No New York Rangers prospects made it onto the scoresheets in Saturday’s games in Sweden and Finland
Seven New York Rangers prospects could have potentially seen action on Saturday in Europe, but only four played with one goalie rested and two others serving suspensions. Lias Andersson joined Adam Edsdtrom on the list of players suspended when he was disciplined for five games for an illegal hit in Thursday’s game versus Luleå. Here is the hit delivered by Andersson (#23).
Lias Andersson stängs av i fem matcher och får böta 80 500 kr efter tacklingen i gårdagens match ❌ #twittpuck pic.twitter.com/3R9Fl6vVP0
— TV4 Hockey (@TV4_Hockey) October 2, 2020
The Swedish Disciplinary Committee handed down the suspension, ruling that it was a head shot. Andersson’s shoulder made contact with Jonas Berglund’s head and the committee felt it was a late hit with a “very high risk of injury. ”
As a result, Andersson is suspended for five games until October 17. As a result, he missed HV71’s 6-3 win over Oskarshamn.
Andersson is the second Rangers prospect in the SHL to be suspended this young season. Forward Adam Edström sat out the third game of his five game suspension for an illegal hit. His team, Rögle, beat Djurgården 5-3.
Nils Lundkvist and Luleå continued their winning ways, remaining undefeated in four games. Luleå scored with 29 seconds left in the game for the 2-1 win over Växjö .
Lundkvist didn’t score, but played 19:17 and he had one shot on goal on two shots. He took an interference penalty in the third period. He was on ice for one Luleå goal and finished +1 for the game.
Karl Henriksson and Frölunda won their third of four games this season, defeating defense prospect Calle Själin and Leksand 4-2. Henriksson played 15:32 minutes, with one shot on goal and two hits. He took a slashing penalty in the first period that led to a Marek Hrivik goal for Leksand.
Själin played 13:38, notching one shot on goal and one hit. Leksand’s records dropped to 1-2-1.
The next SHL action for future Rangers will be Thursday night when there is a full slate of games in the Swedish league.
In one other game in Sweden, goalie Olof Lindbom did not play in Mora’s 4-3 loss to Västervik in Allsvenskan League action. He won in his start on Friday night so he was rested on back-to-back days..
Pajuniemi hurt
In Liiga action in Finland, Lauri Pajuniemi was in the lineup in TPS Turku’s 4-2 win over Lukko but didn’t last long. He was injured in the first period when he was kneed by by Lukko’s Anrei Hakulinen just under five minutes into the game.
Hakulinen was penalized two minutes for kneeing and Pajuniemi left the game and did not return. There’s no word on the severity of the injury.
Pajuniemi is one of TPS’ brightest stars and has developed into one of the top forward prospects in the Ramgers’ system after scoring 26 goals and 40 points in 49 games last season. Those were better numbers than Kaapo Kakko’s stats for TPS in 2018-19, though Kakko was a year younger.
TPS is off for almost a week, so Pajuniemi will have time to get healthy if the injury is not severe.