Stefan Noesen

Everything about Stefan Noesen led you to believe that this would be his breakout year. He has good size, is a deceptive skater, possesses a good shot, and will drive to the net.

But it was his excellent work ethic that led us to believe he would be able to put up points in his second OHL season. 

His 34 regular season goals were second to only Gabriel Landeskog's 36 by draft eligible players, tying him with Alex Khokhlachev and Matt Puempel. His 77 points were fourth among draft eligible players behind Ryan Strome, Shane Prince and Ryan Murphy.

But Noesen doesn't get mentioned with the upper class of the draft. In fact, there are many that see him as a mid second rounder. So Noesen would need a strong playoff performance to possibly move up in some rankings.

His Plymouth Whalers got off to a great start upsetting the heavily favoured Kitchener Rangers in 7 games in the opening round. Noesen was a stud for the Whalers in that series scoring 4 goals and adding 5 assists in those 7 games.

In round two, the Whalers were swept by the eventual champion Owen Sound Attack. Noesen scored twice in that series to finish the playoffs with 6 goals and 5 assists in 11 games. His 6 goals were by far the best on his squad while his points were second on the squad.

Noesen was also recently invited to Team USA'a evaluation camp for the World Junior Championships, one of 4 OHL Draft Eligibles to be invited and with Jared Knight of the London Knights also invited, he is one of only five OHL'ers invited.

Noesen was also picked as one of the top 10 right wingers available for the NHL Entry Draft. here

It is our view that Noesen has proven all that he could prove and should be a very early second round pick.

Nicklas Jensen Among Top Right Wingers in NHL Entry Draft

The NHL Draft Blog is doing the top 10 players available at each position. Yesterday, they started off with the top 10 left wingers and today they cover the top 10 right wingers.

Nicklas Jensen of the Oshawa Generals is the top OHL'er on the list coming in at number two.

"It's the best junior league in the world," Jensen told NHL.com regarding the OHL. "It's just to give the scouts a better look at me. In Denmark there's not that many scouts. Over here, there's scouts at every game. It's better for me, especially in my draft year, to be seen a little more."

There are four OHL right wingers that made the list. Joining Jensen are, Rickard Rakell,  Stefan Noesen and Brett Ritchie.

You can read the entire article here .

OHL Playoffs - Day 16

Oshawa 6 Niagara 4 - Series tied 1-1

If game 2 was any indication, this is going to be a long hard fought series.

Alex Friesen scored for the visiting Ice Dogs just 2:43 into the contest with an unassisted marker and first of the playoffs. Oshawa bounced back with a powerplay goal at 5:36 Alain Berger notched his 5th of the playoffs from Calvin de Haan and Christian Thomas.

Oshawa took a 2-1 lead with another powerplay goal by Thomas, his 6th of the playoffs, at 9:38 set up by de Haan and Nicklas Jensen. Niagara would tie it on a powerplay of their own when Ryan Strome scored his 3rd of the playoffs from Friesen and Freddie Hamilton. And that would end the scoring in the first period.

Jensen would restore the Generals lead on the powerplay when he notched his 6th goal at the 11 minute mark with the assists going to de Haan and Berger. Darren Archibald would tie it again just 40 seconds later with his 6th set up by Steven Shipley and Myles Doan. The second period would end tied at 3.

Mitchell Theoret would give Niagara the lead 6:15 into the 3rd when he scored his 2nd of the playoffs on a set up by Victor Terreri. That lead was short lived as Jensen notched his 2nd of the game and 7th of the playoffs to notch the score up at 4 a piece. The lone assist went to Andy Andreoff.

Boone Jenner would score unassisted at the 8:30 mark to give Oshawa the lead for good. It was Jenner's 5th of the playoffs. Thomas would add an insurance goal at 12:45, his 7th, from Tony DeHart.

Niagara would go 1 for 7 on the powerplay while Oshawa was 3 for 5. Niagara's Mark Visentin stopped 28 of 34 shots while Peter DiSalvo stopped 37 of 41.

Game 3 goes back to Niagara on Monday

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Owen Sound 3 Plymouth 2 - Owen Sound leads series 2-0

A tired Whalers squad finally got some rest and things looked pretty good for them for a while in this game.

Colin MacDonald scored his 1st of the playoffs at 13:51 of the first period to give the Whalers a 1-0 lead. Alex Aleardi and Austin Levi would be credited with the assists.

Tha score would hole up until 17:02 of the second period when Stefan Noesen scored his 7th of the playoffs to make it 2-0 with the only assist going to Dario Trutmann.

But with 2 minutes remaining in the second, things fell apart for the Whalers. Andrew Shaw scored his second of the playoffs to cut the lead to 2-1 from Geoffrey Schemitsch. Then, just 52 seconds later, Liam Heelis notched his 4th from Matt Petgrave and Schemitsch to send the teams to the dressing rooms tied at 2 for the third period.

The lone goal of the third came at 4:51 when Joey Hishon and Garrett Wilson set up Roman Berdnikov for his 2nd of the playoffs.

Owen Sound went 0 for 3 on the powerplay while Plymouth went 0 for 2.

Both goaltenders faced 31 shots with Scott Stajcer making 39 saves and Scott Wedgewood making 28 saves.

Game 3 goes Monday back in Owen Sound.

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OHL Playoffs - Day 14

Niagara 2 Oshawa 1 - Niagara leads series 1-0

 Niagara took game one against Oshawa in front of a sold out house at home at the Gatorade Garden City Complex last night.

Mark Visentin, who earlier this week signed an entry level contract with the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes, stopped 37 of 38 shots, none bigger than a third period breakaway on Oshawa's Christian Thomas to preserve the victory. Oshawa's Peter Di Salvo was equally as impressive stopping 33 of 35 shots for the Genereals. 

None other than one of our favorites, Ryan Strome, scored at 14:49 of the first on a breakaway and made one of his highlight reel moves to beat Di Salvo. Freddie Hamilton and Jason Wilson picked up the assists on the play on Strome's second of the playoffs.

Another of our favorites, Nicklas Jensen, scored at the 10:09 to tie things up 1-1. It was Jensen's 5th of the playoffs with Lucas Lessio and Daniel Maggio drawing the assists.

Jason Wilson scored his second goal of the playoffs to give Niagara lead once again at 2-1. It was a power play marker set up by Darren Archibald and Steven Shipley.

That's how this one would end.

Game 2 goes Saturday night in Oshawa.

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Owen Sound 4 Plymouth 3 OT - Owen Sound leads series 1-0

Is there a goaltending controversy in Owen Sound? Jordan Binnington, who carried the Attack for the bulk of the regular season was a healthy scratch again. And, well read on.

Michael Zador started for the Attack.  Scott Wedgewood tended goal for the Whalers.
 Jesse Blacker gave the Attack the 1-0 lead at 8:19 of period one.  Joey Hishon assisted.
  James Livingston evened it up less than 2 minutes later on the powerplay as he was the first to a loose puck in front of  Zador and tie the game 1-1 at 10:00.  Tyler Brown and Beau Schmitz drew the assists on Livingston's third of the playoffs.

The Whalers took advantage of another powerplay marker 2:36 into the second period when Beau Schmitz banged in the puck for his second of the playoffs. Robbie Czarnick and Brown assisted on the play.

Stefan Noesen made it 3-1 for Plymouth at 9:43 of the second. It was Noesen's fifth of the playoffs. Brown with his third assist of the night and Schmitz with his second to go along with his goal had the helpers.

A minute later, a nice passing play pulled the Attack within one. Daniel Sweep dished off to Robby Mignardi cross ice who then fired it to Liam Heelis cutting in the front of the Plymouth net and backhanded it passed Wedgewood at 10:44 for his third of the playoffs. That's the way the period would end.

So back to the original question: Is there a goaltending controversy or an injury?

 Scott Stajcer started the third period for the Attack and Zador was not on the bench for the remainder of the period. 

 Garrett Wilson tied the game at 3 at 11:09 of the period. It was Wilson's 4th of the playoffs and was set up by Brenden Childerley.

ANd that's how regulation would end with Attack outshooting the Whalers 44-30.

It was beginning to look like this game would go to a 2nd overtime  but at 14:45 we saw almost a replay of Blacker's first goal, this time from the other side of the rink and yes by Jesse Blacker himself who ended it with his second of the game set up by Wilson and Matt Stanisz.

Game 2 goes Saturday in Plymouth.

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Playoff Preview - Round 2 - Western Conference

Seeing that I was only 5-8 in the first round, I should avoid making predictions. But why stop now? But first, a look at the two series.

Owen Sound (1) Plymouth (6) - Plymouth won series 1-0-1

Plymouth is coming off of a hard fought 7 game series against the favored Rangers While Owen Sound had a 6 game series win against London. The Whalers will once again be the underdogs in this one, but dont take them lightly.

Here's what their draft eligibles did against each other in the season series.

Stefan Noesen - pointless
Alex Aleardi - 0G 2A
Garrett Meurs - pointless
Rickard Rakell - 0G 1A

Andrew Fritsch - 1G 0A
Cameron Brace - 0G 0A

Prediction: Plymouth in 6 games

Saginaw (2) Windsor (4) - Saginaw won season series 4-1-1

Windsor is coming off of a 7 game seasaw battle with Erie while Saginaw is coming off of a 6 game set with Guelph.

Here's a look at what the draft eligible players did against each other.

Alex Khokhlachev - 2G 4A

Vincent Trocheck - 2 G 7A
Brandon Saad - 0G 2A

Prediction: Saginaw in 6 games

OHL Playoffs - Day 12

Plymouth 4 Kitchener 2 - Plymouth winds series 4-3 (Prediction: Kitchener in 5)

Well, I was a little off on this one as many others were. But give full credit to Plymouth as they played a "Whale" of a series.

If you only happened to catch last nights game it was indicative of the way the Whale played. There was always a forward back, especially when they had the lead. They absolutely owned the neutral zone and, with the exception of Murphy rushing up the ice, stymied the Rangers between the blue lines.

And of course there was the last line of defense, goaltender Scott Wedgewood. The New Jersey Devils prospect stopped 37 of 39 shots. And some were huge including 2 miracle saves in close on Gabriel Landeskog. He finishes the series stopping 285 of 307 shots with a 3.05 GAA and .928 SV%.

At the other end, Mike Morrison got the start and stopped 30 of 33 shots. His almost 90 minutes of shutout hockey came to an end when Richard Whaley scored at 9:21 of the first to give the Whale a 1-0 lead.

Robbie Czarnick scored at 14:51 to make it 2-0 with assists going to Stephan Noesen and Colin MacDonald, who also got the lone assist on Czarnick's goal.

Just when it looked like Plymouth was in total control, Gabriel Landeskog scored on a set up from Jason Akeson and Ryan Murphy on the power play at 5:17 of the third.

Again Plymouth took control of the game until they took a penalty at 12:57 of the third. With Wedgewood making save after save and frustrating the Rangers, Gabriel Landeskog went hard to the net and although he took a slight push, ran into Wedgewood taking him out. Wedgewwod laid on the ice for a few moments and Landeskog took a penalty.

Playing 4 on 4 Jerry D'Amigo scored to tie the game with assists again going to Akeson and Murphy. It was a bit of a fluky goal as the puck bounced in off a Whaler defender.

At 16:56 James Livingston scored a soft goal back for the Whalers. He threw a harmless shot towards the net that just caught the post to the right of Morrison and into the net. It was probably a shot Morrison would like to have back.

At 18:13 things got interesting when Jamie Devane threw a high elbow that caught Ryan Murphy in the head. Murphy looked a little dazed but stayed in the game and Devane was assessed a 5 minute major and game misconduct. The league will most definitely look at this hit.

If the Rangers could somehow tie it, they would start the overtime with 3:13 of power play time. Coach Steve Spott decided to pull his goaltender and go 6 skaters against 4. But it didn't help and the Whalers got an empty netter Tyler Brown with 2 seconds remaining.

For Plymouth, Stephan Noesen finished the series with 4 goals and 5 assists for 9 points in the 7 games. Rickard Rakell returned last night for his first game and was pointless. On Kitchener's side, Gabriel Landeskog had 6 goals and 4 assists for 10 points and Ryan Murphy had 2 goals and 9 assists for 11 points.

Up next for Murphy is the Ivan Hlinka Under 18 Tournament for team Canada in Germany where he will join his good friend Daniel Catenacci, who took in the game last night with Murphy's other good friend Barclay Goodrow.

There's just one series left to be decided and that also will be a game 7 tonight between Windsor and Erie. My prediction for that was Erie in 7 so I have to cheer for Erie as my record now is a measly 5 for 7. The winner of that series goes on to face Saginaw in round 2.

I'll have a preview of round 2 on Thursday with some of those series beginning Thursday night.

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OHL Playoffs - Day 7

Windsor 7 Erie 4 - Windsor leads series 3-1

This was not a goaltenders battle as one would have thought as Windsor went into Erie and took a commanding 3-1 lead in their best of 7 series.

Windsor goalie Jack Campbell allowed 4 goals on 26 shots while Ramis Sadikov 5 goals on 37 shots before Chris Festerini came in 3 minutes into the third and allowed 2 more goals on 11 shots.

Tom Khunhackl led the way for Windsor with 2 goals and 2 assists followed up by Alex Khokhlachev's 2 goals and 1 assist. This si the type of game you'd expect star defenseman Ryan Ellis to shine offensively, but Erie was able to keep him of the score sheet. The biggest surprise was he finished a minus 2 on the night.

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Plymouth 6 Kitchener 5 OT - Plymouth leads series 3-1

I don't even know where to begin with this one. This was the best game I have seen Ryan Murphy play defensively in 3 years of watching him. Twice he got in behind his own goalie, Brandon Maxwell and stopped sure goals. Gabriel Landeskog was a force at both ends and showed will and determination in leading his squad. And it all went by the wayside.

The referees allowed these two teams to play the game and called only the obvious "had to call" penalties which created a nice flow to the game. The Rangers had a comfortable lead at 5-3 when, with 1 minute and 45 seconds left in the third period James Livingston scored to pull Plymouth within 1 goal.

Then with Plymouth goalie Scott Wedgewood on the bench for the extra attacker, Jamie Devane scored with 7.6 seconds remaining to force overtime. With goaltender Brandon Maxwell down and out of position, Ryan Murphy went down in front of pretty much the open net to try and make his 3rd save, this one the game saver, but he wasn't able to stop Devane's shot. After he scored, Murphy got up and was knocked down by Devane who took a roughing penalty on the play.

Kitchener started the overtime period on the power play but were unable to score. The dominated the extra session out shooting Plymouth 12-3 until Ranger defenseman Cody Sol took an absolutely foolish and stupid penalty, one of those I earlier called "must call" penalties by the referees.

It took 53 seconds into the pp for Stefan Noesen to score and send Plymouth to victory. Noesen finished the game with 2 goals and 2 assists for Plymouth while Gabriel Landeskog had 2 goals and an assist for Kitchener.

Some people were calling for Mike Morrison to start in this game for the Rangers, and just a hunch I have, but we might see Morrison for game 5.

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OHL Playoffs - Day 5

Kitchener 3 Plymouth 1 - Plymouth leads series 2-1

Kitchener came out in this game trying to physically intimidate Plymouth from top to bottom. So much so that even Ryan Murphy took a roughing penalty. And it worked.

They also needed a strong performance from Brandon Maxwell in goal and got just that when he stopped 35 of 36 shots, none more important than on a penalty shot with the Rangers up 2-1. Scott Wedgewood was equally impressive in the loss stopping 45 of 47 shots.

Ryan Murphy and Tobias Rieder set up Jerry D'Amigo for the opening goal before Alex Aleardi scored unnassisted to tie it. Murphy then scored unnassisted to open the third period on the power play and Gabriel Landeskog closed it out with an empty netter, also unnassisted.

Garrett Meurs and Stefan Noesen went pointless for Plymouth.

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Windsor 6 Erie 2 - Windsor leads series 2-1

No double overtime in this game as Windsor dominated on the scoreboard when they took the lead late in the second and scored three times early in the third with 3 goals in 1:02.

Ryan Ellis, Stephan Johnston and Jake Carrick all had a goal and an assist while Zack Kassian and Zack MacQueen added a pair of assists.

Ramis Sadikov stopped 28 of 33 shots for Erie while Jack Campbell stopped 30 of 32.

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Guelph 7 Saginaw 3 - Guelph leads series 2-1

Brandon Foote was again solid in goal for Guelph stopping 37 of 40 shots. Draft eligible Tadeas Galansky came on in relief and allowed 2 goals on 16 shots after Mavric Parks allowed 5 goals on 19 shots.

Both Brandon Saad and Vincent Trocheck got a point for Saginaw, both assists. For Guelph, Taylor Beck had 2 goals and Michael Latta 2 goals and an assist.

Andrey Pedan added 2 more assists giving him 0 goals and 5 assists in the 3 games to date. The big Russian defenseman had 2 goals and 10 assists in 51 regular season games for Guelph.

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Sudbury 5 Ottawa 3 - Sudbury leads series 2-0

Shane Prince returned to the lineup for Ottawa but it wasn't enough as the 67's offense could only muster 18 shots on Wolves goalie Alain Valiquette. Tyler Toffoli scored once ad added an assist in a losing cause.

Sudbury however, fired 53 shots at 67's goalie Petr Mrazek. Andrey Kuchin had 2 goals and an assist to lead the way. Charlie Dodero had a goal while Frank Corrado added an assist. Justin Sefton was held off the score sheet.

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Draft Eligible Goal Scoring Leaders

OHL Draft eligible goal scoring leaders

Gabriel Landeskog - 36
Matt Puempel - 34
Alex Khokhlachev - 34
Stefan Noesen - 34
Ryan Strome - 33

Draft Eliible Points Leaders

The OHL points leaders of draft eligible players

Ryan Strome - 106
Shane Prince - 88
Ryan Murphy - 79
Stefan Noesen - 77
Alex Khokhlachev - 76

Tyler Seguin weighs in on Ryan Murphy, Stefan Noesen

Good friend Kirk Luedeke got the chance to talk OHL with Tyler Seguin. He touched briefly on Stefan Noesen and Ryan Murphy.

Check it out here.

Kirk also talks about Ryan Spooner's request for a trade out of Peterborough. Be sure to check the links to his New England Hockey Journal columns.

Kingston Frontenacs and Plymouth Whalers players update

It was an exciting game this afternoon between these two clubs. Plymouth had a 5-1 lead until Kingston came back to tie it. Plymouth eventually won it in overtime making the comeback incomplete.

Kingston's Alan Quine finally got the monkey off his back today scoring not once, but twice. the former second overall pick in the Priority Draft started to show some confidence after his first goal setting up team mates over and over again. His deceptive shot got him the goals today. A beautiful wrister from the half boards for his first, and his ability to roof the puck in close to the net for his second.

Plymouth's Alex Aleardi Showed why he is all that is said of him. Good puck possession player that's willing to take it to the front of the net. I think he is underrated as a skater.  He's an excellent passer that finds his open teammates. If i have any knock against him it's that he doesn't use his passing abilities more often.

Plymouth's Stefan Noesen is everything that he's made out to be. He's gritty and plays hard rarely loosing a battle. A good skater with nice hands. He scored twice today and set up the overtime winner after battling hard and making the perfect pass for the winning goal.

Nick Malysa is an absolute monster defensively. He gets plenty of PK time and when the Whalers have to play defensive, he's usually the first one on the ice. He's actually a pretty good skater and is more than adept at moving the puck out of his own zone.

Stefan Noesen

Stefan Noesen, Plymouth Whalers

A big American boy who won the US Under 16 title with Compuware last season. His skating is deceptive for a big kid. Has good hands and likes the gritty game. He gets into the dirty areas, wins battles along the boards and works very hard in his own zone. He has offensive upside and with his work ethic he will put up points.




In 33 games for the Whalers, he scored 3 goals and added 8 assists with 4 PIM. He too will be asked to, and will deliver, more offence in the absence of Tyler Seguin.