I didn't find out it was Yann until this morning. I thought he had a great game, best I've seen him play all year. It was real interesting that he wore an A too. He really helped his stock last night. Mayer on the other hand ... he sure got lit up
Boychuk, Schenn lead Whites over Reds in Prospects gameJim Matheson, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008
EDMONTON - Lanny McDonald's famous moustache is pretty grey now and the waistlines of Grant Fuhr, Glenn Anderson and Mike Vernon are a little bigger than they were back in the 1980s, but in a re-enactment of the Battle of Alberta, the only thing people were keeping track of Wednesday night in the Canadian Hockey League Top Prospects game was the final score.
And the old Oilers beat the old Flames in a battle of guest coaches as Anderson and Fuhr's Whites walloped McDonald and Vernon's Red squad 8-4 in the matchup of the best junior prospects for this June's draft in Ottawa.
The Whites, who really had Tri-City Americans coach Don Nachbaur doing most of the work behind the bench, got strong efforts out of two players who represented Canada at the world junior hockey championships - winger Zach Boychuk from Western Hockey League's Lethbridge Hurricanes and defenceman Luke Schenn from the WHL's Kelowna Rockets. Boychuk, who played on the fourth line in the recent worlds, had a goal and two helpers and made the best individual play with a dazzling move on Saskatoon Blades defenceman Jyri Niemi to set up a goal by Josh Bailey in the first. Schenn, who reminds a lot of scouts of a young Adam Foote, got the first White goal, rocked several players with big hits and played a calm, collected game with and without the puck.
Bailey, who plays at with the Ontario Hockey League's Windsor Spitfires, added a second goal late in the third before a crowd of 13,596 at Rexall Place. Jared Staal, Jamie Arniel (shorthanded), Mitch Wahl and Zach Bogosian got the others and Cody Hodgson of the OHL's Brampton Battalion had three helpers.
Red starter Robert Mayer of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's Saint John Sea Dogs gave up five goals in only 15 shots before being replaced by Tri-City's Chet Pickard, the highest-rated goalie going into the draft. He surrendered three on 16 shots.
Team White got smoked in Tuesday's skill contest and 3-on-3 game but it was obviously a rope-a-dope tactic as they led from the five minute mark in this one and never looked back. Sarnia Sting forward Steve Stamkos, the likely top draft in June, had a goal and fed Danish winger Mikkel Boedker, of the Kitchener Rangers, for another was the best Reds' player. He even got into a fight with 3 1/2 minutes left with big Saint John defenceman Yann Sauve, showing he's more than a one-trick pony.
Philippe Cornet from the QMJHL's Rimouski Oceanic and Kelowna's Brandon McMillan had the others for the Reds. The first two came on Peter Delmas from the QMJHL's Lewiston Maineiacs, the other two on Thomas McCollum from the OHL's Guelph Storm.
While Boychuk, Schenn and Stamkos were very good, the fourth member of Canada's world junior team, Drew Doughty really struggled on the back-end for the Reds. Doughty, the second-rated player going into the draft, looked out-of-sorts all night long in what one scout Al Murray, Hockey Canada's chief bird-dog said might have been "the worst game I've seen him play."
Not that that will probably hurt him on draft day, but it showed that Doughty's still developing as a hockey player, prone to trying too hard.
Mayer, who played for Switzerland in the world juniors, got torched, giving up four goals in the opening period. Schenn and Staal, the baby of the four Staal brothers, beat Mayer 18 seconds apart in the first five minutes of the game. Schenn, the big Kelowna defenceman who plays the game in ill-humour, whipped home a 15-footer, and Staal, who plays with the OHL's Sudbury Wolves, swept in a rebound as he fell to his knees just outside the crease.
Arniel, former Winnipeg Jets winger Scott Arniel's nephew, roared in on a shorthanded breakaway after a dandy 60-foot pass from Brandon Wheat Kings defenceman Colby Robak, and Bailey slipped a rebound home after Boychuk set the play up with a wonderful individual rush in the first period. The Lethbridge forward turned Niemi, who won the hardest shot in the Tuesday skills contest, inside out. Mayer stopped him but Bailey was there for the finishing touch. Before he left in the second, Peterborough's Bogosian, who could go third in the draft, blew a screened 60-footer by him.
Edmonton Journal
