This Week in Avalanche Prospects

Now that you have filled yourselves with yummy Halloween candy, it's time for another edition of TWIAP! It was a good, bad and ugly week for the Lake Erie Monsters. Duncan Siemens and Calvin Pickard will represent the Western Hockey League in the upcoming Subway Super Series. Minnesota makes a trip to Alaska and comes away with a sweep.

The Lake Erie Monsters won two of three of their home games this past week, but it's difficult to over look the ugly display last Wednesday night. The Monsters were uninspired and were shellacked by the Syracuse Crunch, and old friend Kyle Cumiskey, 7-0. Ugly doesn't begin to describe this one as the club was a putrid 0-9 on the power play.

Yet, things would improve over the weekend. A solid performance over a talented Toronto Marlies club on Friday, gave the team some redemption and a 2-1 win. Brad Malone also scored his first professional goal in the game. However, perhaps the biggest boost thus far this season was the sparkling debut of Cedrick Desjardins, who shut down the Marlies on Sunday afternoon with 29 saves.

David Van der Gulik is leading the Monsters in scoring in the early part of the season with two goals and five assists in seven games. Right behind him is defenseman Stefan Elliott who has six points in 11 games. Fellow rookie defenseman Tyson Barrie has four points in 11 contests. This week the Monsters will face Grand Rapids, Houston and pay a visit to the Hamilton Bulldogs on Saturday.

North of the border, the QMJHL, OHL, and WHL announced the rosters that will face Russia in the 2011 Subway Super Series. The event, which starts on Nov. 7, is a six game series in which Team Russia plays a select group of players from each Canadian major junior league twice. Russia won the series last year posting a 4-1-1 record. This year, Duncan Siemens and Calvin Pickard will represent the WHL in the event. The WHL/Russia games will take place on Nov. 16 and 17.

After a two-game sweep of the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves, the Minnesota Gophers find themselves as the 5th ranked team in Men's Division I hockey in both the USCHO.com poll and USA Today/ USA Hockey Men's College Hockey poll. The Gophers, after a 7-1-0 start, are the highest scoring team in the nation at 5.38 goals per game. Kent Patterson has been the goaltender of record for all eight contests and is sporting a GAA of 1.74 and save percentage of 0.939.

A sweep over UMass-Lowell was more than enough to keep the Boston College Eagles in the top spot in the college hockey polls. Paul Carey had one goal in the series. Boston University earned three points over the weekend against Massachusetts. Kieran Millan was in net on Friday in which he made 33 saves in a 2-2 tie.

A little trip across the pond next week. A check-in on sophomore defenseman Gus Young and the Yale Bulldogs. Also, Monsters hockey, Canadian major junior hockey and more!