Hanutke’s defensive work was the first thing to catch my eye, he did well to stand players up, contest passes, and effectively close players down as they looked to beat him down the wings. Standing at 5’7 and 141 lbs he is by no means a big kid, but he played with an edge at times and threw his body around to stifle the opposition. He was a composed puck carrier who was strong on his stick, taking space where he could and ensuring he got his body in front of the opposition as they looked to close him down. He displayed great touch on his passes, weighing them perfectly, and he timed his passes very well to give his teammates as much time and space as possible for them to receive the puck and make their next move.

Hanutke was an effective playmaker who used a great deal of creativity in his passes to set up scoring chances all throughout. His ability to spot trailing teammates off the rush and find ways to get the puck to them in open space generated quite a few scoring chances in transition for his team whether it came from curling back away from defenders with sharp turns before slipping a pass to the trailer or drifting his way towards the net and connecting on passed from all sorts of different scenarios, showing his ability to execute firm and accurate passes from both his backhand and forehand. Although his success stemmed mainly from his playmaking, I thought he chose opportune moments to attack with his accurate shot off the rush, often disguising his plays and keeping defences guessing what his next move would be.

This was a stronger game for Ryan as he was picking up loose pucks as a trailer and seemed to really grab hold of possession and gobble loose pucks to control possession. He can spur a breakaway, use his shot in motion with solid accuracy, and was determined to be aggressive and physical in this one. I like the depth to his turns and his power he gets through that agility.

I thought Hanutke was an incredibly efficient playmaker for his team in this one as he managed to consistently find ways to slip pucks into space for teammates driving the middle of the ice showing great patience from the perimeter with well-timed passes through tight seams to hit his teammates in stride including an impressive no-look pass to set up Carver for a grade A chance in the slot. His intelligence with and without the puck was very noticeable in this game as well as he continued to put himself in the right spots especially of the rush showing the awareness to know when to delay for the drop pass or burst through lanes and crash the net. He picked up an assist on the 7th and final US goal after receiving the puck off the rush and quickly slipping it over to Daigle for the one-time blast.

It was a tough game for the Sioux Falls offense, but Hanutke was one of the forwards who created the few chances that his team had. He made some nice tape-to-tape passes in transition and had a sequence in the offensive zone where he weaved around two opponents and found his defenseman dropping low in the zone, but it just seemed like plays couldn’t fully develop and Mount St. Charles always found ways to put a stop to any momentum that Hanutke was able to create for his team.