RWC REPORT: Rufenach must refine free-wheeling game

By Matthew Wuest - RedWingsCentral.com / February 2, 2009

The good news for free-wheeling defenseman Bryan Rufenach is, he is blessed with hockey assets that are not easily taught.

"This kid jumps into the offense, he anticipates the play, he skates real well and handles the puck well," said Detroit Red Wings scout Mark Leach. "He can move the puck and shoot the puck and jumps into holes and he creates scoring chances. Those things just come naturally to him."

So what's the bad news?

"We feel he needs to really improve his defensive game and play more controlled on the back end, but that can be taught," Leach said.

The 6-foot, 184-pound Rufenach is an NCAA sophomore with the Clarkson Golden Knights. He is off the radar, even for a Red Wings prospect. He was drafted 208th overall in 2007, three picks away from being Mr. Irrelevant, and he isn't listed on Red Wings Central's top-25 ranking of prospects.

But he quarterbacks the power play at Clarkson and is the team's top-scoring defenseman with six goals and four assists in 24 games.

The Red Wings are hopeful he will develop into a Derek Meech-type player, but Rufenach has plenty of defensive work ahead to even get up to speed with fellow prospect Logan Pyett, another Meech clone.

Rufenach has two more seasons to round out his game at Clarkson before the Red Wings must make a decision on whether or not to sign him.

Here are some notes from the past week.

* What hasn't killed goaltender Thomas McCollum (Brampton, Ontario Hockey League) may have made him stronger. Since a rough appearance with the U.S. at the world junior championship, McCollum has a 9-1 record while recording three shutouts in his past six starts. He has allowed just 10 goals in his last eight starts for a 1.23 goals-against average and a .952 save percentage. McCollum now leads the OHL with a whopping six shutouts.

* Goaltender Jimmy Howard (Grand Rapids, American Hockey League) was named AHL's player of the week last week. The red-hot stopper now has a better goals-against average than Daniel Larsson (2.38 to 2.42) and has responded nicely to the challenge posed by Larsson's strong play.

* Defenseman Sergei Kolosov (Grand Rapids, AHL) exploded this week for three goals in two games. They were his first goals of his AHL career. Surprisingly, Kolosov is just five points behind highly-touted Jonathan Ericsson and is a point ahed of the more offensively-gifted Logan Pyett.

* Forward Gustav Nyquist (Maine, NCAA) has gone a bit cold by his standards lately, with just two points in his past seven games.

* Forward Randy Cameron (Moncton, QMJHL) is also ice-cold. He has just four points in his past 13 games in a pivotal contract year.

* The Red Wings called up forward Ville Leino this week and he responded with an absolute beauty of a goal in his NHL debut. Forward Justin Abdelkader also got the call and put forth a solid two-way effort.

* Defenseman Brian Lashoff (Kingston, Ontario Hockey League) was named team captain late last month, a big compliment for an 18-year-old.

The following is an up-to-date statistical report for skaters:

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
A H L
Ville Leino	Grand Rapids	AHL	44	11	26	37	14
Mattias Ritola	Grand Rapids	AHL	47	15	17	32	26
Darren Helm	Grand Rapids	AHL	37	11	20	31	16
Evan McGrath	Grand Rapids	AHL	40	9	21	30	8
Justin Abdelkader	Grand Rapids	AHL	44	14	13	27	59
Jakub Kindl	Grand Rapids	AHL	48	5	22	27	50
Cory Emmerton	Grand Rapids	AHL	41	3	17	20	18
Ryan Oulahen	Grand Rapids	AHL	48	13	4	17	21
Jamie Tardif	Grand Rapids	AHL	40	9	7	16	35
Jonathan Ericsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	37	2	12	14	42
Sergei Kolosov	Grand Rapids	AHL	41	3	6	9	22
Logan Pyett	Grand Rapids	AHL	37	1	7	8	4
Jan Mursak	Grand Rapids	AHL	27	0	4	4	10
K H L
Gennady Stolyarov	Astana Barys	KHL	36	11	8	19	20
Miroslav Blatak	Salavat Yulaev	KHL	46	3	9	12	14
S W E D E N
Dick Axelsson	Farjestad	SEL	32	9	16	25	16
Anton Axelsson	Timra	SEL	44	5	6	11	0
Joakim Andersson	Frolunda	SEL	41	3	6	9	20
Jesper Samuelsson	Timra	SEL	39	2	1	3	10
Johan Ryno	AIK	SWE-2	15	5	5	10	12
Joakim Andersson	Boras	SWE-2	4	2	2	4	2
Jesper Samuelsson	Sundsvall	SWE-2	7	1	1	2	34
Jesper Samuelsson	Timra	SWE-J20	4	2	0	2	2
C H L
Zack Torquato	Erie	OHL	49	22	21	43	64
Brent Raedeke	Edmonton	WHL	53	16	26	42	64
Randy Cameron	Moncton	QMJHL	47	13	26	39	20
Stephen Johnston	Belleville	OHL	47	13	21	34	26
Brian Lashoff	Kingston	OHL	41	2	17	19	35
N C A A
Gustav Nyquist	Maine	HE	26	9	11	20	20
Brendan Smith	Wisconsin	WCHA	21	7	11	18	40
Bryan Rufenach	Clarkson	ECAC	24	6	4	10	28
Julien Cayer	Clarkson	WCHA	21	3	6	9	26
Nick Oslund	St. Cloud State	WCHA	26	4	2	6	26
Nils Backstrom	Alaska-Anchorage	WCHA	22	3	2	5	26
U S H L
Max Nicastro	Chicago	USHL	36	9	16	25	60

The following is an up-to-date statistical report for goaltenders:

NAME	TEAM	LEAGUE	GP	W-L-O	GAA	SPCT
Thomas McCollum	Brampton	OHL	40	25-11-4	2.09	.928
Jimmy Howard	Grand Rapids	AHL	27	13-10-3	2.38	.914
Daniel Larsson	Grand Rapids	AHL	25	16-5-1	2.42	.922

LEAGUE LEGEND: AHL — American Hockey League; KHL — Kontinental Hockey League; SEL — Swedish Elite League; SWE-2 — Swedish Allsvenskan (second level); OHL — Ontario Hockey League; WHL — Western Hockey League; QMJHL — Quebec Major Junior Hockey League; WCHA — Western Collegiate Hockey Association; ECAC — East Coast Athletic Conference; HE — Hockey East; USHL — United States Hockey League.