A certain New York Rangers prospect has been surprising OHL teams this season, and he's now first in league scoring after a career-high night in Flint's dominant win over Guelph.
Fresh off an Eastern Conference road trip where Flint went 1-1-1, the Firebirds returned home Wednesday night to host the Guelph Storm. I guess they really missed home. The team exploded for nine goals, dissipating the storm and running them out of their building.
With that victory, Flint moves into first place in the Western Conference, one point up on the Windsor Spitfires heading into the weekend. A lot of the team’s success can be traced back to their top line of Alex Kostov, Jimmy Lombardi, and New York Rangers prospect Nathan Aspinall, who is one of the most improved players as we near the halfway mark of the season.
Aspinall put forth a career-high five-point performance Wednesday night. He extended his point streak to 12 games, where he has recorded 13 goals and 14 assists for 27 points. Additionally, with that five-point effort, Aspinall has moved into first in the OHL in scoring with 47 points (21 goals, 26 assists) in 28 games.
After setting up Anaheim Ducks prospect Darels Uljanskis for the game’s opening goal, Aspinall sniped one off the rush past Colin Ellsworth for his first of the night.
A significant improvement in Aspinall’s game has been his shot and the power and accuracy he’s developed with shooting the puck in stride. Clearly, someone got into his ear to work on this part of his game and to shoot more. The fourth-year forward is averaging 4.25 shots on goal per game, and he’s already set a career-high in goals.
Aspinall factored in on all three of Flint’s goals in the first period, and he wasn’t done there.
When you’re playing as well as he is, your confidence is sky high, and confidence can do wonders for a hockey player. Following his pass up to the point, Aspinall spun off the defender, took the return feed, and walked in alone to the front of the net. One quick forehand-to-backhand stickhandle and softly sliding the puck through Ellsworth’s fivehole, and Aspinall had his 20th of the season.
Remember I mentioned Aspinall’s improved shooting ability in stride? Once again, he wanted to showcase the improvement he’s made in this department. With the game completely lopsided to this point by a score of 8-1, Aspinall walked in across the blueline untouched, and used the defender's reaching stick as a distraction to curl-and-drag the puck around and fire the puck top corner.
A career-high night for Aspinall was completed. He recorded his first five-point game and first OHL hat trick. The New York Rangers may just have something special in their 2024 fifth-rounder, and it’s another 6-foot-7, towering forward.
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