Blue Jackets repeat as Traverse City champs

The Columbus Blue Jackets Prospects bounced back from a rough game at the end of round robin play to claim the championship of the annual Traverse City NHL Prospects Tournament for a second straight season.

With a 5-2 win the Jackets both claimed the title and denied the host Detroit Red Wings a chance to lift the trophy in a battle of Midwest-based NHL teams.

In other games on the final day before teams head to Training Camps; the St. Louis Blues clinched third place overall with a 5-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Minnesota Wild had to settle for sixth place after falling to the Dallas Stars 7-2 and the Chicago Blackhawks picked up its first win in its final game to nail down seventh with a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers.

Championship Game 

Blue Jackets 5 Red Wings 2 

The Blue Jackets carried a 2-1 edge out of the first period and used the same margin in the middle frame to go up 4-2 and then added one more down the stretch.

Kerby Rychel, a First Round (19th Overall) Selection in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft by the Blue Jackets, scored his team’s final goal after assisting on a couple of earlier markers. TJ Tynan, a Third Round (67th Overall) Selection in 2011 also picked up two assists and other goals came from: Nick Moutrey, A Fourth Round (105th Overall) Selection in 2013; Paul Bittner, a Second Rounder (35th Overall) Selected by the Blue Jackets this past June; Josh Anderson, Selected in the Fourth Round (95th Overall) in 2012 and Oliver Bjorkstrand, a Third Round (89th Overall) Selection in 2013.

In goal, Joonas Korpisalo, a Third Round (62nd Overall) Selection in 2012 stopped 26 of 28 shots to grab the win for the Blue Jackets.

Vili Saarijarvi, a Third Round (73rd Overall) Selection by the Red Wings this summer and Tomas Nosek,  signed by the Wings in the summer of 2014, scored the Red Wings’ goals while Jake Paterson, a Third Round (80th Overall) Selection by the Wings in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft stopped 21 of 26 shots against in goal.

Blues 5 Hurricane 1

After dropping its first game of the tournament to the Blue Jackets, the Blues stormed back with three straight wins to claim the ‘bronze’ position overall.

In this one, the Blues scored a pair of unanswered first period goals, both off of the stick of Bobby Fabbri, a First Round (21st Overall) Selection by the Blues in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.

The Blues added two more in the second before the Hurricane finally got on the board and the St. Louis side added one more in the third.

Vince Dunn, taken in the Second Round (56th Overall) earlier this summer; Thomas Vannelli, a Second Round (47th Overall) Selection in the 2013 Entry Draft and Mathieu Lemay, a free agent invitation, collected the other St. Louis Blues Prospects goals.

Luke Opilka, a St. Louis native taken in the Fifth Round (146th Overall) by the Blues in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft handled all but one of the 27 Hurricane shots to nail down his second win of the tournament.

Trevor Carrick scored the lone Cane goal and Rasmus Tirronen stopped 28 of 33 shots against him in goal.

Stars 7 Wild 2 

The Stars finished third in the Gordie Howe Division with a win, loss and overtime loss while the While won its first game and lost the next two in teh Ted Lindsay Division.

The skid continued off of a cliff for the Wild as they dropped a 7-2 decision in the Fifth Place Game. The Stars scored a pair of unanswered goals in both the first and second periods to all but settle the contest. The Wild opened and closed the scoring in the third, but the Stars buried three more in between.

Zack Mitchell, a free agent selection signed by the Wild in 2014 and Pavel Jenys, a Seventh Round (199th Overall) Selection in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft by the Wild, collected the Minnesota goals.

Emil Molin scored twice for the Stars with others for: Julius Honka; Radek Faksa; Jason Dickinson; Mads Eller and Mattias Janmark.

Blackhawks 5 Rangers 2 

The Blackhawks finally got off the shnide in the playoff round and avoided finishing last with a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers Prospects.

It was the Rangers on the board first with the only goal of the first period but the Hawks exploded for four unanswered middle period tallies and both teams added one more in the third period.

Dillon Fournier, a Second Round (48th Overall) Selection in the 2012 NHL Entry draft by the Hawks and Vince Hinostroza, taken in the Sixth Round (169th Overall) in the same Entry Draft, both picked up a goal and assist for the Hawks to pace the offense.

Other Hawk goals came from: Hayden McCool, an 18-year-old free agent invite who played with the Windsor Spitfires last season; Ryan Haggerty, also an invitee, 22 from Stamford CT who played last season with the Hartford Wolf Pack in the AHL and Maxim Lazarev, a free agent invitee from Kazan, Russia who played last season with Cape Breton Screaming Eagles of the QMJHL.

Austin Lotz, a 20-year-old free agent signee from St. Adolphe, MB who played last season with the Everett Silvertips of the WHL handled 35 of 37 Rangers’ shots to earn the team’s first win in goal.

For the Rangers, goals came from Keegan Iverson and Adam Tambellini with Taylor Dupuis stopping 27 of 31 Blackhawk shots.