Caps prospect keeps driving the Hershey Bears attack

Nineteen year old forward Ilya Protas now leads the Hershey Bears in both goals and points with 10 goals and 19 points through 19 games of his first full AHL season.

The scoring binge is fueled by a wild seven game goal streak in which Protas posted eight goals and six assists for fourteen points.

Five of those nights were multi point efforts that basically dragged Hershey through a tricky stretch.

Hershey's own game notes call him one of the league's hottest rookies. That streak tied the longest goal run in the AHL this season and pushed him into the top tier of rookie scorers.

The underlying numbers back it up, as Protas has ripped those 10 goals on only 36 shots, a ridiculous 27 point eight shooting percentage, with three tallies on the power play and even one shorthanded.

The Hershey Bears and Capitals PR even blasted out a Prospect Highlight graphic on social media this weekend, underlining how quickly his rookie year has become a headline story.

Protas did not come out of nowhere, as he put up 51 points in 37 games for Des Moines in the USHL before signing his entry level deal with Washington that summer.

Last season with the Windsor Spitfires, he dropped a ridiculous 50 goals and 124 points in 61 games, which already hinted that the AHL might not scare him very much.

On the ice he plays a patient, inside lane game, using that long reach to win pucks on the wall, then sliding quick passes or sneaky tips from the front of the net.

Hershey has already trusted him on both special teams units, which is not standard treatment for a teenager in his first pro year.

The Bears are firmly in the early playoff mix, and a big chunk of that push has come when Protas is driving the middle of the ice and tilting shifts in Hershey's favour.