Thursday at Blackhawks Prospect Camp brought the second scrimmage of the week. The White Team was looking to even up the “series” since the Red Team took the 5-4 victory in Wednesday’s scrimmage.
Here’s what the lines/D-pairs looked like for both teams. They changed a lot during play though, for what it’s worth. Starters are italicized.
White Team: Forwards: Anthony Louis – Tyler Motte – Chris Calnan; Luke Curadi – Mark McNeill – Vincent Hinostroza; Chris McCarthy – Jason Bast — ____; Milos Bubela – Grayson Downing – Cohen Adair
Defensemen: Travis Brown – Stephen Johns; Sam Jardine – Dillon Fournier; Viktor Svedberg – Robin Press; Zach Loesch – Dan Weissenhofer
Goalies: Matthew O’Connor; Matt Tomkins
Red Team: Forwards: Garrett Thompson – Phillip Danault – Maxim Shalunov; Dario Simion – Alex Broadhurst – John Hayden; Quinn Gould – Matt Lorito – Tim O’Brien; Jake Chelios* — Sam Babintsev – Christensen. *Chelios was used at his natural position of defense as well.
Defensemen: Carl Dahlstrom – Nick Mattson; Robin Norell – Justin Holl; Nolan Zajac – Michael Paliotta
Goalies: Jackson Whistle; Brandon Whitney
Scratches: Ryan Hartman, Kevin Hayes, Antti Raanta, Kirill Gotovets, Pat Mullane (lower body injury), Garret Ross, Mac Carruth, Kent Simpson
White had a few opportunities to take a lead in the first period of today’s scrimmage as they were awarded three straight power plays within the first 10 minutes of the period. Phillip Danault, John Hayden and Nolan Zajac all sat for a minute, but Red was able to kill all the penalties off. Chris McCarthy did have a good opportunity to score for White when he found a burst of speed, got in behind the Red defense and got a good shot off, but Kelowna, British Columbia native Jackson Whistle made a nice save.
Whistle and Matthew O’Connor were replaced by Brandon Whitney and Matt Tomkins, respectively, with 10:54 to go in the 2nd period; both Whistle and O’Connor had pitched a shutout in their time in net.
The first goal of the game came with 7:54 remaining in the middle frame. Matt Lorito found himself on a breakaway, but Tomkins made the right pad save on his shot. Lorito scooped up the rebound though and fired it into the back of the net to make it 1-0 Red. 15 seconds later, Jake Chelios picked up a rebound and lifted it over Tomkins to increase Red’s lead to 2-0. With 3:35 to go in the 2nd, Tim O’Brien made it 3-0 Red as he put one home from right in front of Tomkins.
Whitney came up huge for Red in net during the third period when White started picking up some momentum. He made a big point blank save on right winger Chris Calnan and also made a glove save on a Mark McNeill breakaway.
White broke through though with 4:29 left in regulation with Tomkins pulled for the extra attacker. Chris McCarthy picked up a loose puck during a scrum and fired it into the net to make it 3-1. Anthony Louis almost brought White to within one goal with a high and hard shot from the left hashmarks, but Whitney was able to shoulder it down. White did get on the board again though with 2:27 left as Travis Brown lofted a shot towards the net from the left point and Luke Curadi tipped it in. But, Red was able to hang on for the 3-2 win.
-Some White power play units were: Chris McCarthy – Jason Bast – Anthony Louis, Dan Weissenhofer – Zach Loesch; Anthony Louis – Mark McNeill – Vincent Hinostroza, Sam Jardine – Dillon Fournier
-One of the Red power play units was: Quinn Gould – Matt Lorito – Tim O’Brien, Gleb Koryagin – Guy LeBoeuf.
-One of the White penalty killing units was: Chris McCarthy, Jason Bast, Zach Loesch and Sam Jardine.
-Some of the Red penalty killing units were: Alex Broadhurst, John Hayden, Justin Holl and Robin Norell; Maxim Shalunov, Phillip Danault, Nick Mattson and Michael Paliotta.
Observations
-Defenseman Robin Norell really likes to jump into the play from the blue line, but he does it at smart times and doesn’t put himself in bad position to get back and defend if he needs to.
-Defenseman Nick Mattson plays solid defense in all areas of the ice.
-Defenseman Justin Holl isn’t a flashy player, but he does everything well. He’s a great skater, defender and passer. He can also lead a rush into the zone very well.
-The 5-foot-9, 165 pound Bartlett, Illinois native Vincent Hinostroza battles and goes hard to the net whenever he can.
-Defenseman Sam Jardine makes good outlet passes.
-Center Tyler Motte also isn’t afraid to go to the front of the net and get his nose dirty.
Tomorrow is the final day of Prospect Camp at Johnny’s Ice House West. There is not practice before hand, like there was on Wednesday and today. The final scrimmage starts at 10:00 a.m. and I’ll have all your updates once again on Twitter.
