While the World Junior Championship took New Year’s Day off to prepare for today’s quarterfinal round, there was top-notch action in college hockey on Friday night. A recent draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers was honored by his conference before taking the ice. Meanwhile, a defensive prospect for the Montreal Canadiens is showing he can bring some offense to his game. Finally, the San Jose Sharks signed their most recent second-round pick.
Savoie Takes Home Honor
Carter Savoie turned heads during his two seasons with the Sherwood Park Crusaders in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). He scored 84 goals and 173 points in 112 games before moving on to the University of Denver for the 2020-21 season. His offensive game at the junior level impressed the Oilers enough to use their fourth-round pick (100th overall) to select him at the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.
Savoie has gotten his college career off to a very good start. On Monday morning, he was named the National Collegiate Hockey Conference’s (NCHC) Rookie of the Month for December.
He led all NCHC first-year players with 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in 10 games. This has him ranked third among all NCAA freshman skaters. He had four goals and seven points on the power-play, which is tied for fourth in all of college hockey. He also led the Pioneers with 32 shots on goal.
While Savoie is off to a nice start in 2020-21, Denver has been one of the biggest disappointments in college hockey. They were ranked fourth in the preseason poll but have not lived up to expectations. They went 3-6-1 in their 10 games to start the season inside of the NCHC bubble in Omaha, NE. They took the ice on Friday, at Colorado College, and lost 4-3 to their intrastate rivals. Savoie had an assist to bring up his point total to 12.
Harris Shines for Northeastern
The 10th-ranked Northeastern University Huskies were back on the ice to take on the University of Massachusetts, who entered the game No. 9 in the nation. Defenseman Jordan Harris was the offensive star of the night with a pair of goals in a 4-3 loss for the Huskies.
Harris opened the scoring at 6:59 of the first period with his third goal of the season.
As you can see above, he does a really nice job of slowly getting to the open area of the ice where he finds the puck and uses his great slap shot to hit the back of the net.
Midway through the third period, Harris showed off his shot again to give Northeastern a 3-2 lead.
This time he took the puck off the boards and walked it to the high slot where he fired home another goal. The lead was short lived as UMass forward Josh Lopina tied the game just 32 seconds later before Oliver Chau scored the game-winning goal with just over five minutes to play.
Harris, who was drafted by the Canadiens in the third round (71st overall) of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, now has four goals and eight points in seven games this season. He is producing offensively at a much greater rate this season as he had three goals and 21 points in 33 games in 2019-20.
Robins Inks NHL Deal
Tristen Robins started his 2021 with a bang as he signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Sharks on New Year’s Day. San Jose drafted the 5-foot-11 forward in the second round (55th overall) of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.
“Tristen came off an impressive performance at the end of last season, scoring 16 points in the final nine games,” Sharks general manager Doug Wilson said. “His game has improved since he made the move to center, and his puck possession, pursuit and skating ability fit in our system of how we want to play moving forward. We are excited to have him a part of our organization.”
Robins has yet to play during the 2020-21 season as he awaits the start of the Western Hockey League (WHL) season. He has 42 goals and 99 points in 134 WHL games with the Saskatoon Blades.
