Friday night was one of those evenings where it did not matter if you were a New York Ranger or a New York Islander fan as if you loved hockey then this was your kind of night.Islander's First Star John Persson
We have to start with the Islander First Star John Persson (2011 5th) as we watched prospects have an impact on games but right now Persson is playing as good as anyone in any CHL league. Right now Persson is the guy who when the game was on the line is making the plays and is helping decide the outcome.
The Red Deer Rebels currently have the best winning percentage in the WHL and after defeating the Kamloops Blazers are 5-0-0-1. Want to guess which player also has a 6 game scoring streak going?
Friday night was a good evening for the Islander prospects as we wound up awarding 4 stars and could have given a 5th. It was a night where both well known as well as the unknown prospects stood out.
The Islander report can be found right here
Ranger Stars Michael St. Croix/Shane McColgan
If you are a fan of Brandon Prust, Ryan Callahan or even Sean Avery then boy you would have loved watching Michael St. Croix (2011 4th) and Shane McColgan (2011 5th) going at it with each other.
This is very much one of those games where the stat sheet is not going to tell you the story of this game. St. Croix and his Edmonton Oil Kings were in Kelowna to face McColgan's Kelowna Rockets and the score (Kelowna a 2-1 winner via the shootout) is not going to tell you how entertaining as well as how hard these 2 went after each other.
We have watched Ranger prospects go against each other but this one was a gem because whatever one prospect gave, the other prospect gave right back. Shot for shot, hit for hit and even in the shoot out when McColgan scored, it was St. Croix as the very next shooter answering his goal with one of his own.
Yes neither prospect scored (which ended St. Croix's 12 game scoring streak) but give the credit to the 2 goalies playing in this game. Both had scoring chances and both were stoned by an excellent save.
The Ranger report may not have as much offense as the Islander report does but it has it's own highlights including the return of Dylan McIlrath to the Moose Jaw lineup. The Ranger report can be found right here.
We also updated our Ranger player/prospect/media twitter lists thanks to Darren Colvil (@dcolvil) and if the Islander fans have a twitter list that they want to share we would be glad to do the same thing for you guys as we have with the Rangers.
Just let us know and we will post it up (just show some mercy to us and do it during the week please)
(Persson- Red Deer Rebels, St. Croix- Edmonton Oil Kings, McColgan- Kelowna Rockets)
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November 11, 2011
