Nick Jensen (Credit: St. Cloud State)
Nick Jensen showed a big flash of his offensive upside last week.
The 21-year-old sophomore defenseman with the St. Cloud State Huskies broke out in a big way by scoring a hat trick in the opening 21 minutes of Saturday’s 5-1 win over the nationally-14th-ranked Denver Pioneers, helping his team end a six-game winless drought.
Jensen became the first St. Cloud State defenseman to record a hat trick since Bret Hedican more than two decades ago. Hedican went on to play 1,000 games in the NHL.
His coach, Bill Motzko, told reporters afterward that the three-goal performance atoned for a “mental mistake” Jensen had made in overtime the previous game.
“Great athletes — that drives them crazy,” Motzko said. “That was a kid determined to come back the next night. There was no question he was the best player on the ice tonight.”
Jensen, who the Red Wings selected in the fifth round (150th overall) in the 2009 draft, said it simply “goes to show if you get shots on net, good things will happen.”
The six-foot, 193-pound United States Hockey League product logs top-pairing minutes and leads all blueliners on his team in scoring with three goals and 11 assists for 14 points in 20 games. He is tied for third in Western Collegiate Hockey Association defense scoring.
The Red Wings rate Jensen’s skating ability among the best in their organization, and he has made big strides defensively in two seasons at St. Cloud State. He is good on both special-teams unit and has shown an aptitude for making big hits and playing physical.
NOTES: Winger Tomas Tatar (Grand Rapids, AHL) got an NHL call-up last week but didn’t play. Although his AHL numbers are modest — 23 points in 28 games — Griffins head coach Curt Fraser raved about his all-around play to the Grand Rapids Press. “He’s doing so many good things,” Fraser told the paper. “Killing penalties, power play, his overall puck control has been tremendous and his work ethic has been real good.” … Five Red Wings draft picks will compete at the IIHF world junior championship in Alberta starting Boxing Day. They are: defenseman Mattias Backman (Sweden), wingers Tomas Jurco and Marek Tvrdon (Slovakia), goaltender Petr Mrazek (Czech Republic) and winger Teemu Pulkkinen (Finland).
Following is this week’s statistical report.
SKATERS: REGULAR-SEASON REPORT
| NAME | TEAM | LEVEL | LEAGUE | GP | G | A | P | PIM | +/- | SOG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coetzee, Willie | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 27 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 5 | -2 | 63 |
| Ferraro, Landon | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 22 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 25 | -2 | 25 |
| Nyquist, Gustav | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 28 | 9 | 20 | 29 | 8 | -4 | 75 |
| Tatar, Tomas | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 28 | 7 | 16 | 23 | 17 | -1 | 90 |
| Andersson, Joakim | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 28 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 16 | +2 | 56 |
| Aubry, Louis-Marc | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 21 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 10 | -5 | 38 |
| Callahan, Mitchell | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 19 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 58 | -1 | 23 |
| Ehrhardt, Travis | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | -1 | 5 |
| Lashoff, Brian | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 28 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 14 | -11 | 34 |
| Pare, Francis | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 28 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 10 | +4 | 81 |
| Parkes, Trevor | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 19 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | +1 | 33 |
| Raedeke, Brent | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 25 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 14 | -3 | 29 |
| Smith, Brendan | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 22 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 41 | 0 | 52 |
| Piche, Sebastien | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 15 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 11 | -5 | 13 |
| Pyett, Logan | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 28 | 0 | 13 | 13 | 16 | +4 | 81 |
| Nestrasil, Andrej | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 11 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | -1 | 17 |
| Fournier, Gleason | Grand Rapids | PRO | AHL | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Fournier, Gleason | Toledo | PRO | ECHL | 23 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 12 | -1 | 47 |
| Nestrasil, Andrej | Toledo | PRO | ECHL | 10 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 18 |
| Parkes, Trevor | Toledo | PRO | ECHL | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | +1 | 17 |
| Ouellet, Xavier | B.-Boisbriand | JR | QMJHL | 32 | 7 | 14 | 21 | 43 | -11 | 95 |
| Macek, Brooks | Calgary | JR | WHL | 33 | 7 | 13 | 20 | 13 | +3 | N/A |
| Nedomlel, Richard | Swift Current | JR | WHL | 36 | 4 | 13 | 17 | 47 | -19 | N/A |
| Tvrdon, Marek | Vancouver | JR | WHL | 33 | 14 | 23 | 37 | 16 | -1 | N/A |
| Sproul, Ryan | Sault Ste. Marie | JR | OHL | 36 | 10 | 16 | 26 | 37 | +16 | N/A |
| Quine, Alan | Peterborough | JR | OHL | 34 | 14 | 22 | 36 | 11 | -12 | N/A |
| Jurco, Tomas | Saint John | JR | QMJHL | 30 | 21 | 24 | 45 | 25 | +28 | 125 |
| Hudon, Philippe | Victoriaville | JR | QMJHL | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | -4 | 12 |
| Jensen, Nick | St. Cloud State | COL | NCAA | 20 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 2 | +5 | 33 |
| Nicastro, Max | Boston U. | COL | NCAA | 15 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 16 | 0 | 21 |
| Cayer, Julien | Clarkson | COL | NCAA | 15 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 10 | -2 | 25 |
| Marshall, Ben | Minnesota | COL | NCAA | 20 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 23 | +10 | 45 |
| Sheahan, Riley | Notre Dame | COL | NCAA | 18 | 5 | 13 | 18 | 14 | +1 | 58 |
| Pulkkinen, Teemu | Jokerit | EUR | FIN | 32 | 9 | 13 | 22 | 4 | 0 | 136 |
| Almqvist, Adam | HV-71 | EUR | SEL | 28 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 18 | +15 | N/A |
| Axelsson, Dick | MoDo | EUR | SEL | 18 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 37 | -3 | N/A |
| Jarnkrok, Calle | Brynas | EUR | SEL | 31 | 7 | 13 | 20 | 10 | -8 | N/A |
| Backman, Mattias | Linkoping | EUR | SEL | 26 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 10 | +5 | N/A |
| Marchenko, Alexei | CSKA Moscow | EUR | KHL | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -3 | 2 |
GOALIES: REGULAR SEASON REPORT
| NAME | TEAM | LEAGUE | GP | W | L | O/S | SO | GAA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mrazek, Petr | Ottawa | OHL | 29 | 16 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 3.01 | .909 |
| Pearce, Jordan | Grand Rapids | AHL | 10 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3.54 | .876 |
| McCollum, Thomas | Grand Rapids | AHL | 10 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3.54 | .876 |
| McCollum, Thomas | Toledo | ECHL | 10 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3.01 | .893 |
Will one be done on Alan Quine soon? Curious about that guy.
Also, another great RWC update, thanks!
[...] Nick Jensen is profiled by the Red [...]
Heya, just wanted to point out that McCollum’s stats at the bottom for Grand Rapids are misprinted. He should be 7GP, 4W 3L 3.17GAA .896SV%.
Source: http://theahl.com/stats/statdisplay.php?type=goalies&subType=8&season_id=37&leagueId=4&lastActive=&singleSeason=&confId=0
Other than that, keep up the great work! Enjoy reading the articles on this site^^
Jensen put up another 3 pt game last night, against Western Michigan. This time he had three assists. Not too shabby.