The Red Wings most recent 3rd round draft pick has been making a name for himself all season long for the Flint Firebirds. Tonight defenseman Vili Saarijarvi scored his 3rd goal of the season and all three have come on the power play. Saarijarvi now has 17 points in 17 games and has quickly become a guy coach Gruden plays in all situations on the ice, early in a game, late in a game, power play, penalty kill, Saarijarvi plays it all.
Will Bitten wins the faceoff, and controls the puck to get it back to his left point D man Mathieu Henderson. Vili Saarijarvi (#9) is playing the right point and recognizes that his team has possession on the left side of the ice and that all the Generals players are focused on that side. Vili skates in behind the rest of the players and puts himself right in front of Generals goalie Jeremy Brodeur (Marty Brodeur’s son) and gets ready to release a shot. Will Bitten gets control of the puck and feeds Saarijarvi with a nice cross crease feed and Vili puts it into the net uncontested. He has a wide open net and the Oshawa defenseman aren’t even aware he’s over there until it’s too late. It may not be a difficult goal to make when he has an open net and is uncovered like that, but he had perfect vision and awareness to assess his opportunity and take it. Saarijarvi is a very smart player, and it’s what allows him to be so good despite being one of the smaller guys on the ice.
If you missed Vili’s first two OHL goals, you can watch them here.
The Wings have another very special player here folks. If you have a chance to go watch this kid play, you want to do it.
