IceCaps Recap – April 2nd, 2015

9 years ago

Courtesy: Sarah Hobday

Welcome to
the latest instalment of the IceCaps Recap where we review all the weekly
activities of the St. John’s Ice Caps, the AHL affiliation of the Winnipeg
Jets. Similar to the Future NHEhlers
weekly article, we review all the stats and news we can find for your IceCaps.

Continue
past the jump to read what went down.

The
Statistics

It has not a great week for St. John’s. Much like an ice cap, we have seen this slowly
coming closer over the horizon. With 2 losses on the week– the chances of moving on to the playoffs are
all but gone. Sports Club Stats has the
Ice Caps with a 0% chance of making the playoffs and at best can move to 10th
in the division. In their two losses, all of
the IceCaps’ statistics have dropped.

Friday’s
4-6 Loss @ Portland

[ IceCap’sRecap ]

Not a great
way for St. John’s to make a final attempt at the playoffs. With a game against Portland and despite
having the possession edge, the hockey gods laughed at them and took away their
puck luck. Connor Hellebuyck had a rare Really Bad Start, which also included an even rarer goaltender switch to Peter Budaj halfway through the game. Will O’Neill did his best to score with 7
shots on goal but going 0 for 3 on the power play and 2 for 5 on the penalty
kill was no help.

Oh yeah… this happened to Ryan Olsen during the game

Saturday’s
2-3 OT Loss @ Worcester

[ IceCap’sRecap ]

Saturday’s
game was a bit better in the outcome for the team. Despite being dominated in possession they
managed to earn one point. Their luck in
overtime did not follow. Peter Budaj
earned the rare start and posted a Quality
Start. Special teams had a bit more
luck scoring on one of their two man advantages while on the penalty kill they
stopped 6 of 7 attempts.

On the ground at this game we had our “Insiderrr”, Sarah Hobday, and she had the following scouting notes. Give her a follow on twitter if you love all the latest in IceCaps news, rumours, and sweet original photos.

My thoughts/notes on the 3-2 OT loss in Worcester on 28 March:
This was my first time seeing the IceCaps since the end of November.
Olsen and Julian Melchiori were medical scratches. Olsen got hit with a puck
just under his eye Friday night – got stitches and lots of swelling but
luckily no broken bones.
I noticed Scott
Kosmachuk’s growth as a player since I last saw him play. He has adapted
to the pro game well. He was the most impressive player on the ice for
the IceCaps and looked good on both ends of the ice.
Aaron Harstad and Peter Stoykewych played their second pro games. They were paired
together in the 1st period but the coaches juggled lines the rest of the
game. Each played about 15 minutes of the game. Both had solid games.
They saw ice time on the PP and PK.
Brenden Kichton and Will O’Neill were solid as usual.
Jordan Hill seemed to play almost 30 minutes in this game. He had a decent game.
Julian Brouilette did not have as good of a game as I am used to seeing with him.
JC Lipon had a rare quiet in the game.
Patrick Holland and Austen Brassard saw very limited ice time.
The IceCaps successfully killed a full 2 minutes being down 5-3 with
the Sharks not recording a single shot on goal during that PP.
Defensemen Hill and Brouillette were on the ice that entire penalty
kill.
Blair Riley scored a nice goal on a breakaway in the 2nd.
Peter Budaj played very well and had some incredible saves. He still has yet to get his first win as an IceCap.

The Players

	Name	Pos	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	PPG	SOG	SoG/G	Sh%
27	Will O’Neill	D	66	10	33	43	-12	63	0.95	177	2.68	5.65%
16	John Albert	C	64	16	26	42	3	26	0.41	140	2.19	11.43%
13	Chase Balisy	LW	67	17	20	37	-14	26	0.39	94	1.40	18.09%
48	Carl Klingberg	LW	51	15	15	30	0	41	0.80	152	2.98	9.87%
14	Eric O’Dell	C	37	14	15	29	-4	34	0.92	106	2.86	13.21%
33	Joel Armia	RW	15	0	4	4	-4	12	0.80	29	1.93	0.00%
19	Kyle MacKinnon	C	46	6	21	27	3	22	0.48	74	1.61	8.11%
24	Scott Kosmachuk	RW	64	13	12	25	-19	62	0.97	113	1.77	11.50%
8	Brenden Kichton	D	59	8	17	25	-7	26	0.44	96	1.63	8.33%
34	JC Lipon	RW	69	4	19	23	-19	141	2.04	115	1.67	3.48%
15	Jason Jaffray	LW	30	10	6	16	-2	16	0.53	54	1.80	18.52%
28	Patrice Cormier	C	43	9	7	16	-12	66	1.53	72	1.67	12.50%
25	Blair Riley	RW	64	6	10	16	-8	114	1.78	59	0.92	10.17%
4	Keaton Ellerby	D	41	3	13	16	-10	32	0.78	68	1.66	4.41%
49	Julien Brouillette	D	44	6	9	15	-5	16	0.36	74	1.68	8.11%
50	Austen Brassard	RW	69	5	10	15	-12	60	0.87	65	0.94	7.69%
26	Nicolas Blanchard	LW	59	3	11	14	-7	79	1.34	69	1.17	4.35%
18	Ben Chiarot	D	24	4	5	9	0	21	0.88	64	2.67	6.25%
9	Ryan Olsen	C	59	4	5	9	-17	47	0.80	55	0.93	7.27%
7	Kris Fredheim	D	54	2	5	7	-5	26	0.48	57	1.06	3.51%
44	Julian Melchiori	D	68	1	5	6	-13	54	0.79	51	0.75	1.96%
29	Jordan Hill	D	32	1	3	4	-10	25	0.78	22	0.69	4.55%
21	Ben Walker	RW	30	1	2	3	-10	16	0.53	35	1.17	2.86%
41	Patrick Holland	RW	21	0	2	2	-1	6	0.29	8	0.38	0.00%
17	Brandon MacLean	LW	35	0	2	2	-4	8	0.23	50	1.43	0.00%
47	Ryan Parent	D	18	0	1	1	-3	10	0.56	10	0.56	0.00%
3	Aaron Harstad	D	2	0	0	0	1	0	0.00	2	1.00	0.00%
2	Peter Stoykewych	D	2	0	0	0	0	2	1.00	0	0.00	0.00%

The
Goaltenders

	Name	GP	Min	GA	SO	GAA	W	L	OT	SA	SVS	SAV%
1	Connor Hellebuyck	56	3230:12:00	138	6	2.56	28	20	5	1764	1626	0.922
2	Peter Budaj	17	834:59:00	47	0	3.38	0	9	5	443	396	0.894
3	Jussi Olkinuora	4	185:40:00	13	0	4.2	2	1	0	90	77	0.856

Connor Hellebuyck leads the AHL in minutes played of all goaltenders and is in 11th in save percentage.

The
Transactions

Axel
Blomqvist added to the roster from Moose Jaw
Jimmy Lodge
was signed on an ATO

The
Schedule

A
back-to-back against the same team on a home-stead gives the IceCaps the
advantage this weekend. But at this
point fighting for points is futile. It
would best serve the team’s future interests to play some of their younger guys
and NCAA players on Tryout contracts and see what they can do.