The Red Wings have 4 draftees in the pipeline who are currently playing in the OHL. Andreas Athanasiou (Barrie Colts), Tyler Bertuzzi (Guelph Storm), Jake Paterson (Saginaw Spirit), and Zach Nastasiuk (Owen Sound Attack).
Last night, Andreas Athanasiou and the Colts hosted Jake Paterson and the Spirit in the OHL regular season opener.
The Official OHL web site has the highlights video Saginaw at Barrie highlights
The Colts have a nice recap you can read here: Colts win spirited home opener, defeat Saginaw 7-4
The Spirit also posted a recap you can find here: Spirit drop regular season opener to Colts
The Full boxscore is available here: Boxscore
Red Wings prospect Andreas Athanasiou had a three point night and was the first star of the game. Athanasiou’s first goal was a beautiful backhand shot that killed the water bottle. He used his lightning speed on a shorthanded breakaway to give the Colts a 4-2 lead half way through the second period. He got the puck at his defensive blue line, took off like a rocket, and the Spirit defender had no chance to catch him. AA’s second goal came with a minute and a half to go in the third period and was a nice tick-tack-toe play with Mitchell Theoret and Zach Hall to give the Colts a 6-4 lead. With five seconds left in the game, Athanasiou and Dylan Corson assisted on Erik Bradford’s empty net goal to cap off the Colts’ 7-4 win. Athanasiou is playing on the Colts’ top line, and last year had 67 points (29G, 38A) in 66 regular season games, and notched an impressive 25 points (12G, 13A) in 22 playoff games.
Jake Paterson stopped 35/41 shots, allowing 2 powerplay goals, 1 short handed goal, and 3 even strength goals. It’s a little more difficult to judge a goalie at this level based on your typical goalie stats, because in the OHL and junior hockey in general, there’s usually a much bigger discrepancy between the skill level of the forwards, and the skill level of the defense. Since it takes most defensemen a lot longer to become proficient at playing defense, than it does most forwards to become proficient at scoring goals; there’s a lot more scoring, and a bit less defense in the junior leagues. When you’ve got mostly 16-19 year old defensemen playing in front of you, life as a goalie can be painful. Paterson has a very good chance to earn goaltender of the year in the OHL this season, so don’t let the his higher GAA and lower SV% fool you. He’s a darn good goalie.
