February 17th Game Report - Erie vs. Kingston

by John Duncan

Captain Cody Alcock Leads Fronts Past Otters

Coming into tonight's contest, Igor Bobkov was the only Frontenac goaltender to have recorded a win this season.  Jacob Riley was hoping to change that, in his 6th start as a Frontenac, since being acquired on trade deadline day, January 10th, from Owen Sound.

Riley got off to a shaky start, as he gave up a powerplay, rebound goal, by Anthony Cortellessa, his 3rd of the season at 1:40, then a rather harmless looking backhand by Jake Evans, his first of two, on the night.

Instead of hanging their heads, the Fronts took over the first period, and ultimately the game, from that point.  Going hard to the net, Spencer Green jammed in his 6th of the season, from Nevins and Dupuy, to draw the Fronts to within one at 11:48 of the first.  Shots are 22-9 Fronts after one, but they were down 2-1.

Trevor Morbeck and Tyler McCarthy got the fans into the game, early in the second period with a spirited fight. 

Nathan Cull was allowed to stand all alone at the side of the net and was spotted by Fronts' defenseman, Alex Gudbranson. After two or three tries, he tucked it in, to tie it at 2.

Just prior to the mid way mark of the second, Cody Alcock exploded down the left wing, and tucked one between Sadikov's legs, his first of the night, to give the Fronts the lead for good. Moments later, David Mazurek flew down the same wing on a two on one, and fired a rocket over the gloved hand of goalie Sadikov.  Just 1 minute and 20 secs later, Nathan Cull capitalized on a rebound of a Cody Alcock shot.  Kingston was up 5-2.

The Fronts were really taking it to the net on this night.   Alcock obviously got the coach's message, after sitting out the second period of last night's game due to perceived lack of effort.  The Fronts scored 4 goals in 6:42 of the second and lead on the shot clock 40-21. Jacob Riley had a solid second.

Alcock was rewarded for his play in the game by being moved up to the first line with Greenaway, and the suddenly hot, Nathan Cull.  This decision, by coach Gill, proved to be the right one.

Draft eligible, defenseman, Alex Gudbranson wristed one from the point, that beat goalie Sadikov five hole. Alcock scored his second of the game at the 5 minute mark of the third, for Kingston's 7th consecutive goal of the night.  After Jake Evans made it 7-3, Cody Alcock completed his hat trick as he blasted one past Sadikov short side on the powerplay, from Warren Steele, and Darcy Greenaway. Ryan Kujawinski sniped his 12th, on a beautiful pass from Billy Jenkins at 18:08.  Ryan has now scored in 5 consecutive games for the Frontenacs!

This made the final score 9-3 for the Fronts. Final shots on goal were 57-33 for Kingston. The three stars were Cody Alcock (3g, 1a) Nathan Cull (2g) and Alex Gudbranson (1g, 2a).

Kingston goalie, Jacob Riley settled down nicely, after giving up two goals on Erie's first 5 shots.  He only gave up one goal on his last 28 shots to become the Fronts only goalie, not named Bobkov, to win a game for Kingston. Outstanding effort by the Fronts again tonight!

The Fronts are going to want to add me to their staff, as they have now earned at least a point in their last six games, including every game that I have written about them!

OHL Game Report - GUE v KGN Feb 12/12

by John Duncan

Frontenacs Young Guns Explode !

Today marks the Guelph Storm's only visit to Kingston this season.  Entering today's game, the Guelph Storm were tied for the eight and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, with 49 points.  Needless to say, two points today would be huge for them.  Thanks to a breakout game by 3 young guns, it would be the Frontenacs celebrating in the end.

This was the third game in three days for both teams.  The Storm defeated the Ottawa 67's on Friday night 5-4, and lost to the Belleville Bulls 3-1 at Yardman Arena last night.

The Frontenacs lost in OT to the Bulls on Friday night, and lost in a shootout in Oshawa.

Early forechecking by Storm was rewarded, as Patrick Watling opened the scoring on a nice pass from behind the net byTyler Bertuzzi, 3:58 seconds into the first.

The Frontenacs responded with some early pressure of their own.  Warren Steele rung one off the left post. Jenkins was stopped off the rush by the quick glove hand of Sparks on a nice pass from Ryan Kujawinski.  Beranek,on a clear break, missed the net low to the right of the post.  The Fronts continued to apply pressure in the middle of the first period.

Jenkins scored his 6th of the year from Morbeck and Kujawinski at 9:18 of the 1st, on an afternoon which would prove to be his best as a Frontenac, tying the game at 1.

Matt Finn made it 2-1 on a wristshot from the point just as a penalty to the Fronts ended. The goal was unassisted.

Two quick goals by the Fronts at the beginning of second; the first at 1:15 by Cull (his 3rd) from Moffat, and Greenaway.  At 3:37 Fronts' rookie Ryan Kujawinski notched his 8th of season from Jenkins and Morbeck. The entire line was in on their second of the game.

Billy Jenkins then scored a beauty, bringing the fans to their feet at K-Rock, with a diving deke around Garret Sparks at 16:35, assisted by Morbeck and Nixon. Moments later, Jenkins  circled the net and fed Trevor Morbeck for his 7th of the year.  The other assist went to linemate, Ryan Kujawinski.  Time of the Fronts' 5th goal was 19:41 of the 2nd.

Play got a little nasty in the middle of the third, as Leslie from the Storm was called for high sticking, and later Nevins, Mazurek were called for crosschecking, resulting in a lengthy, unsuccessful, 5 on 3 advantage.  Thanks to solid goaltending by Bobkov, the Fronts' killed it off, but not before Moffat was awarded a rare penalty shot while killing a 5 on 3.  Sparks stopped him.

With 1:36 remaining in the contest, Bobkov stopped Guelph's Cody McNaughton on another penalty shot.  With 52 seconds to play, Ryan Kujawinski finished the scoring with an empty net, power play goal, from Trevor Morbeck, and Warren Steele.

Billy Jenkins was named the game's first star with 2 goals and 2 assists.  Linemate, Trevor Morbeck finished with a goal and 4 assists and was named second star. The third member of this line, Ryan Kujawinski was named the third star with 2 goals and 2 assists. An amazing game for these guys.

The Frontenacs accumulated 4 of the available 6 points this weekend, thanks in large part to an incredible 20 points by Kujawinski, Jenkins, and Morbeck in three games this weekend !

Kingston is off until Thursday when they travel to Peterborough to face the struggling Petes. One night later, the Fronts will host the Erie Otters at 7:30 at K-Rock Centre.

Does Igor Bobkov = Best in the OHL?

by Phil Phillips

Who is the best goalie in the OHL?

Is it Malcolm Subban of the Belleville Bulls? When he has played his numbers say he is in the conversation, what about London Knights Star Michael Houser, Mark Visentin of the IceDogs, Scott Wedgewood or Matt Mahalak in Plymouth, maybe 67's Peter Mrazek. But on this day I'm not looking for just great numbers, I'm looking for which goalie is the best, based on what he means to his team. The search leads me to The K-Rock centre in Kingston Via Surgut Russia and Igor Bobkov. I was surprised he wasn't moved at the deadline to a team like Belleville. The Bulls have great goal tending when Subban is healthy, and John Chartrand and Charlie Graham have been very good in some games, But with injuries to Chartrand and a 16 year old goalie in Graham who has been good, but its just not fair to put the pressure on a kid who didn't even start the year in the OHL, to lead you in to the playoffs.

I think Chartrand for Bobkov straight up would have been a great deal for everyone, Bobkov comes and helps Belleville through the injuries and Chartrand gets to be a full time starter, he wont want to be 2nd banana next year. And I don’t feel he will be back anyways because next year Belleville goes with Subban and Graham.

But by not trading him shows just how important GM Doug Gilmour and Coach Todd Gill believe Bobkov is to the young team that Kingston has. Before coming to Kingston this year Igor already had an impressive resume, he was a Silver medal winner and goaltender of the tournament at the U18s in 2009. Bobkov was drafted that year by the Anaheim Ducks 76th over all. He was the fourth goalie taken in the 09 draft. The Ducks have signed him to an entry-level contract. He also came with a Gold medal from the 2011 WJC.

This year with the Fronts he has been outstanding. He's GAA 3.46 and SV% .905 don't top the OHL. But when it comes to Kingston goaltenders it leaps and bounds better, then the other options, both of the other goalies Kingston has used, have GAA over 6.14 and SV% under .825, but that doesn't tell the whole story, He is first in the league in Shots against, facing on average over 35 a night, 14 times he has faced more then 40 shots. He is also first in saves with 1427; Bobkov is 2nd in the OHL in minutes with 2585 and games played (45). The Fronts have 15 wins on the season; Bobkov has 15 wins on the season. He gets very little PP support, Kingston's PP is last in the OHL, or even strength goal support only Erie has scored less goals then the Frontenacs. Lots of nights he has to be the teams best penalty killer, their PK is also in the bottom half of the OHL. He has beat some good teams like Niagara, Brampton, London, and in division games he has beat Ottawa and Oshawa three times, Belleville twice and Peterborough once. He has been named a 3 Star selection 14 times; in 7 of those he has been the games 1st Star. 3 of his 1st Star selections have been on the road. His highlight so far has to be the 50 save performance he put in against his former team the London Knights on JAN 13th. I know when the Bulls face the fronts, we know who Darcy Greenaway, Cody Alcock are and what they do, but it’s Bobkov we worry about.

Thoughts from the Editor...

Another weekend is done in the OHL and I just had to point out some bullet points from around the league.

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I Know Thayne (@thallyburton) can not believe this but the Brampton Battalion are sitting on top of the Central Division, tied with Mississauga in points (26) but have one more W than their HWY410/401/403 rivals. Brampton still leads the OHL in goals against while scoring the 2^nd fewest goals in the league.

The Central division is tighter than many would have thought at the beginning of the year. The 5 teams in the division has basically flipped flopped after the opening 3 weeks of the OHL season…

Mississauga started 7-0 until the Battalion made them a 7-1 team. After their first 8 games, the Majors have gone 4-5-1-3. 12 of a possible 26 after scooping up 14 of 16 to open the season.

Niagara has not set the league on fire as expected. Sitting third in the division with 20 points the IceDogs are still an enigma. Freddie Hamilton leads the team in points (12/18/30) with his younger brother Dougie Hamilton (9/19/28), Ryan Strome (11/9/20) and David Pacan (10/10/20) round out the top 3 in team scoring, What is puzzling is that only 2 players are a +5 or better player on the team (D. Hamilton, Strome with +7 each) with 13 players hosting a minus rating (Steven Shipley is the worst at -10). Potential starter for Team Canada at the WJHC Mark Visentin is equaling his worst statistcal numbers since his rookie season, currently with a 4-6-0-1 record 3.38GAA and a .882SV%

Sudbury Wolves looked to be copying what they accomplished last season. A slow (pathetic) start leading to a big finish, but this years Wolves squad has turned it around sooner. After starting this season 0-4-1 (started 1-6-1 in 10/), the Wolves have gone 9-4 to erase a huge deficit in the division and be considered a contender for the Central. The Wolves are the lowest scoring team in the Central and sit 18^th in league scoring.

Barrie Colts forward Tanner Pearson is still leading the league in overall scoring with 15G26A For 41 points.  Pearson has had 2 pointless games. Nail Yakupov is sitting with 38 points (13/25) which sits him second in league scoring and has had 4 pointless games.

The Saginaw Spirit prefer Brandon Saad was in the lineup terrorizing opponents. The Spirit are 2-9-2 without the Chicago Blackhawks in the lineup. With Saad’s 8 Games played and 18 pts (9G/9A) the Spirit are 5-3.

The Plymouth Whalers have put on an impressive weekend outscoring their opponents (GUE/SSM/ER) 23-5 this past weekend. Scott Wedgewood won 2 games this weekend with a 2GAA, a .933 SV% and a shootout, with Matt Mahalak winning the 3^rd game of the weekend with a 1GAA and a .971SV%. Wedgewood has a GAA over 3 for the season, Mahalak is under 1.9GAA and their save percentages has Wedgewood with a .905 while Mahalak is at a .939. Is it time for Plymouth to cash in on a goaltender?

After starting 1-8 on the season the Erie Otters have done little to improve. The Otters now sit at 3-16 on the season and it does not look like it will improve even with the return of Adam Pelech on the blueline. The Pieces in Erie are seemingly on the trade block and awaiting a new home.

Don’t look now but the Belleville Bulls have strung together 5 wins in a row, the first time they have accomplished during the regular season alone since March 7-18, 2009 (Oct 29-Nov 8 was another 5 Game winning streak). Also during the 08/09 season the Bulls had a 7 game winning streak (Feb 11-25), and an 8 game winning streak (Jan 10-30)

London Knight goaltender Michael Houser’s numbers may have fallen back down to normal level but he still is leasding the league in the most important category, Wins. Houser is leading all goaltenders with 15 Wins so far this season, OTT Petr Mrazek is second with 11 victories. Houser is also the busiest Goaltender in the league facing 673 shots in 19 games (35.4 shots a game).

The Kingston Frontenacs have apparently woken up winning out their 3 games this past week. The Frontenacs put up 19 goals in 3 games while Igor Bobkov has seemingly found his game in the Kingston Crease and the most talked about trade rumour subject, Ryan Spooner, woke up with 4 goals, 10 points and a +6 rating in the past 3 games.

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