Attack Get Iced: Kootenay still alive

Where to begin with tonight's tie breaker game at the Mastercard Memorial Cup? Injuries to Owen Sound? Matt Fraser does it again? A surprise starter in net? No matter where you start, the end result was a 7-3 win for Kootenay and a date with Mississauga in Friday night's semi final.

Majors to Semi Final, Attack to tie breaker

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The Mastercard Memorial Cup hosts won't have to go the tie breaker route to win the Memorial Cup after beating Owen Sound tonight 3-1 with an empty netter. The game was back and forth and feisty but the Attack will need much more discipline if they are going to get another shot at Mississauga, although I do think some of their penalties weren't deserved. This one would have been a blow out if Mississauga's power play would have been better, they only went 1-9.

NHL Central Scouting: The Reason Behind The Rankings

There are a lot of really good scouting services out there - as well as a few shady ones - but the agency that gets people the most excited, is also the one endorsed and ran by the league. NHL Central Scouting started 33 years ago, and for some it's the bible of the scouting world. If that's the case then we were blessed by an almighty presence Tuesday night on TPS. Okay, that's a little much, but E.J. McGuire, central's head man, does carry a lot of weight when it comes to deciding the future of young hockey players.

McGuire joined us after watching Kitchener battle London in the OHL and we started our conversation with him about the top two dogs in Ontario, Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin. When the year began Hall was the top ranked player and consensus first overall pick by most people. But when central's November rankings came out the Windsor Spitfire was #2 behind the Plymouth Whaler Seguin. Expect the duo to flip flop the year before, and McGuire says if you like them in the OHL, you better get to see them this year.

"There were 6 this year who jumped from the 2009 draft into the NHL draft, there were 11 from the year before, and these two - Hall and Seguin - will be on NHL teams come October of next year."

Cam Fowler (Windsor) and Erik Gudbrandson (Kingston) are next in the OHL rankings followed by Barries Alexander Burmistrov. The next Canadian forward on the list is Sudbury's John McFarland. I was really impressed with McFarland during the Subway Super Series on Rogers Sportsnet, especially the way the 6.0 200 lb forward used his big frame.

"Strong on his skates," McGuire began before adding McFarland has missed time due to injuries this year.

Missing action has been a common theme for a few players this year, as Guy pointed out Brett Connolly (Prince George), Joey Hishon (Owen Sound) and Kirill Kabanov (Moncton) are all out of their respective line ups. McGuire explained how central deals with evaluating injured players.

"We try not to drop them in the ratings, we try to grab viewings and hold to those kind of principals. But it's tough when the other guys are scoring hattricks right before your eyes."

The Moncton Wildcats owns the top 2 QMJHL players ranked by central scouting as well as the number one slotted goaltender Louis Domingue. While the injured Kabanov is #2, defenceman Brandon Gormley is projected to be the top Q player selected in this Junes draft. Gormley starred for Canada at the Ivan Hlinka tournament this summer and McGuire made a lofty comparison to the rearguard.

"To maybe compare him to other years, he might be in the category of Victor Hedman." McGuire qualified the comparison by saying Gormley is a few inches and pounds shy of Hedman, but that their offensive instincts are similar.

Another defenceman getting rave reviews from McGuire is Edmonton's Mark Pysyk, mostly because of his skating. EJ agreed with Guy's comparison of Pysyk to John Moore drafted in the first round by Columbus last season.

From the blueline to the last line of defence, we talked goalies. McGuire made it clear that he doesn't pretend to be a pipeman expert, but defers to central staffer and former Washington Capital Al Jenson. There are 3 goalies garnering a lot of attention right now. Calvin Pickard (Seattle), Louis Domingue(Moncton) and Jack Campbell (US National Development team).

"Those will be 3 goalies for the first time that will probably sneak into the mid to later part of round number one, and that hasn't happened in a couple of years"

After our conversation with EJ McGuire we had a short discussion about Jack Campbell and how according to Western College Hockey Blog, he'll be jumping ship to Windsor next year rather than attending Michigan, which would be following a Wolverine teammate who just left the den for the OHL.

You can hear the entire conversation by clicking here.

TPS Reset - Oct 27th

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If you missed Tuesday's edition of The Pipeline Show, don't worry, that's what audio archives are for! Here is what you missed:

Dean and I were very excited to have been able to line up Theoren Fleury for the program. (OK, credit Dean for doing all the legwork on setting that interview up). Fleury has been on a whirlwind, cross-Canada book tour to promote his sold out autobiography called Playing With Fire. We were pleased to have been able to speak with the former Calgary Flames forward for two full segments and he spoke on several subjects. Of course he discussed the motivation behind writing the book and his coming forward in regards to acknowledging that he was abused by his former coach Graham James. Much of his life is now dedicated to helping others who have, or are, facing similar stories. For more on that subject we encourage you to visit his website HERE

We also talked to Fleury about other less-heavy subjects like his fond memories of his junior hockey career with the Moose Jaw Warriors and his experiences at the World Junior Championship playing for Team Canada. Of course Fleury was a catalyst for the Punch-Up at Piestany in 1987 and also a part of the gold medal winning squad the next year. To Hear both segments we had with Theo Fleury, click HERE .

Every week on The Pipeline Show we like to introduce fans to another player eligible for the next NHL Entry Draft. One such 2010 player is Joey Hishon of the Owen Sound Attack. Although he's currently injured, Hishon is, in our mind, a player to watch for this season. He played in the U18 tournament in Fargo last April but oddly enough, wasn't a part of Canada's summer entry to the Ivan Hlinka tournament. Hishon touches on that as well as many other subjects including his foot injury. You can hear everything that Hishon had to say by clicking HERE

Last year we spoke with coach Mark Carlson before the 2008 WJAC in Camrose, a tournament that his American squad went on to win. The problem with that interview was that it came just days before his team roster was formally announced so he couldn't say a whole lot about the make up of the team. This year we had no such problem so we got a great amount of information about what Team USHL, er... Team USA will look like this year in PEI. Carlson talks specifically about several players including his goaltending tandem, a pair of USHL netminders with less that exciting stats right now in that league. David Gerths is the only returning player but there are several others he is expecting big things from at the tournament. Hear what coach Carlson said about his sqaud by clicking HERE .

Last but not least, we had a conversation with goaltender Jake Allen. Allen is the marquee player with the Montreal Juniors of the QMJHL, he's a 2nd round pick of the St. Louis Blues and he's quite probably the starter for Canada at the 2010 WJC in Saskatoon/Regina.. We had lots to talk to Allen about and he had lots to say; hear it all by clicking HERE.