Lauri Pajuniemi scores on a night with full slate of games

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t impact play for one day and that meant New York Rangers prospects were in action Saturday

There was full slate of games in Finland, Russia and Sweden and one of the New York Rangers best forward prospects finally dented the scoresheet. There were seven prospects in action and the final total was one goal and one assist.

Liiga (Finland)

In Finland Liiga play, Lauri Pajuniemi has started to show what he can do.  Hindered by a leg injury that cost him several games, Pajuniemi finally scored his first goal of the season on the power play in TPS’s 2-1 win over SaiPa.

Pajuniemi played 15:12 and had  a game high seven shots on goal. His goal came four minutes into the second period and he was assisted by former Ranger first round draft pick Lauri Korpikoski.  TPS had the man advantage after SiaPA was caught with too many men on the ice.

Josh Kestner of TPS scored the game winning goal only 24 seconds later. SaiPa scored with the goalie pulled in the last minute of the game to make it close.

Tarmo Reunanen played his second Liiga game with HPK as they lost 3-2 in a shootout.  Reunanen, who was just promoted from the Mestis League, is getting a lot of playing time, second most on the team with 24:34.  He had one shot on goal as HPK played their sixth match that went to overtime in their first 14 games of the season.

KHL (Russia)

Vitali Kravtsov’s Traktor team remains red hot, beating Kunlun Red Star 5-3 in Moscow.  The match was played with no spectators in the Red Star home arena where the Beijing based team has played all season. It was Traktor’s eighth win in their last nine games.

Vitali Kravtsov didn’t score in 17:06 minutes of play and he had one shot on goal and was a +1 for the game.  After scoring eight goals in his first 12 games, Kravtsov has now gone scoreless in six games with one assist.

Yegor Rykov was scoreless as CSKA overwhelmed Sochi 7-0 at home in Moscow before a crowd of 1,817.   He had two shots on goal in 16:37 minutes and blocked two shots.  In a 7-0 game he wasn’t on the ice for any of CSKA’s seven even strength goals.

For CSKA, they now have 41 points and are first in the Western Conference and have opened an eight point lead on second place SKA.

SHL (Sweden)

Karl Henriksson assisted on Johan Sundström’s goal less than three minutes into Frölunda’s 3-1 win over Linköping.  The road win gives Frölunda a three point lead over second place Rögle . Frölunda  has lost only one game in regulation so far this season.

The goal was off a great effort by  Sundström who dipsy doodled throughout the Linköping zone and took the shot when Henriksson (#21) set up a screen in front.

Henriksson played 12:13 and finished with a plus/minus of +1.  He had one shot on goal and added two hits.  He is still looking for his first goal of the season and has four assists in 14 games.

Second place Rögle lost in overtime to Örebro in a 6-5 goalfest.  Ranger prospect Adam Edström had one assist and played 16:35.  He added two hits and had two shots on goal. Edström assisted on Taylor Matson’s second period goal that knotted the score at 2-2.

Rögle salvaged a point, but dropped behind Frölunda while remaining in second place.

Luleå  was back in action after a pandemic postponement, but they dropped their third game in a row, losing at Växjö 3-2.  Nils Lundkvist was a minus one in 22:08 of ice time, second most on the team.  He had a team high six shot attempts with two shots ending up on goal.

After contending early in the season, Luleå has slipped into seventh place and is fading.

There were supposed to be Swedish junior action on Saturday and Sunday, but all play has been suspended due to COVID-19.