CHL Playoffs Continue; Dynamo Moscow Eliminated in KHL

The playoffs continued for a handful of Devils prospects as the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the Western Hockey League and the Kontinental Hockey League resumed series.

First to the “Q” as Xavier Bernard and the Charlottetown Islanders extended their series lead over the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles to 2-0 in the first round. This one was a goal-fest as Charlottetown won the game 6-4.

Kevin Gursoy got the game started when he scored at 9:40 of the first period off an assist from Daniel Hardie. The two would reverse roles at 18:16 when Hardie scored with Gursoy getting the primary assist and Lukas Cormier with the secondary.

The second period in this game saw the game get tied up before the Islanders retook the lead. Cape Breton scored 1:06 into the second frame on a goal from Mathias Laferriere to make it 2-1. Mitchell Balmas (who would be named the game’s third star of the night) then evened the game on the power play at 9:22 of the second.

But the Islanders would come roaring back when Hardie (en route to being named the second star) scored his second of the game at 10:59 of the second and Nikita Alexandrov doubled up the Screaming Eagles once again to make it 4-2 at 17:26.

The third period continued the see-saw nature of this game when Leon Gawanke scored for Cape Breton on the power play at 2:06 of that period and then Kyle Havlena scored at 6:30 to once again knot the game, this time at four.

However, with just about six minutes to go in regulation, Cormier (the game’s number one star) notched his second point of the night when he scored the game winner to put Charlottetown up 5-4. Zachary Beauregard added an empty netter at 19:14 and that gave us our final of 6-4.

Bernard had a hit and served a delay of game penalty 23 seconds into the third period to round out his stat line.

For the goaltenders, it was a busy night as Cape Breton’s Kevin Mandolese stopped 28 of 33 shots against. Charlottetown’s Matthew Welsh made 30 saves on 34 shots.

The Islanders ended the night 0-for-2 on the power play while Cape Breton was 2-for-5.

Game three will shift to the Centre 200 in Cape Breton for game three on Tuesday the 26th.

Shifting westward to Spokane, Washington, the Chiefs and Ty Smith and the Portland Winterhawks faced off in game two in Spokane. This one was won by Portland 5-3, evening that series at a game apiece.

The Chiefs jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead at 6:19 of the first period when Jaret Anderson-Dolan scored unassisted. Spokane would double their lead at the 13:19 mark of the second period to 2-0 off the stick of Luc Smith.

From there, however, the Winterhawks took over, scoring four unanswered. Josh Paterson got them to within one at the 15:25 mark of the second and Lane Gilliss tied it at 8:11 of the third.

Paterson then scored his second of the night 1:40 later to put Portland up for good, making it 3-2. Mason Mannek added the game-winner at 12:37 to make it 4-2.

Adam Beckman got the Chiefs back to within one with the goaltender pulled at 17:26. But Matthew Quigley iced it for the Winterhawks when he scored an empty netter 19 seconds after that, giving us our final of 5-3.

Ty Smith finished with an even plus/minus and a shot on net as his stat line.

Amazingly, referees Steve Papp and Ward Pateman put their whistles away for this one. The game was played completely penalty free, giving neither team a power play opportunity.

In net, Joel Hofer stopped 23 of 26 shots against for Portland while Bailey Brkin was on point for 30 of the 34 shots peppering him on the night for Spokane.

The series is now tied and headed to Oregon for game three on Tuesday at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.

Now off to Russia where Yegor Zaitsev and Dynamo Moscow were eliminated from the KHL playoffs with an overtime loss in game five. With that, Zaitsev and Dynamo will go home and CSKA will move on to the Western Conference Finals to play SKA St. Petersburg. This is a perennial matchup in the KHL playoffs and should be interesting for those following.

As for us, we will have more from the CHL on Tuesday plus the Devils game on Monday against the Sabres. We will also try to gather some information on the NCAA conference tournaments featuring various Devils prospects if we can. Until then, have a nice weekend!

Devils Outlast Coyotes in Shootout

The Devils were home this afternoon to take on the Arizona Coyotes and it was a really close one. New Jersey prevailed in the shootout 2-1 following a nailbiter of an overtime.

The Devils got several crucial parts back in the lineup with Nico Hischier, Kyle Palmieri, Miles Wood, John Quenneville, Mirco Mueller and Sami Vatanen all returning from injury. Will Butcher remained out and Kurtis Gabriel, Blake Pietila (who was actually placed on waivers yesterday) and Egor Yakovlev were all scratched.

In goal, the Devils continued going back-and-forth between Mackenzie Blackwood and Cory Schneider to finish off the season with Blackwood going today. He stopped 23 of 24 shots in regulation and OT for a .958 save percentage. He also made four stops in the shootout to lead the Devils to victory. Facing him was Darcy Kuemper for Arizona. He stopped 31 of 32 Devils shots for a .969 save percentage and was named the game’s third star of the afternoon.

Special teams was a sticking point for the Devils today. They were 0-for-5 on the power play with 12 shots as they just peppered Kuemper all afternoon with the man advantage but could not solve the Coyotes penalty kill. Arizona was 0-for-3 on the power play with four shots, which included an overtime 4-on-3 power play when Palmieri was called for cross-checking early in the extra session. Obviously the Devils killed that off to survive. The Devils also added two shorthanded shots on the afternoon.

The first goal of the game was scored by Oliver Ekman-Larsson just 2:31 into the game. He beat Blackwood clean over his glovehand off assists from Alex Galchenyuk and Conor Garland. That made it 1-0 Arizona and things looked bad again for the Devils. The Yotes are fighting for their playoff lives and most in the mostly packed Prudential Center figured this was the beginning of the end for the Devils.

But late in the first the Devils struck back. At the 17:01 mark, Drew Stafford fired a shot that beat Kuemper five hole. Pavel Zacha and Wood had the assists on the goal that leveled the game off at one. Stafford would be named the game’s second star for this goal.

And then we settled in. As mentioned above, the Devils spent five power play opportunities opening up a firing gallery at Kuemper, but he was equal to each task. After a scoreless second and third, we headed off to overtime. It was there that Palmieri took a rough cross-checking call 55 seconds in and things again seemed bleak for New Jersey. But Blackwood rose to the challenge and the Devils’ PK was up to the job as well. The OT ended with both teams playing 4-on-4 due to there being no stoppage of play to get the fourth men off of the ice. Once they killed that off and when OT ended scoreless, we were going to a shootout. These two teams last went to a shootout earlier this calendar year when they were in Arizona.

True to the game’s form, the shootout also came down to the wire. Palmieri went first for the Devils and he was stopped by Kuemper. Nick Cousins finished off the first round for the Coyotes and was stopped by Blackwood. In the second round, Stafford was stopped and so was Galchenyuk for Arizona. The third round saw Damon Severson for New Jersey who was stopped and Vinnie Hinostroza for the Yotes who was also stopped. Next up, the fourth round and Hischier and Clayton Keller were each turned aside.

The Devils finally broke through in the sixth round when Blake Coleman scored to put the Devils ahead. But Garland also connected in the bottom of the sixth for Arizona and we were back to square one. In the top of the seventh, Zacha scored for the Devils and when the Coyotes’ Richard Panik hit the crossbar in the bottom half of the round, the Devils had scored the 2-1 win. Zacha was named the game’s first star with the game-winner in the shootout and an assist on Stafford’s first period goal.

The Devils had the upper hand in shots at 32-24, but lost 60-percent of the game’s faceoffs as the Coyotes just dominated in the circle. The Devils also led in hits (18-13) and blocked shots (14-11) and had more giveaways at six to the Yotes’ five.

Individual stats saw Coleman lead in shots with five, Kenny Agostino lead in hits with three, Mueller lead in blocks with three and Agostino, Stafford, Stefan Noesen, Michael McLeod, Steven Santini, Mueller, Severson and Vatanen all lead in takeaways with one apiece.

Next up, the Devils will continue at Prudential Center on Monday when they take on the visiting Buffalo Sabres. We will have coverage of that for you here then. Later tonight we will also have a post up on the CHL playoffs featuring Devils prospects. Have a great weekend everyone!