Strahl repeats while Roed and Sobieski recognized for their Week 10 performance
The USHL announced its tenth Players of the Week on Monday as Tri-City forward Nolan Roed, Youngstown defenseman Kazimier Sobieski and Youngstown goaltender Melvin Strahl took home the respective honors for Week 10.
It’s the second consecutive honor for Strahl as the Columbus pick (2023) earned a pair of wins with 37 saves last weekend. It’s also the second consecutive week and fifth time this season that a team has had multiple honorees. Madison (Week 5 and 9) and Green Bay (Week 3 and 8) have both done so twice.
As for his Week 10 performance, Strahl made 42 of a possible 45 saves and finished the weekend 2-0-0 with a 1.50 GAA and .935 save percentage. He made 19 saves in a 3-1 win over Omaha on Friday and 23 more on Saturday, leading the Phantoms to a 4-2 win and a weekend sweep of the Lancers.
The Michigan State commit has now won five straight and seven of his last nine starts. Strahl is 10-4-0 on the season with a .907 save percentage and 2.19 GAA, which is tied for third among USHL netminders. Youngstown (12-7-0) has won seven straight and is fourth in the Eastern Conference with 24 points.
While Strahl starred between the pipes, Sobieski also had a good weekend on Youngstown’s blue line, scoring once and racking up three assists. Along with a plus-6 rating.
Sobieski made his Phantom debut on Friday and assisted Jack Hextall’s game-winning goal, followed up by a goal and two helpers on Saturday.
The 20-year-old started this season with UMass and played in five games before returning to the USHL. Sobieski played in 104 USHL games over the past three seasons with Sioux Falls, who Youngstown recently acquired him from.
Rounding the group is Nolan Roed, as the SCSU commit had seven points (3-4-7) over three games against Fargo.
Roed was held point-less on Thursday as the Storm fell 4-3 but had a hat trick and two assists in Friday’s 6-5 overtime win, followed by two assists on Saturday. Tri-City fell 5-3 in Saturday’s contest.
Roed scored the second of his three goals – all of which came in Friday’s third period – on the penalty kill and also finished the weekend a plus-3, along with racking up 15 shots. He now has 10 goals and 19 points on the season, which rank second and third respectively on Tri-City’s roster.