Shane Gersich, Eric Florchuk and Connor McMichael Record Hat Tricks: Week 20 Capitals Prospect Report

Posted on February 2, 2020 by Jon Sorensen
Photo: Caroline O’Connor/Great Save Productions/Hershey Bears

Welcome to the week 20 Washington Capitals prospect report. The following includes a summary of game action and news for Capitals prospects that occurred between January 27th and February 2, 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

MONTHLY PROSPECT REPORTS

AHL/HERSHEY BEARS

The Bears returned from the All-Star break with a 4-1 win over the Sound Tigers in Bridgeport. Shane Gersich recorded his first career AHL hat trick. The Bears would be shutout on home ice 3-0 against the Phantoms on Saturday night. The Bears are now 28-15-2-3 (61 points) on the season. They remain tied with the Hartford Wolf Pack for first place in the Atlantic Division, but the Wolf Pack still have two games in hand.

Vitek Vanecek – Vanecek spent Sunday and Monday at the AHL All-Star game in Oxford, California where he allowed just two goals over four games in the four-team round-robin AHL All-Star Challenge. Vanecek and the Atlantic Division took home top honors. Vanecek was also named the MVP. In AHL action, Vanecek would stop 29 of 31 shots faced in the Bears 3-0 loss on Saturday night. For the season, he is 13-9-1-1 with a 2.43 GAA and a .908 save percentage.

Pheonix Copley – stopped 19 of 20 shots he faced in the Bears 4-1 win over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers n Friday night. Copley now seems to hold the edge for top starter,mouth the battle has see-sawed most of the season. For the season, Copley is 14-6-4-1 with a 2.41 GAA and a .907 save percentage.

Shane Gersich – recorded his first career AHL hat trick Friday night against the Sound Tigers in Bridgeport. For the season, Gersich has nine goals and five assists in 40 games played. Gersich has already passed his goal total from last season (8). His shooting percentage this season (14.3%) is also double last season’s 6.4%.

OHL/WHL

Connor McMichael – recorded his sixth hat trick of the season Friday night against Windsor. McMichael would also add an assist and was the first star of the game.

Video: The OHL

McMichael would wrap the week with three assists against the Sarnia Sting On Saturday. For the season McMichael has 37 goals and 46 assists in 37 games played. season. He is third in points and third in goals in the OHL, even though he missed most of December for the World Juniors.

Aliaksei Protas – continues to be in the midst of a mid-season goal slump, as he has not dented twine in seven games. He has four goals and 13 assists in 17 games since returning from World Juniors (12/27). He did record two assists Friday night versus Lethbridge. For the season, Protas has 22 goals and 37 assists in 44 games played.

Eric Florchuk – scored the overtime game-winner for the Giants Friday night against the Blazers in Kamloops.

NCAA

Mitchell Gibson – stopped 26 of 31 shots faced in Harvard’s 8-5 win over Union Friday night. For the season Gibson is 7-4-2 with a 2.52 GAA and a .923 save percentage. He is currently 24th in the NCAA in GAA and 12th in save percentage.

By Jon Sorensen

About Jon Sorensen

Jon has been a Caps fan since day one, attending his first game at the Capital Centre in 1974. His interest in the Caps has grown over the decades and included time as a season ticket holder. He has been a journalist covering the team for 10+ years, primarily focusing on analysis, analytics and prospect development.
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4 Responses to Shane Gersich, Eric Florchuk and Connor McMichael Record Hat Tricks: Week 20 Capitals Prospect Report

  1. Jon Sorensen says:
    February 2, 2020 at 5:30 pm

    Good to see Gersich find his game a bit, after taking on a bit of a different role with the Bears, he’s beginning to excel.

    Reply
  2. Diane Doyle says:
    February 3, 2020 at 7:21 am

    Guess last week was Hat Trick week in Caps prospect line.

    Reply
  3. kingofprides says:
    February 3, 2020 at 2:22 pm

    Nice to see the Mitchell Gibson updates this year. I had been wondering where and what he was doing. I don’t even remember hearing about him in development camp this year.

    Reply

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