Weekend in review

Lots of hockey this weekend -- lets get right to it.

The Columbus Blue Jackets ran out of gas playing their 3rd game in 4 nights versus the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night as they lost 5-2.

Steve Mason showed signs of being a human and the Blues special teams really took it to the Jackets scoring 4 PP goals. I think Hitch summed it up best when he said the Blues were a desperate bunch and certainly played that way. The game put an end to the Jackets 4 game win streak with the last 3 of those coming on the road.

The bigger story right now is the price the Jackets paid for that game with reports from Puck-rakers that Kristian Huselius is out with a concussion due to a cheap shot from the Blues David Backes. It was great to see a reaction from teammate Fedor Tyutin coming to the defense of his teammate but that is a mightly big blow.

This team can ill-afford to lose yet another top 6 skill player but that is where the Jackets find themselves right now. They can't make excuses with Detroit tomorrow night and then the Captitals, who have only lost once at home, next to end this road trip on Friday.

You have think the pressure just got a little heavier for Howson to make a move to help this squad.

The Syracuse Crunch are really struggling.

On Friday they blew a 300 lead and dropped their game 4-3 against Hamilton with Rome, Kelly and Vigilante getting on the board.

Then on Saturday against the Lake Eerie Monsters in Cleveland they lost 3-2 in OT... Pohl and Garlock got on the board and hey, at least they got a point.

The weekend drop the Crunch to a 15-16-2 record and all the way to 5th place in the North Division. Ouch.

The best news of the weekend was the play of the Ohio State Men's hockey team. They routed Army on Friday in their first game of the Ohio Hockey Classic and then were able to squeeze out a 2-0 win on Saturday over Clarkson to win the tournament.

The win marked the 9th straight win on home ice for the Buckeyes and I believe it was only the 2nd time they have won their own tournament which started in 2004.

It was the first time this season I was able to watch this team play live.

Of course I was most interested in 2008 2nd round pick (Carolina) Zac Dalpe and he did not dissapointment. As I mentioned before you can see this kid has the tools to be a pro and he sealed the game for the Buckeyes with an empty netter with seconds remaining.

The guy who really stood out to me though was this Corey Toy kid from Round Hill, VA. Talk about an in your face rough and tumble defensive defensemen -- this kid was a rock and a punisher. Not sure where this kid projects as a pro but this 6ft 195lb guy sure can bring it at the collegiate level.

The Buckeyes can really spread the scoring around... guys like John Albert and Elkins were also impressive.

The biggest suprise of the tournament was the #2 Miami Redhawks getting upset both nights. I was able to watch the entire game against Army and once again they ran into a hot goaltender....they outshot Army something like 50 to 15 but Army capitalized on some shothanded chances and were able to hand on.

Miami has two Jackets prospects in Will Weber (2nd round pick in 2007) and Trent Vogelhuber (7th round pick in 2007). Weber of course is the guy I watched and let me tell ya this kid has pro size at 6'4" 205lbs and he skates well with it and isn't afraid to get physical. Of course he's raw but I liked what I saw. Vogelhuber, from Dublin OH, didn't see a whole lot of time as he played mostly on Miami's 4th line...he's a project obviously but he's also recovering from major knee surgery.

The Buckeyes now sit at 13-6-1 overall and 6-5-1-1 in the conference. They are back it this weekend at Bowling Green.

-LTL