BSH prospect report: Still rolling

The news of the week

Not much in the way of news going on this week. Since we last spoke, Adam Ginning has been returned to the Phantoms after his one game NHL audition against the Blue Jackets last week. And that’s good news, as the Phantoms need all the bodies on the back end that they can get, as Egor Zamula remains out with injury.

The Phantoms also have their first round playoff matchup set – they’ll be facing off against the Charlotte Checkers in the best of three series starting tonight. But more on that later.

What’s up with the Phantoms?

If we were hoping to see the Phantoms rolling into the playoffs with a bit of momentum, well, we’re probably coming out of this weekend a little disappointed. The Phantoms closed out their regular season with a 5-2 loss to Charlotte and a 6-4 loss to Hershey, dropping them into sixth in their divison, and as we said, locking them into a first round matchup against the Checkers. They’ve been on a nice little run of late, but here’s hoping that this weekend was just a blip on the radar for them, and not an indication that they’re starting to run out of steam. We’ll see what happens!

On the prospect scoring front, it was also a bit of a quiet week. Bobby Brink was one of the leaders of their scoring charge on the weekend, picking up a goal in each of the Phantoms’ two games on the weekend.

The Phantoms also got contributions on the playmaking front from Tyson Foerster, who put up two assists. Foerster’s in the midst of a bit of a scoring dry spell, as he’s now gone seven games without a goal (his second longest drought of the season). That said, it’s not as though he’s playing poorly, and he’s still chipped in seven assists over those last seven games, so we’re not super worried about his play, but we know well that there’s another gear that he can reach (and hopefully will, once the playoffs start).

Eliott Desnoyers rounded out the points getting by prospects, as he contributed an assist on the weekend, and continues to plug along nicely.

And finally, Sam Ersson continues to be leaned on heavily here. He got both starts on the weekend, and came out of it with, naturally, both losses on his record. He made 25 saves on 30 shots faced against Charlotte for an .833 save percentage and then 22 saves on 27 shots against Hershey for an .815 save percentage.

The prospect world tour

It’s not all playoffs for everybody, of course, as the USHL is still wrapping up their regular season, and Alex Bump is doing well to close his out strong. In his last two games played, he chipped in a goal and a total of nine shots on goal, so he’s continuing to feel the offensive touch well.

And in the prospect playoff world tour, things are going well across the board! Alexis Gendron seemingly just cannot stop scoring. Gatineau put up consecutive 5-0 wins in their series against Rouyn-Noranda, and Gendron came out of them with three goals and an assist. No hat tricks this time around though. We guess it’s a down week for him.

It was a goal and an assist, plus six shots on goal, up in Peterborough for J.R. Avon, as they have split their series against Ottawa so far.

Across the pond, Samu Tuomaala and Kettera are continuing to make some real noise in the Mestis post-season. They’re showing well, in the semi-finals now, and Tuomaala is continuing to assert himself as a real driver of their offense. In their last three games, Tuomaala has chipped in a tidy single goal and four assists.