AHL PROSPECT WATCH: Chasing a playoff spot – and history
Monday is when AHL teams catch up after another hectic weekend on the ice and on highways across Canada and the United States.
With two and sometimes three games – plus travel – crunched into a weekend, those teams have earned that rest and step away from the rink. But Monday here is a day to catch up on and assess some of the weekend’s best performances across the 31-team AHL.
CONDORS FEASTING ON THE AHL
For Edmonton Oilers fans looking for hope, they can look toward the Bakersfield Condors.
Winning hockey has arrived in Bakersfield, and the Condors are getting it done with several Oilers prospects playing for first-year head coach Jay Woodcroft as they storm through the rest of the AHL.
Maybe this weekend the Tucson Roadrunners can shut down the Condors, though they certainly could not do so three weeks ago. Since then, the Ontario Reign had three cracks at the Condors and fell short each time. A match-up with the rival Stockton Heat failed to slow Bakersfield. Match-ups with upper-tier teams in the Iowa Wild, San Diego Gulls, and San Diego Gulls all went Bakersfield’s way.
Bakersfield swept that two-game set in Tucson back on January 25-26th, but the Condors’ run goes back still two more weeks to January 11th while they were in the midst of a punishing stretch of 14 games in 27 nights divided among three time zones. That night the Colorado Eagles hit the Condors with a 6-3 loss. In that pair of weekend road games in Colorado, the Condors pushed back the following night, took a 2-0 victory, and have taken off ever since.
For the Condors, who will go back to Tucson on Saturday for another doubleheader with the Roadrunners, their work in the past month-plus has added up to 15-game winning streak, tying them for the fourth-longest in 83 seasons of AHL play. A victory Saturday would tie the Condors with the 1984-85 Baltimore Skipjacks, who went to the Calder Cup final that season before falling to then-Montreal Canadiens goaltending prospect Patrick Roy. At 17 consecutive wins sit the 2004-05 Philadelphia Phantoms, a prospect-laden team that went on to win a Calder Cup championship.
Still far off in the distance are the 2011-12 Norfolk Admirals and their 28 consecutive victories. After a defeat on February 5, 2012, that Norfolk team did not lose again until the second game of the opening round of the playoffs. Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn, and head coach Jon Cooper emerged from that Calder Cup championship team to go on to considerable future success with the parent Tampa Bay Lightning. Mark Barberio, Cory Conacher, and Radko Gudas also had extended NHL stays at different points since then.
Standings-wise, 15 consecutive wins certainly will re-shape a playoff race rather dramatically. Back on January 16th, with a home-and-home series with Stockton up next, the Condors held fifth place in the Pacific Division at 17-15-2-1. Those 37 points marooned the Condors 11 points behind the division-leading Barracuda and only a pair of points ahead of Stockton. After sweeping Ontario in a home-and-home series this past weekend, the Condors have blown past their California competition, taken a five-point first-place hold on San Jose and San Diego, and left Stockton 18 points in their trail. What was a plus-four goal differential on January 16th has ballooned into a plus-40 advantage.
Development-wise, it is mostly young talent leading the way.
Condors rookie forward Cooper Marody continued his excellent play, taking the streak to 15 games by slipping past an excellent skater in Ontario defenseman Kale Clague before finishing a second-effort play for a 2-1 win. That goal took his point streak to six games (3-4-7), and he also piled up 10 shots in the pair of games against Ontario.
Before Marody’s overtime game-winner, 20-year-old forward Kailer Yamamoto’s work put the Condors on the scoreboard. He sliced through Ontario defensemen Alex Lintuniemi and Kurtis MacDermid at center ice, springing himself to finish a breakaway.
After Edmonton fired president of hockey operations and general manager Peter Chiarelli in January, Oilers Entertainment Group chief executive officer and vice chair Bob Nicholson sounded a very different tune than has been typical for the organization for years.
“We want our younger players to develop more in the American Hockey League,” Nicholson said in a January 23rd news conference. “I think that we bring them up a little bit too early in hope that they’re going to be ready when they’re really, really close. I think that we have to leave them down there until they’re over-ripe.”
“That is a change that we have to make here.”
Yamamoto, the 22nd pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, took the brunt of that philosophy first when Edmonton shipped him out to Bakersfield that morning. Needing to shake off considerable rust after minimal ice time in Edmonton, Yamamoto had an assist through his first five games back in the AHL. But he has since heated up, going 3-1-4 in his past four outings.
“[Yamamoto] is on the verge, but he has to play a lot of minutes,” Nicholson said on that January day. “We really believe in this player, and we have to do that with more of our assets going forward.”
And there are other assets.
Another rookie forward, Tyler Benson, has quieted any concerned whispers after he dealt with injuries in the Western Hockey League. Edmonton made him a 2016 second-round selection, and he is up to second in AHL rookie scoring at 43 points (8-35-43) in 49 games. Those 35 assists top all rookies and have one off the overall AHL lead. Confident with the puck, the 20-year-old Benson’s 130 shots lead the Condors as well. He will take a six-game point streak (3-6-9) into Tucson this weekend.
Forward Joe Gambardella missed the Ontario home-and-home match-up, but he rang up a 10-game point streak (11-6-17) before finally being held without a point by Stockton this past Wednesday. He is an undrafted 25-year-old, but Edmonton signed him in 2017 after a strong Hockey East career, he had 13 goals as an AHL rookie last season, and he earned his first four NHL contests earlier this season.
Blueliners Ethan Bear, Caleb Jones, and William Lagesson can all offer two-way skill that today’s game demands. Another member of the Bakersfield defense corps, Logan Day, has emerged as an exceptional find from Endicott College, a Division III program. Day is 25 years old and playing on an AHL contract, but at the very least – and if nothing else — he is another important piece of the Bakersfield line-up that allows Edmonton’s big-name prospects to play with still more skill. Even with older players who are not on the NHL fast-track, talent complements talent and top prospects need those high-end abilities around them, a formula that Tampa Bay has used to great success at the AHL level for years.
And then there is goaltender Shane Starrett, another potential steal for an organization that needs a few of those. Edmonton signed Starrett out of the Air Force Academy, where he dominated for two seasons. In his second season with the Falcons, he went 26-6-4 | 1.99 | .925, had five shutouts and went to be a semi-finalist for the Mike Richter Award, given to the top goaltender in US college hockey.
Starrett needed a season in the ECHL with the Wichita Thunder, handled 38 games of that, and eventually settled into the Bakersfield goaltending picture this season. With veteran Al Montoya out of action, Starrett, 24, has taken over in Bakersfield. He has 12 consecutive wins, giving him an 18-3-3 | 2.37 | .916 line through 27 games. That .916 GAA bests all rookie AHL netminders and also puts him sixth overall. With Edmonton’s goaltending picture still murky for the future, Starrett may be playing himself into a role with the Oilers before long.
Forwards Josh Currie (tied for third in the AHL with 24 goals) and Patrick Russell bring the sort of high-end experience that any AHL team needs to build a winning culture that prospects can – if all goes well – take with them to the NHL.
Without a doubt, plenty of work remains for both Edmonton and Bakersfield. Edmonton has an NHL organization to rebuild. In Bakersfield, the Condors have a stretch drive to take on for the next two months, and their Pacific Division competition has yet to fade. A playoff berth would be the first for an Edmonton AHL affiliate since 2015 and provide Oilers prospects with the grind and intensity that the Calder Cup Playoffs offer.
But at long last there is hope.
WITH HONORS
Bridgeport Sound Tigers forward Josh Ho-Sang ripped the AHL-leading Charlotte Checkers for a hat trick and five points in a 7-3 win this past Sunday afternoon. Falling behind 2-0 in Bridgeport, Ho-Sang assisted on a pair of goals that put the Sound Tigers into a 4-3 second-intermission lead. From there, he turned the game into a rout, blitzing the Checkers for three strikes in a 10:33 span.
Along with a goal the night before, he finished his weekend 4-2-6 in two games to earn the CCM/AHL Player of the Week honor. That leaves Ho-Sang, the 28th pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, with 6-26-32 in 39 AHL games this season.
ELSEWHERE
While Bakersfield has turned its season around in the Western Conference, the Hershey Bears have undertaken a similar reversal in the Atlantic Division. Hershey pulled out a 4-3 road win on Sunday against the rival Lehigh Valley Phantoms, finishing off a home-and-home sweep. That took their point streak to 15 game (14-0-0-1) and has the AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals tied with Bakersfield and San Diego for the league’s longest point streak this season. In that run are nine consecutive wins. Capitals forward prospect Beck Malenstyn contributed two goals, and Vitek Vanecek locked down the win in net. A night earlier in Hershey, Bears netminder Ilya Samsonov served up 28 saves before shutting down the Phantoms in the shootout for a 2-1 victory. After a difficult first half, Washington’s 2015 first-round pick has been dominant in net with a .951 save percentage in his past nine games.
A 12-game point streak (8-0-0-4) has put the Belleville Senators firmly into North Division contention. The Sens took three points in a two-game home series against the Cleveland Monsters. For the third time in seven games, Drake Batherson had at least three points this past Saturday night, taking the Sens past Cleveland, 4-2, on a 2-1-3 performance. Since ending a nine-game pointless slump, Batherson has torn through the AHL with 10-12-22 in his past 12 games.
Bridgeport forward Otto Koivula had his four-game goal streak ended by Charlotte, but he is 17-22-39 this season.
Chicago Blackhawks forward prospect Victor Ejdsell finished off a four-goal comeback for the Rockford IceHogs this past Saturday night to take a 5-4 win at home against the Iowa Wild. Ejdsell assisted on Joni Tuulola’s third-period goal that put the game into overtime at 4-4 after Iowa had taken a 4-0 lead late in the second period. Rockford defeated the San Antonio Rampage the following day and is on an 8-2-0-0 roll.
Iowa took another tough loss the next day, this time against the Chicago Wolves. Wolves blueliner Erik Brännström, taken 15th overall by the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017, banged in the overtime 2-1 game-winner.
Stockton’s Alan Quine posted his third hat trick of the season in a 6-3 victory against Colorado this past Sunday.
The Manitoba Moose continued their second half push, though they fell to the Milwaukee Admirals in Winnipeg to open a two-game series. Moose defenseman Tucker Poolman has built an eight-game point streak (1-8-9).
With Florida Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo on bereavement leave, Springfield Thunderbirds goaltender Sam Montembeault received the NHL call. Montembeault, 22, is 13-14-7 | 3.17 | .900 for the T-birds in playing 36 games, tying him for second among AHL goaltenders.
San Diego forward Kevin Roy is back in the line-up for the first time this season after an injury cost him four months of the regular season. The 25-year-old chipped in two assists as the Gulls blew out San Jose, 8-3, to start a two-game set at SAP Center. Roy played 25 games last season with the Anaheim Ducks.
Gulls forward Chase De Leo has a career-best eight-game point streak (7-4-11).
