Let’s begin by looking at game action from the week:
On Tuesday, Matias Mantykivi had a helper in Ilves Tampere’s Champions League victory over the Stavanger Oilers by a 4-1 score. It was Mantykivi’s first Champions League point. Roman Bychkov will miss time with a lower body injury. No word from the KHL club Lokomotiv on how long that will be.
On Wednesday, Peter Cehlarik missed EV ZUG’s Champions League match against Olimpija – a 3-1 win for Cehlarik’s club.
Friday was a hockey fan’s dream! Let’s begin in the NCAA where Philip Svedeback made his first NCAA start. Svedeback stopped 15 of 16 shots Sacred Heart put his way as Providence took this one by a 6-1 score. Fellow prospect Riley Duran continues to impress as he had a goal and an assist that put the game out of reach for Sacred Heart. Andre Gasseau made his NCAA debut for Boston College, but the Eagles lost 4-0 to Quinnipiac. Oskar Jellvik had his debut stalled (more on that later) and Junior Trevor Kuntar was obviously kept off the scoresheet. Mason Lohrei helped set up the game winner on a 5-on-3 powerplay with less than 5 minutes remaining as Ohio State defeated Wisconsin 3-1.
Over in Major Junior, Matthew Poitras continued his impressive start even though his Guelph Storm have not. Poitras added an assist to his point totals and has points in each of his 3 games to date. I don’t know what to say about Ryan Mast and his Sarnia Sting. They were down 7-0 to the Saginaw Spirit entering the third before they started a comeback. It was too little too late as the game ended 7-4 with Mast getting a helper.
On Saturday, Dans Locmelis scored his fifth goal of the season in a losing cause as Lulea dropped a 3-2 decision in the shootout to Almtuna IS. Locmelis missed his shootout attempt. While 5 goals in 9 games sounds great, three of his goals came in one game back on September 16. Lulea is going to need more from Locmelis in the goal scoring department if they are going to make the Top-10. In Major Junior, Poitras notched his third multi point game in 4 tries helping his Guelph Storm win their first game of the season. Reid Dyck stopped 36 of 40 shots he faced but still wasn’t able to win his first game of the season and the Swift Current Broncos dropped a 4-3 decision to the Regina Pats. In the NCAA, it may have been just an exhibition game, but the goal of the season so far belongs to Ty Gallagher. I said it last year and will say it again, don’t sleep on this kid. After falling behind 3-0, Lohrei set up Ohio State’s first goal to begin the comeback that would see them eventually take it 4-3 against Wisconsin on consecutive nights. Lohrei has helpers in 3 consecutive games.
I want to talk about Mantykivi because I have been as high as you can possibly be on a sixth-round pick. If you’ve followed along here, you know I had the opportunity to ask Mantykivi on the Black N Gold Podcast about his contract status in Finland and his desire to be at Bruins camp this year. At the time of that podcast, he had one year remaining in his deal with Ilves Tampere that would take him to the end of the 2022-2023 season.
Mantykivi also spoke at that time about how he had been in conversation with the Bruins and that he would be at the rookie camp, but no decision was made at the time about main camp. Soon after that, he signed a one-year extension with Ilves Tampere that would take him to the 2023-2024 season.
When Ilves Sports Director Timo Koskela was asked about Mantykivi’s extension, he had this to say: “Matias has already become one of the best players in Liiga. His talent is NHL level. We wanted to make sure that if Matias is still playing in Finland for the 2023-2024 season that it will be with Ilves. Getting an NHL contract by then is realistic.”
If Mantykivi’s option is to come to North America, he has an NHL out clause in his deal.
Mark Divver is one of the most connected Bruins media people in the business. But when Mark put out the following tweet, I can’t say I was surprised.
As mentioned earlier, Jellvik’s NCAA debut was stalled as he had to miss Boston College’s game Friday. No word at this time if Jellvik will have to sit more games.
Coming up this week:
| PLAYER | MON 10 | TUE 11 | WED 12 | THU 13 | FRI 14 | SAT 15 | SUN 16 |
| CEHLARIK | *At OLI | At RJL | |||||
| BYCHKOV | At SKA | At DIN | |||||
| MANTYKIVI | *Vs STA | Vs TPS | |||||
| LOCMELIS | Vs AIK | At IK | |||||
| JELLVIK | At UNH | ||||||
| GASSEAU | At UNH | ||||||
| KUNTAR | At UNH | ||||||
| LOHREI | At CON | At CON | |||||
| LANGENBRUNNER | |||||||
| SPICER | At MNS | At MNS | |||||
| OLSON | At MNS | At MNS | |||||
| SCHMALTZ | Vs QUI | Vs QUI | |||||
| DURAN | At CLK | At NOE | |||||
| GALLAGHER | At MIC | ||||||
| MCFAUL | At PRV | ||||||
| POITRAS | Vs SAG | At KGN | At OTT | ||||
| HARRISON | Vs OTT | At MIS | |||||
| MAST | Vs O S | Vs WSR | At MIS | ||||
| EDWARD | Vs MIS | At HAM | |||||
| BRUNET | Vs VIC | At R N | At R N | At VAL | |||
| SVEDEBACK | At CLK | At NOE | |||||
| DYCK | Vs REG | Vs R D |
*Champions Hockey League games.
Click on scheduled game for television/streaming options. NCAA televised and streamed games can be found here: Thursday October 13, Friday October 14 and Saturday October 15. QMJHL, OHL and WHL games can be found on CHL TV.
AROUND THE GLOBE
WHO’S HOT:
Poitras has points in all four games to start the season on 2 goals and 5 assists. He won’t be able to keep that pace up. On the other hand, I had him pegged for 88 points this season and I may have to re-think that.
Mast has points in 3 consecutive games after failing to get on the scoresheet on opening night. He has yet to find the back of the net for his first goal. The same is true for Lohrei.
WHO’S WARM:
Locmelis has a very respectable 12 points in 10 games in the J20 Nationell. But 8 of those points have come in just 3 games. I expect him to hover around 1.5 points-per-game, but I expect them to be much more spread out and not in bunches like they have been.
WHO’S COLD:
Dyck is 0-3-0 to start the season with a goals-against-average of 4.68 and a save-percentage of .859. He’s better than that and he needs to be better than that.
Not the start expected from Frederic Brunet of the Rimouski Oceanic. As concerning as the 1 assist in 4 games is the minus-7 to date is more concerning.
Dom - Hockey 