JOHNSON INJURED, MISSIAEN RECALLED

Chad Johnson was injured late in the first period of Friday night’s 6-3 Connecticut Whale victory over the Springfield Falcons at the XL Center. The injury has resulted in the immediate recall of Jason Missiaen from the Greenville Road Warriors as a backup for Cam Talbot.

Including Friday night, Johnson had started the last seven games for the Whale and while he didn’t figure in this decision, he has won five of those seven.

Missiaen has had a good season with the Road Warriors. In 26 games, Missiaen, the tallest goaltender in North America at 6’8” and 220 pounds, has a 13-10-2 posting a 3.16 goals-against average and a 90.3% save percentage with three shutouts. Missiaen is tied for second-most in the ECHL in the shutout category.

The extent of Johnson’s injury is unknown as is the length of time he will be out.

Here’s the official release:

MISSIAEN, HUGE IN NET, UP FROM GREENVILLE

GOALTENDER JASON MISSIAEN JOINS WHALE

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Six-foot-eight-inch Backstop Reassigned from ECHL Greenville

Connecticut Whale general manager Jim Schoenfeld announced today that the parent New York Rangers have reassigned goaltender Jason Missiaen to the Whale from its ECHL affiliate, the Greenville Road Warriors.

Missiaen, who, at 6-8 and 220 pounds, is the tallest goaltender in North American pro hockey, is 5-3-1 with a 2.43 goals-against average, 92.6% save percentage and three shutouts in 10 games with Greenville.  That ties him for the ECHL lead in shutouts, and the 21-year-old rookie from Chatham, Ontario ranks fifth in the league in save percentage and eighth in GAA.  Missiaen was named ECHL Goaltender of the Week for the week of December 5-11, after stopping 69 of 70 shots in a pair of wins, and strung together back-to-back shutouts in home games December 9 vs. South Carolina (38 saves in a 3-0 victory) and December 12 against Florida (31 saves, 3-0).

GREENVILLE PLAYER MOVES

BY: Ray Schmitt, Voice of the Greenville Road Warriors

GREENVILLE, SC - The Greenville Road Warriors announced today that they have added defenseman Brent Cornelius and goaltender John Nauta, and that goaltender Nic Riopel has been loaned to Bridgeport of the American Hockey League.

Cornelius comes to Greenville from the Idaho Steelheads to complete the future considerations portion of the transaction that saw goalie Jerry Kuhn sent from Greenville to Idaho. A 6-1, 185-pound defender, Cornelius is in his first season of professional hockey. He began the season with HC Dornbas of Russia’s second-tier professional hockey league before signing with Idaho on December 16, 2011. In six games with the Steelheads Cornelius earned two assists and a +6 rating. Prior to turning pro, he played four seasons at Iowa State University, an American Collegiate Hockey Association team, and split two seasons of United States Hockey League play between Cedar Rapids and Tri-City.

SPOTLIGHT: KELSEY TESSIER

BY: Bruce Berlet

Kelsey Tessier prides himself in being a responsible two-way player with lots of grit and a penchant for doing little things such as finishing checks and getting up the opposition’s skin, a major reason he received the Seventh Player/Unsung Hero Award from the media as a rookie pro last season.

In his second pro go-around in Hartford, Tessier has again added a third major quality, mentor to two more of the smallest players on the Connecticut Whale. Just as he did with the Quebec Remparts, Tessier has been a kind of a guidance counselor to rookie forwards Ryan Bourque and Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, former teammates in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League who share an apartment in downtown Hartford a few floors from Tessier.

SPOTLIGHT: FRANCOIS BOUCHARD

BY: Bruce Berlet

A lot of players might not be enamored with having to travel 12-15 hours round-trip to play their first few games with a new team.

Not right wing Francois Bouchard, whom the New York Rangers acquired from the Washington Capitals on Tuesday for Connecticut Whale defenseman Tomas Kundratek.

Bouchard arrived from Hershey, Pa., around 1 p.m. Wednesday, and met his new teammates and practiced with the Whale for the first time Thursday, before the team bussed to Boston for a flight to Toronto and then on to St. John’s, Newfoundland, for games Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

RIOPEL BACK IN GREENVILLE

GREENVILLE, SC - The Greenville Road Warriors announced today that goaltender Nic Riopel has signed with the team. He is expected to travel with the Road Warriors for the two road games in Gwinnett this weekend.

Riopel, 22, went 24-12-2 with Greenville as a rookie in 2010-11, and won the first game in Road Warriors history. He finished the season with a 2.79 goals-against average, a .906 save percentage and two shutouts. Riopel’s 24 victories led the Road Warriors and were fourth most in the ECHL last season. He won ECHL Goalie of the Week honors twice for the weeks of Oct. 25-31 and Feb. 21-27. Riopel also played 11 games with the American Hockey League’s Adirondack Phantoms in 2010-11 and went 3-7-0 with a 3.55 goals-against average and a .874 save percentage.

PRE-SEASON FINALE FOR GREENVILLE

The Greenville Road Warriors wrap up their exhibition season tonight with a visit to North Charleston to take on the South Carolina Stingrays at the Carolina Ice Palace.

The Road Warriors started off the preseason home-and-home against South Carolina with a 3-2 shootout win at the BI-LO Center last night. Greenville built a 2-0 lead on goals by Justin Bowers and Brandon Wong in the first and second period, respectively. In the third South Carolina battled back with a pair of goals from Danick Paquette and Jerry Pollastrone to force overtime. After a scoreless five minutes the Road Warriors used goals from Bowers and Marc-Olivier Vallerand, and four saves from Jason Missiaen to win the shootout 2-1. The win moved Greenville to 2-0-0 all time in the preseason against South Carolina.

BRUCE BERLET REPORTS – “SO THAT’S A LATTE AND A HOCKEY CONTRACT TO GO?”

BY: Bruce Berlet

Kale Kerbashian joined the New York Rangers organization literally over a cup of coffee and a vanilla milkshake.

The smallish (5-foot-11, 165 pounds) but quick forward was interviewing with Rangers scout Rich Brown at a Starbucks in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, when he got an offer to play for one of the NHL’s Original Six teams.

“He had watched me all season, and I guess he liked what he saw so they gave me a chance,” Kerbashian recalled. “I loved coming down (to Hartford) and staying in the Homewood Suites. It was great.”

Kerbashian got a three-week taste of pro hockey in April after he signed AHL and amateur tryout contracts after completing his junior career with Sarnia of the Ontario Hockey League. He had 63 goals and 81 assists in 126 games in two seasons in Sarnia and chipped in two goals and one assist in four games with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers in 2010.

BRUCE BERLET REPORTS – YES, THEY GET HIS WHOLE NAME ON A SWEATER!

BY: Bruce Berlet

Jonathan Audy-Marchessault might be the smallest player in Connecticut Whale training camp, but he certainly has made some big-time plays and impressions the past few weeks.

It started when Dean Stork, coach of the ECHL’s Greenville Road Warriors, recommended Audy-Marchessault to the New York Rangers after the speedy forward had a standout season with the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League that was coached by Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy and included speedy, gritty left wing Ryan Bourque, son of Hall of Fame defenseman Ray Bourque and a top Rangers prospect.

“I knew Roy and talked to Audy-Marchessault’s mother,” Stork said Monday as he began a three-day stint watching the Connecticut Whale practice and scrimmage at Champions Skating Center. “I was hoping to sign him for my team.”

Well, barring something unforeseen, Stork can forget that idea. After the 5-foot-8, 175-pounder from Cap-Rouge, Quebec, showed well in the Rangers’ prospects camp after the NHL draft in late June, he was invited to participate in the prospects tournament two weeks ago in Traverse City, Mich. After starting on the fourth line, Audy-Marchessault advanced to one of the top lines and played on the power play and killed penalties. In four games, he tied for second in team scoring with two goals and two assists as most of the Rangers’ top young players finished runner-up in the tournament to the more experience Buffalo Sabres.

DESPITE OT LOSS, BABY RANGERS PLAY FOR TRAVERSE CHAMPIONSHIP WEDNESDAY NIGHT

BY: Bruce Berlet

Having already clinched a spot in the championship game, the New York Rangers prospects looked to enter their bid for a second tournament title undefeated Tuesday afternoon in Traverse City, Mich.

The winless Carolina Hurricanes provided the opposition, and the Rangers failed to show much of the speed, tenacity and play making they showed in their first two games, losing three leads and a 4-3 decision with 41 seconds left in a second overtime of 3-on-3 on Justin Shugg’s breakaway backhander off a turnover by Christian Thomas.

As Thomas, who scored the Rangers’ third goal with less than a second left in the first period, tried to make a play at the Carolina blue line, Skugg deftly poked away the puck, raced past defenseman/captain Dylan McIlrath and center Jonathan Audy-Marchessault and put a shot between the legs of Jason Missiaen (35 saves).