Pickering Panthers Vs. Toronto Patriots
Game was played on Dec 21, 2017 in Toronto, Ontario. The Toronto Patriots won the game with a final score of 4 to 1 and generally carried the play throughout. It was a busy night for the special team units as both teams took their fair share of penalties. The players included in this report were born in the years from 1997-2000.
Grades are for this game only. Two players are new to our Neutral Zone profiles.
Andrew Petrucci #21 (F, L, 1997, Patriots) – In just about every facet of the game, Andrew seems to surpass the competition. He is physically dominant on the ice and difficult to knock off his feet. He skates with long and smooth strides making it look effortless and can change speeds almost instantaneously. His puck control is very strong and he has a soft set of hands to make difficult saucer passes look easy. On the power play he was active in the zone with and without the puck. On his team’s first power-play goal, he began the play by moving it from the boards to below the goal line, and by continuing to drive to the net he managed to draw the defenders toward him, and thus opening up the passing lane for the cross-ice play. Andrew finished the game with a goal and an assist, and he seemed to play in the offensive zone on nearly every shift. College: RIT Grade: A+
Dante Spagnuolo #15 (F, R, 1998, Patriots) – Dante is a smooth skater making it look effortless with above-average speed. He has a very quick first few steps and a long reach with his stick that he uses in combination on the fore-check to harass defenders and force turnovers. He is strong on the stick and was able to steal the puck from the opposition several times during the game with stick lifts combined with hard work. With the puck on his stick, Dante displays an awareness of the ice around him that surpasses the majority of his competition. He is a skilled passer and always has his head up. He had only one assist in this game but dominated the play when he was out on the ice and he always seemed to win the 50/50 puck battles. Grade: A
Nikolas Kalpouzos #77 (D, R, 1997, Patriots) – Nikolas is an incredibly smooth skater with excellent side-to-side movement, which helps him control the puck on the offensive blue-line. He is very good at scaling the line to improve his shooting angle, which he used in this game quite often on the power play and his shots were nearly all on net and low to the ice. He is strong on his feet making him difficult to contend with in the corners for opposing forwards but his real asset is his ability to take off from a stand still once in possession of the puck, to put separation between him and his opponents. Nikolas has strong control of the puck and his passes are tape to tape. He skates with his head up while the puck is on his stick and shows an awareness of the ice around him in the offensive zone by being able to find his open teammates and execute plays to set up scoring chances. Grade: A-
Michael Boushy #91 (F, R, 1999, Patriots) – Michael has very strong puck control while skating and can stick handle at top speed through pressure situations. He has above-average straight-line speed with strong lateral movement. He is creative with the puck in the offensive end and uses all the space given to him. He was able to set up a few scoring chances in this game by locating the open teammate and executing on the pass. He finished the game with two assists. Grade: A-
Alex Kraljevic #10 (F, L, 2000, Patriots) – Alex has excellent straight-line speed and the lateral movement to match it. He used it to get in on the fore-check quickly giving the defenders little time to work with in their own zone. His stick skills are strong giving him the ability to stick handle his way out of pressure situations. Alex was aggressive in this game and physical in the battles. He is quick to find the puck in the battles and he uses his stick very well to force turnovers and disrupt the opposition from making a play. Grade: B+
Riley Girard #77 (F, L, 2000, Panthers) – Riley has excellent straight-line speed and a quick first few strides that he uses to force the defenders wide on the rush. He has the ability to beat defenders with that speed and because of that, the opposition had a difficult time maintaining a healthy gap control when facing Riley. This helped lead to Riley’s goal, the only one in the game for the Pickering Panthers. Riley carried the puck into the offensive zone and saw the amount of space between him and the two defenders. He took advantage of the large gap and fired in a hard wrist-shot that beat the goaltender up high. Riley is hard on the puck in the battles and difficult to knock off once it’s on his stick. He is strong on his feet and never afraid to drive to the front of the net. Grade: B
Davis Teigen-Katsumi #33 (F, R, 1999, Panthers) – Davis is a big powerful forward with a soft set of hands making him a dangerous opponent in tight around the crease. In this game, Davis was parked in front of the opposition’s goalie for what seemed like most of the game and he sets up a large screen. His straight-line speed is only average but his strength, puck control and stick handling capabilities buy him space when carrying the puck through the neutral zone. He is physically strong and uses his body positioning to put separation between the puck and his opponent. Davis follows the puck in the offensive zone and is aggressive and always thinking offensively. He created a few turnovers in this game by sneaking into a puck battle and surprising the opposition and by the time they knew he was there, the puck was already gone. Grade: B
Josh Argier #7 (F, L, 1998, Panthers) – Josh has a very quick first few steps and can change directions on a dime making him difficult to defend against. He has quick hands and strong puck control when skating and he isn’t afraid to carry the puck. His head is up with the puck on is stick and his passes are tape-to-tape for the most part. In this game, Josh had a difficult time getting any offense going, largely due to the oppositions play. It would be nice to see Josh introduce a little more aggression in his game when playing without the puck, which in turn could lead to higher offensive possession numbers for he and his line-mates. With his combination of speed, agility, and puck control, he has the ability to force turnovers and make the job for the opposing defenders far more challenging in their defensive end. Grade: B-
Photo Credit: Dan Hickling/Hickling Images
