Thursday, September 10, 2009 – New York Rangers 5, St. Louis Blues 4
• The New York Rangers prospects defeated the St. Louis Blues prospects, 5-4, to finish in third place at the 2009 Traverse City (Michigan) Prospects Tournament.
• The Rangers prospects notched three consecutive goals in the third period, including two goals in a 94-second span. New York out-shot St. Louis, 43-31, in the contest.
• The Blueshirts prospects were five-for-five on the penalty kill to finish the tournament, 21-for-22, in shorthanded situations.
• Evgeny Grachev, the Rangersʼ third round selection (75th overall) in 2008, notched two goals on four shots and posted a team-high, plus-three rating. Grachev finished the tournament with a team-high, three goals in four games. He also tied for third in the tournament with a plus-five rating, and sixth with 15 shots.
• Rangersʼ prospects captain, Dale Weise, sealed the victory with an empty net goal in the final minute, added an assist and registered a team-high, six shots. Weise, the Rangersʼ fourth round pick (111th overall), tied for second on the team with four points (two goals and two assists) in four games, and tied for sixth overall in the tournament with 15 shots.
• Ethan Werek, selected in the second round (47th overall) in 2009, tallied one goal to finish the tournament tied for second on the team with four points (two goals and two assists).
• Roman Horak collected one assist and posted a plus-two rating. Selected in the fifth round (127th overall) in 2009, Horak finished the tournament with three points (one goal and two assists) and tied for third among all skaters with a plus-five rating.
• Scott Stajcer, the Rangersʼ fifth round selection, 140th overall, in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, turned aside 27 of 31 shots in net for New York to improve to 1-1-0 in the tournament.
• Defenseman Tomas Kundratek, selected in the third round (90th overall) in 2008, and free agent signings Sam Klassen (July 27, 2009) and Paul Crowder (March 19, 2009) each collected one assist in the contest. Kundratek (one goal and one assist) and Klassen (one goal and one assist) finished tied for sixth in points among tournament defensemen.
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Director of Player Personnel, Gordie Clark, on Evgeny Grachev:
“The top players came to play tonight. Grachev scored two big-time goals, and once again dominated with his dynamic combination of strength and skill.”
On Michael Del Zotto:
“He controlled the puck all night, and logged playoff-type minutes.”
On Dale Weise:
“He showed why he was the team captain tonight, creating a number of scoring chances and delivering solid hits. He salted the game away in the closing seconds, out-skating and outmuscling two St. Louis players to score the empty netter.”
On the line of Daniel Bartek-Roman Horak-Luke Walker:
“They played well throughout the tournament, supplying a consistent dose of speed, skill and goals.”
Comments (3)
Joesays:
September 12, 2009 at 9:35 PMMitch –
I recall you said PAP had other offers, right? July 20th comment by you:
“Parenteau had multiple offers and chose to stay in New York. He also had offers for more money overseas than what he got but again wanted to be here.”
Hmmm, either he lied to you or he lied to the press today:
Per his comments today (http://njmg.typepad.com/rangersblog/2009/09/pa-parenteaus-contract.html)
“I signed before I could even talk to any other teams.” Perhaps he had offers from overseas, but given his comment today, sounds like he didn’t look around.
He did note that Renney never gave him a shot essentially.
Just wanted to see what you know that he wasn’t willing publicize…
Mitch Becksays:
September 13, 2009 at 10:13 AMI wouldn’t use the word “lied.” P.A. is one of the more honorable people that I know. I don’t think he even exaggerated to me. Remember he’s a par of an organziation. Why wouldn’t he tell the press in NY that? I fully would expect it. What do you want him to say? “Gee, I had a ton of offers that weren’t as good as this one so I decided to stay?” OR “I had a great opportunity to play in NY and to shine in the biggest City in the world and that’s what I went for…” I have no problem whatsoever with what he said and believe that what he told me at the time was 100% the truth.
bennysays:
September 16, 2009 at 3:54 PMhttp://njmg.typepad.com/devilsblog/
September 16, 2009
Hartford defeats Lowell, 4-3, in AHL exhibition; Perkovich leaves with foot injury
The Hartford Wolfpack defeated the Lowell Devils, 4-3, in a shootout in their AHL preseason game this afternoon at Prudential Center.
Andrew Ambuhl scored the deciding goal in the fifth round of the shootout, beating Mike McKenna to the stick side to give Hartford a 3-2 victory in the tiebreaker.
Lowell led 3-2 on Mike Swift’s 4-on-4 breakaway goal 6:36 into the third period – his second goal of the game. But Hartford tied it with just Dale Weise scored a shorthanded goal with just 36.2 seconds remaining to tie it and force overtime.
To make matters worse for Lowell, right wing Nathan Perkovich limped off with an apparent left foot injury after being struck by an Eric Gelinas’ shot with 1:30 left in regulation. Perkovich, who scored Lowell’s second goal. used his stick for support as he limped off the bench to the locker room and did not return.
Swift’s goal with 2:04 left in the first period gave Lowell the lead. Swift scored an unassisted goal just four seconds after a Wolfpack power play expired. He beat goaltender Miika Wiikman high to the glove side from the right circle.
Corey Locke tied it for Hartford 5:19 into the second period — three seconds after a Hartford power play expired, but Perkovich put Lowell back ahead only 1:03 later.
After taking a pass from Kory Nagy, Perkovich blasted a slap shot from the right circle that went in off the far post.
Paul Crowder tied it for Hartford on a backhand with the team’s skating 4-on-4 5:42 into the third. It was still 4-on-4 when Swift gave Lowell the 3-2 lead.
Right wing Nick Palmieri appeared to be in pain after taking a slash on his right arm with 3:17 left in the second period. He returned to play the third period and overtime, though.
Goaltender Gerald Coleman played the first 29:17 for Lowell and stopped 14 of the 15 shots he faced. He was replaced by McKenna, who stopped 16 of 19 shots. Wiikman stopped 13 of 15 shots before being replaced byScott Stajcer 9:17 into the second. Stajcer made 14 saves on 15 shots.
In the shootout, Adam Henrique and Alexander Vasyunov scored for Lowell. Crowder, Locke and Ambuhl scored in the tiebreaker for Hartford.
Hartford outshot Lowell, 33-30 in the game.
***
There were no fights in the first period, but there was a fight between Lowell’s Harry Young and Hartford’s Devin DiDiomete after the second period ended. DiDiomete knocked Young down. Young tired to get up, but couldn’t battle back.
Then, Didiomete had words with Louis Robitaille as the players left the ice.
Robitaille exchanged shoves with Justin Soryal 6:36 into the game, but the two were separated before they could drop the glove. The two had words as they left the ice at the end of the first period, however, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they square off eventually.
The shots are 19-18 in favor of Hartford after two periods.
I’ll post updates during the periods on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TGfireandice and update here after the second and after the game is over.
***
Here’s the Lowell lineup.
Goaltenders: Gerald Coleman, Mike McKenna.
Defensemen: Eric Gelinas-Oliver Magnan-Grenier; Matt Corrente-Tyler Eckford; Harry Young-Matt Delahey.
Forwards: Ahston Bernard-Brad Mills-J.S. Berube; Alexander Vasyunov-Tim Sestito-Matt Halischuk; Louis Robitaille-Mike Swift-Nick Palmieri; Adam Henrique-Kory Nagy-Nathan Perkovich.
***
Former Devil Dan LaCouture, who is in camp with the Rangers as a tryout, played for Hartford. He was originally listed as playing for the Rangers tonight against the Devils in the NHL exhibition. He’ll be replaced in the Rangers’ lineup tonight by right wing Jordan Owens.