Player of the Week: Tim Bozon
Bozon has become a goal-scoring machine for the Kootenay Ice since late January and his pace does not show any sign of abating. He scored two goals in his first game of the week, a 7-6 shootout loss to the Swift Current Broncos. He marked a goal in the next game, a 5-4 shootout win over the Regina Pats.
He next picked up an assist in a 3-2 shootout win over the Brandon Wheat Kings. He marked two more goals in his final game, a 6-4 loss in a rematch with Brandon. Bozon has scored 17 goals in his last 18 games and as in each of his previous 3 WHL seasons, he has passed the 30 goals plateau with 31 on the year.
| GP | Goals | Assists | Points | PIM |
| 4 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 5 |
The Juniors Report
The Canadiens currently feature prospects playing in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), the Western Hockey League (WHL), the USHL (United States Hockey League) and the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association). These leagues can be considered the primary conduit towards professional hockey in North America.
Here’s how the players playing in the aforementioned leagues performed last week
| Player | League | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM |
| Daniel Audette (C) | QMJHL | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| Jeremy Grégoire (RW) | QMJHL | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 9 |
| Michael McCarron (RW) | OHL | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Tim Bozon (LW) | WHL | 4 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 5 |
| Brett Lernout (D) | WHL | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Nikita Scherbak (RW) | WHL | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Nikolas Koberstein (D) | USHL | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Josiah Didier (D) | NCAA | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Jake Evans (C) | NCAA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mark MacMillan (C) | NCAA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Goalie | League | GP | W | L | OTL | GAA | Save % | SO |
| Zach Fucale | QMJHL | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3.95 | .852 | 0 |
Daniel Audette: Audette’s offensive pace remains consistent but is not impressing like earlier in the season with the Sherbrooke Phoenix. He picked up an assist in his first game, a 7-2 loss to the Shawinigan Cataractes. He marked an assist in the next game as well, a 7-4 loss to Victoriaville. He was shut out along with the rest of his squad in a 1-0 loss to the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada
Jeremy Grégoire: Gregoire returned after a short time off with a back injury to show once again, injuries can not slow down the Baie-Comeau Drakkar captain. He opened his week marking two assists in a 4-2 win over the Halifax Moosheads. He scored a goal and assist in his second and last game, a 6-3 loss to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. Gregoire is currently working at a scoring pace of 1.35 points per game.
Michael McCarron: After an initial transition period following his trade from London, McCarron has gained consistency with the Oshawa Generals. He marked two assists in his first game, an 8-4 win over the Belleville Bulls. He picked up an assist in the next game, a 4-1 loss in a rematch with Belleville. He went without a point in his final game, a 4-1 win over the Peterborough Petes, ending an 8-game points streak where he scored 2 goals and 10 assists in that stretch.
Brett Lernout: Lernout is maintaining a steady offensive pace with the Swift Current Broncos in the second half of his season. He marked an assist in his first game, a 7-6 shootout win over the Kootenay Ice. He was scoreless in his next contest, a 6-2 loss to the Saskatoon Blades. He missed the scoresheet in the following game as well, a 5-1 los to the Medicine Hat Tigers He finished the week collecting an assist in a 2-1 win in a rematch with Saskatoon. His two assists this past week took him to 23 on his season, which totals more assists than he had in points in his previous season with Swift Current.
Nikita Scherbak: Scherbak’s offensive pace with Everett has slowed of late, but he continues to find the scoresheet on a regular basis. He scored a goal in his opening game, a 3-1 loss to the Spokane Chiefs. He marked a goal and an assist in his next contest, a 7-2 win over the Calgary Hitmen. He went without a point in his last game, in a 5-1 loss to Prince George. He is 14th overall in WHL scoring with 26 goals and 48 assists in 57 games.
Nikolas Koberstein: There remains a spark of life to Koberstein’s season as his season winds down in the USL. He marked an assist in his first game, a 5-2 loss to the Dubuque Fighting Saints. He matched this contribution in his next game, a 3-2 win over Chicago Steel. His season does however still sit a rather unremarkable 8 points in 49 games this year.
Josiah Didier: Didier had a blip of offence in his season this past week with the University of Denver. He went without a point in his first game, a 5-3 loss to Miami University. He marked an assist in his second game, a 6-2 win over Miami University. He has four points in his last five games, but still sits at only nine points in 32 games as an NCAA Senior.
Jake Evans: Offence continues to be a challenge for Jake Evans in the second half of his rookie season with the University of Notre Dame. He scored no points in his first game, a 2-0 loss to Boston College and did no better in his second game, a 3-1 loss to BC. He has scored only two points in his last 10 games.
Mark MacMillan: MacMillan had an unremarkable weekend with North Dakota this past week. He went without a point in a 3-2 win over St Cloud State University and was similarly denied an entry on the scoresheet in the following game, a 3-1 win over St Cloud State. MacMillan has scored only one goal in his last six games.
Hayden Hawkey: Hawkey has unfortunately been ruled out for the remainder of the 2014-15 season due to suffering tears in his Anterior Cruciate Ligament and Medial Collateral Ligament on November 29.
Zach Fucale: The struggles of Fucale’s season do not appear to have an end in sight. He allowed three goals on 28 shots in his first game, a 3-0 loss to Rimouski Oceanic. He allowed 5 goals on 20 shots in his second start, a 6-5 shootout win over the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. Fucale’s 0.884 save percentage this year is a career-worst for the netminder and ranks him a rather disturbing 16th in save percentage among Quebec Major Junior goaltenders.
The European report:
The SHL is the top professional men’s league in Sweden and is at a comparable level to the AHL. Strong play here can often give indications that the player is moving towards being capable of playing in the NHL.
The Extraliga is the top professional men’s league in the Czech Republic. While it is not at the level of the SHL, it is still a competitive pro league where solid production would give credence to a player’s NHL potential.
Here’s how the European prospects performed last week:
| Player | League | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM |
| Artturi Lehkonen (LW/RW) | SHL | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Joonas Nättinen (C/RW) | SHL | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Martin Réway (C/LW) | Extraliga | 3 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
Artturi Lehkonen: Lehkonen is still at work trying to build his offensive season back up. He went without a point in his first game, a 4-3 shootout win over Farjestads BK. He scored a goal in his next game, a 6-1 win over MODO Hockey. He was scoreless in his final game, a 5-4 shootout win over Leksands IF. Lehkonen has scored four goals and an assist in his last seven SHL games.
Joonas Nättinen: It was a flat offensive week for Nattinen. He went scoreless in three straight games, a 2-1 loss to HV 71, a 6-1 loss to Frolunda HC and a 5-2 loss to Farjestads BK. Nattinen has now gone without a point in five straight games.
Martin Réway: Martin Reway played out the final week of the Extraliga season with Sparta Praha last week and left his mark while doing so. He went pointless in his first game of the week, a 5-1 win over HC Vitkovice. He was similarly stymied in his second game, a a 5-3 loss to HC Litvinov. He recorded his first career four assist game in his final regular season game, a 6-5 win over HC Trinec. Reway finished the regular season with 9 goals and 28 assists in 34 games played and was 3rd in scoring for Sparta Praha despite playing at least 12 fewer games than everyone in the top 10 of team scoring. He finished 23rd overall in league scoring and was the points-per-game leader among all Under-24 skaters with 1.03 in the league despite just turning 20 in January.
Year to date statistics
| Player | League | GP | G | A | P | PIM |
| Daniel Audette (C) | QMJHL | 47 | 25 | 38 | 63 | 64 |
| Jeremy Grégoire (RW) | QMJHL | 26 | 15 | 20 | 35 | 52 |
| Michael McCarron (RW) | OHL | 49 | 28 | 35 | 63 | 112 |
| Tim Bozon (LW) | WHL | 46 | 31 | 27 | 58 | 19 |
| Brett Lernout (D) | WHL | 63 | 13 | 23 | 36 | 64 |
| Nikita Scherbak (RW) | WHL | 57 | 26 | 48 | 74 | 54 |
| Nikolas Koberstein (D) | USHL | 49 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 99 |
| Josiah Didier (D) | NCAA | 32 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 51 |
| Jake Evans (C) | NCAA | 35 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 20 |
| Mark MacMillan (C) | NCAA | 29 | 16 | 9 | 25 | 27 |
| Artturi Lehkonen (LW/RW) | SHL | 45 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 10 |
| Joonas Nättinen (C/RW) | SHL | 53 | 7 | 8 | 14 | 36 |
| Martin Réway (C/LW) | Extraliga | 34 | 9 | 28 | 37 | 54 |
| Goalie | League | GP | W | L | OTL | GAA | Save% | SO |
| Zachary Fucale | QMJHL | 35 | 20 | 14 | 2 | 3.19 | .884 | 3 |
| Hayden Hawkey | USHL | 15 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 2.99 | .896 | 1 |
