Stancl nets first hat trick in AHL for Springfield; Carbonneau visits future teammates, scores two more goals; Jiricek starts new point streak, keeps Brantford humming;
It's been a tough go for Jakub Stancl, a fourth-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft by the St. Louis Blues.
Not from a playing perspective, in his first season in the American Hockey League for Springfield, but simply from a health perspective. The forward has missed quite a bit of time with the Thunderbirds.
The 20-year-old was out after scoring his first AHL goal on Oct. 19 to Nov. 18, and has been playing catch-up since.
The forward broke out in a nice way, despite a 4-3 loss to Providence on Saturday, scoring his first AHL hat trick and was a plus-2 on three shots.
A first period goal got the Thunderbirds back into the game after falling behind 2-0:
Then a second in the second period, a rebound goal, after Providence went up by two again and cut the deficit to 3-2:
And he capped off the hat trick by tying the game in the third with hard work along the wall, coralling a puck with work with Matthew Peca:
Stancl, who has four goals and an assist on the season, picked up an assist on Sunday in a 3-1 Springfield win at Providence, and the Blues have to hope that the Czechia native can get on a run of games with some offense after having played in just 11 so far for the 6-11-3-2 Thunderbirds.
* Justin Carbonneau -- The 2025 first-round pick had just one game this past week with his Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League side, Blainville-Boisbriand, but it was another strong one for the 19-year-old.
In a 3-2 loss to Rimouski on Friday, Carbonneau accounted for both goals to give him 23 goals (32 points) in 23 games on the season.
He scored a shorthanded goal at 19:25 of the first period for a 1-0 lead:
Then scored again at 9:40 of the second to give the Armada a 2-0 lead but they couldn't hold on despite pumping a whopping 55 shots on goal:
The Armada fell to 17-6-4-0 and lead the Western Conference by just three points, but Carbonneau remains on pace to score 60 goals this season.
After playing Friday, Carbonneau made it over to see the Blues play the Ottawa Senators on Saturday:
* Adam Jiricek -- The 2024 first-round pick had a 13-game point streak (19 points; six goals, 13 assists) end on Nov. 30 against Oshawa, but the defenseman, who plays for Brantford of the Ontario Hockey League, started a new streak with two assists in a 4-2 win against Kingston last Wednesday, then scored in a 7-2 win against North Bay on Saturday after being named OHL defenseman of the month for November:
The 19-year-old is now up to 29 points (10 goals, 19 assists) in 25 games for the 21-2-4-1 Bulldogs, who lead the Eastern Conference by 10 points over Barrie and is projected for 75 points (26 goals, 49 assists) and a plus-44 in 65 games this season.
* Theo Lindstein -- It's been quote the learning year for the first-year AHL player in Springfield and 2023 first-round pick (No. 29), who was a minus-12 at one point in the season.
But in the past seven games, the 20-year-old is a plus-6 the past seven games and scored his second AHL goal last Wednesday in a 5-2 loss to Hartford:
Lindstein now has two goals and three assists in 22 games and has lowered his plus-minus to minus-8, including a plus-4 the past three games.
* Matthew Mayich -- The defenseman and sixth-round pick in 2023 scored his second goal in three games on Saturday for Clarkson University in a 5-3 win over Colgate, the Golden Knights' third win in four games after losing five in a row.
The freshman now has four goals, including three the past six games, and one assist with 16 blocked shots on the season in 18 games for the 7-11-0 squad.
* Nikita Susuev -- The forward and 2023 seventh-round pick playing his first season in North America also has missed a big chunk of games in Springfield from Nov. 15 to Dec. 5 but now has four assists in 1`3 games this season, including a helper in three straight games.
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