It wasn’t a good week for the slew of goaltending prospects throughout the Kings organization.
First off, in LA, Jonathan Quick kept Jonathan Bernier from getting any playing time – especially after posting three straight shutouts.
In the AHL, things went south for the Kings’ top two prospects in Manchester. After giving up a total of five goals in his first four starts, Martin Jones gave up four goals on Wednesday night and another five on Friday. Ouch! Jeff Zatkoff fared only slightly better, giving up three goals in a 4-2 loss yesterday.
Down in the ECHL, JF Berube – who was looking to rebound after a disappointing 5-4 loss on opening night a week ago – was back in the net for Friday’s game in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, he gave up another four goals and the Ontario Reign lost 4-1.
Here’s a quick look at several of the Kings’ other top prospects…
Manchester now has a 3-5-0 record and will play again on Wednesday – it will be their first home game in more than two weeks, after playing the last six on the road.
Adding to the Monarchs troubles this past week was the lack of production from Andrei Loktionov. After coming out of the gates with eight points (three goals, five assists) in the first five games, he produced all of three assists in the last three games. Somehow though, while the team was giving up a ton of goals, he remained an even player for the week and still sits at plus-7 for the season.
– Rookie Linden Vey (fourth round draft pick 2009) picked up his first goal as a professional on Wednesday and stopped by MayorsManor the next day to talk about it – interview here.
– Defenseman Jake Muzzin (ranked second among the Kings top ten prospects heading into the season) continues to look impressive this month, scoring another goal yesterday – giving him five points (three goals, two assists) in his six games played.
Junior Hockey Prospects
– Jordan Weal (WHL): picked up two goals and an assist in a pair of games over the weekend, running his season totals to 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) in 12 games played
– Tyler Toffoli (OHL): although he’s not on any sort of a torrid pace – like he was last season, when he was the top goal scorer in all of junior hockey – Toffoli did add another goal over the weekend and now has eight goals in 10 games played
– Andy Andreoff (OHL): after just signing a three-year entry level deal with the Kings a little over a week ago, Andreoff is getting his legs under him with the Oshawa Generals…he has seven points in six games played
– Michael Schumacher (OHL): one of the players who really impressed Kings coach Terry Murray during training camp, Schumacher (a late round draft pick this past June) continues to produce this month…after adding three more goals in the last two games, he now leads the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds with nine goals in 13 games played
College Hockey Prospects
– The big match-up this weekend was 5th ranked North Dakota (and Derek Forbort, the Kings first round pick in 2010) traveling to Wisconsin to take on the Badgers (and Michael Mersch, the Kings fourth round pick this past June). Mersch scored a goal on Friday night, with Wisconsin winning 5-3. On Saturday, it was another Badgers win, by the final score of 5-4.
– Nick Shore and the Denver Pioneers won both their games against Minnesota State this weekend, by a combined score of 14-4. On Friday, Shore scored his first goal of the season.
Next weekend, Forbort and the Fighting Sioux will host Kevin Gravel (Kings 2010 draft pick) and St. Could State for a pair of games. The first contest will be televised by Fox College Sports (DirecTV channel 617).
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RELATED ARTICLES:
Guest Author: Defenseman Kevin Gravel’s Team USA camp journal
Linden Vey checks in after his first goal for the Manchester Monarchs
Camp evaluation – Murray on Michael Schumacher
Michael Mersch on his experience at Team USA’s evaluation camp
LA Kings coach Terry Murray on Voynov vs. Hickey
Rankings: Los Angeles Kings top ten prospects
