TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The Dallas Stars prospects came up short in the first game of the Traverse City Prospects Tournament falling to the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-2 on Friday afternoon.
Dallas has a younger team at the tournament than past years — particularly at forward — while Columbus brought a more veteran team and it showed throughout the game.
The Blue Jackets were the more aggressive and more physical team and the Stars shied away. Columbus, which has nine players 6-foot-3 or taller, had ample time and space in the offensive zone as Dallas scrambled and looked out of sync in it’s coverage.
“Our group just looked real young,” said Derek Laxdal, the Texas Stars coach who’s coaching the prospect team. “The message was you’ve got compete a little harder. Got to be a little harder on pucks in the battles and we’ve got be ready to re-set for tomorrow.”
Niklas Hansson and Nick Caamano scored for Dallas in the loss. Landon Bow made 21 saves in the loss and was left out to dry most of the night.
There were a couple individual bright spots in the loss.
AHL-contracted forwards Samuel Laberge, Max French, and Sheldon Dries were frustrating to play against. They created a couple nice chances, blocked shots, and impressed Laxdal.
“We know what Laberge is about he’s a worker bee, block shots. He’s got a little (Antoine) Roussel in him. It’s a game that he’s going to try and grow,” Laxdal said. “I thought (French) was competing. He battles. One guy that stood out for me was probably Dries, he skates well stood up for his teammates in a couple areas.”
Columbus took an early lead when Paul Bittner scored on a rebound 86 seconds into the period. Bow made the initial save, but the rebound kicked to his right and Bittner scored on his second whack at the puck.
Bow had worse luck on the second goal when Bobby MacIntyre’s shot went wide of the net but took a hard ricochet off the glass, glanced off Bow’s back, and into the net.
Dallas countered during a 5-on-3 power play when Hansson lasered a shot from the point into the upper corner with 12:53 remaining in the period.
Vitaly Abramov scoerd his first of two goals with 5:40 remaining in the period and gave the Blue Jackets a 3-1 lead when he beat Bow’s right pad to the far post on a chance all alone in front of the net.
Pierre-Luc Dubois, the No. 3 pick in the 2016 NHL draft, made it 4-1 early in the second period when he was given time and space in front of the net on the power play and easily scored.
Caamano cut the lead to 4-2 a couple minutes later when Columbus goalie Matiss Kivlenieks coughed up the puck behind the net and the Flint Firebirds forward backhanded a shot into the empty net.
With 44.1 seconds left in the second Abramov scored his second goal to make it 5-2.
In the third period Columbus added an empty net goal and Dubois scored on a two-on-one to make it a 7-2 final.
Stars lineup:
Nick Caamano — Roope Hintz — Denis Gurianov
Jason Robertson — Sheldon Dries — Brett Davis
Samuel Laberge — Max French — Vince Loschiavo
Zach Roberts — Tomas Soustal — Shaw Boomhower
Gavin Bayreuther — John Nyberg
Shane Hanna — Niklas Hansson
Chris Martenet — Ondrej Vala
Landon Bow
Jeremy Brodeur
Scratches: Eric Sweetman, Cole Tymkin
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