AHL WITH PATRICK WILLIAMS: Yamamoto among prospects to watch
Monday is when American Hockey League teams catch up after another hectic weekend on the ice and on the highways.
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.
TROY TERRY – SAN DIEGO GULLS (ANAHEIM DUCKS)
The Ontario Reign saw more than enough of Terry this past weekend, and for that matter so has the rest of the AHL Western Conference.
Two years ago, Terry’s excellent play at the World Junior Championship helped carry the USA to a gold medal. His championship-winning goal capped a 4-3-7 performance in his seven games. He added to his international resume last season with five assists in five games for the American team at the Winter Olympics.
Terry turned pro after three seasons at the University of Denver, where he ended his NCAA career with 14-34-48 in 39 games last season for the Pioneers. Now he is taking on the AHL, where his stay in San Diego might not last much longer. Anaheim might also have found a bargain. The Ducks picked up Terry, who turned 21 this past September, in the fifth round of the 2015 NHL Draft.
The Gulls split a weekend home-and-home series with their Southern California nemesis. The teams went into their respective breaks on the Reign’s 7-6 shootout win at home this past Saturday. Four San Diego third-period goals undid Ontario’s 4-2 lead and helped the Gulls to grab a point from the game. San Diego pumped 46 shots at Ontario’s Jack Campbell, including 21 in the opening period.
Terry had eight of those shots, leading the Gulls. He also picked up a goal with 7:04 to go in regulation after Ontario had regained a two-goal lead. That led the way for Joseph Blandisi’s tying goal that moved the game into overtime. The night before in San Diego, Terry’s two assists helped push the Gulls to a 5-3 win. In all, Terry owns a six-game point streak (2-5-7) and has points in eight of his past 10 outings (3-7-10). He is tied with Sam Carrick for the San Diego scoring lead at 26 points (10-16-26) in 23 games and places second in AHL rookie scoring.
TYLER GRAOVAC – STOCKTON HEAT (CALGARY FLAMES)
Now 25 years old, Graovac has entered that hazy territory between prospect and veteran that so many AHLers find themselves in quickly.
The rangy (6-foot-5, 207 pounds) forward has flirted with a full-time NHL role in the past, and he played 52 games for the Minnesota Wild in the 2016-17 season. But a detour to the Washington Capitals organization last year did not pan out for him. He managed only five games with the powerhouse Washington line-up, left with the Hershey Bears to go 12-17-29 in 53 games for a non-playoff team.
Signing with the Flames this past summer has revived his career. Surrounded by ample forward talent with a team that can put the puck in the net (at 3.38 goals per game, the Heat are 12th in the AHL) has brought out his offensive touch.
Graovac’s former AHL team, the Iowa Wild, received quite the re-introduction to him during the Heat’s two-game weekend visit to Des Moines. He tied an AHL record that was first set in 1982 with three shorthanded goals in one game. Along with an assist, he struck 29 seconds into the second period for the game’s opening goal. Following his third-period insurance goal, he finished the night on an empty-netter in the final minute and a 5-1 win.
The Heat managed to pick up three out of four points in their weekend in Iowa. The night before, Graovac had a goal and an assist in a raucous 8-7 Iowa overtime win that featured six third-period goals between the teams in a 5:21 span. Stockton (13-13-3-0) sits fifth in the Pacific Division, two points below the playoff line.
With 23 points (10-13-23) in 26 games, Graovac is tied for the Stockton scoring lead with another reclamation project, forward Kerby Rychel, who came to the Flames organization from the Montreal Canadiens in the offseason.
DYLAN GAMBRELL – SAN JOSE BARRACUDA (SAN JOSE SHARKS)
It looks like Gambrell is starting to figure out AHL goaltenders.
The 22-year-old forward, who has scored five times in his past six games, came to the Barracuda after playing the past three seasons at the University of Denver with Terry. A Hobey Baker Award nominee last season with the Pioneers, the Sharks signed him to an entry-level contract this past March after taking him in the second round of the 2016 NHL Draft.
He has played five NHL games so far, but with such a deep NHL line-up, the Sharks are able to allow him to develop in the AHL. Gambrell is up to 8-8-16 in 19 games for the Barracuda.
CONNOR INGRAM – SYRACUSE CRUNCH (TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING)
Hit hard by injuries this season, the Crunch have another addition to the list.
Crunch beat writer Lindsay Kramer of Syracuse.com reported Saturday that Ingram will be out two to three weeks. The injury also was reported to have happened in this past Friday’s 3-2 shootout win on the road against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Ingram stopped 40 of 42 shots. Ingram’s absence means that the Syracuse net will be in the hands of veteran Eddie Pasquale, whose 20 saves the following night helped the Crunch put away the visiting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in overtime, 4-3.
Pasquale, 28, is 8-3-2 | 2.74 | .904 in 13 games. The 21-year-old Ingram has played 14 games, going 9-5-0 | 2.44 | .920. Tampa Bay selected him in the third round of the 2016 NHL Draft. Ingram and Pasquale have split time in net with Syracuse while also each taking turns in a back-up role with the Lightning during Andrei Vasilevskiy’s injury.
Syracuse has built some cushion so far. Their 17-8-0-2 mark leaves them with a .667 point percentage that is second-best in the Eastern Conference. They have done that even injuries to forwards Olivier Archambault, Michael Bournival, and Mitchell Stephens along with defenseman Ben Thomas at different points this season as well as defenseman Erik Cernak’s ongoing recall with Tampa Bay.
JUSTIN KLOOS – IOWA WILD (MINNESOTA WILD)
Iowa served up firepower of its own in battling Stockton goal-for-goal before finishing off the 8-7 overtime victory.
Iowa forward Justin Kloos tied a league high this season with six points in the game, putting up a hat trick to go with his three assists. The 25-year-old forward, signed out of the University of Minnesota by the parent Wild in March 2017, is in his second pro season. He had a 19-goal rookie season in 2017-18 and is continuing that pace this season. He is up to 10-11-21 in 24 games, putting him second in Iowa team scoring behind veteran Cal O’Reilly.
Although Kloos has missed six games this season, he has otherwise been a consistent line-up presence throughout his career. He played all 76 games as an AHL rookie after playing all 150 games during his NCAA career with the Gophers, where he served as captain in his final two seasons.
ILYA SAMSONOV – HERSHEY BEARS (WASHINGTON CAPITALS)
Difficulties during the adjustment to the North American game are common for goaltenders accustomed to the European game.
But it is safe to say that Samsonov’s season is not what was envisioned. The Capitals’ 2015 first-rounder continued his struggles this past Saturday night on home ice when the rival Lehigh Valley Phantoms blew out the Bears, 6-1. The 21-year-old Samsonov is stuck with a 4-10-0 | 4.08 | .858 line. His goals-against average ranks 50th out of the 52 AHL goaltenders who have played a minimum of 540 minutes this season. That save percentage ranks dead-last, and he has allowed five or more goals in five of his 14 appearances.
If anything, Samsonov was viewed as a reason for optimism for the Bears, who have had a roster dotted with rookies. The Capitals did not have a particularly productive offseason in stocking the Hershey line-up with proven AHL experience to buttress such a young roster. Injuries and recalls left the Bears dressing three defensemen on recall from ECHL on Saturday night, though the struggles had started long before that. Samsonov arrived in Hershey coming off three excellent KHL seasons with Metallurg Magnitogorsk, including a Gagarin Cup championship season in 2015-16, as well as under-20 World Junior Championship experience for the Russian national team. Last season in Magnitogorsk he went 12-9-1 | 2.31 | .926 over 26 regular-season games.
Saturday night brought another rough night for Samsonov and the Bears. Phantoms winger Tyrell Goulbourne slipped a far-side shot from the left circle past Samsonov’s glove for a 1-0 lead just five minutes into the game. After Hershey had tied the game, the game fell apart for the home team in the second period. Certainly the line-up around him has not helped. Back-to-back net-front breakdowns led to the Phantoms’ second and third goals 48 seconds apart. The fourth tally came on a short-side shot. Goal number five followed another low-slot breakdown that Samsonov also could not stop, and the sixth goal was a cleanly lost face-off draw in the Hershey zone that Taylor Leier whipped into the net before Samsonov could react.
At 12-17-0-2, the Bears have sunk to last place in the Eastern Conference, and their .419 point percentage is the second-worst in the AHL ahead of only the Manitoba Moose (.414). They are already nine points behind the fourth-place Springfield Thunderbirds in the Atlantic Division and face an imposing January schedule. Hershey also missed the Calder Cup Playoffs last season, leading to Spencer Carbery taking over as head coach and a nearly complete overhaul of the roster.
Samsonov has had a hard time adjusting to the North American game. Photo: Joel Marklund/Bildbyrån.
CARSEN TWARYNSKI – LEHIGH VALLEY PHANTOMS (PHILADELPHIA FLYERS)
Sometimes it all just begins to make sense for a young AHL prospect.
The AHL can be a rude adjustment for young players accustomed to success at lower levels, but Twarynski’s struggles appear to have lifted with Lehigh Valley.
The rookie Phantoms forward has struck for four goals in his past six games, including a tally in Lehigh Valley’s win at Hershey this past Saturday night. Before this run, he had one goal in his first 20 AHL seasons after arriving in Lehigh Valley fresh off an impressive training camp with the Flyers.
“[Twarynski] is seeming to get it and understand it that he has to play an involved role,” Phantoms interim head coach Kerry Huffman said as the Phantoms packed up to depart Hershey. “He is getting offensive chances because of it. I think we had a good meeting earlier [last] week, and I just told him that I want him to play that way and even more that there was a lot more there still. He is still feeling out the system and trying to get his legs that way, but you can see he is starting to feel a lot more comfortable.”
Huffman had a theory on the 21-year-old, who had 45 goals last season in the WHL for the Kelowna Rockets.
“I think what happens is a lot of kids come up from junior and they’re playing systems that they’ve never seen,” Huffman said. “So when they go through that learning curve, sometimes they have a little bit of a paralysis where they start to think the game too much, the feet aren’t going, and things slow down for them. So you try to get them refocused once they understand the system to get your feet moving. When guys are skating, it doesn’t matter if they’re big, little or whatever. If their feet are going, then usually good things are happening for them.”
KAILER YAMAMOTO – BAKERSFIELD CONDORS (EDMONTON OILERS)
Call it steady progress for Yamamoto, the 22nd selection in the 2017 NHL Draft.
Edmonton has opted to take a more patient approach with the 20-year-old rather than rushing him into the NHL line-up. The Oilers assigned him to Bakersfield on November 11, and he has remained there since.
After a three-goal weekend in two road dates with the Colorado Eagles, Yamamoto is up to 4-3-7 in 10 AHL games. He had gone six games without a goal along with missing five games with an injury before picking up a pair this past Friday night in a 5-3 victory, the Condors’ fourth in a row. That winning streak ended the next night, but he collected another goal to help the Condors take a point in a 3-2 shootout loss.
An Edmonton AHL affiliate has not reached the postseason since 2015, but the Condors hold down fourth place in the Pacific Division at 15-10-0-1.
ELSEWHERE
AHL talent representing the Czech Republic at the World Junior Championship that starts Wednesday are forward Martin Kaut (Colorado), Martin Necas (Charlotte Checkers), and Filip Zadina (Grand Rapids Griffins). Swedish defenseman Erik Brännström (Chicago Wolves) and Rasmus Sandin (Toronto Marlies) also will participate. San Antonio Rampage forward Klim Kostin is with Russia, and defenseman Urho Vaakanainen will be on leave from the Providence Bruins to compete for Finland.
Bridgeport defenseman Sebastian Aho’s three assists and another goal from Michael Dal Colle led the Sound Tigers to a statement-making 6-1 victory at Charlotte this past Friday night. The Sound-Tigers-Checkers two-game series in Charlotte finished with a split. The first-place Checkers lead second-place Bridgeport in the Atlantic Division by seven points.
The Gulls have been hot as they try to undo the damage from a slow start to their season. They rang up 17 goals in three games this past week, including a 6-1 blowout of the Pacific Division-leading San Jose Barracuda this past Wednesday in San Diego. Their week finished with them at 11-11-1-3, pulling themselves out of last place and five points behind Bakersfield. They can close that gap further in a home-and-home series against the Condors this week.
Gulls forward Kalle Kossila had a 2-2-4 performance in the shootout loss at Ontario. Fellow forward Sam Steel put up two assists.
Binghamton Devils forward Brandon Gignac’s hat trick pushed them past the Providence Bruins, 6-3, this past Friday night.
Iowa defenseman Brennen Menell added four assists in the 8-7 overtime win against Stockton.
Hartford Wolf Pack goaltender Marek Mazanec played for the first time in five weeks and made it memorable this past Saturday night. He stopped 23 first-period shots from the Rochester Americans, finished with 40 saves, and led the Wolf Pack to a 5-1 road win against the Amerks. Mazanec had not played since November 18. It finished off a very productive week for the Wolf Pack, who swept their two-game trip to Rochester after shutting out the P-Bruins at home, 3-0, this past Wednesday. The Wolf Pack are four points out of a playoff spot in the Atlantic Division.
Cleveland Monsters netminder Matiss Kivlenieks was 27-of-29 in a 3-2 home win against the Belleville Senators this past Saturday. The 22-year-old Latvian was pushed into a heavy workload in a difficult 2017-18 season in Cleveland, playing 43 games. But veteran J-F Bérubé’s acquisition in the offseason has cut into the playing time that Kivlenieks has seen. He is 3-1-1 | 3.22 | .890 over nine appearances this season.