Gregg Sutch was a healthy scratch Tuesday as Mississauga opened the OHL Championship series with a 5-2 win over Owen Sound. The grinding 6’2 forward hasn’t played for the Majors since April 12th, a span of seven playoff games, after skating limited minutes in the Majors’ first seven postseason tilts. The Majors will travel to Owen Sound for Thursday’s game #2.
On Monday, Riley Boychuk played his usual hard-driving game as Portland defeated Spokane 6-3 to win the WHL Western Conference Championship. The Winterhawks will move on to the Chynoweth Cup Championship series to face Brayden McNabb and the Kootenay ICE, ensuring that the Sabres will have at least two prospects skating at this year’s Memorial Cup tournament. The 6’5 Boychuk has four goals and six assists in Portland’s 16 playoff games, but hasn't lit the lamp in nine games. His longest goalless patch of the regular season lasted just seven games, so it’s safe to say he’s due. The final series kicks off Friday and Saturday in Portland.
Also on Monday, it was announced that Sudbury Wolves captain Marcus Foligno has been named to the 2010-11 OHL 2nd All-Star Team. The powerful 6’3 wing posted career highs this past season in goals (23), assists (36) and points (59) while leading all Sabres prospects in power-play goals (11), short-handed goals (5), and hat tricks (2).
Foligno, who chose to recover from lingering dings and wait for his entry level deal to get done instead of furthering his season, scored two goals and an assist for the Wolves while logging a -10 rating in two playoff rounds.
(As a reminder and a recommendation as the draft nears, you can follow the prospects even closer by following SabresProspects on Twitter.)
