Road To The Show Presented By Liberty Travel

By Jordan Myers for JackalsHockey.com

ELMIRA, N.Y. - As the ECHL affiliate of the NHL's Ottawa Senators and New Jersey Devils, and the AHL's Binghamton Senators and Albany Devils, the Jackals are tasked with developing prospects throughout the organizations. The Road To The Show presented by Liberty Travel provides details on how those prospects are progressing.

Ottawa Senators (NHL) – With the Winter Olympics coming to a close on Sunday the Senators are back in action on the 27th. Headed into the Olympic break Ottawa was 26-22-11and 5-3-2 in the last ten games. The top three teams in each division are guaranteed a playoff spot with the final two spots decided by overall points. While holding sixth place in the Atlantic division for the majority of the season the Senators are setting their eyes on the final wild card spot. Ottawa is currently one point behind Detroit, who currently holds the last wild card spot, and tied with Columbus and Washington with 63 points. The Swedish Olympian, Erik Karlsson, had a multi-point night with two assists helping the Swedes to a 5-0 victory over Slovenia in the quarterfinals. Karlsson leads all NHL defensemen and his teammates with 55 points. He is also tied for fifth in the league with 25 power-play points. Team Sweden faces off against Finland on Friday in the Semifinals. Milan Michálek played in five games for the Cezch Republic, tallying no points. The Czech Republic was eliminated from play in the quarter finals by Team USA being defeated 5-2. Chris Phillips remains out indefinitely with a lower body injury and Clarke MacArthur is questionable to return on February 27 against Detroit with a foot injury.

Binghamton Senators (AHL) – Binghamton is currently leading the East Division with a record of 32-15-4 and 6-3-1 in the last ten games. The Senators shut-out the Worchester Sharks 8-0 on February 15. Defenseman Michael Sdao tallied his first multi-point game of his AHL career with two goals. His total now sits at 9 points (4 goals, 5 assists) in 40 games. Corey Cowick has a three-game point streak tallying a point a game. In the last six games he has three goals and one assist. Mike Hoffman is still lighting up the score board with six points in three games which brings him to 64 points with 27 goals and 37 assists this season. He currently sits in second for top scorers in the AHL behind Travis Morin of Texas who has 28 goals and 42 assists. Danny New has two assists in three games and has a total of four assists in the last six games. The former Providence College captain has 10 assists and 11 points for Binghamton in 26 games. New started the season in Elmira and notched nine assists and 11 points in 22 games. Mark Stone, on loan from Ottawa, took to the ice on February 14 after suffering an injury to his arm on February 6 in Ottawa. Since returning Stone has a 3-game multi-point streak. He’s tallied a goal and an assist in each of the three games. Stone has 24 points in 22 games with Binghamton this season. Goaltender Scott Greenham was recalled from Elmira on February 14. Only playing in one game for the Senators this season Greenham is 1-0-0 with a 3.00 goals against average and a 0.917 goal save percentage. Nathan Lawson is out with a strained lower body injury.

New Jersey Devils (NHL) – The Devils took to the ice for practice yesterday for the first time since the start of the Olympic break. The only players that were missing from practice where Patrik Elias, Jaromir Jagr, Marek Zidlicky, and Damien Brunner who were all in Sochi for the Olympic Games. With the United States defeating the Czech Republic 5-2 in the quarterfinals on Wednesday teammates Elias, Jagr, and Zidlicky were eliminated from the Olympic games but not without putting some numbers on the board. Elias had one assist in three games, Zidlicky had two goals and two assists in five games, and Jagr put up two goals and one assist in five games. Damien Brunner, playing for Switzerland, was eliminated from the games when the Swiss fell to Latvia 1-0 on Tuesday in qualification play. New Jersey sits in seventh place and only five points behind an automatic playoff position in the Metropolitan Division with a 24-22-13 record. With only six points separating six teams the push towards the playoffs is a tight race. Defenseman Jon Merrill was recalled to New Jersey and has five points in 32 games with the Devils. Adam Larsson and Anton Volchenkov are both on injury reserve with lower body injuries. Volchenkov is questionable to return on February 27 against Columbus.

Albany Devils (AHL) – Since returning from the All-Star Break Albany is 1-2 in the last three games with an overall record of 26-17-8 and currently sits in ninth place of the Eastern Conference. On Valentines Day the Devils lost in a shootout after Hershey’s Michael Latta scored off a rebound with 10:37 remaining in the third to tie up the game. Stefan Matteau was the lone Albany shootout scorer and Hersey’s Ryan Stoa and Casey Wellman scored in the shootout. The lone win of the last three games came on February 15 with a 4-1 defeat of Adirondack. Raman Hrabarenka played in his first game since January 26 on February 16 helping to put the Devils on the board in a loss against Bridgeport. He put up two goals, his first multi-goal game in his AHL career. He currently leads the teams defense in points with 17. The Mogilev, Belarus native had two assists in five games with Elmira prior to his call up to Albany. After Keith Kinkaids injury the Devils signed former NHL veteran Johan Hedberg to their roster. Hedberg had his final year contract bought out by New Jersey last July but did not catch on elsewhere this fall. The last game Hedberg played in before Sundays match against Bridgeport was April 27, 2013 for New Jersey. In the game against the Rangers he suffered a 4-0 loss with a .810 goal save percentage. He came in relief of Wedgewood after 22:19 minutes and stopped 11 shots of 13. Despite him stopping 11 shots Albany fell 3-7.