Anleitungen » With a last name such as his,

BUFFALO http://www.goldenknightsshoponline.com/authentic-brad-hunt-jersey , N.Y. (AP) Brady Tkachuk’s life has unsurprisingly revolved around hockey.Whether it was breaking basement windows or the garage door playing with his father Keith and older brother Matthew, or heading to the rink to attend Blues practices, the 18-year-old has plenty of childhood memories while growing up in St. Louis.”We’d go on the ice before they practiced and there were some guys who would come out like David Perron, David Backes, T.J. Oshie,” Tkachuk said at the NHL pre-draft combine on Saturday, referring to his father’s former teammates. ”And those guys would spend their time, while Matthew and I were skating around, passing and shooting and joking around with us. Those were some of my big memories.”Keith Tkachuk is considered one of the game’s top Americans during a 19-year NHL career that ended in 2010. Matthew, 20, is already in the NHL after completing his second season with the Calgary Flames.At the rate Brady Tkachuk is developing, there’s a very good chance he’ll enjoy more memorable moments in the near future.Listed at 6-foot-3 and 196 pounds, and still growing, Tkachuk is ranked second among North American draft-eligible prospects by the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau. That puts the forward in the mix to be among the top five players – and first American – selected once the draft opens at Dallas on June 22.Much like his father, Tkachuk has a combination of hard-hitting and play-making components to his game. He had eight goals and 31 points, plus 61 penalty minutes in 40 games in his freshman season at Boston University.He also has leadership potential after serving as captain of the bronze-medal-winning U.S. team at the World Junior hockey championships last winter.”He’s a complete package that can be impactful in every situation with and without the puck Cody Eakin Jersey ,” central scouting bureau director Dan Marr said. ”He knows what needs to be done, and he’s not afraid to get dirty to go out and do it. But he also has the skills and finesse to play that type of a game to win you the game.”The world junior tournament became Tkachuk’s coming out party in finishing tied for fifth among tournament players with nine points. It carried over into the second half of his college season, where he had four goals and 17 points in his final 21 games in helping the Terriers clinch just their eighth Hockey East tournament championship.Tkachuk credited his improved production to learning how to play against older opponents.”I was used to winning battles, every battle in the USHL because they’re all my own age. But I found playing against 23-year-olds was different,” he said. ”Instead of just using my body, I had to use my mind, too, a little bit more and try to outsmart them.”What stands out is Tkachuk’s outgoing personality.He wasn’t afraid to joke during pre-draft interviews with prospective teams in saying how better looking he was than other players. And then there’s the picture accompanying Tkachuk’s combine profile, which features him with an upturned-lip smirk.”I like the smirk,” Tkachuk said. ”I’ve done it before and a lot of guys think it’s funny. It’s just my personality.”It helps not feeling intimidated being around NHLers, given his upbringing. He developed in a youth hockey system in St. Louis that included the sons of former NHL stars such as Chris Pronger, Al MacInnis and Jeff Brown.Tkachuk doesn’t feel burdened by having to live up to his last name. Instead, it’s motivation in fueling him to match what his father did in ranking fifth among American-born scorers with 1,065 points, and to one day keep pace with his brother, who already has 37 goals and 97 points in 144 games with Calgary.The competition could begin on draft day, when Tkachuk has a chance to be selected higher than his father (taken 19th in 1990) and brother (No. 6 Youth Colin Miller Jersey , in 2016).That would be fine with everyone, Keith Tkachuk said.”I would love that,” the proud father said, before breaking into a laugh. ”And Matthew would like it because he doesn’t want to sit in the stands too long watching.”Brady Tkachuk joked, the only concern is if he gets drafted by Edmonton, and the potential of one day pitting the two Tkachuks against each other in the ever-intense Alberta rivalry between the Oilers and Flames.”It’s definitely been discussed in my family,” Tkachuk said. ”It would be pretty cool, but I think it would be pretty stressful for the mom.”— ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) Connor Hellebuyck bounced back in a big way, just as the Winnipeg Jets were expecting.The 24-year-old goalie turned aside every shot Minnesota could muster, shoving the Wild to the brink of elimination.Mark Scheifele scored both goals for Winnipeg and Hellebuyck made 30 saves for his seventh shutout this season, as the Jets beat the Wild 2-0 on Tuesday night to take a 3-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.”You knew, five to 10 minutes into that game, he was right and feeling good,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said.Scheifele scored with 28 seconds left in the first period, spoiling a fine performance on the other end by Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk, and tacked on an empty-netter with 11 seconds remaining.The Wild Womens Deryk Engelland Jersey , now without star left wing Zach Parise because of a broken sternum suffered late in Game 3, must now win in Winnipeg in Game 5 on Friday night to extend their season.”Certainly can’t fault us in trying. It’s a disappointing finish,” said Dubnyk, who stopped 26 shots. ”It just shows you, too, you never know which plays are going to be the difference in the game.”The Wild were livid about one in particular, when Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey delivered a vicious-looking cross-check to Eric Staal’s neck that knocked Minnesota’s leading scorer to the ice during a Wild power play that went unnoticed by the officials. Morrissey had an assist on Scheifele’s goal and also helped thwart a Wild breakaway later in the game, and a red-faced coach Bruce Boudreau said afterward that Morrissey should have been ejected.”They decided not to call it because we were already on the power play,” Boudreau said. ”It cost us the game.”Across the hall, Morrissey adamantly defended his action as accidental.”He’s a big guy, and my stick ended up getting up a little bit on him,” Morrissey said. ”I would never try to do that to anybody. I’m not a dirty player.”Morrissey apologized to Staal later in the game, but that wasn’t any consolation for him or the Wild.”I’m the tallest guy on the ice. He cross-checked me in the neck. There’s not much more you can say. Everyone saw it. I don’t know how no one with stripes saw it,” Staal said.After a six-goal outburst in Game 3 that prompted Maurice to pull Hellebuyck after two periods, only his second early exit of the season, the Wild had trouble generating the same kind of organized and relentless attack. The Jets closed up the holes they gave the Wild through the neutral zone in Game 3, and the Wild simply weren’t as crisp with the puck.Hellebuyck James Neal Jersey , fittingly, was named earlier in the day one of the NHL’s three finalists for the Vezina Trophy that’s awarded annually to the best goalie in the league.”It definitely added a little more hop to my step. I don’t know if it changed my game too much because I prepare the same way and I do the same things every day,” Hellebuyck said. ”I guess it’s just a nice milestone that me and my family will enjoy.”The crowd, fired up about the opportunity the Wild had to even the series, produced plenty of collective groans after difficult saves by Hellebuyck after jeering him in Game 3 with the customary ”Sieve! Sieve! Sieve!” chant. One of Hellebuyck’s most important stops came in the opening minutes of the second period, when a 3-on-1 rush by the Wild set up Matt Dumba for a wrist try denied with a sprawling glove stop.After a tightly whistled game here Sunday night, there were only three penalties called.Scheifele was part of the sandwich hit with Ben Chiarot late in the third period of Game 3 on Parise that led to a broken sternum for the Wild’s all-time postseason scoring leader, a stunning setback for the home team revealed about four hours before Game 4.The agitation in the arena spiked a little later in the first period, when the Jets kept the puck in the Wild zone after a failed clearing attempt and Kyle Connor fed Scheifele with a slick give-and-go pass for the 1-0 lead right before the first intermission.Then Hellebuyck and the Jets defense took over.”That’s the guy who’s been there all year for us,” Morrissey said.NOTES: Jets defenseman Tyler Myers was out with a lower-body injury suffered in a collision with Marcus Foligno in Game 3. He was replaced by Tucker Poolman, a native of Iowa who played in college at North Dakota, on Winnipeg’s third blue line pairing with Chiarot. … Scheifele had a goal and five assists in four games against the Wild during the regular season. … Tyler Ennis took Parise’s spot, skating with Matt Cullen and Charlie Coyle on a new-look third line. Jason Zucker and Jordan Greenway joined Mikko Koivu, and Staal centered Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund. Coyle, Zucker and Niederreiter are without a point in the series.—