Vancouver Whalers defenseman from Mikas Bieksa made his SMJHL debut tonight against the Armada in Vancouver. The 18-year-old Lithuanian native was a free agent pickup by the Vancouver Whalers after his name was not called out in the draft. He signed a 1-year, 3-million dollar deal until the end of the SMJHL season.

Mikas Bieksa had 16:12 minutes of ice time, paired alongside Andy Kerr in the third-line. During his time on ice he recorded a shot on goal, had a strong, clean hit on Anchorage Armada Johnny Sins and also blocked a sneaky shot released by Jonas Larsen.

Mikas Bieksa was sent to the penalty box in the 3rd period for roughing.


However, in a shift during the 3rd period, the Armada scored to get back into the game and make it 2-1. Breaking down the goal, Bieksa unfortunately was unable to get his stick on the offending player to diffuse the shot, leading to the goal.

All in all, the debut was not something to be proud of, but also not something to be ashamed of. Let's hope the Lithuanian prospect builds on his performance today and continues to improve.





Well, boys here in the studio think that Jonas Larsen just had his first hero moment. He singlehandedly turned the game around by himself in the third period. He scored the goal that brought Anchorage back into the game after showing his offensive awareness when he opened himself up for a pass from Stavros Halkias and released a beautiful wrist shot. Larsen then assisted Elijah Jones on the game-tying goal, although Larsen released the shot and it deflected off of Elijah Jones and slid into the back of the net.

All in all, it does not get much better than this. This performance is a perfect statement to show Anchorage GMs that Jonas Larsen is ready to move up from the third-line and get more playing time and more responsibility on the offensive end of the gameplan.



The breaking point of today's game was the magnificent high-effort play by Anchorage Armada left wing Jonas Larsen to make the game 2-1. As you can see, the play which ended in a goal developed when Stavros Halkias won face-off in their own end. Halkias quickly connected the puck to Johnny Sins who moved the puck into the Vancouver Whalers zone. Although, Andy Kerr managed to get Sins off the puck, Sins persevered and got the puck back, quickly passed it accross to Halkias who decided not to shoot, but pass it along to wide-open Jonas Larsen whom let rip a fiery one-timer and the puck found its way into the back of the net. Beautiful.