UNH Recruits Update: April-15-2016

2016 Commit Liam Blackburn West Kelowna Warriors

2016 Commit Patrick Grasso Des Moines Buccaneers

Player Spotlight - Liam Blackburn

2016 UNH Commit Liam Blackburn and the West Kelowna Warriors have advanced to the BCHL Championship Round. In the "Double Round Robin" series, West Kelowna and the Chilliwack Chiefs won three games thereby eliminating the Nanaimo Clippers. Blackburn scored 2 goals and 4 assists in the 6 games of that round.

So far, Blackburn has scored 7 goals and 10 assists in 18 games of the 2016 BCHL Playoffs. He is tied for 3rd in scoring, goals and assists. In addition, Liam is tied for 1st in power play assists. The battle for the BCHL Fred Page Cup begins tonight. West Kelowna and Chilliwack will play a best-of-seven series.

Player Spotlight - Patrick Grasso

On April 9th, Patrick Grasso played his final game in a Des Moines Buccaneers uniform. Grasso went out in style. He scored the game-winning goal, added 2 assists, and was awarded the #1 Star in the 5-4 victory over the Muskegon Lumberjacks. The Bucs missed qualifying for the USHL Playoffs by 11 points.

In his third and final full season in the USHL, Grasso was the captain of the Bucs, played in every game of the 60 game schedule, and scored 22 goals and 21 assists. Among all USHL players, Grasso tied for 13th in goals and tied for 18th in scoring during the regular season. His 3 game-winning goals placed him in a tie for 5th in the USHL.

In all, Grasso played 196 games for Des Moines and tallied 43 goals and 63 assists for a total of 106 points. He signed his National Letter of Intent last November and will enroll at UNH this Fall.

NOTE
The statistics for the recruits, presented in the following table, are categorized by the projected year they will enroll in UNH. For example, the "2016 Recruits" are projected to begin playing for UNH in the Fall of 2016. I have based these projections on a number of factors including:
~ If a National Letter of Intent has been signed.
~ The year the recruit and UNH coaches originally targeted for enrollment in UNH.
~ How old the recruit would be upon admission.
~ Number of years in junior hockey prior to admission.
~ The recruit's performance in recent seasons as well as injuries.
~ Anticipated date of high school graduation.
~ Number of UNH players leaving the team at the end of the previous season and the position they played.

Player	Team	League	GP	Goals	Asst	Pts	PIM
2016 Recruits
Liam Blackburn*  (F)	West Kelowna Warriors	BCHL	58	27	47	74	51
		Playoffs	18	7	10	17	10
Justin Fregona*  (F)	Langley Rivermen	BCHL	51	24	25	49	45
		Playoffs	1	0	0	0	0
Patrick Grasso*  (F)	Des Moines Bucs	USHL	60	22	21	43	14
Nick Nonis  (D)	Powell River Kings	BCHL	54	2	8	10	58
		Playoffs	10	0	2	2	6
Brendan van Riemsdyk*   (F)	Islanders Hockey Club	USPHL	43	20	27	47	50
		Playoffs	6	1	5	6	4
Joe Sacco  (F)	Vernon Vipers	BCHL	56	10	9	19	16
		Playoffs	4	0	0	0	0
Anthony Wyse*  (D)	Lincoln Stars	USHL	54	2	17	19	18
		Playoffs	-	-	-	-	-
2016 or '17 Recruits
Charlie Kelleher  (F)	Junior Bruins	USPHL	38	17	36	53	40
		Playoffs	4	1	4	5	0
Mike Robinson*  (G)	Junior Bruins	USPHL	12	7W	5L	2.97	.910
		Playoffs	1	-	-	0	1.00
2017 Recruits
Joe Cipollone  (F)	Tri-City Storm	USHL	47	7	3	10	16
		Playoffs	1	0	0	0	0
	Vernon Vipers	BCHL	12	4	3	7	2
Liam Darcy  (D)	Islanders Hockey Club	USPHL	34	2	11	13	2
		Playoffs	6	0	3	3	0
Eric MacAdams  (F)	Sioux Falls Stampede	USHL	51	10	8	18	87
		Playoffs	1	0	0	0	0
2017 or '18 Recruits
Eric Esposito  (F)	Youngstown Phantoms	USHL	48	2	8	10	36
Jason O'Neill  (F)	Langley Rivermen	BCHL	47	7	14	21	2
		Playoffs	5	1	1	2	4
2018 Recruits
Lucas Bahn  (D)	Skipjacks 16U	USPHL	26	3	13	16	0
		Playoffs	4	1	0	1	0
	Skipjacks 18U	USPHL	9	2	0	2	2
		Playoffs	1	0	0	0	0
Angus Crookshank  (F)	BWC Prep	CSSHL	35	42	19	61	56
	Langley Rivermen	BCHL	4	1	0	1	0
		Playoffs	1	0	0	0	0
Corson Green  (D)	Northern Cyclones	EHL	16	3	6	9	20
		Playoffs	6	0	4	4	14
	Northern Cyclones 16U	EJEPL	17	12	5	17	55
* = Signed National Letter of Intent

News & Notes

United States Hockey League:

~ 2016 UNH Commit Anthony Wyse and the Lincoln Stars finished the regular season in 2nd place in the Western Conference of the USHL. Wyse scored 2 goals and 17 assists in 54 games. Among all USHL defensemen, he tied for 7th in power play assists with a total of 10. The Stars begin the best-of-five opening round series of the USHL Playoffs tonight in a match-up with the Waterloo Black Hawks. Anthony Wyse signed his National Letter of Intent with UNH on Wednesday, the first day of the spring signing period.

~ 2017 UNH Commit Eric MacAdams and the Sioux Falls Stampede finished in 4th place in the USHL Western Conference and earned a berth in the playoffs. MacAdams finished his first season in the USHL with 10 goals and 8 assists in 51 games. The Stampede lost the first game in the best-of-five series against the Tri-City Storm.

~ 2017 UNH commit Joseph Cipollone and the Tri-City Storm had the best record in the USHL Western Conference. Cipollone tallied 7 goals and 3 assists in 47 regular season games. The Storm defeated the Stampede in the first game of the opening round of the USHL Playoffs.

~ 17-year-old Eric Esposito and the Youngstown Phantoms finished in 5th place in the Eastern Conference of the USHL and did not qualify for the playoffs. Esposito finished his rookie season with 2 goals and 8 assists in 48 games.