On a lost defensive faceoff, everyone has their assignments on who to cover in an attempt to turn the puck back over.
Flying out to the point to block an attempted slap shot isn’t necessarily in the playbook for Calgary Hitmen’s leading scorer Jakob Stukel, but a little improvisation never killed anyone.
“That’s not usually my assignment, but I saw that he was walking towards the middle and was about to unload so I tried to get my body in front of it. Lucky enough it hit me and Nieler [Tristen Nielsen] was able to track it down,” said Stukel.
Stukel slid shin-pads first to prevent a Jackson Caller shot attempt. The puck careened all the way down the ice where the fresh-legged Nielsen was able to track it down.
“That was straight up commitment from [Stukel] and what our team needs. It’s that kind of effort that will help us win games,” said Nielsen.
On a dead sprint with Jake Kustra draped all over him, Nielsen never broke stride, as he finally caught up to Stukel’s ad-libbed feed, controlling the puck long enough to slide it five-hole on Nolan Maier.
Nielsen’s eighth of the season wouldn’t hold as the game winner in a wild 6-5 victory over the Saskatoon Blades Tuesday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome, but displayed his full-throttle effort that has been missing from the Hitmen’s lineup for 20 games.
The 17-year-old Nielsen was already having a career season when he broke his wrist Nov. 22. He was going into the corner for a puck late against the Portland Winterhawks when he was drilled from behind. He showed tonight in front of 4,868 fans that even though the injury temporarily stopped his streak of seven points in five games, it wouldn’t slow him down.
It only took until the 4:08 mark of the second period for him to get his first point back in the lineup. Hitmen Head Coach Dallas Ferguson slotted him on the top line with Carson Focht and Stukel for his return. Working with his new linemates, he grabbed a loose puck and muscled one on net. On the doorstep was Stukel, who stuffed in his 21st of the season.
Midway through the second, Jake Kryski swatted a puck out of mid air and chipped it up to Nielsen, who red-lined in on Maier, but was hauled down by Tristen Robins and awarded a penalty shot.
Coming from the right, Nielsen squeaked a wrister through Maier, but the puck slid inches past the left post.
Upon returning to the bench, Nielsen grabbed some valuable intel that helped him later in the game on Stukel’s blocked-shot-pass.
“I knew he went down early and the guys on the bench said his five-hole was open. I should have shot it a bit earlier, I only missed by a few inches,” said Nielsen.
In the third, Nielsen was sprung on a short-handed breakaway. This time, with the information in the back of his mind, he deked to the backhand, trying to open up Maier, but couldn’t get the job done.
He also had a glorious opportunity late in the game on a rush. His shot found the inside of the opposite iron, but somehow managed to stay out.
“He probably should have had four goals tonight,” said Stukel. “He brought a lot of energy into our lineup and was flying around out there. If he can keep improving, he is going to be big for us down the final stretch.”
Nielsen wasn’t the only one lighting the lamp tonight. Neither team cracked the 30-shot mark, but 11 goals were poured into the net.
For the Blades, it was the hometown kid Braylon Shmyr who continued his fabulous over-ager season with a pair of goals and an assist.
“It’s been a long journey in the WHL and this was my second-last game in this building. It was the place I played my first-career game and it’s always nice to comeback and play in front of family and friends,” said Shmyr.
The Blades’ leading scorer got things going on the power play in the first when he appeared to catch Egor Zamula off guard by spinning up ice, carving his way into the slot and snapping one past the 20-year-old Nick Schneider.
Again on the power play in the second, Logan Christensen lasered a seeing-eye pass down low to Shmyr at the side of the net. As impressive as Christensen’s pass was, the ability to catch the puck and redirect it on net, in traffic and in tight, was even more impressive as the Calgary product picked up his second marker of the game.
Entering the mid-week affair, Shymr, along with his linemates Chase Wouters and Josh Patterson combined for 50 points in their last 11 games. Tonight, they added six more points to that rampage.
On a more prolonged tear for the Hitmen has been Riley Stotts, whose goal and two helpers now give him 21 points in 20 games since joining the team at the end of November.
Stotts got the Hitmen (14-25-5-1) going in the first when calmly entered the zone, curled the puck as if he was going to send a puck over to his partner in crime Kryski, but pulled it back and blistered one past Maier’s blocker for his 11th on the season.
He also assisted on Yeryomenko’s power play goal, as the Belarusian product walked into the left faceoff circle on a five-on-three and ripped one past Maier.
Stotts’ second assist came on what felt like at the time, the cherry on top of the ice cream Sunday, when he sprung Kryski in on a breakaway. Kryski roofed it for his 10th of the season to put the Hitmen up 6-3 at the 10:02 mark of the third period.
The Blades (22-21-2-1) made things interesting when Wouters found the top part of the net and newly acquired Max Gerlach rifled home his 20th of the season three minutes apart from one another, but the Hitmen were able to hold them off, as they picked up only their second win against a East Division opponent this season.
A brief moment of concern took place in the first period, as the 16-year-old Hunter Campbell took a Yeryomenko wrister on the side of the head. This was no Zdeno Chara on Phillip Danault scenario, but Campbell immediately left for his bench under his own power.
The Everett, Wash., product shook off whatever lingering cobwebs there may have been from earlier in the game, as he potted his fourth of the season on a sweet little backdoor pass from Focht behind the net to Campbell for the easy chip in. Rookie centre Zach Huber picked up his third assist of the season on the play.
Huber’s teammate last season with the Foothills CFR Chemicals Bisons, Brandon Machado, was going through a similar goal-scoring funk this season, but got the monkey off his back in his 39th career game, when he slammed home a feed from Tristen Robins at the 3:28 mark of the second stanza.
Neither netminder was overly busy, but Schneider bailed out Layne Toder and Dakota Krebs with under a minute to go in the second, when they both coughed up pucks in their own zone, leaving glorious opportunities to tie up what was then a 4-3 lead for the Hitmen, but the Calgary Flames prospect stood his ground. He stopped 22 shots for his 14th win.
The Hitmen hung onto that 4-3 lead after a lengthy review on a Patterson goal. The Edmonton product appeared to score on the power play to tie the game, but upon further review, the goal was overturned because Patterson booted it in.
There is no doubt that the Hitmen fed off Nielsen’s presence in the lineup during a rare Tuesday night game. Whether he or the team will be able to sustain that same adrenaline shot Friday night when the Hitmen host the Kamloops Blazers (18-23-1-2), will be another question the team has to answer as they try to claw back into playoff contention. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m., as they Hitmen will also host the Prince Albert Raiders (16-19-6-2) Sunday afternoon (4 p.m.) to close out the weekend.
