Team Tiger Williams routed Team Kelly Hrudey in the inaugural CHL Home Hardware Top Prospects Skills Competition, held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan before 6,133 fans at Saskatchewan Place Wednesday night.
Team Tiger Williams defeated Team Kelly Hrudey 20-7 in the Skills Classic. The skills competition featured all 40 players who will take part in Thursday night’s CHL Home Hardware Top Prospects Game, which will be broadcast live nationally by Rogers Sportsnet at 7 p.m. local time, 8 p.m. ET.
Points were awarded to the team which accumulated “bests” in individual and team skill events. Leading the way for Team Tiger Williams was Jay Bouwmeester of the Medicine Hat Tigers, who was tagged as the fastest skater with a time of 14.463 for one complete lap.
The Hardest shot was awarded to Calgary Hitmen forward John Boychuk, who registered a 94.7 miles per hour blast. Pierre-Marc Bouchard of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens for Team Tiger was the most accurate shooter by destroying four targets in just six attempts.
Another highlight from the inaugural Home Hardware Top Prospects Skills Competition was Jeff Deslauriers of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens being named the top goaltender.
The 2002 CHL Home Hardware Top Prospects game takes place at 7 p.m. local time Thursday night at Saskatchewan Place. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are available for $15. For more information, call the Saskatoon Blades office at (306) 975-8844, or call Select-A-Seat at 938-7800.
2002 CHL HOME HARDWARE TOP PROSPECTS GAME ON ROGERS SPORTSNET
The 2002 CHL Home Hardware Top Prospects Game will be broadcast live on Rogers Sportsnet Thursday at 7 p.m. MT and 8 p.m. ET, live from Saskatoon Place.
It’s the seventh annual edition of the Home Hardware Top Prospects Game, which features 40 of the top CHL prospects for the National Hockey League’s Entry Draft, as selected by the NHL’s Central Scouting Department.
This year’s celebrity coaches for the game both have roots in Western Canada. Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster and former NHL and WHL star Kelly Hrudey will coach one team, taking on a squad coached by former NHL and WHL star Dave “Tiger” Williams.
Among the participating players this year are three members of Canada’s national junior team, which won a silver medal at the recent World Junior Hockey Championships in the Czech Republic. Defenceman Jay Bouwmeester of the Medicine Hat Tigers of the WHL, forward Rick Nash of the London Knights of the OHL and forward Scottie Upshall of the Kamloops Blazers of the WHL are among the bright young CHL stars taking part in both Thursday night’s game and Wednesday night’s skills competition.
Brandon Segal of the Calgary Hitmen replaces injured forward Tim Brent of the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors in the game, bringing the number of Western Hockey League players in the game to 15. There are 15 OHL players performing, along with 10 players from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Bouwmeester is the number one ranked player from the WHL on the NHL’s current North American rankings, while Upshall is number two. Nash is the number one ranked prospect from the OHL on the NHL’s list. Ben Eager of the Oshawa Generals is the second ranked OHL player on that list and he will also be in the game.
The two top QMJHL prospects on the NHL Central Scouting Department list are defenceman Martin Vagner of the Hull Olympiques and defenceman Francois Caron of the Moncton Wildcats, who will lead the 10-player Quebec delegation into the contest.
The Kamloops Blazers of the WHL have the most players in the game with three, while 12 other CHL teams have two players each participating in this year’s game (Plymouth, Oshawa, Kitchener and Sault Ste. Marie from the OHL, Chicoutimi, Hull, Moncton and Shawinigan from the QMJHL and Brandon, Medicine Hat, Calgary and Swift Current from the WHL).
Virtually every player to perform in the CHL Home Hardware Top Prospects Game has been selected in the NHL Entry Draft. Such current NHL stars as Joe Thornton, Vincent Lecavalier, Simon Gagne, David Legwand, Scott Gomez, Chris Phillips, Alex Tanguay and Eric Brewer have appeared in the Game.
For full rosters of the teams, check the Home Hardware Top Prospects page at the official web site of the Canadian Hockey League, www.chl.ca.
WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE
There are no games in the WHL on Thursday night.
There were four games in the WHL on Wednesday night. Prince George doubled Vancouver 4-2, Seattle and Tri-City battled to a 4-4 tie, Spokane defeated Portland 4-2 and Kamloops drilled Kelowna 6-2.
At Prince George, Dan Braum scored the game-winning goal for the Raiders, while Mike Wirll added one goal and one assist. Kyle Stanton made 28 saves for Prince George to record the victory in goal.
At Seattle, Matthew Spiller’s power play goal at 11:56 of the third period tied the score and gave Seattle a point. Spiller and Nate Thompson both had one goal and one assist for the home side while Tyler Metcalfe added a pair of assists. Eric Johansson had two goals and one assist for Tri-City, with Rory McDade assisting on all four Tri-City goals.
At Spokane, Joff Kehler scored a pair of third period goals to lift Spokane to victory and he also added one assist. Matthew Keith had one goal and one assist for the winners, while Barry Brust stopped 32 shots before 4,405 fans.
At Kelowna, Ryan Annesley scored twice for Kamloops while Ben Knopp had one goal and two assists. Chuck Kobasew scored his 27th goal of the year for the losers, while Steve Belanger made 26 saves in goal for the winners.
ONTARIO HOCKEY LEAGUE
There are four games in the OHL on Thursday night. Kitchener is in Brampton, Barrie (5) travels to North Bay, Guelph visits Peterborough and Toronto St. Michael’s (10) is in Windsor.
There was just one game in the OHL on Wednesday night as the Owen Sound Attack got by the Barrie Colts (5) 3-2.
At Owen Sound, Dan Sullivan’s second period goal turned out to be the game winner and Derek Dolson made 27 saves to lead the Attack. Aaron Power had two assists for Barrie, while David Chant made 33 saves.
QUEBEC MAJOR JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
There is one game in the QMJHL Thursday night as Hull travels to Montreal.
On Wednesday night in the QMJHL, Sherbrooke defeated Shawinigan (4) 6-5.
At Shawinigan, Francois Belanger scored two goals and added two assists to lead Sherbrooke to its upset win. Patrik Levesque and Jonathan Robert both had one goal and two assists for the winners, while Jason Pominville had two goals and one assist for Shawinigan. Charles Gauthier added one goal and two assists for the Cataractes.
For complete QMJHL statistics and standings, visit the official QMJHL site.
