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Saginaw Spirit’s Blake Clarke hopeful Top Prospects goal heralds second-half turnaround

CALGARY — Blake Clarke finished this showcase event safe and sound, so everything else was gravy.

"It's nice not to get hurt in this one — that was already better," Clarke quipped on Wednesday after his top-shelf snipe in the second period gave him as many goals in the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game as he had in the entire first half of an injury-derailed first half of the season. "But scoring a goal was big. I just saw the D was a little bit far back on his gap and was screening the goalie. I don't think Ned [goalie Alex Nedeljkovic] saw it there.

"It was big within the game and big for me."

Clarke was labelled as an 'A' prospect by NHL Central Scouting coming into the season, but the Wildwood, Mo., native suffered a shoulder injury during USA Hockey's All-America Prospects Game in Pittsburgh at the beginning of the season. Clarke tried to play through his discomfort, but it caused his play with the North Bay Battalion to go into a tailspin. He took five weeks off to rest, then was unable to notch a point during his first dozen games back before finally getting an assist on Dec. 19 in what turned out to be his last game in the Battalion's khaki unis. Over the break, North Bay traded him to the Saginaw Spirit for fellow 17-year-old former first-rounder Zach Bratina.

His number on Wednesday, No. 91, almost represented his Central Scouting ranking, 93rd.

"I played 2-3 weeks after the injury," Clarke says. "In those two weeks I created some bad habits. I wasn't going into the corners and going to the net in those high-traffic areas because it would hurt every time I got bumped. It's important to play the game the right way.

"It's tough to be in a situation like that where you're not 100 per cent and you know it and you feel like you're not contributing what you can and should be."

With NHL scouting departments out in force, four and five strong, a good or bad showing showing at the Top Prospects game can create a confirmation bias with a player, causing his draft stock to either spike or sink like a stone. But the potential Clarke showed last season, when he counted 19 goals and 51 points while playing in all 68 games, made him a must-see player.

Clarke's tally, which put the Orrs ahead for good, was a goal scorer's goal. On a power play, Clarke used a defender as a screen and ripped a shot by Nedeljkovic for a 2-1 lead. The goal's significance wasn't lost on the OHL players in the game, particularly Ekblad, since the two played in the same division before Clarke's trade.

"Any time you can score big goals or make big plays, it can help your confidence when you go back to your club team," Ekblad said. "He's a very skilled, hard-working guy whom you don't see making very many bad plays. He's a simple player, similar to Sam Reinhart, who has a high hockey IQ."

Clarke believes it took him until mid-December before he was fully back to 100 per cent. He's had five assists in his first seven games for Saginaw, where coach Greg Gilbert has been mixing and matching him with an assortment of forwards, including Jeremiah Addison, Andrey Alexeev, Terry Trafford and Columbus Blue Jackets draft pick Nick Moutrey. Clarke had a good turnaround game last weekend when he picked up three helpers in a 10-5 rout of Ottawa while skating with Alexeev and Addison, a 17-year-old who's highly touted for the 2015 NHL draft.

Moreover, the Missourian is finding mid-Michigan much to his liking.

"It's been a good adjustment from an off-ice perspective," said Clarke, whose former team, the Battalion, shifted from southern Ontario's populous Peel Region to North Bay following last season. "It's a small midwest town like what I'm used to back in St. Louis. That's been nice and Gibby seems like a good coach so far. He played in the league and won Stanley Cups and coached in the NHL. He definitely has a lot of knowledge.

"I think you can get comfortable anywhere over time, but it's easier to walk right into a place and say 'this feels normal.' For the first month, two months, it's important. Even just little things, familiar restaurants that you don't see in Canada. I can go to Panera Bread, which is a big St. Louis thing."

Whether the goal turns out to be a watershed or a harbinger of a huge second half will play out, of course. Clarke was willing to run with that idea, though. It was his first salvo in 3½ months, which is way too long for a goal scorer to go without his just desserts.

"You have to look at it like that," he said. "You have to look at this as a positive event and take good things out of it."

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.