Traverse City Prospects Tournament

This summer, the Blue Jackets once again took part in the Traverse City Prospects tournament, which is hosted each year by the Detroit Red Wings. Columbus has had a lot of success at this tournament, winning it the past two years.

This year the Jackets boasted their first round picks from 2006 and 2007. Derick Brassard and Jakub Voracek, respectively. They also had in the lineup top prospects Kris Russell, Adam Pineault and Tomas Popperle.

There were two divisions of four teams, with prospects from the Columbus, Detroit, Minnesota, Dallas, St.Louis, New York Rangers, Tampa Bay and Atlanta organizations. Each team would play their division opponent once, with the division leaders squaring off in the championship game.

In Game one, Columbus lost to St. Louis by a score of 6-4. The Jackets had a pair of goals from Voracek (although GM Scott Howson said it was Brassard's goal) and goals from Sestito and Jared Gomes who was attending on an ATO.

Game two saw the Jackets bounce back and beat Minnesota quite handedly, by a score of 8-3. Columbus got 2 goals each from Voracek and Pineault, and singles from Dorsett, Boll, Marquardt and Dupuis.

In the final game of the round robin, the Jackets defeated the Stars prospects by a score of 3-1. Former junior linemates Pineault and Dupuis hooked up for a combined three goals and two assists.

Based on goal differential, Columbus came out as the leader of their division and faced the NY Rangers in the championship game. Columbus started out strong with a goal by Boll, but then they got into penalty trouble and the Rangers scored five unanswered goals to win 5-1.

Congrats to the guys on another successful tournament.