one was really sure. Matthew is on twitter and you can follow him at @Frdy11. The Falcons would also add giant defenseman Thomas Larkin when he signed an ATO after Colgate was eliminated last week and Thomas finished his collegiate career.
Greetings all! A small change is going to occur with these “week in review” posts – normally the content has covered the week starting on Monday ending on Sunday; starting this week that’s going to change. From now on, the week I’m updating will start on Sunday and end with Saturday’s games. If you’re wondering why the change it’s because we thought Monday mornings would be a good time to post and also this happened. So here we go.
Fans in Springfield got a rare treat this weekend with a hockey doubleheader as the Falcons played three games in two days last week. Friday night the Falcons would welcome the Adirondack Phantoms. The two teams first had to finish the February 17th game that was postponed due to Wade MacLeod’s seizure. Starting with 3:42 left in the second period with the Falcons trailing 2-1, the game would feature eight players that didn’t play on the 17th. Ryan Craig scored on the 17th and would then pick up an assist this weekend on Scott Howes‘ game tying goal. As Craig and Sean Collins were creating havoc in front, the loose puck came to Howes who knocked it home for his fourth of the season. The game would go to a shootout with OSU alum Cal Heeter and Allen York in net. Both goalies would be perfect until Jonathan Audy-Marchessault got to shoot and well there’s no way I can do this justice so just click the link and enjoy I’ll wait…you back? good. JAM’s goal would be the only goal Heeter would allow while Allen York on the other end would stop all five shooters to pick up a 3-2 shootout win (his seventh). Continue reading February 25-March 2 CBJ Prospect Week in Review
Well folks there’s a new sheriff in town with the hiring of Jarmo Kekalainen as the Blue Jackets GM. Let’s see how the kids performed that he inherited from Scott Howson (who I wish all the best to in his future endeavors).
Starting off in Springfield as usual, while the previous week was a light one due to the winter storm the past week, this week was busy as the Falcons played four games with three being at home. Starting off on Tuesday, the Falcons travelled to Bridgeport to face the Sound Tigers. Ryan Johansen opened the scoring with his 16th of the season by scoring just 46 seconds into the first period. The goal came on the Falcons first shot as Johan skated into the zone and around a Tigers defenseman before snapping a shot over Kevin Poulin’s shoulder. The Sound Tigers would score the next three goals but the Falcons clawed back in scoring two minutes after the third Tiger goal. Nick Drazenovic took a Wade McLeod pass for his 16th of the season. Late in the third with Curtis McElhinney pulled, Tomas Kubalik would charge the net flipping it over Poulin’s shoulder to tie the game at three. The Falcons outshot the Tigers 13 to two in the third period. The Falcons ultimately lost the game 2:46 into the overtime when Matt Donovan’s point shot was tipped in by John Persson. McElhinney finished with 28 saves in the loss.
Friday night the Worchester Sharks came to town with the Falcons picking up a 3-1 victory. Ryan Craig opened the scoring when he deflected a Nick Holden point shot for his 15th of the season. Midway through the third period, Sean Collins feathered a pass off the cycle to a pinching Holden for his fifth of the year. Later in the third, Andrew Joudrey scored an empty net goal when he cleared it off the boards from the Falcons zone, with the puck sliding all the way into the Sharks net. From tweets/the game story it sounds like Joudrey and Ryan Russell put on a penalty killing clinic in this game as the Sharks went go 0/7 with the man advantage, including a 1:56 of five on three in the third. Allen York was solid making 22 saves in his sixth win of the season. Saturday night the Falcons would host the Portland Pirates making it a rare double with NHL and AHL affiliates playing on the same day (the Pirates are the Coyotes affiliate so it was a double dose of Jackets-Coyotes). In the 3-1 Falcons loss it’d be a mostly non-CBJ with Ryan Johansen as the only Jackets signed player contributing. Johansen sent a pass to Ryan Craig in front of the crease who then sent a no look pass to a rushing Wade MacLeod who’d score his fourth of the season. Curtis McElhinney would make 35 saves in the loss.
Sunday, the Falcons hosted the Adirondack Phantoms with the Phantoms starting ex OSU goalie Cal Heeter. Ryan Craig opened the scoring with his 16th goal of the season just six minutes into the first period. The Phantoms would score five minutes later, then adding an early second period goal. But with 3:42 remaining in the second a scary moment occurred as Springfield forward Wade MacLeod was hit hard into the boards but while heading back to the bench, he collapsed and suffered what Springfield uberfan @Katyloveshockey described as a seizure. MacLeod was taken off on a backboard with David Savard helping the EMT’s. It was later announced that Wade was alert and responsive. The game was later postponed with the remainder of the game to be played at a later date. Here is the Falcons statement on the incident. After the game Brandon Manning, the Phantoms defenseman who hit Wade, was remorseful, sending out these tweets. Continue reading February 11-17 CBJ Prospect Week in Review
A semi off week for the Springfield Falcons as snowstorm Buzz and Woody (or some other Pixar character I forget) postponed the Falcons game on Friday (moving it to April). This resulted in the team only playing one game this week. Sunday, the Falcons would faceoff against the Portland Pirates with the Falcons picking up a 3-0 win in which Curtis McElhinney made 28 saves for his league leading seventh shutout of the season one away from Manny Legace’s franchise record for shutouts in a season. Wade MacLeod would open the scoring on a breakaway (goofy angle on the highlights). Fresh from Columbus, Ryan Johansen would then make it 2-0 when his linemates Dalton Smith and Jake Hansen would do most of the work so that all The Johan had to do was tap it in for his 15th of the season giving him goals in three straight AHL games (with a month in between). Three minutes into the third period another player fresh from Columbus would score, off a Nick Drazenovic faceoff win. Taking a feed from Ryan Craig, David Savard would skate along the blueline before blasting it past Chad Johnson for his fourth of the season.
Josh Anderson-London Knights (OHL 39-11-2-2)
Season Stats 54GP 19-20-39 +8 48PIM
Josh and the Knights would open the week with a game against the Sarnia Sting in the 4-3 overtime loss would be held scoreless. Friday night it’d be the Owen Sound Attack coming to Bud Gardens with the Attack picking up a 4-3 win, in the win Josh would add to already career high scoring his 18th of the season. With the game tied at 2 and London on the power play Josh would be in his usual spot camped out in front of the net while his linemates Alex Broadhurst and Knights leading scorer Seth Griffith would work a passing play with Broadhurst saucering a pass to Josh who’d wait for Jordan Binnington to commit before flipping the puck over his shoulder. Sunday the Knights would head to Kitchener for a game against the Rangers. In the 4-3 Knights loss Josh would pick up a goal and an assist and was named second star, the assist would be Josh’s 20th of the season. With the Knights trailing 2-1 Josh would pick up a rebound as he took a check from behind scoring his 19th. Josh’s assist would be a pretty one gathering the puck behind the net and sending a behind the back pass to Chris Tierney who’d find captain Scott Harrington for his 2nd of the year. Continue reading February 4-10 CBJ Prospect Week in Review
There’s a lot going on in CBJ Prospect land. Not only are we seeing a lot of Springfield faces up in Columbus, but the AHL All-Star weekend recently concluded and many of our boys are in action. So let’s get to it.
We’ll start with a quick road trip to Providence, Rhode Island to begin our weekly review as three Springfield Falcons played in the AHL All-Star Game: forward Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, defenseman Tim Erixon and goaltender Curtis McElhinney headed to the Dunk (Providence’s Dunkin Donuts Center) after Saturday’s game in Connecticut. Sunday was the Skills Competition with JAM being the first Falcon to compete by taking part in the Fastest Skater event. JAM would go second and be the early leader with a lap of 14.136. Unfortunately, that lead would last all of about 13 seconds as the next two skaters Houston’s (MIN) Jason Zucker and Portland’s (PHX) Chris Summers would not only beat JAM’s lap but set the all time record in the event with Summers winning the event with his lap of 13.324. Audy-Machessault would help the East get the extra goal with the fastest team average. Continue reading January 27-February 3/AHL All Star Game Review