It looks like some of the NCAA Conferences are beginning play this weekend, so I guess it's time for another thread.
Last season, we were tracking 4 Flames prospects on 3 teams in the NCAA: Emilio Pettersen (Denver), Demetrios Koumontzis (Arizona State), Mitchell Mattson (Michigan State), and Josh Nodler (Michigan State).
Pettersen signed his ELC with the Flames at the end of April, so he will not be returning to College (at least to play hockey). The other three players are expected to return to College for another season.
Additionally, the Flames drafted 2 NCAA (bound) players this year:
Yan Kuznetsov (D) will be entering his sophomore season at the University of Connecticut (UConn). As a freshman, Kuznetsov was the youngest player in the NCAA, only turning 18 in late March. That didn't stop him from playing in all 34 of UConn's games last season, where he put up 2 goals and 9 assists.
Jake Boltmann (D) is expected to play one more season in the USHL before starting college at the University of Minnesota next season. Last season, Boltmann split his season between High School hockey in his home town of Edina, MN and the USHL with the Lincoln Stars. This year, he will be wearing an "A" for the Stars and is expected to play the full season in the USHL.
It has been announced that Arizona State will be playing its games on the road, entirely within the Big-10 Conference, at least through the end of December. So far, the Big-10 has only announced its schedule through the 20th of December.
ASU's season starts on Saturday with a 2 game series at Michigan.
MSU's season starts next Thursday with a 2 game series hosting ASU.
UConn is in HockeyEast, which has not yet announced its schedule. Although, on Friday, they did announce that the season will start on November 20, so they should be announcing something soon.
Lincoln's USHL season starts this weekend. It appears the USHL is planning on playing a full regular season with games scheduled through late April.
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Hockey East has finally announced their schedule that is set to begin next weekend. UConn starts its season with a trip to Vermont next Friday and Saturday.
All of the Flames' NCAA prospects will see their seasons get underway over the next two weekends.
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ASU played 2 games at Michigan and got beaten pretty badly in both games. They lost on Saturday 8-1 and 3-0 on Sunday. They were outshot 84-33 between the two games.
The USHL cancelled the game Lincoln was scheduled to play on Friday because their opponent failed to meet the league's COVID safety standards. They were able to start their season on Saturday in Tri-City (but not the same Tri-City as the WHL -- that's confusing). They lost 3-2 in OT. Boltmann had no points, but was a +2, so that's something.
On Sunday, Hockey East announced that Vermont won't be starting its season next week as planned, which also means no games for UConn next week since they were supposed to be Vermont's opponent.
Next week (Thursday & Friday), ASU continues its Michigan road trip with 2 games in East Lansing against MSU. There should be 3 Flames' prospects in the games.
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EDIT: ASU scored late to tie and OT settled nothing, so the game goes into the books as a 1-1 tie. The two teams are back at it tomorrow, also at 4:00pm MT.
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Last edited by getbak; 11-19-2020 at 06:28 PM.
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It looks like Hockey East redid its schedule after Vermont cancelled its games this weekend, so UConn will be starting its season tonight after all, against UMass.
Mattson - doesn’t have the speed to play in the NHL. Being deployed in a defensive role and on the pk. That will be his calling card if he goes further but from what I see, he won’t get a contract barring major improvement in his skating.
Nodler - seems have to earned the trust of coach Cole and is being deployed in an offensive role with pp time. Not big by any stretch but seems to have decent hockey iq. Definitely a prospect to keep an eye on as the tools appear to be there.
Koumontzis - disappointing to see how far down the lineup he’s playing. Seems to skate around a lot without any results. Decent speed but isn’t driving the play. Early in his development and maybe a function of the team he plays for but didn’t really impress me or give me hope he will take the next step.
Kuznetsov - defensive first d as he was projected. Seems to be positionally sound and gets involved physically. Gets second minute pp time which was a pleasant surprise, given he is a sophomore. Another prospect to keep an eye on, although the video feed from Connecticut was horrible.
Just as a side note for Shaw customers, big 10 network has a decent slate of games set up and I added the channel for $4/mth. Not bad investment to watch some live hockey. Here’s their sked:
MSU played this afternoon at Ohio State. Nodler and Mattson both had an assist. The Spartans won 3-2 in OT.
ASU is playing Wisconsin today. The live stream is available on TSN.ca. If you have a TSN subscription, you should be able to log-in to watch it. The game just started.
ASU has been struggling badly to start the season. They have only scored 2 goals in 4 games so far. Wisconsin only has 9 forwards dressed tonight, possibly due to COVID exposure.
UConn was originally scheduled to play against Maine this weekend, but Maine has suspended their sports programs through December 8, so those games were postponed. Kuznetzov will be leaving UConn to attend the Russian World Juniors camp, which starts this week.
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Koumontzis was hurt after delivering a hit in the first period.
He came out for one shift in the second but then left for good. However, I was unable to watch the third period so someone can correct me if he did come back for the third.
Unfortunate after scoring his first goals in over a year and finally gaining back some confidence. Hopefully this doesn't ruin the little bit of momentum he had going.
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