Juolevi played best hockey at the end
Finnish defenceman’s team eliminated, but individual stats in playoffs were superb
It’s the latest edition of the weekly tracker, where we tally up the efforts of the Canucks’ highest-profile prospects:
Olli Juolevi
His TPS team was just swept from the SM-Liiga semifinals, but Juolevi was one of the lone bright spots for the squad.
Juolevi had his strongest game of the playoffs in Game 4, a 6-5 overtime win for Poleaxe in which the Canucks’ fifth overall selection in 2016 had two assists, was plus-3 and had a whopping 10 shots on net in 26:53 of ice time.
Perhaps the most maligned of the Canucks’ prized prospects this season, Juolevi finished the season playing his best hockey. His up-and-down campaign looks good on paper, with seven goals, 12 assists and a plus-7 rating in 38 games.
But the playoffs were where Juolevi excelled. In 10 playoff games, he had two goals, five assists and was plus5 while averaging a healthy 23:17 on the ice, up from his season average of 17:52.
He recently told News 1130’s Rick Dhaliwal that he feels more ready for pro hockey. It took a while for him to transition from playing against boys in junior to men in Finland, he said, but it’s helped his defensive game and was a good decision overall on hispart.
TPS has one more game on its schedule, a “bronze match” against HIFK on Friday.
Jonah Gadjovich
It was thought that Gadjovich’s underwhelming playoff performance for Owen Sound was a result of a nagging injury.
The fact he sat out Games 4 and 5 against the top team in the OHL confirmed it.
Gadjovich suited up in the Attack’s 6-2 win in Game 3 on Monday against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, but didn’t register a point and had only one shot on goal. That was enough for the coaching staff, who didn’t dress him in Games 4 and 5, both losses for the Attack.
But the “man-child” was back for Game 6 — with a vengeance.
Gadjovich scored a goal and assisted on another in an emphatic 7-1 win for the Attack.
He was also named the game’s hardest-working player.
Gadjovich’s season has been marred by injuries, including a late-season fall into the boards that was thought to have affected
his back. After scoring 25 goals and assisting on 23 others in 42 games this season, he has one goal and two assists in seven playoff games thus far.
Game 7 is Tuesday in Sault Ste. Marie.
Jonathan Dahlen
To the victor go the spoils. Dahlen’s dream season in Sweden may be over, but the young hotshot has continued to light it up for the Utica Comets.
Dahlen scored his first AHL goal Sunday, a 4-3 overtime win in the Comets’ final game of the regular
season. He also added an assist in what was his second game with the team.
It appears he’s feeling right at home wearing the green and blue. We’ll see if he can keep the good vibes going in the playoffs as the Comets take on the AHL’s best team, the Toronto Marlies, in a best-of-five series that begins Saturday.
Thatcher Demko
In Sunday’s regular-season finale win, Demko did something no other Comets goalie has done before.
Demko is now the Comets’ alltime leader in regular-season wins
in a season with 25. He finishes a stellar campaign with a 25-13-7 record, a 2.44 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage. He now goes head-to-head against the best goalie in the AHL, the Marlies’ Garret Sparks.
Kole Lind
And he’s on the board.
Lind had a slow start with the Comets after getting called up from juniors, but the second-round pick from the 2017 draft had a secondary assist in Saturday’s 3-1 loss to the Bellevue Senators, his first point. By all accounts, he’s getting more
comfortable six games into his pro career.
He’s also getting more ice time in crucial moments: which can build his confidence ahead of the playoffs.
Elias Pettersson
The Swedish Hockey League final (or the SM-Slutspel in Swedish) is now set with Pettersson’s topranked Vaxjo Lakers facing Skelleftea on Tuesday. Skelleftea is the fifth-seeded team in the playoffs, and beat the second-ranked Djurgardens to reach the final.