With Justus Annunen and Thatcher Demko unavailable for their parent clubs, the goaltending picture is in flux for the Colorado Eagles and Abbotsford Canucks as they open their Pacific Division First Round series tonight.
Eagles netminder Ivan Prosvetov was recalled by the Colorado Avalanche and backed up Alexandar Georgiev in Game 2 of their Stanley Cup Playoffs first-round series against the Winnipeg Jets last night. Prosvetov joined the Eagles in February and went 11-7-2 with a 2.33 goals-against average and .921 save percentage. With Prosvetov with the Avalanche, the Eagles got back Arvid Holm, who had backed up in Game 1 on Sunday.
But Abbotsford has its own goaltending upheaval.
Artūrs Šilovs and Nikita Tolopilo are both with Vancouver, leaving Zach Sawchenko in the AHL Canucks’ crease. Sawchenko made only six appearances for Abbotsford this season, going 4-1-0 with a 2.12 GAA and a .924 save percentage. Should he play in Game 1 tonight, it would be his Calder Cup Playoff debut.
Abbotsford has also added goaltender Jonathan Lemieux. The 22-year-old first-year-pro has spent the season with Kalamazoo in the ECHL.
The Calgary Wranglers finished seventh in the Pacific Division, but they have some fortifications coming heading into their first-round series with Tucson.
To start, there is Dustin Wolf in net. The two-time AHL goaltender of the year and 2022-23 league MVP played 17 games in the NHL with the parent Flames this season; in addition, he went 20-12-3 in 36 appearances with the Wranglers, posting a 2.45 GAA and a .922 save percentage.
Matt Coronato and leading scorer Adam Klapka are also back from the Flames, along with blueliner Ilya Solovyov. And a trio of highly regarded prospects are just in from the Canadian Hockey League as well, starting with forward Sam Honzek, the 16th overall pick in last June’s NHL draft. Honzek, 19, made his AHL debut with the Wranglers last week. Defenseman Hunter Brzustewicz, 19, was acquired from Vancouver in the Elias Lindholm trade in January and was a third-round draft pick in 2023. And Etienne Morin, also 19, was a second-rounder in 2023 who had 49 points (12 goals, 37 assists) in 58 contests with Moncton of the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League.
“All you’ve got to do is get there.”
Those were Toronto Marlies captain Logan Shaw’s words to the team website as the club geared up for Game 1 of their North Division First Round series at Belleville.
The 11th-year pro is still in pursuit of his first Calder Cup, with just 14 postseason games at the AHL level to his name. So is ninth-year forward Joseph Blandisi, whose longest Calder Cup Playoff run came when he was a rookie in the New Jersey Devils organization in 2016.
Shaw, a 30-goal scorer this season for the third time in his AHL career, is hungry. Blandisi, the team’s leading scorer with 59 points (25 goals, 34 assists) in 70 contests, wants more as well. Last season the Marlies finished first in the North Division in the regular season. Those Calder Cup hopes vanished in a division finals sweep by Rochester, but it’s a new year and the Marlies are excited.
Toronto cut it close this season, landing fifth in the North Division, but it still earned them their first-ever Battle of Ontario series with the Belleville Senators. That should be an extra bit of incentive to a roster that Blandisi says already is eager.
“I just think the energy we had all year was amazing, and we’re excited for this time of the year,” Blandisi told marlies.ca. “We’ve been waiting for this for quite some time now, and we’re excited to get it going.”
― with files from Patrick Williams
