The-Rink.com Prospect Guru Bill “Wiz” Placzek gives a taste of things to come with a quick breakdown on two Blackhawk defensive prospects playing at Denver University.
I spent the last two nights watching the two games in North Dakota between Notre Dame and Denver U.
The Denver club might be more than the champ in their league: they could take the College Final Four.
DU played tight on the check of the ND defense, leaving no time; they are ranked #1 defensively in college hockey.
They are led by soon to be US Olympian RhC Troy Terry, who I wanted the Hawks to pick and the Ducks plucked in the 5th rd in 2015.
But the reason I watched was because of the two Blackhawk prospect defenders, who are the top pairing for Denver, LD Blake Hillman and RD Ian Mitchell.
I hadn’t seen either very much, so I wanted to get an impression. It was clearly made. Denver won game one in overtime and it was rough game, so when they came back to play last night, it wasn’t a surprise that there was some bad feeling from the game the night before.
Hillman is a load who plays physical, is active and makes his way down low and also to mid attack zone because he wasn’t afraid to shoot the puck. He also saw some time as LhRD when needed.
Mitchell, a 5’11” 173 pound freshman, is still not dramatically strong against the men he is playing against, but he is solid in his end and checks all the boxes of the new pro game attacker with quick feet, stick mobility and strong offensive instincts.
In the second game he was the guy who took the puck in his end and got down so his team could gain possession, and Kohen Olischefski could get the shot to score the first goal.
Blake Hillman was very aggressive like he wanted to make his presence known and further frustrate the ND attackers. Both played as the Denver one d-man on the PP.
Mitchell scored the game winning goal in 2nd overtime in the second game.