Boston Bruins: News and Notes on Their College and Junior Prospects

Boston University defenseman Matt Grzelcyk made a defiant opening statement regarding his freshman and third-pairing status in his regular-season debut Saturday night.

Nearing the final minute of the second period in a 2-2 deadlock, the Boston Bruins third-round draft choice from last spring forwarded a kinetic feed to winger Evan Rodrigues. In turn, Rodrigues set up linemate Cason Hohmann for his first goal and third point of the night.

The Grzelcyk-initiated scoring rush stood as the decider in the Terriers’ 4-2 home triumph over Providence College.

Fellow 2012 Bruins draftee Colton Hargrove debuted at Western Michigan University, which split a two-game home set with St. Lawrence. Hargrove remains pointless, but mustered a plus-one rating on the weekend, courtesy of linemates David Killip and Josh Pitt collaborating on the team’s icebreaker in Friday night’s 3-2 overtime loss.

With the North Dakota net vacant, Zane Gothberg split an exhibition bout with colleagues Clarke Saunders and Tate Maris.

Gothberg’s shift, the longest of the three netminders, would run from the 8:22 mark of the second period through 17:42 of the third. He was relieved in favor of Maris upon surrendering his third goal to the U.S. National Development Team.

All three strikes came on a U.S. power play and UND spent a cumulative 9:43 shorthanded on Gothberg’s watch. He was merely 14 seconds away from killing an entire five-minute major when he authorized his third goal on 11 shots faced.

Starting center Ben Sexton of Clarkson tallied a goal, but brooked a minus-four rating over a two-night stay in Colorado Springs. His Golden Knights were dealt a pair of identical 5-4 losses via the Colorado College Tigers.

Defenseman Matt Benning and his Dubuque Fighting Saints had polar opposite fortunes in their first set of back-to-back game nights on the USHL docket. Benning tallied an assist Friday and accrued a plus-three rating Saturday while Dubuque pinned the host Youngstown Phantoms with 4-1 decisions each night.

From Junior A to major junior, Belleville Bulls goaltender Malcolm Subban restored his stinginess Wednesday after allowing 11 goals over his previous three starts. In an eventual 2-1 shootout win over the visiting Brampton Battalion, Subban posted a season-high single-night save percentage of .969, a bar he elevated Saturday with a 44-save, 4-1 repression of Oshawa.

In the last installment of a rare instance of three consecutive game nights, Anthony Camara saw his five-game goal-scoring streak snapped. But his Barrie Colts still retained their seven-game winning streak, during which Camara has had a hand in seven (or 23 percent) of the team’s 30 strikes.

Through eight games with the Plymouth Whalers this young season, Cody Payne has already tallied five goals to match his total 60-game output in the 2011-12 campaign. Unfortunately, his fifth strike was squandered in an eventual 4-2 loss to the Owen Sound Attack on Wednesday.

Continuing the road trip on Friday, Payne assisted on Plymouth’s only goal in a 4-1 loss to the London Knights, highlighted by fellow Bruins prospect Seth Griffith’s three-point (1-2-3) effort.

Griffith tallied another multi-point effort and pulled himself into a virtual tie with Camara and three others for the OHL lead with nine goals on the year, although it was not enough to avert a 5-3 drawback in Oshawa.

Dougie Hamilton, who drew a particularly positive outlook from Bruins head coach Claude Julien on Friday, has steadily notched a plus-four rating over his last four games and one assist in each of his last three. He enters this week in a three-way tie for second among OHL defensemen with 10 points, although his opponents have a few games in hand.