Team Cherry downs Team Orr 7-4
Screaming Eagles’ Egor Sokolov gets a goal for Team Cherry
Ty Dellandrea, Aidan Dudas and Filip Zadina each scored twice as Team Cherry defeated Team Orr 7-4 at the CHL Top Prospects game Thursday night.
Team Cherry defenceman Evan Bouchard matched a Top Prospects game record for points with four assists and was named player of the game for his squad, while Kevin Bahl was named player of the game for Team Orr.
The 23rd annual game, being held this year at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph, Ont., featured 40 of the top draft eligible skaters ranked for June’s NHL Draft in Dallas.
Egor Sokolov had the other goal for Team Cherry while Olivier Rodrigue and Jacob Ingham combined to make 22 saves in the win. Bouchard, the London Knights captain, matched the record previously reached by five players, including Gilbert Brule most recently (2005).
Serron Noel, Bahl, Cole Fonstad and Dmitry Zavgorodniy responded for Team Orr. Alex Gravel made 16 saves before being replaced by Kevin Mandolese, who stopped 18 shots.
Sokolov opened the scoring on a broken play, picking up the loose puck off a failed toe drag by Giovanni Vallati and beat a screened Gravel at 14:10 of the first.
Dudas doubled Team Cherry’s lead at 15:35, on a breakaway, beating Gravel fivehole.
Dellandrea then set a top prospects game record, scoring twice in a 20-second span to give Team Cherry a 4-0 lead. That beat the previous record
for fastest two goals by one player set by J.P. Dumont in 1996 (3:22).
The Flint Firebirds forward beat Gravel with a shot from the slot on a feed from Vladislav Kotkov at 16:22 of the opening period. Then at 16:42, Dellandrea re-directed Nico Gross’ point shot past Gravel giving Team Cherry a four-goal cushion.
Dudas’s goal along with the pair from Dellandrea came in a span of 1:07, setting a record for fastest three goals by one team by beating the record set
by Team Orr (2:12) in 2011.
Zadina’s first of the night, a heavy wrist shot from the top of the slot that beat Gravel gloveside, gave Team Cherry a 5-0 lead at 4:12 of the second.
Team Orr finally got on the board at 9:50 of the second as Noel re-directed Bahl’s point shot past Rodrigue at 9:50.
Bahl then found the back of the net himself at 13:48 of the middle period picking up the lose puck at the top of the slot and beating Ingham fivehole.
Team Cherry took a 6-2 lead
as Dudas showed off his excellent hands tow-dragging around Allan McShane before beating Mandolese for his second of the game with five minutes remaining in the second.
Zadina gave Team Cherry a 7-2 lead with less than two minutes remaining in the second tapping in the rebound off Bouchard’s shot while falling to the ice.
Fonstad and Zavgorodniy added third-period goals, but that’s as close as Team Orr would get.