Welcome to the week 16 Washington Capitals prospect report. The following includes a summary of game action and news for Capitals prospects that occurred between December 30, 2019 and January 5, 2020. (Reminder: you can always access all of our prospect news and analysis in the top menu under the “Prospects” tab. You can also follow the latest Capitals prospect news on Twitter under the #CapsProspect hashtag.
PREVIOUS WEEKLY REPORTS
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- Week 15 Report (12/23 – 12/29)
- Week 14 Report (12/6 – 12/22)
- Week 13 Report (12/9 – 12/15)
- Week 12 Report (12/2 – 12/8)
- Week 11 Report (11/25 – 12/1)
- Week 10 Report (11/18 – 11/24)
- Week 9 Report (11/11 – 11/17)
- Week 8 Report (11/4 – 11/10)
- Week 7 Report (10/28 – 11/3)
- Week 6 Report (10/21 – 10/27)
- Week 5 Report (10/14 – 10/20)
- Week 4 Report (10/7 – 10/13)
- Week 3 Report (9/30 – 10/6)
- Week 2 Report (9/23 – 9/29)
- Week 1 Report (9/16 – 9/22)
MONTHLY PROSPECT REPORTS
AHL/HERSHEY BEARS
The Hershey Bears opened their three games in three night’s weekend with a 6-2 drubbing of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The Bears would get a late goal from Shane Gersich for a 2-1 win over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Saturday night. The Bears completed the weekend sweep with a 3-2 win over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The weekend may have been costly, however, as Mike Sgarbossa, Joe Snively and Lucas Johansen all left Sunday’s game with injuries. There was no update available as of early Sunday evening.
Vitek Vanecek – had a good game Friday night in Wilkes-Barre, stopping 30 of 32 shots faced for a .938 game save percentage. Vanecek would close-out the Bears three-game weekend set with a strong outing against Bridgeport, stopping 30 of 32 shots faced for a .937 game save percentage. For the season, Vanecek is 12-5-1-1 with a 2.32 GAA and a .912 save percentage.
Pheonix Copley – had another strong outing on Saturday night versus Bridgeport. He stopped 21 of 22 shots for a .954 game save percentage. Copley has now strung together four pretty good games in a row. For the season, he is 8-5-4-1 with a 2.54 GAA and a .901 save percentage.
Brian Pinho – had another strong game on Friday night against the Penguins in Wilkes-Barre. He would score two goals and an assist. His first goal came on the end of a nice defensive play in the Bears zone.
Nice play by #CapsProspect Brian Pinho, ties the game 1-1. It’s his 7th goal of the season. He’s heating up. pic.twitter.com/uz6ISNJ0ob
— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) January 4, 2020
He would score his second goal of the game in the second period to give the Bears a 4-1 lead.
Bears lead 4-1 on Brian Pinho’s second goal of the game. 14:00 left in middle frame. Bears offense is showing signs of coming alive. #CapsProspect pic.twitter.com/bWHkDZGv2d
— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) January 4, 2020
Pinho would score his third goal of the weekend on Sunday against the Sound Tigers. Pinho has five goals and two assists in the Bears last six games. For the season he has nine goals and 10 assists in 36 games played.
#CapsProspect Brian Pinho scores his third goal of the weekend to give the Bears an early 1-0 lead. He has 9g, 10 in 36 games. pic.twitter.com/SXPd58tkAz
— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) January 5, 2020
Garrett Pilon – continues to heat up. He would score in Friday night’s victory over the Penguins.
Pilon would score his second goal of the weekend on Sunday against the Sound Tigers. Like Pinho, Pilon also has five goals and two assists in the last six games. For the season he has eight goals and 11 assists in 35 games played.
#CapsProspect Garrett Pilon scores to give Bears a 2-0 lead. #Peels es en fuego! pic.twitter.com/5zmZd35cjK
— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) January 5, 2020
Shane Gersich – scored the eventual game winner in Saturday night’s tilt versus the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The goal, his 4th Of The season, came with 49 seconds left in regulation.
#CapsProspect Shane Gersich scores the go ahead goal with 49 seconds left in the game. pic.twitter.com/9egldtADLf
— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) January 5, 2020
Kody Clark – scored his second professional goal on Sunday against the Sound Tigers.
#CapsProspect Kody Clark scores his second goal with the Bears. Hershey leads 3-1 middle of 2nd period. pic.twitter.com/duqELgCVoq
— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) January 5, 2020
OHL/WHL
Connor McMichael
McMichael and Team Canada beat Team Germany 4-1 on Monday. McMichael was elevated to the top line after anchoring the 4th line in the previous game, a 6-0 loss against Team Russia.
On Tuesday McMichael scored his second goal of the tournament in Team Canada’s 7-2 trouncing of the Czech Republic.
Make that four first period power play goals for Canada!!! Connor McMichael buries the rebound for his second of the game. pic.twitter.com/kaJ6ZIA49x
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 31, 2019
On Thursday, McMichael scored Team Canada’s second goal of the game. Here the fine folks at TSN discuss the goal and McMichael’s overall game.
Video: TSN
On Saturday, McMichael scored his 4th goal of the tournament in a 5-0 win over Finland in the semi-final.
Video: TSN
Following the game, linemate Ty Dellandrea was asked about McMichael’s goal. He told the media that McMichael called the shot prior to their first shift on the ice.
Video: TSN
McMichael would score a goal in the gold medal game as Canada beat Russia 4-3. McMichael’s goal would help ignite a Team Canada comeback.
Connor McMichael (WSH) unintentionally redirects Calen Addison’s (PIT) shot with his foot, and Canada is only down by one now. 3-2 Russia. #WJC pic.twitter.com/pLGku6HTdI
— Spencer (@spencerloane) January 5, 2020
For the tournament, McMichael had five goals and two assists in seven games played.
Aliaksei Protas
On Monday Protas assisted on the Raiders first goal against the Winnipeg Ice, extending his points streak to 12 games. He has 8 goals and 12 assists in those 12 games. Protas would also provide the secondary assist on the Raiders second goal.
Nice dish by #CapsProspect Aliaksei Protas sets up the Raiders second goal. Prince Albert Trails 3-2 in the 3rd period. pic.twitter.com/bufpaPYIZM
— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) December 31, 2019
On Wednesday, Protas was held off the scoresheet against the Regina Pats, ending his 12-game point streak. Protas was on the ice for the Pats overtime game winning goal.
Regina beats Prince Albert 13 seconds into OT. #CapsProspect Aliaksei Protas was held off the scoresheet, ending his 12-game point streak. pic.twitter.com/P1H968THXr
— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) January 2, 2020
Protas would also score on Sunday against the Winnipeg Ice. It was his 21st goal of the season. He also had an assist in the game and was named the first star.
SCORES! The Viper strikes on the power play! @protas_21 buries the feed from Ozzy Wiesblatt!
2-2 game. 6:59 left in the first.#GoRaidersGo #WPGvsPA pic.twitter.com/Ikc7lfDcDK
— Prince Albert Raiders (@PARaidersHockey) January 6, 2020
For the season, Protas has 21 goals and 30 assists in 34 games played. He’s fired 110 shots for a shooting percentage of 19.1%
Eric Florchuk – had an assist in all three games this week with Saskatoon. For the season Florchuk has 11 goals and 13 assists in 32 games. He’s picked up his shooting, now with 53 shots on the season for a shooting percentage of 20.8%. He continues to center the second line for the Blades.
EUROPE
Martin Hugo Has – scored in a 2-1 Czech win over Germany. The Czech’s were defeated in the first Game of the elimination round. The defenseman had a goals and two assists in five games played.
Has and the Czech Repuplic were eliminated from the tournament on Thursday. Has was called for a holding penalty, that led to penalty shot and the Swedes 4th goal.
It was reported on Sunday that Hugo Has will be leaving Finland to play in the OHL for the North Bay Battalion.
Damien Riat – The Swiss League started play again on January 2nd after the holidays. It was reported that Damien Riat will also be at the EHC Biel again. The forward suffered a concussion on November 2 and after a first comeback attempt at the end of November, had physical problems again. Just in time for the new year, he should now be able to make a comeback again, as the Journal du Jura reports.
Riat returned to the ice on January 3 against Lausanne HC and also played on January 5th against HC Davos. He was held off the scoresheet in both games. For the season, Riat has two goals and five assists in 18 games played.
NCAA
Mitchell Gibson – had another off night on Friday against Quinnipiac , giving up three goals on 20 shots faced for an .850 game save percentage. He was pulled after two periods. For the season, Gibson is 4-3-1 with a 2.46 GAA and a .925 save percentage.
By Jon Sorensen
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Good to see Pilon, Pinho start to heat up, spread the scoring around more in Hershey.
McMichael calling his shot is legendary.
It’s great to have everybody/everyone have success in and organization top to bottom. Bodes well for the future of the Washington Capitals franchise.
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