Edmonton Oilers prospect Carter Savoie scores first NCAA goal

Just two months ago, Carter Savoie heard his name called by the Edmonton Oilers on day two of the draft.

Now, the St. Albert product who was drafted by the Oilers in the fourth round, has scored his first NCAA goal. Savoie, along with former Sherwood Park Crusaders teammate Mike Benning, are playing for the University of Denver and had their first game of the year Wednesday night.

His goal came at the 4:00 minute mark of the second frame and saw the forward tip in a point shot past the Minnesota Duluth goalie.

It was great to see and isn’t shocking to see. The freshman has been highly touted for his offensive talent after scoring 53 goals and 99 points in 54 AJHL games last year.

Some had even gone as far as saying Savoie was one of the best pure goalscorers in the entire draft this year. High praise for the young man.

Sean Patrick Ryan of theoilknight.ca put together a shift-by-shift look at Savoie’s game last night, not including the first period that included some expected jitters from the rookie.

And there’s not much bad you can say about his game. He had solid positioning getting into shot lanes in the defensive zone while not shying away from collapsing deep to cover the slot.

Offensively, Savoie had multiple shot attempts to go along with his goal and he got multiple looks on Denver’s powerplay. There, he operated in the Ovechkin position on the left side of the blue line. He had one shot in the third where he stepped into the high slot and fired a shot on net that was subsequently blocked.

He has a long way to go, but night one was a good sign of things to come from the young man.

On Twitter: @zjlaing