Top Prospects comes to a close
The NAHL Top Prospects Tournament was shortened to two days this year, but the teams and players saved their best action to the final day as the three games didn’t disappoint the fans and scouts in attendance. The day was culminated by the NAHL 18U Selects team playing in a game against the USNTDP 17-Team. The event featured a record number of scouts for the fourth straight year and no doubt will feature several NAHL players committing to NCAA schools because of their performance.
Click here for scores and stats from the event
Here is a look at the scores from Tuesday:
Central 3 vs. South 2 – Central finished as the Top Prospects champions as they went 2-0 at the event thanks to a 3-2 win over South. South finished the event with an 0-2 record. Central jumped out to a fast 2-0 lead in the 1st period with goals from Stanislav Dzakhov and Drew Anderson. South would tie the game on goals from Kyle Bauman and Matt Lison. With less than 8 minutes to go in the 3rd period Jonathan Grebosky scored the game-winner. Aaron Nelson stopped all 12 shots he saw and Nick Lehr made 6 saves in the win. David Zevnik and PJ Bridges split time in goal for the South. Boxscore
Midwest 4 vs. North 1 – Midwest picked up their first win of the event with a 4-1 win over the North. After a scoreless 1st period North took a 1-0 lead on their only goal from Davis DeKorte. Just over two minutes later, Troy Loggins tied the game for the Midwest. The Midwest broke the game open in the 3rd period with three goals from Christian Salvato, Nick Hinz and Eric Brenk. Atte Tolvanen picked up the win for the Midwest with 7 saves while Blake Cates made 8 saves. Stefanos Lekkas and Alex Blankenburg split time for the North. Boxscore
USNTDP 5 vs. NAHL 18U Selects 1 – A packed house of scouts and fans watched a very competitive game between the NTDP team and the NAHL 18U Selects, but in the end six power plays and three power play goals were too much to overcome for the Selects as the NTDP picked up the 5-1 win thanks to three, 2nd period goals. Noah Janifin was credited with the first US goal as a shot from the high slot trickled through traffic and eluded a screened Chase Perry. The US broke the game open in the 2nd period on an even strength goal from Dennis Yan and power play goals from Caleb Jones and Luke Kirwan. Yan scored his second goal of the game late in the 3rdperiod to make it 5-0. Sam Kauppila scored with just a minute remaining in the game to break the US shutout bid. Both Perry and Logan Halladay split time in goal for the NAHL team and got a lot of praise from scouts. Luke Opilka made 14 saves for the US team. Boxscore
