Rookie game, plus Euro update

Team Green defeated Team Gray 5-3 in today’s rookie game, which concluded rookie camp.

Green was led by an excellent game from Jeremy Ward, who had two goals and an assist.Anthony Patt, Peter Clements and Manraj Hayer also scored for Green. Adam Weersink stopped 16 of 18 shots to earn the win, with Ryan Cadieux stopping 11 of 12.

Ryan Doner scored twice for Gray with Tyler Thompson scoring the other. Trevor Gutierrez suffered the loss, stopping 24 of 27 shots. Austin Brihn stopped 25 of 27.

Kudos to Green general manager Ed Friesen for assembling a strong team with a solid defensive foundation. For the most part Green dominated, outshooting Gray 54-30, though Gray rallied in the third period.

Here’s the box:

Green 5, Gray 3

Green131—5

Gray012—3

First Period—1, Green, Patt 1, 13:30. Penalties—Dambrauskas, Gray (cross checking), 8:41; Berry, Green (tripping), 15:54.

Second Period—2, Green, Clements 1 (McCaig), 2:14. 3, Gray, Thompson 1 (Campe), 8:13. 4, Green, Ward 1 (Straight, Hayer), 10:09. 5, Green, Hayer 1 (Ward, Straight), 10:19. Penalties—Ward, Green (tripping), 4:39; Hill, Green (interference), 14:09.

Third Period—6, Gray, Doner 1 (Elynuik, Lumsden), 2:49 (pp). 7, Green, Ward 2, 15:22 (sh). 8, Gray, Doner 2, 16:42. Penalties—Berry, Green (tripping), 1:22; Hayer, Green (hooking), 9:52; Kenning, Green (tripping), 14:25; Thompson, Gray (cross checking), 18:09; Twietmeyer, Gray (hooking), 19:26.

Shots on goal—Green 20-22-12—54. Gray 7-9-14—30. Power-play opportunities—Green 0 of 3. Gray 1 of 6.

Goalies—Green, Cadieux (12 shots, 11 saves), Weersink 1-0 (18 shots, 16 saves). Gray, Brihn (27 shots, 25 saves), Gutierrez 0-1 (27 shots, 24 saves).

Now onto the Euro news. General manager Doug Soetaert indeed did confirm that Vitaly Karamnov and Lukas Vartovnik will not be back this season. It seems both committed to coming back, a fact that prompted the Tips to opt out of the import draft, trading their first-round pick. Then Soetaert found out they weren’t coming back about a month ago. Needless to say, Soetaert wasn’t pleased with the way things came about.

Karamnov is going to play professionally for Dinamo Moscow. Soetaert didn’t know at what level Vartovnik is going to play in Slovakia. Soetaert said Karamnov signed his IIHF card earlier in the summer, so that perhaps leaves the door open for him to return midseason should things not work out in Russia, but the Tips aren’t holding their breath.

This is a serious blow for the Tips, who already lost from last season their three overagers to graduation, two stars to the pros and their captain to college. Karamnov in particular was slated to be a big part of this year’s team, probably as Everett’s No. 1 center.

And a Tips team that was already going to be young this season gets even younger.