Colorado Avalanche prospect report: Three-goal weeks for Bowen Byram and Alex Beaucage

All NCAA hockey conferences’ regular seasons wrapped up over the weekend, so next week’s prospect report will be primarily playoff-oriented. The CHL’s regular season will end in a couple of weeks as well.

Just a reminder, these prospect reports only follow Avalanche prospects who are Not Goalies and Not In The AHL (we have other experts for those).

Onto the week that was.

Canadian Hockey League

WHL

#44 - Bowen Byram (D)
Vancouver Giants (32-24-6)

Another big weekend for Byram as the Giants continue to roll. He had three goals and an assist in three games, which put him over the 50-point mark this season. He now has 14 goals and 52 points in 50 games this season.

And, for good measure:

#34 - Sasha Mutala (RW)
Tri-City Americans (17-40-6)

Just the one goal for Mutala in four games this week for Tri-City:

Something strange was afoot last night in the Americans’ game against the Kamloops Blazers. They only had 16 skaters and one goalie able to play, so this is the lineup they went with:

Whatever seems to be ailing the team (please, let it not be the coronavirus), hopefully they’re back to a full lineup in their next game. Mutala has 67 points in 62 games this season.

#27 - Luka Burzan (C)
Brandon Wheat Kings (35-22-6)

Burzan had two assists in two games this weekend, but he did also have this great chance:

He now has 62 points in 63 games this season.

QMJHL

#16 - Alex Beaucage (RW)
Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (29-29-4)

After a couple of quiet weeks, Beaucage found his offensive touch again. He racked up three goals and two assists in three games, and now has a nice 69 points in 62 games.

NCAA

HOCKEY EAST

#18 - Alex Newhook (C)
Boston College Eagles (24-8-2)

Boston College wrapped up their regular season over the weekend with a win and a tie against New Hampshire. Newhook had two assists, and they were very nice:

Unfortunately, Newhook finished just one point behind Harvard’s Nick Abruzzese for NCAA freshmen scoring, but his 19 goals and 42 points this season are a really impressive accomplishment.

#4 - Drew Helleson (D)
Boston College Eagles (24-8-2)

Helleson came close to getting on the scoresheet, but to no avail:

Boston College, who finished atop the conference, will take on Providence in the Hockey East quarter-finals. Unlike some of the other NCAA hockey conferences, Hockey East doesn’t give its top-finishing teams bye-weeks at the start of the playoffs. Instead, the bottom three teams don’t qualify for the postseason, and the playoffs start with a 1 vs. 8 format.

BIG TEN

#26 - Cam Morrison (LW)
Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Notre Dame’s season came to an end against Minnesota yesterday. The Irish opened the series with a win but dropped the next two to be eliminated from the playoffs. Morrison had two goals in his final weekend in an Irish uniform:

It seems unlikely at this point that Notre Dame will be named one of the teams advancing to the NCAA Tournament, so all eyes will turn to the Avalanche — will Morrison sign an ELC with the Avalanche and ATO to join the Eagles? Or will he test free agency in August?

#4 - Nick Leivermann (D)
Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Leivermann went pointless over the weekend as well, but I was able to watch Friday’s game and I really liked how he played in his own end and read odd-man rushes.

#2 - Nate Clurman (D)
Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Clurman was in all three starting lineups for the Irish this weekend. Despite not landing on the scoresheet, here’s a chance he had:

#58 - Sampo Ranta (RW)
Minnesota Golden Gophers

Ranta scored one goal as the Gophers came back to eliminate Notre Dame and advance to the Big Ten semi-finals!

Here are some fun Ranta GIFs, too:

#25 - Denis Smirnov (RW)
Penn State Nittany Lions

Penn State had a bye during the first round of the Big Ten playoffs, having finished atop the conference. They’ll return to action this weekend against Minnesota.

NCHC

#40 - Tyler Weiss (LW)
Nebraska Omaha Mavericks (14-17-5)

Omaha split their final series of the season against North Dakota. Weiss went pointless and the Mavericks finished sixth in the conference. They’ll take on the third-place Denver Pioneers (in Denver, so it might be a series worth heading out to, Avs fans!) in a best-of-three series starting Friday.

ECAC

#20 - Matthew Stienburg (RW)
Cornell Big Red

Cornell had the week off thanks to finishing atop the conference this season. Their first game of the playoffs will be against Princeton on Friday, who upset Dartmouth over the weekend.

Europe

KHL

#51 - Nikolai Kovalenko (RW)
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
Playoffs: 1st Round — Lokomotiv down 3-1 to Jokerit

Lokomotiv went down 3-0 in the series before avoiding being swept in Game 4. Kovalenko played in all four games, but hasn’t recorded a point yet — and his team still faces elimination.

#2 - Danila Zhuravlyov (D)
Ak Bars Kazan
Playoffs: 1st Round — Ak Bars def. Niznekamsk 4-0

Bars continued their winning season by sweeping their first round playoff opponents — but Zhuravlyov didn’t dress for any of their four games. Not sure if he’s still battling lingering effects from the injury that kept him out for over a month, or if he’s ill. Hopefully he’ll be back in time for the second round.

These prospect reports were compiled with information from the WHL, QMJHL, Flashscore, and NCAA.