The Week Ahead.

The Americans are getting some much deserved rest this week, no games on slate until next Saturday for the guys. The Red Deer Rebels are beginning their trek through the US division this week starting with Seattle and moving onto Portland on Friday.

Red Deer enters the week in 2nd place in the Central Division at 11-5-0-0. they are currently riding a 3 game winning streak and are 7-3 on their last 10 games. The stat that jumps out to me is the amount of penalties they take. They boast the second highest PIM total in the Eastern Conference (335). (Americans at 240 on the year so far)

They must have a great penalty kill, looking through the box scores, they rarely give up PP goals, but convert on opportunities they have on the PP. Two guys on the team, Byron Froese and  Andrej Kudrna, are tied for first in the league with 7 PPG each!  (Adam Hughesman has 5 for the Ams)

Look for the Americans to try and take advantage when given the opportunity who have scored on the PP in 4 of the last 6 games, including the last 3 straight.

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Seeing as how there are 0 games for the next week, there wont be much Americans news. The boys are looking forward to a week of practice after the long month to get ready for Red Deer.

"It's good to get to relax a bit," said Justin Feser, who had a goal and an assist. "We can practice, go over things that we need to work on. We can regroup and get ready for the games we have coming up in November." 


Feser pointed out a couple of places the team can improve.

"We need to develop a strong work ethic, playing a full 60 minutes," he said. "We just need to get a good start to games and not fall behind and always be the team that has to catch up, get the game to overtime or a shootout. We also need to practice on not giving the puck away easy." (Examiner) 


The Americans have had to come back in each of the last three games. Seattle buried us a goal at a time and each time we would scrap back for the tie. That game was won on the last shot in a shootout, same as the next in Everett. (We did go up 1-0 in that game but Everett scored the next two) the game against the Cougars had the same idea, clawing back one goal at a time.

I will be collecting updates throughout the week, and we will track Red Deer's progress through the US Division.


-Chase

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UPDATE: Nikita Kardashev


From The World of Junior Hockey:

Corpus Christi IceRays’ General Manager Pat Dunn announced today that the team has acquired 18-year old defenseman Nikita Kardashev. The native of Minsk, Belarus becomes the second foreign-born player on the IceRays’ roster in addition to Marco Wieser.

Kardashev was the 55th overall selection in 2010 CHL (Canadian Hockey League) draft by the WHL’s Tri-City Americans. The 6’1, 185 pound defenseman represented his native Belarus in the most recent U-18 World Junior Championships that were held in Belarus.

“We hope Nik will make an impact for us on the blue line,” said head coach Brent Hughes. “He’s a skilled player who moves the puck and his feet well.”

Kardashev played his first two games over the weekend in Wichita Falls.

-Good luck to a kid who never even hit the ice for us in the regular season. Glad he got picked up.