Canucks prospects: Playoff payoff for Tom Willander as BU advances

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It’s the latest edition of the prospects tracker, where we tally up the efforts of the Vancouver Canucks’ highest profile prospects:

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Tom Willander

Disaster struck the last time Tom Willander was on the ice against Northeastern.

That was Feb. 12 at the Beanpot tournament final, when Willander’s No. 2-ranked Boston University dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the No. 20-ranked Huskies. Willander, the Canucks’ 2023 first-rounder and best defensive prospect, had tracked back to help defend a 2-on-1 in OT, but the puck got caught up in his skates, leading to the eventual winner.

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Saturday’s Hockey East playoff quarterfinals served as the rematch, and another bout of misfortune for Willander late in the game threatened to derail his team yet again.

With five minutes left in the third and BU leading 3-1, a pass from behind the net ramped up Willander’s stick, hitting goaltender Mathieu Caron in the back before crossing the goal line.

But Macklin Celebrini — the projected No. 1 pick at this summer’s NHL draft — scored the 30th of his freshman season moments later to advance to the semifinal with a 4-2 win.

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Despite the unlucky goal against, Willander, 19, had a strong game for the Terriers.

The 6-foot-1, 179-pound right-shot D-man was sound in his own end and earned a secondary power play assist midway through the second period as the Terriers exploded for three goals in eight minutes to blow the game open, before the Huskies got one back late in the frame.

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In the end, Willander finished his first NCAA playoff game with an assist and an even plus-minus rating.

“You know, we talked about it, it was obviously disappointing losing the Beanpot where I thought we played pretty well,” said head coach Jay Pandolfo post-game. “But we had a pretty good feeling we were going to see them again at some point … and I think our guys responded very well.

“Disappointed at the end of the second, you get up 3-0, you shouldn’t give a goal up with a minute left. We got a little bit careless there. Their second goal was pretty lucky.”

At the other end of the ice, fellow Canucks prospect Jackson Dorrington (2022, Rd. 6) went a minus-1 for Northeastern. The rugged sophomore D-man had a plus-15 rating and 12 points (6G, 6A) in 33 games for the Terriers.

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The victory earns BU a semifinal berth against the No. 8-ranked Maine Black Bears on Friday, March 22 at TD Garden in Boston.

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Willander, a smooth-skating, two-way blueliner, has had a solid freshman season at the storied NCAA program. His plus-24 rating is tied for 15th in the country (eighth among defencemen) while the Stockholm product has contributed 22 points (4G, 18A) in 34 games, playing largely second-pairing minutes.

Meanwhile, Aiden Celebrini (2023, Rd. 7), another Canucks defensive prospect, did not dress for BU on Saturday. Celebrini, a depth defender for the Terriers, has skated in 31 games this season and has one goal, five assists and a plus-5 rating.

Celebrini is the brother of future star Macklin and the son of Burnaby’s Rick Celebrini, currently the director of sports medicine and performance for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.

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Jonathan Lekkerimaki

His team survived one do-or-die situation on Tuesday to squeak into the SHL playoffs.

Can it survive another on Monday to advance to the next round?

Canucks top prospect Jonathan Lekkerimaki tallied a primary assist at Linkoping on Tuesday as his Orebro side won 3-2 in a shootout to snag the 10th and final spot in the post-season, after the team ahead of them, Modo, was shut out 1-0 at Rogle.

It didn’t even matter that Lekkerimaki, the Canucks’ 2022 first-rounder, was stopped on his the shootout attempt: he was playoff-bound.

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The win set up a best-of-three series between the 10th seed (Orebro) and the seventh seed (Lulea), which began on Thursday.

Game 1 was a tight affair, with Lekkerimaki leading the Orebro attack a few minutes into the game, cutting to the inside past a Lulea defender with a quick move then showing patience under pressure to find an open winger for a shot and a goal.

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Lulea equalized midway through the second, but Orebro scored the winner with five minutes left in the third to take it 2-1.

Lekkerimaki, a 5-foot-11, 172-pound right-shot winger, finished the game with one assist, one shot on goal and a plus-1 rating in nearly 17 minutes of ice time playing on the first line.

Game 2 didn’t go so well for Lekkerimaki and Co., who lost 3-0 to Lulea on Saturday to set up Monday’s rubber match at Lulea.

Lekkerimaki had a sensational regular season in Sweden, tallying 19 goals and 12 assists in 46 games.

The 19 goals were good for sixth overall in the SHL goalscoring race.

It is unclear if Lekkerimaki will join Abbotsford when his playoffs conclude, or if he will stick around in Sweden for the world championship tournament in early May.

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(This section will be updated on Monday following the conclusion of Game 3 between Orebro and Lulea)

Aidan McDonough

He was the big man on campus last season, captaining Northeastern and scoring the winner in the Beanpot final.

This season has been a different story for Aidan McDonough, as the big winger acclimates himself to life as a pro in Abbotsford.

But if the past couple weeks are any indication, the 23-year-old is well on his way to finding his game in the AHL.

After scoring in consecutive games against Henderson last weekend, McDonough followed it up this week with an inspired assist on Abbotsford’s lone goal in a 4-1 loss to Bakersfield on Tuesday, then scored twice on Saturday night in a 7-3 loss to the Silver Knights.

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Tuesday’s assist came at a time the Canucks needed a spark. Down 2-0 to the Condors late in the second period, McDonough made a great toe-drag move past a defender before he was stopped by Bakersfield’s Jack Campbell in tight. Arshdeep Bains swung the rebound over to veteran defenceman Matt Irwin, who rifled a one-timer into the net.

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The Canucks beat the Condors 4-1 on Wednesday night, with veteran forward Sheldon Dries scoring twice and goaltender Nikita Tolopilo saving 26 of 27 shots to earn first-star honours.

McDonough’s two goals in Saturday’s loss — his eighth and ninth this season — were about hustle and getting his 6-foot-2, 201-pound frame into prime shooting position.

His first opened scoring, with the Massachusetts product streaking into the slot to deposit a John Stevens feed past the Henderson goalie.

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McDonough’s second goal came midway through the third, with the 2019 seventh-round pick going hard to the net for a rebound, which came off defenceman Nick Cicek’s shot.

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McDonough finished the game with two goals, four shots on net and was named the third star of the game.

During Tuesday’s broadcast, head coach Jeremy Colliton told Abbotsford play-by-play man Brandon Astle that McDonough’s commitment to details away from the puck has helped kickstart production in his professional career.

“His work ethic away from the puck, to forecheck, put pressure on, make contact, hustle when the puck turns over to track back,” Colliton said. “He was involved in a couple goals just by his work ethic to get back and force turnovers and not allow them advance it … it turned into offence for us and the puck went into the back of the net.”

“It’s that feeling you get when things are flowing, and you gotta work for it — and he’s done that.”

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St. Paddy’s day massacre

Saturday night’s 7-3 loss was ugly for Abbotsford.

Sunday’s Saint Patrick’s Day rematch was worse for the Silver Knights.

The men in green scored early and scored often to crush Henderson 8-3 and push the desert dwellers 12 points below the Pacific Division playoff bar.

Two of Abbotsford’s top prospects — forwards Linus Karlsson and Aatu Raty — got the home side off to a quick start with two goals in the game’s first minute.

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Raty then scored his second to put Abbotsford up 3-0 five minutes into the game on heavy wrister from the left faceoff circle on a power play.

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By the end of the first period, Raty had two goals and two assists while Karlsson had a goal and two assists. Defenceman Filip Johansson also had three helpers with Abbotsford up 5-2 after 20 minutes.

Bains tallied his 13th of the season on a second period power play to make it 6-2 Canucks, with McDonough assisting — his seventh point in his last six games (4G, 3A).

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The party continued later in the frame, with forward Marc Gatcomb scoring his seventh of the season to up the score to 7-2.

The Silver Knights got one back early in the third, but Gatcomb struck again on the PP for his 10th of the season to extend the score to 8-3.

Abbotsford went an astounding 5-for-6 on the power play in the lopsided win.

Just one big power play goal would go a long way in Vancouver these days.

The goal explosion upped the points totals of Abbotsford’s top prospects, with Raty up to 45 points (17G, 28A) in 61 games, Bains up to 49 points (14G, 35A) in 52 games and new team scoring leader Karlsson up to 50 points (16G, 34A) in 49 games.

These are the guys who’ll be contending for a bottom-six spot in Vancouver next season.

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Abbotsford is 31-23-4-2 and in sixth place in the tight division. Seven points separate second from seventh spot with 12 games left for the Canucks to make their move up the standings.

Elias Pettersson

He’s touched down in Abbotsford.

But where big defensive prospect Elias Pettersson slots into the Canucks’ blue-line remains to be seen.

The 20-year-old practised this past week with his new AHL club, but has yet to see game action.

Pettersson, a hard-hitting 6-foot-4, 209-pound left-shot defenceman, steps onto an Abbotsford team that has so many blue-line options, it traded depth D-man Quinn Schmiemann away the other day for future considerations.

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The left side of the Canucks’ blue-line has Cicek starting on the top pair, the veteran Irwin on the second pair and now includes Guillaume Brisebois, who played his first game of the season on Wednesday. Christian Wolanin, the best of the left-shot bunch, is also back skating with the team after being out of the lineup since January.

Akito Hirose is another option, however the slight 24-year-old has struggled at times playing a heavier pro game.

Brisebois left Saturday’s game with an injury and Hirose played on the third pair on Sunday where he notched his first AHL point, an assist on Raty’s first goal.

To complicate matters further, right-shot D-man Cole McWard left Sunday’s game in the second period and didn’t return.

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Coach Colliton also isn’t afraid to dress seven defencemen, which he’s done several times this season.

Vancouver will eventually need some depth for its own potential playoff run, so one or two veterans from the Abbotsford blue-line could factor in there.

What this means is Pettersson, a 2022 third-round pick the organization is high on, will get into the lineup eventually.

The Vasteras native just finished his season in Sweden where he performed admirably for his underwhelming hometown team, which failed to make the playoffs in the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. Pettersson, who averaged around 17 minutes a game, had a minus-1 rating in 34 games for a team that had a minus-23 goal differential.

Pettersson, who can make a good first pass and eliminate opponents along the boards, had three goals and 11 assists as well. His positioning and gap control will need work in Abbotsford.

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It will be interesting to see how the prospect navigates the smaller ice and different style the North American game brings.

Elsewhere: Big forward prospect Vilmer Alriksson (2023, Rd. 4) scored his 15th goal of the OHL season for Guelph in a 5-4 overtime loss to Saginaw on Saturday. Alriksson, 19, is playing his first season in North American and has 31 points in 63 games.

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And also in the OHL, promising two-way defensive prospect Kirill Kudryavtsev (2022, Rd. 7) had a two assists in two games for the Soo Greyhounds this past weekend, including an impressive stretch pass on the penalty kill to send a teammate in for a breakaway goal in a 5-2 win at Owen Sound.

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Kudryavtsev, a 6-foot, 201-pound left-shot defenceman, has 47 points (5G, 42A) in 65 games while going an impressive plus-26.

With one week left in the OHL season, both Kudryavtsev’s Greyhounds and Alriksson’s Storm have their playoff spots locked up.

The Greyhounds can finish as high as second place or as low as fourth in the Western Conference, while the Storm can finish as high as fifth place or as low as eighth.

mraptis@postmedia.com

twitter.com/mike_raptis

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