Does anyone want to win?

We didn't check to see if there was a full moon on Saturday night, but the way some of the New York Ranger and New York Islander prospects played; it should make you wonder.  Textbook hockey was very much not the norm on this evening as there were a couple of instances of just flat out horrible hockey.

Rangers First Star Steven Fogarty

Steven Fogarty (NYR 2011 3rd) and his Penticton Vees almost made a nice headline about how their winning streak came to a truly embarrassing end.  In many ways, if we were the Vees , we would actually view their 7-5 win over the Westside Warriors as a loss.

The Vees entered the third period with a 6-1 lead and honestly were lucky to escape with their win.  Fogarty earned the first star of the game with a 1-2-3 performance including if you believe winding up with the game-winning goal.

For us the highlight of the game was 2 Fogarty plays in the second period while he was killing penalties.  Fogarty and his linemate Joey Benik had 2 shorthanded breakaway's in which Fogarty missed on his chance but Benik cashed in on his.

As we said yesterday, Fogerty's defense is first rate and you could never have enough penalty killers who just so happen to be 6'3 200+.  Especially when they can generate shorthanded opportunities like Fogarty and his teammate were.

We will break down how Fogarty despite scoring the 6th goal of the game for the Vees and the rest of the Ranger prospect report which you can find right here. (Warning one game super stinker  read at your own risk)

Islanders First Star Scott Mayfield

This is what we like repeat performers has Scott Mayfield (NYI 2011 2nd) is right back here for the very same reason he was here last night.  Once again it was Mayfield making the play that helped his 14th-ranked Denver Pioneers defeat top-ranked Minnesota.


In this case it wasn't the game-winner but it was Mayfield, who started the play, which led to Nick Shore scoring the tying goal with just 1:26 remaining in regulation to send the game into overtime.

Every reason that we mentioned yesterday is exactly the same , reasoning why Mayfield is here again.  We are talking now, back to back wins over the team that according to the polls is the best team in the NCAA.

Denver won 4-3 in overtime and because of this weekend has pulled to within one point of second place (Minnesota-Duluth) and two points of Minnesota.  One other way th these wins can help Denver and that's called "Pairwise" which is how the NCAA awards at large spots in the NCAA tournament.

Scott Mayfield helped Denver jumped all the way to seventh in the "Pairwise" which is not bad for an 18-year-old.  More on Mayfield and the rest of the Islanders report here.

(Fogarty - Penticton Vees, Mayfield - New York Islanders)