Blue Jackets win NHL Prospect Tournament in Traverse City

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - They didn't have a team full of high draft picks and hype, like the host Detroit Red Wings iced in the 2018 NHL Prospects Tournament, but what the Blue Jackets had was a tea determined to win.
Despite putting a roster with 14 free-agent invites, despite losing drafted forward Jonathan Davidsson to an illness prior to playing the championship game, the Jackets left with the fifth tournament title in the franchise's history.
Leaning heavily on goalie Matiss Kivlenieks (20 saves) and a third line that was dominant in the final two games, Columbus downed the host Red Wings 7-3 Tuesday night at Centre Ice Arena - making up for losing in the championship last year to the Chicago Blackhawks.
"You look at the roster and [there were] maybe six first-round draft picks [for Detroit]," said Cleveland Monsters coach John Madden, who's coached the Jackets' team here the past two seasons. "I'm sure the guys were a little bit: 'Wow, six first-rounders' - and they're very talented and very good players. Our gameplan was to play a game that was conducive to what we had and the guys bought in."

The championship makes Columbus the lone team to win five tournament titles here, which ended a tie at four between the Jackets and the St. Louis Blues. Columbus also won it in 2005, 2006, 2014 and 2015.
After allowing two goals in the first 1:35 of the third period, putting them behind 3-2, the Blue Jackets (4-0-0) stormed back to win on five straight goals in the remaining 18:25 - scored by Eric Robinson, Sam Vigneault, Trey Fix-Wolansky, Garret Cockerill and Sherwood.
"We were determined," said New Albany's Sherwood, who finished with four points (two goals and two assists) and a plus-5 rating in the tournament. "Not one guy cracked. We fell down there in the third and we don't let that ruin us. We stayed composed and we got the win. That's all that matters."
Last year in the championship game, Sherwood sustained a high-ankle sprain that hampered him for a couple months that followed. This time, despite drawing a penalty and crashing into the end boards to negate a potential icing, he's heading into NHL training camp this week on a high note - fully healthy.
He and linemates Kevin Stenlund (2015, second round) and Trey Fix Wolansky (2018, seventh round) again took over a game that was in doubt - just as they did in the Jackets' 5-3 victory Monday against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Fix-Wolansky, a skilled 5-foot-6 forward, had a goal and assist to finish the tournament with five points on one goal and four assists.
Stenlund, a 6-foot-4 center who joined the Monsters mid-season in 2017-18, had a three-point game on two goals and an assist - finishing the tournament tied with the Blues' Jordan Kyrou for most goals (five) and had a team-high seven points (five goals, two assists) - which tied with Detroit's Joe Veleno for second-most among all players.
"Even if you take away all his goals and all of his offensive abilities, he competed, he bought in and that's a big thing for a guy of his stature and his skillset," Madden said. "He was like, 'I'll play defense,' so I used him on penalty-kill, used him in big situations, big face-offs and I felt like he relished it. Wherever he ends up [this season] … if he buys in he'll be good."
Vigneault's goal have him four in the tournament, an average of one per game (third among all players), and Columbus finished the four games by filling the top six spots - and six of the top eight - in plus/minus rating: Stenlund led all players at plus-6, followed by Fix-Wolansky (plus-5), Sherwood (plus-5), invite defenseman Michael Prepavessis (plus-5), invite defenseman Keoni Texeira (plus-5) and defenseman Ryan Collins (plus-5).
They were easily the best team in the tournament, along with the most physical. One play is all it took for that to show, when invited defenseman Justin Wade delivered a huge hit to Filip Zadina in the third period.
Zadina is arguably the Red Wings' top prospect, after Detroit selected him sixth overall in this year's draft this past June. Wade played collegiately at Notre Dame, particiapted in the Jackets' development camp as an invited player and came to this tournament looking to catch the attention of scouts - from Columbus or elsewhere.
His hit sent Zadina to the ice immediately, clutching his right hand, while Wade was jumped by Detroit defenseman Vili Saarijarvi - leading to offsetting roughing minors. That kind of snarl, though, is what cleared the way to the championship for Columbus all tournament long.
The Jackets might've been short on highly-hyped prospects, and lost Davidsson to an illness prior to the championship, but they didn't seem to care about rankings or contract status. They just wanted to win.
They scored the game's first goal for the fourth straight game, with Fix-Wolansky setting up Stenlund at 12:22 of the first less than a minute after Stenlund was released from the penalty box and they drew motivation from Kivlenieks.
The 22-year old goalie, who went straight from the United States Hockey League to the American Hockey League with the Monsters last season, was dynamite most of the game. After the Red Wings tied it 1-1 on the first of two goals by Givani Smith, Kivlenieks did some of his best work in the second - after Stenlund reclaimed the lead, 2-1, just 39 seconds into the period on a power play.
He even stopped one with his mask in the first, while lying prone in the crease during a power play in which the Red Wings relentlessly hounded the net.
"He's a hell of a goalie," Sherwood said. "That year in the pros helped him a lot and he was our backbone for this tournament, so hats off to him. He kept us in there a bunch of times."
Kivlenieks battled all game, like the rest of the team, and the result was a happy team photo posing with the Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup Trophy - awarded to the winner each year here.
"We got a little worried there [in the third]," Madden said. "Not going to lie. They score those two quick ones, but I just said, 'Hey, relax, there's lots of game left and let's go after these guys.' I don't know which guys we're taking [Cleveland] or how it's all going to filter out, but if you said to do something, they did it - and they did it to the best of their ability. That's a huge quality in a hockey player."