BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack’s Jonny Brodzinski is out until mid-April with an upper-body injury.
His younger brother Ethan Brodzinski of St. Cloud State University suffered a broken femur in their 4-1 win over BC to advance to the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh.
He got good news from the doctors in Albany, NY. It was a clean break of the strongest bone in the body, and he should be walking again in six months.
FONTAINE
The news on Gabriel Fontaine is not good. Wolf Pack Head Coach Kris Knoblauch confirmed that his season is over with an upper-body injury in the general area of his surgically repaired left shoulder from last season after just seven games.
SOUND TIGERS NEWS
The Bridgeport Sound Tigers over the week gained defenseman Carter Hutton back from the New York Islanders. Goalie Cory Schneider was sent down on a conditioning loan. He is likely to be in the net for Friday’s game. Taking his roster spot on the Island is goalie Jakub Skarek, recalled to the Islanders taxi squad.
The Sound Tigers lost to the Providence Bruins on Wednesday 3-2 in OT. This comes despite holding the Bruins to zero shots on goal in the first period.
Alex-Olivier Voyer had the game-tying goal, and Oscar Steen won it in overtime.
Former New York Rangers forward Greg McKegg, and goaltender Jeremy Swayman were returned to Providence, as was Jack Ahcan. They did lose forward Anton Blidh to the parent Boston Bruins.
MORE AHL NEWS
In the AHL, there have been nine penalty shots thus far this season, with only one player scoring. Ryan McLeod of the Bakersfield Condors against Lukas Dostal of the San Diego Gulls on March 10th.
The latest penalty shot was the Sound Tigers’ Thomas Kuhnhackl in the game Wednesday, just several minutes after Voyer’s tying goal midway through the third. Swayman was successful in defending the penalty shot.
COLLEGE MOVEMENT
The college hockey signing floodgates have opened. UCONN lost prized sophomore defenseman Yan Kuznetsov to the Calgary Flames.
Boston College lost five players starting with Spencer Knight (Darien/Avon Old Farms), to the Florida Panthers. Knight is a sophomore and the only All-Star team unanimous selection in Hockey East.
North Dakota lost five players in two days, including Shane Pinto (Selects Academy of South Kent Prep) to the Ottawa Senators and Odeen Tufto of Quinnipiac University (ECAHL) to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who assigned him to the Syracuse Crunch.
Hockey East leads the parade with 15 signees, followed by the Big Ten with eight, NCHC with seven, ECACHL has four, AHA has three, and Division-I independent has just two thus far. The WCHA has yet to lose a skater.
19 underclassmen have left for the pro ranks. 39 players have signed from Division-I, and a total of 41 players, Division-I and Division-III, have signed.
In fact, two-of-the-three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award next weekend will be in the AHL. Cole Caulfield (Laval Rocket) and Knight (likely the Chicago Wolves) after their quarantines and the third will be playing in Pittsburgh, the site of the Frozen Four with Minnesota State goalie Dryden McKay, son of former Whaler Ross McKay.
MORE MOVEMENT
Jake Hughes (Pomfret School/CT Jr. Rangers – NCDC) has made a college commitment to the Connecticut College (New London) Camels (NESCAC) for the fall.
Ex-Sound Tiger Jamie Fraser, 35, announced the end of his playing career after spending the last nine years in Austria. He was the captain for the last two seasons for ESV Villacher (Austria – IceHL). Fraser is the nephew of retired NHL referee Kerry Fraser and played three seasons in Bridgeport in the mid-2000s.
Ex-Pack, Kyle Beach, has re-signed with EHC Erfurt (Germany Division-3) for next season.
The ALIH (Asia League Ice Hockey) did not play this year, but the five Japanese teams held their own season because South Korea and Russia couldn’t compete for travel restriction reasons.
JAPANESE HOCKEY
The winner of the Japan Cup in 4-3 overtime fashion over the Nikko Icebucks was the Oji Eagles (18-4). The Oji Eagles are from Tomakomai, located in the northernmost prefecture of the Hokkaido Islands of the archipelago known as Japan.
The championship game was played at the Dydo Drinco Ice Arena located in western Tokyo.
The teams are allowed a limit of two imports. The Eagles have former AHL’er goalie Drew MacIntyre and former Providence Bruins forward Tyler Redenbach, who picked up a goal and the primary assist on the championship goal.
MacIntyre made 37 saves but was hit in the throat with a shot in overtime, and his backup Yuta Narisawa had to come in relief to finish out the game.
Nikko featured former Manchester Monarchs (AHL) goalie, but no import, Yutaka Fukufuji. He won his first AHL game in Hart City against the Hartford Wolf Pack, a 5-2 victory on December 30, 2006. His backup for Manchester that night was Jason LaBarbera, the all-time great Wolf Pack goalie.
The Wolf Pack starter that game was current Rangers MSG TV analyst Steve Valiquette, his batterymate in Hartford just two years prior.
Ex-Wolf Pack, Simon Denis, played for the Tokohu Free Blades (Hachinohe, Japan). His wife is from Japan and makes him eligible to potentially play in their Olympic Qualifying games for the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games in August, which is tentatively scheduled for August 26-29.
Japan played last year in Group G in Jesenice, Slovenia, just before the pandemic worldwide shutdown with host Slovenia, Croatia, and Lithuania.
SULLIVAN CALLS IT A CAREER
Colin Sullivan (Milford/Fairfield Prep/Avon Old Farms) has announced his retirement from hockey and will be entering the US Army.
The rugged right-handed Nutmeg rearguard and a draftee of the Montreal Canadiens in 2011 (7th round) ends his career after just three seasons with the HC Chamonix Mont Blanc Pioneers of the French Elite Magnus League. In a press release, Sullivan said he was in love with the team and the area near Mont Blanc, part of the French Alps region where he was an assistant captain the last two seasons.
Sullivan started his hockey journey with a rare hockey championship double with a CT public school title with the Fairfield Prep Jesuits. The following season, a New England prep title with the Avon Old Farms Winged Beavers.
He was set to attend Yale University (ECACHL), but they wanted him to play juniors for a year or two before coming to the New Haven campus. He balked and opted to go to Boston College (Hockey East) instead.
He washed out at BC under Hall-of-Famer head coach Jerry York. He played 32 games with limited ice time and then went to the Green Bay Gamblers (USHL) before transferring to Miami (OH) University (CCHA).
He graduated and played a year with the Atlanta Gladiators (ECHL) before heading to France.
