Aleksei Medvedev’s first game of the preseason didn’t give him much room to breathe.
The Vancouver Canucks goaltending prospect got the start Friday night for the London Knights in Victoria, and the Royals made him work immediately. Medvedev was pulled early in the second period after giving up four goals in a little under 22 minutes, a rough opening to the “Clash of the Kingdoms” series between the WHL’s Victoria Royals and the OHL’s London Knights.
That series, announced in mid-March by the CHL, is the first inter-league meeting between the WHL and OHL outside of the Memorial Cup. It began in Victoria with London traveling west for a two-game set.
Victoria struck first when Miles Cooper finished a shorthanded odd-man rush just over two minutes into the game. Before the first period was over, former Vancouver Giant and Dallas Stars prospect Cameron Schmidt made it 2-0 with a power-play blast into the top left corner.
The second period started even worse for Medvedev. Just 10 seconds in, Schmidt forced a turnover from a Knights defenceman, skated in, and beat Medvedev with an uncontested shot off the far post and in.
Then Victoria added another on a quick transition chance, with the shooter opening Medvedev’s legs as he went to his backhand and slipping the puck through the five-hole.
That was enough to end Medvedev’s night. He finished having allowed four goals on 16 shots.
Backup Brian Cooke handled the rest, stopping 24 of the next 27 shots he saw. London avoided the shutout when Thomas Zocco scored with just under seven minutes left in the third period, but the Knights still took a 7-1 loss.
All four goals against Medvedev came in tough situations: two odd-man rushes, one power-play goal and one turnover that led to a clean look. His teammates didn’t exactly shield him from danger, though the Canucks prospect still would have wanted at least one of those stops back.
It’s not the kind of start Medvedev was hoping for after what he described as a difficult draft-plus-one season. Speaking to CanucksArmy at Canucks development camp, he said that learning through that adversity may have been one of the best things that happened to him, because it will leave him better prepared if it happens again later in his career.
Now he’ll head into Canucks training camp in a few weeks, where goaltending coach Marko Terenius will get a look at him before Medvedev returns to London for the OHL regular season.
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