Prospect Currents: USHL Fall Classic, KUA add Adam Fantilli
Prospects young and old alike shine on the first day of the USHL's regular season
A couple quick prospect updates before getting into my impressions from Day 1 of the USHL’s Fall Classic in Pittsburgh.
Kimball Union (NH-Prep) lost a big forward recruit late this summer when ‘03 James Malatesta opted to sign with the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts. Good news, however, came with the onset of fall and the late addition of elite late ‘04 forward Adam Fantilli, who was originally slated to play with the Toronto Jr. Canadiens. Fantilli is eligible for the OHL draft. I’ve confirmed separately that Adam will join his brother, Luca (late ‘02), in Meriden for the upcoming school year, but you can see the Jr. Canadiens press release on Twitter.
The Call (Woonsocket, RI) did a story on the recruitment of Zack Bolduc, with some choice quotes from the elite ‘03-born scorer out of Rhode Island’s new Mount-St. Charles hockey academy:
“For me, when I was young, I’d go visit colleges and I always said that I wanted to play in those leagues. When I see games like that, I shake and I can imagine myself on the ice. Going to college is the way for me to play. I want a good program that develops players. I want a program that can bring a player from the university to the NHL. That’s what I want to do. My family said to come here for a year and think about what’s next.”
The Call also notes: Bolduc “will head to the University of Michigan on Oct. 5 for a recruiting visit. There will also be visits [to] North Dakota, Wisconsin, Penn State and Nebraska-Omaha later in the season.”
Expect Bolduc to keep his recruiting window open for a while. The Call also confirmed that Bolduc will be playing in this weekend’s USHL Fall Classic with the Sioux City Musketeers. They open their season tomorrow night (Sep. 28) against the Chicago Steel at 5 PM.
Speaking of the Fall Classic, let’s get into it. I watched the first four of five games from opening day, which was yesterday. About half of these players are still pretty new to me, so I’m sure I’ve missed some great players, but I hit the bases of what I observed. Here are some of my take-aways from each game.
Dubuque 4 x Muskegon 1
Muskegon’s Christophe Fillion (‘00, Qpac) scored the first goal of the USHL season before 11 AM to start the day’s action, but things were quiet for the Lumberjacks after that. Dubuque’s depth was too much and a number of defensive miscues for Muskegon would catch up to them by the late second period, with Dubuque leading 3-1. The three stars were ‘99s Riese Gaber (1-1-2, UND), Mark Cheremeta (1-2-3) and ‘01 Ty Jackson (0-2-2, NU). I thought the other Jackson twin, Dylan (1-0-1, NU), had a terrific game as well: one goal and a lot of strong shifts.
Draft-eligible ‘02 Stephen Halliday (UND) was just ‘OK’, playing on what should be Dubuque’s top line with the Jackson twins. Getting called for a check from behind was the most significant way Halliday impacted the game — and he could have been called for that twice had the refs been less lenient on the big (6’3, 220) winger from Ontario. LA Kings prospect ‘01 D Braden Doyle (0-1-1, BU) put in a confident, solid game for Dubuque. For the Jacks, uncommitted draft-eligible ‘02 Danil Gushchin was a -2 on the night, didn’t have much luck but certainly tried to make things happen. Draft-eligible ‘02 Alex Gaffney (Harvard) showcased speed and skill. Fellow draft-eligible ‘02 forward Jack Williams (NU) had a solid outing as well.
Omaha 4 x Madison 1
This wasn’t much of a game, and it deteriorated into a scorekeeper’s nightmare with a lot of penalty trouble from the second period on. Omaha chased Garrett Mackay from the net halfway through but Slovakian draft-eligible goaltender Simon Latkoczy was excellent in relief for Madison. Latkoczy stopped 28 of 29, was hung out to dry for the one goal he did allow — a hell of an introduction to hockey in North America for the HK Dukla Trencin product and a possible precursor for the season to come in Madison.
Omaha ‘00 center Jack Jensen (Minnesota) was a force to be reckoned with, on the puck and in the hits column. Jensen threw a big check to set the tone in minute one, and proved to be a physical presence all game long. Recently drafted ‘01 forwards Alex Campbell (Clarkson) and Rhett Pitlick (Minnesota) seem primed to capitalize on any and all opportunities this season. Omaha ‘00 D Christian Berger (Penn State) put in a strong game. ‘00 D Zach Plucinski made no mistake when a puck dribbled out to him at the point — clapping it into the Madison net — the game was in Omaha’s pocket from that point on early in the second. Akira Schmid was great for Omaha allowing one goal on twenty-three shots. Big ‘02 forward Carson Bantle (Michigan Tech) was intriguing for Madison.
Waterloo 2 x Tri-City 1 (OT)
This was probably my favorite game of the day, the teams were well-matched and both have pretty deep, talented rosters. Tri-City were down three players, on defense Mike Koster (TOR/MN) + Jack Lagerstrom (Cornell) as well as forward Chase McLane (PSU).
The goals: ‘03 rookie Matt Argentina (ND), who looked sharp for his first game, took a nice look from the slot — ‘01 Ondrej Psenicka buried the rebound to put Waterloo up 1-0.
To tie it up, ‘99 Joey Molenaar (SCSU) jumped on a give-away in the neutral zone and made a really nice set of moves to get through his checker and ultimately get the puck past the Waterloo goaltender. That ended the scoring in regulation, 19 minutes into the first.
The overtime winner was an awesome move by uncommitted ‘00 Aaron Bohlinger, who took the puck up the wall and then cut across the net-front before back-handing it for the win.
While I noticed a lot of players, I’m only going to focus on one for this game because I thought he really stood out: Tri-City forward Colby Ambrosio (BC). Pretty good at both ends of the ice, great in the face-off dot and he was a man on a mission with the puck on his stick. An August-born ‘02, Ambrosio is one of the youngest draft-eligibles in the league this season. He could very well be an NHL draft look next summer despite his slight, 5’9 frame because he is a hard-to-contain skater with tenacious, playmaking upside on the puck.
Cedar Rapids 6 x Youngstown 2
The score was lopsided, but factoring that Youngstown were chasing this one for over fifty minutes, it was a decent game. The difference early on was special teams — CR scored on their first two powerplays, with Donte Lawson (BSU) and Ben Meehan (UML) both picking up 1-1-2 within the first eight minutes. A hat trick for uncommitted ‘01 forward Robby Newton, who made the most of his chances with one goal in each period, padded the score neatly for Cedar Rapids. Despite Newton’s hat trick I wouldn’t say there was any one player who stole this game, it was a team win for CR, while Derek Mullahy (Harvard) stood tall whenever Youngstown got things going, stopping 27 of 29.
Uncommitted Japanese forward (late ‘03) Yusaku Ando turned in a strong first game in the USHL for the Phantoms, 1-1-2 on the night and a generally impressive performance overall. Liked defensemen Jayson Dobay (UMass), Artyom Borshyov (Qpac) for YNG and Will Francis (ANA/UMD) for CR. Northeastern ‘01 forward recruit Justin Hryckowian had a nice junior hockey debut coming out of prep hockey (Salisbury), 0-1-1, +3 and generally strong, effective shifts for CR.
Fargo 3 x Lincoln 0
I didn’t watch this game, and I might not get around to it with plenty more action to come in the Fall Classic.
Fargo scored two in the first period with goals from ‘01 forwards Casey McDonald and Lynden Breen (Maine). ‘01 defenseman Cedric Fiedler (WMU) added an insurance goal late in the third. All goals came 5x5. ASU recruit Cole Brady (NJD) with a 30-save shutout was named first star. Lincoln’s Travis Treloar (0-0-0), a Western commit who played for the Steel last year, was named second star.
Today, the second day of USHL Fall Classic action opens with Dubuque (1-0) x Madison (0-1) at 10:00 AM, followed by Omaha (1-0) x Cedar Rapids (1-0) and Youngstown (0-1) x Tri-City (0-0-1) early in the afternoon.