Welcome to the week 5 Washington Capitals prospect report. The following includes game action and news that occurred between October 14 and October 20, 2019. (Reminder: you can always access all of our prospect news and analysis in the top menu under “Prospects”. You can also access the latest Capitals prospect news on Twitter under the #CapsProspect hashtag.

PREVIOUS RECAPS

• Week 4 Report (10/7 – 10/13) : here.
• Week 3 Report (9/30 – 10/6): here.
• Week 2 Report (9/23 – 9/29: here.
• Week 1 Report (9/16 – 9/22): here.

HERSHEY BEARS
The Bears began their Canadian road trip with a 4-3 loss in regulation to the Marlies in Toronto on Wednesday night. The Bears would bounce back with a decisive 5-1 win over the Belleville Senators on Friday night, and rally for a 4-2 win Saturday night against the Laval Rocket. The Bears are 4-2-1-0 (9 points) and currently tied for second in the Atlantic Division.

Pheonix Copley
Pheonix Copley has been on fire since being waived and re-assigned to Hershey. He has the best GAA and save percentage in the AHL for goalies with four or more starts.

For the week, Copley gave up a goal on 13 shots in relief of Vitek Vanecek in Toronto and gave up just a goal on 32 shots against Belleville.

Vitek Vanecek
Vanecek has got off to a slow start this season. For the week, he was pulled from the Toronto game after giving up three goals on 11 shots, but responded nicely on Saturday against the Laval Rocket. For the season, Vanecek is 2-1-0, with a 3.53 GAA and a .870 save percentage.

Axel Jonsson-Fjallby
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby had two goals Wednesday night against the Marlies in Toronto. His first came midway though the second period on a turnover by Marlies at the offensive zone blueline. Jonsson-Fjallby gathered the puck and jetted towards the Marlies net.

Video: Hershey Bears

Jonsson-Fjallby’s second tally of the game came in the third period with the Bears trailing 4-2. Jonsson-Fjallby would collect the puck in the Bears defensive zone and immediately head up ice, would dish to Brian Pinho who would deal it right back after Axel gained space in the offensive zone.

Video: Hershey Bears

Jonsson-Fjallby was right back on the scoresheet Friday night in Belleville. This time, Axel would find open ice for a clean shot and score in the first period of the Bears 5-1 win.

Video: Hershey Bears

Connor Hobbs – Hobbs scored his first goal of the season Saturday night in Laval. The shot, a bomb from the top of the left circle, was reminiscent of goals scored in his days with Regina.

Joe Snively – Snively scored his first goal of the season, a spinning slapper from the slot, Saturday night in the Bears 4-2 win over the Laval Rocket.

Brian Pinho – Pinho also scored his first goal of the season in Laval on Saturday. Pinho entered the AHL season as one of the Capitals hottest forward prospects, and has played well in the early going, but just couldn’t find the scoresheet until Saturday.

Liam OBrien – Liam O’Brien had a goal at each stop in the Canadian leg of the current road trip, three tallies in three games.

Riley Sutter, Kody Clark – Both players did not make the Bears trip to Canada this week. They will be officially assigned to the Bears when they come off of Capitals Season Opening Injured Reserve.

OHL/WHL

Connor McMichael
McMichael was officially named to the OHL team for the Canada-Russia series on Wednesday.

Say hello to your Team #OHL roster for the upcoming @cibc #CANvsRUS Series! 🇨🇦🇷🇺

Don’t miss the action on Nov. 7 in Kitchener and Nov. 11 in London 🏒

DETAILS 📰: https://t.co/UGTcoP2irj pic.twitter.com/3BwSSBwWz3

— OntarioHockeyLeague (@OHLHockey) October 16, 2019

McMichael had an assist on three shots, was a -1 and 6 for 12 in faceoffs Friday night in a 4-2 loss to the Windsor Spitfires.

On Saturday, McMichael would score his ninth goal of the season and added two assists in a 6-3 win over Kingston.

For the game, McMichael had a goal and two assists on five shots. He was a +3 and 15 of 20 in faceoffs.

For the season McMichael now has nine goals and nine assists on 43 shots for a  20.9% shooting percentage in nine games played.

Aliaksei Protas
Aliaksei Protas was named to the Prince Albert Raiders leadership group on Tuesday. He will don an ”A” for the Raiders this season.

Zack Hayes was named as the captain of the Prince Albert Raiders on Tuesday, while Jeremy Masella, Aliaksei Protas and Brayden Watts will join him on this year’s leadership group.

(Group photo courtesy of @ApolloMedia11)https://t.co/bKeMEV2xUE pic.twitter.com/c0CY1so4tJ

— Lucas Punkari (@lpunkari) October 15, 2019

On Saturday, “The Viper” added an assist in the Raiders 2-1 loss to the Everett Silvertips. For the Game, Protas had an assist on three shots, was a +1 and 12 of 26 from the dot.

For the season, Protas has six goals and nine assists on 31 shots for a 19.4% shooting percentage in 10 games played.

Eric Florchuk
Eric Florchuk scored a natural hat trick against the Calgary hitmen on Monday. All three goals came in the first period of the Saskatoon Blades 9-3 victory over the Calgary Hitmen Monday afternoon. (More here.)

Saskatoon was back in action the following night in Medicine Hat. The Blades fell 3-1, and Florchuk was held off the scoresheet, registering a single shot, was a -1 and 6 of 21 from the faceoff dot.

For the season, Florchuk has four goals and two assists on 17 shots for a 23.5% shooting percentage in nine games played.

Alex Kannok Leipert
The Captain of the Vancouver Giants Scored his first goal of the season Sunday night in a 3-1 loss to the Victoria Royals. For the season, Kannok Leipert has a goal and an assist on 24 shots in 14 games played for the stay-at home defenseman.

OTHER PROSPECT NEWS

• Sebastian Walfridsson, defenseman, scored his first goal of the season and for his new club SSK on Wednesday.
• Martin Hugo Has, defenseman, made his Liiga debut for Tappara on Friday night. He would record two points on Saturday night.

2nd point of the game for Martin Hugo Has. He is credited with the goal but it looks like someone redirected his shot in in front of the net. Either way, 2 points in 2 #Liiga games now. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/XAKxMRyzq8

— Jokke Nevalainen (@JokkeNevalainen) October 19, 2019

by Jon Sorensen

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