There are just two remaining prospects playing outside the AHL: Ryan Mast of the Sarnia Sting and Jackson Edward of the London Knights who are going head-to-head in the Ontario Hockey League Conference Finals and battling for the Wayne Gretzky Trophy and a chance at the OHL Championship and a Memorial Cup Birth. One of these two will get that opportunity. You can find my preview and predictions here.
The puck dropped on game one of the best-of-seven series Friday in London. Sarnia took a 1-0 lead late in the first period but it was all London after that scoring 4 unanswered goals. For Mast and Edward, it was zeroes across the board as both have been assigned shut down roles in this series.
Following Dans Locmelis and his quest with Team Latvia in preparation for the IIHF Men’s World Ice Hockey Championships: Coming into a 2 game Friendly set with Switzerland, Locmelis has 2 assists in 4 games thus far in pre-tournament warmups primarily centering the top line. On Friday Latvia lost a 5-3 decision to the Swiss. Locmelis was kept off the score sheet and in this game, he centered the second line.
On Saturday the two teams had a rematch with Latvia taking this one by a 5-1 score. Locmelis had a goal and an assist while centering the second line. Latvia will play one more exhibition game on Thursday against Denmark before beginning the World Championships against Canada on May 12. Locmelis has had a very good camp and exhibition with Latvia. Now we wait and see if he makes the final roster.
With today being May 1, that means the Matias Mantykivi watch begins. His contract extension with Ilves Tampere kicks in today and it is the first day the Bruins can officially sign him to an NHL contract. His new contract includes an out-clause that allows him to sign an NHL deal. When they agreed to the contract extension a little more than a year ago, Ilves Sports Director Timo Koskela said “We wanted to make sure that if Matias is still playing in Finland for the 2023-2024 season that he stays in Ilves, but getting an NHL contract is also completely realistic by then”, Indicating that Mantykivi has their full blessing to sign an NHL deal.
The Bruins have until June 1, 2023 to sign Mantykivi or he becomes an unrestricted free agent.
The Providence Bruins handed out their team individual awards last week prior to the playoffs:
Team MVP – Amica Mutual Insurance – Brandon Bussi
Leading Scorer – Coca-Cola – Georgii Merkulov
Best Defenceman Award Dunkin’ – Jack Ahcan
Plus/Minus Award – AJT Supplies – Connor Carrick
Fan Favorite Award – BayCoast Bank – Joona Koppanen
Rookie of the Year Award – Fan Club – Georgii Merkulov
Hendricks Memorial Fan Appreciation Award – Kyle Keyser
Colby Cave Memorial Award – Josiah Didier
Three Stars Award – Tufts Health Plan – Vinni Lettieri
The Baby B’s dropped the series opener 1-0 to the Hartford Wolf Pack on Friday night. Goaltender Brandon Bussi was star for Providence stopping 31 of 32 shots he faced. The only puck to beat him was on a 2-on-1 where the puck went in off his own defenceman. His teammates could only muster 14 shots on goal themselves including just 3 in the first period. If they are going to win this best-of-five series, they are going to have to be much better to take 3 of the next 4 games.
The second game of the series took place on Saturday and despite a much better effort by Providence, the result was the same with Hartford taking this one by a score of 2-1. Bussi did his part again stopping 26 of 28 shots faced. Providence more than doubled their chances from game one with 30 shots, but only Luke Toporowski (BTW can Boston sign this kid please) was able to beat Hartford goaltender Dylan Garand.
Michael Callahan got into a fight with Tim Gettinger after the latter ran over Bussi. Gettinger is out of Callahan’s league but credit to him for coming to the defence of his netminder.
Down 2-0 in the best of 5 series, the P-Bruins have to win 3 in a row and the series now shifts to Hartford for games 3 and 4 on Wednesday and Friday night.
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Dom - Hockey 