Turris' mini NHL Debut ends w/ Assist

The NHL regular season ended tonight, and Kyle Turris will be returning to Madison to complete his semester of higher education, but not before he registered his first NHL point.

Toward the end of the 2nd period, Peter Mueller fed a one-timer to Kyle who slapped a nice shot on net, and the subsequent rebound was put home (by Dan Carcillo NHL leader in PIM w/ 324) giving Kyle his first NHL assist and point. I'm sure that it will be the first of many.

Phoenix was running a 5 forward set on this PP w/ Turris and Mueller running the point. The announcers commented that he didn't run the point at Wisconsin, and honestly how often does any team roll out 5 forwards on the PP? Darren Pang really likes KT, I think a little too much.

He ended his short season w/ 1 assist, 11 SOG, 2 PIM and a -4 rating.

Oh yeah, he also had a beautiful goal in the shoot out, a lazer right over the goalies glove side, he had no chance to make a save on that one.

Next season will be the real measure of how KT stacks up against NHL talent. I look forward to watching him play already, and will probably have tough choices some nights between him, Tom Gilbert and Joe Pavelski. Better get a DVR next year.

Monday AM Edit: Don Maloney (Coyote's GM) joined the broadcast for a few minutes during the game. He had a lot of nice things to say about Mike Eaves and the Wisconsin program, and their development of Kyle during the season. This can't but help the program, it's a good thing to be labeled by the top level of hockey in the world as a great place for future NHLers to want to go to develop their hockey abilities.