OHL Saginaw Spirit

Eagles Nest Notes

Published on November 26, 2007 under Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Saginaw Spirit News Release


Welcome to Eagles Nest Notes, the Saginaw Spirit weekly recap and preview. The Spirit lost to the Plymouth Whalers 4-1 last Wednesday, beat the Sudbury Wolves 6-4 on Friday and lost to the Peterborough Petes 3-1 on Saturday.

The Spirit enter the week with 23 points and a record of 10-11-2-1. The team is ranked 5th in the hotly contested West Division, and 7th in the 10-team Western Conference.

On special teams, the Spirit have killed 75% of all penalties and scored in 23% of all power play situations. The team has the 6th best power play squad in the league.

Streak Watch

Spirit associate captain Jack Combs has tallied at least one goal in the last 6 consecutive Spirit games; He has posted at least one point in the last 9 consecutive Spirit games.

Spirit Top-5

Leading the Spirit in point production is Jack Combs with 38 points, Ryan McDonough with 31 points and Tomas Zaborsky with 28 points. Jan Mursak has posted 24 points and Nigel Williams 23 points.

Ryan McDonough is the team's leading goal scorer with 18 on the season so far. Jack Combs has 17 goals and Tomas Zaborsky has tallied 13 goals. Tyler Murovich claims the 4th spot with 10 goals; several players are tied with 5 goals apiece.

Jack Combs is also the team's leading assists scorer, with 21 assists on the season. Jan Mursak has tallied 19 assists and Nigel Williams has posted 18 assists. Tomas Zaborsky with 15 assists and Ryan McDonough with 13 assists round out the top-5.

Leading the d-men in plus/minus is Chris Breen with a plus-8, Jordan Ogilvie with a plus-7 and Nigel Williams with a plus-4. The McDonough forwards make the plus/minus list, with Ryan having a plus-7 and Jason having a plus-4.

OHL Top-20

Jack Combs is ranked 8th in goal scoring, 13th in point production and 20th in assists. Ryan McDonough is slightly ahead of Combs in the goal scoring category, holding down the league's 7th spot. Nigel Williams is ranked 9th in d-man scoring.

Tyler Murovich is the 10th top scoring rookie in the league; Jordan Szwarz pulls up in the 18th spot in the same category.

Kingston Frontenacs

November 30th, 2007 at 7:11 PM

TheDow Event Center, Saginaw

The Spirit are set for the second game of their two game series against the Frontenacs; the Spirit beat the Front's 7-1 on October 19th, 2007. Tyler Murovich notched his first OHL career hat trick in the game; Ryan McDonough scored 2 goals. Parker Van Buskirk was in net, posting a 1.00 goals against average and 0.957 save percentage.

Leading the Frontenacs offense is winger Cory Emmerton (12-16-28), center Nathan Moon (10-18-28), winger Matthew Kang (11-12-23), winger Josh Brittain (5-7-12) and center Bobby Mignardi (4-6-10). Moon tallied a goal against the Spirit on October 19th. Jason Guy has seen duty in net 19 games this season.

The Frontenacs are in 5th place in the East Division with 15 points and a record of 7-15-0-1. The Spirit have a record of 6-4-1-0 against the Front's over the last five seasons, 4-1-0-0 when playing in Saginaw. Kingston's away record this season is 2-8-0-1.

Kitchener Rangers

December 1st, 2007 at 7:11 PM

TheDow Event Center, Saginaw

Twelve days after the Spirit downed the Kitchener Rangers in a 5-4 shootout, the Rangers will be in town for a re-match. Kitchener is the top team in the league and it's offense has posted a league high 118 goals so far this season. In the October 18th, 2007 contest, Jack Combs, Jan Mursak Ryan McDonough and Tomas Zaborsky each tallied a goal; Combs and McDonough posted the two shootout goals and Ryan Daniels compiled a 3.69 goals against average and 0.900 save percentage in the contest.

Center Justin Azevedo (16-37-53), center Nick Spaling (23-19-42), winger Matt Halischuk (12-30-42) and winger Mikkel Boedker (10-15-25) lead the offense. Defenseman Yannick Weber (13-18-31) chips in offensively, with Alex Dzielski (2-4-6) and Steven Tarasuk (1-9-10) anchoring the blue line with a plus-18 and plus-16, respectively. Halischuk, Boedker, Weber and winger Mike Mascioli (3-6-9) each tallied a goal against the Spirit on October 18th. The Rangers are switching between two rookie goaltenders - Josh Unice and Mavric Parks. Unice has tallied 3 shutouts this season.

The Rangers have 41 points and a record of 20-3-0-1; they are in the top spot in both the West Division and the Western Conference. Kitchener is 14-4-0-1 against Saginaw over the last five seasons, 6-3-0-0 when playing in Saginaw. This season the Rangers are 9-2-0-0 when on the road.

London Knights

December 2nd, 2007 at 2:00 PM

John Labatt Center, London

The Spirit take on the London Knights for the first time of the season Sunday.

Leading the Knight's offense is rookie winger Patrick Maroon (15-19-34), winger Adam Perry (10-16-26), winger Jadran Beljo (14-11-25) and center Justin Taylor (13-11-24). Defenseman Kevin Montgomery (4-16-20) is one of the team's top scorers as well. Defenseman Scott Aarssen (0-8-8) leads the team with a plus-15. Starting netminder Steve Mason has posted a 2.64 goals against average and 0.920 save percentage.

The Knights are second in the Midwest Division with 33 points and a record of 16-8-0-1. The Spirit are 2-17-0-1 against the Knights over the last five seasons, 2-8-0-0 when playing in London. This season the Knights have an away record of 5-4-0-1.

Check out the Saginaw Spirit Statistics

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Ontario Hockey League Stories from November 26, 2007


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