DeBrincat sinks tourney winner at Wuest Memorial

Since selecting Alex DeBrincat in the Second Round (39^th Overall) at the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, the Chicago BlackHawks organization has seen he can give it quantity as he racked up back-to-back 100-plus point seasons with the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League.

On Tuesday (Sept. 12, 2017), the 19-year-old winger from Farmington Hills, MI came up with some quality as well as some timely heroics as his goal 92 seconds into overtime lifted the Hawks to a 3-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup Prospects Tournament championship game. DeBrincat also scored the tying goal in this one 31 seconds from the end of the middle period.

In other games on the final day at the final day of the event, the Carolina Hurricanes Prospects shutout the Minnesota Wild Prospects 5-0 in the Third Place Game and the Blues Prospects wrapped up Fifth Place with a 5-1 win against the Red Wings Prospects.

There was no Midwest region involvement in the Seventh-Place game, the Dallas Stars avoided the basement position with a 4-1 win against the New York Rangers.

Championship – Black Hawks Prospects 3 Blue Jackets Prospects 2 (ot)

The Jackets have been the team to beat at this event for the past five seasons and early on appeared on its way to a fifth title in six seasons, carrying a 2-0 lead out of the first period. Calvin Thurkauf, 20, from Switzerland, selected by the Blue Jackets in the Seventh Round (185^th Overall) of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft and Hayden Hodgson, 21, from Ontario counted the Columbus goals.

Radovan Bondra, 20, from Slovakia, Fifth Round pick (151^st Overall) by the BlackHawks at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, finally connected for the Hawks 5:41 of the second. DeBrincat took over from there.

Matt Tomkins, 23, from Alberta, a Seventh Round (199^th Overall) selection of the Hawks at the 2012 NHL Entry Draft made 15 stops to pick up the win in goal and Ivan Kulbakov, 20, from Belarus, turned aside 25 in goal for the Blue Jackets.

Third Place – Hurricanes Prospects 5 Wild Prospects 0

The Wild simply couldn’t’ beat Callum Booth in this one as the 20-year-old goaltender from Quebec turned aside 28 shots to nail down the shutout.

The Canes and Wild were scoreless after both two periods, all five Canes scores scored in the final frame.

Andrew Poturalski, 23, from New York, scored twice for the Canes with other goals added by: Roland McKeown, 21, from Ontario, Second Round (50^th Overall) pick by the Los Angeles Kings at the 2014 NHL Entry Draft; Julien Gauthier, 19, from Quebec, First Round pick (21^st Overall) by the Hurricanes at the 2016 NHL Entry Draft and Stelio Mattheos, 18, from Manitoba, Third Round (73^rd Overall) pick by the Canes at the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.

Dereck Baribeau, 18, from Quebec, made 28 saves in goal for the Wild. 

Fifth Place – Blues Prospects 5 Red Wings Prospects 1

Both the Hawks and Wings were coming off big wins the previous day but the Blues owned a better record, the odd team out of a three-way tie atop the Ted Lindsay Division. Despite a 2-1 record through round robin matches, the Blues found itself battling in the bottom half and took its frustrations out of the Wings.

Tage Thompson, 19, from Arizona, First Round (26^th Overall) Selection of the Blues at the 2016 NHL Entry draft led the way again, firing his fourth and fifth goals of the tournament five minutes apart in the second period as the Blues Prospects wiped out a 1-0 first period deficit with three unanswered middle period markers and two more down the stretch.

Greg Meireles, 18, from Ontario; Robert Thomas, 18, from Ontario, First Round (20^th Overall) Pick by the Blues at the 2017 NHL Entry Draft and Filip Helt, 19, from Czech Republic, Seventh Round (211^th Overall) pick by the Blues at the 2016 /NHL Entry Draft fired the other Blues’ goals.

Evan Fitzpatrick, 19, from Nova Scotia picked up the win in goal for the Blues with a 26-save effort and Kaden Fulcher, 18, from Ontario, stopped 23 shots in goal for the Wings.

All five Midwest-based teams will not move on to opening training camps with several of the players from these Prospect squads earning an invite. The Red Wings will stay right in Traverse City for the start of its camp.