Southwest Prospects Update

Sorry it's been a few weeks since we have done a prospects update from players from around the Southwest.

Colin Jacobs (Seattle Thunderbirds, WHL)

Colin continues to play very well despite the teams struggles in the first 2 months of the season, currently the Thunderbirds are still in 9th place in the WHL Western Conference and are out of the playoff spots right now. Colin has started to pick it up stats wise by getting assists in back to back games against the Spokane Chiefs and the Portland Winterhawks back on November 6 and 7. In their last game against the Chilliwack Bruins back on November 8, he got in a fight midway through the game with the Bruins Tyler Stahl.

When Jacobs doesn't have the puck, he's been throwing his weight around by getting 45 penalty minutes in 21 games played so far this season, compared to not getting a single penalty in his 6 games at the end of last season for the T-Birds and is improving rapidly by fighting for pucks and winning faceoffs.

However, the team around him just doesn't have a lot of fire power right now as the team currently has the 2nd worst offense in the WHL and is 6 points back of 8th place Chilliwack and are only ahead of last place Prince George who have just 3 wins this season.

Upcoming Schedule: The Thunderbirds have a busy week coming up as the weekend will have 3 games in 3 nights as the team hits the road for games in Kamloops, Everett and Vancouver coming up. After the weekend, it's one more road game in Kennwick for a game against the Tri-City Americans before returning home on November 20 against the Kamloops Blazers.

11/13: @ Kamloops Blazers

11/14: @ Everett Silvertips

11/15: @ Vancouver Giants

11/17: @ Tri-City Americans

11/20: VS. Kamloops Blazers


Austin Smith (Colgate, NCAA [ECAC])

The Colgate Raiders are off to a good start in Conference Play as the Raiders got a pair wins over Harvard and Dartmouth. Smith had a huge impact on both games as he scored twice in a part of a 4 goal 3rd period as the Raiders came back from trailing 4-1 to come back to win a 5-4 win. In addition to the 2 goals, he also assisted on David Mcintyre Power Play goal in the opening minute of the 3rd period to make it a 4-2 game.

The next night against Dartmouth, Smith had 2 assists in a 3-2 win over Dartmouth which includes Brian Day's game winner early in the 3rd period as the Raiders topped Dartmouth 3-2 at Colgate's Starr Rink as the Raiders seeped the weekend series during their ECAC Conference Openers. Colgate will be looking for a strong year in the ECAC after finishing 10th in the Conference last year by winning just 6 games in the Conference before losing to Quinnipiac in the ECAC Conference Tournament last year.

For Smith, he's continuing to have a great early season with 11 points (6G 5A) with a +3 so far through 9 games and has not been afraid to play the body. Even though he doesn't have the size of a player like Austin Smith, he's got the speed to get away from opposing defenders and when he's on the break away, this is where he's at best.

He's looking to blow his 2008-2009 totals out of the water with a much better understanding of the Colgate system and lead the Raiders to have a great season and to get back in the NCAA tournament. Colgate last reached the NCAA Tournament in 2005 before losing to Colorado College in the Midwest Regional Semifinal.

Upcoming schedule: Colgate will continue it's ECAC schedule with a pair of road games this weekend as the Raiders will visit Brown and Yale before a weekend series against Quinnipiac and Princeton before heading to Cornell a couple of days before Thanksgiving.

Here's some recent Articles from Colgate Hockey:

Austin Smith Scores twice: www.gocolgateraiders.com/news/2009/10/31/MHOCKEY_1031093316.aspx

Mclntyre reaches 100 point mark: www.gocolgateraiders.com/news/2009/11/6/WVB_1106095950.aspx

Long and Day lead Colgate over Dartmouth in ECAC Clash: www.gocolgateraiders.com/news/2009/11/7/MHOCKEY_1107092852.aspx

11/13: @ Brown

11/14: @ Yale

11/20: VS. Quinnipiac

11/21: VS. Princeton

11/24: @ Cornell


Chris Brown (Michigan, NCAA [CCHA])

After an impressive weekend against Lake Superior on the road, the Wolverines ran into the freight train that is Miami of Ohio as the #1 team in the nation continued it's near perfect season as Miami of Ohio is currently 8-1-1 so far overall and has a 5-1-0-0 record in Conference with it's only loss being against Michigan State in OT.

Chris Brown had one of the few bright spots for Michigan against Miami of Ohio where Brown had the only goal in the 3-1 loss back on November 6. On Saturday, it looked like Michigan had a glimmer of hope as the Wolverines scored the first goal before the Redhawks scored 5 answered goals in front of a crowd of over 6,000 for both games as the Redhawks continue to be the #1 team in the country right now and for good reason.

Brown overall has had 4 points through 6 games so far with 3 goals as this could be a down year for the Wolverines currently sit in 6th place in the CCHA with a 2-2-0-0 record in the conference and a 4-4-0 record overall. The Wolverines will be looking so-so this season with a respectable 2.51 GAA and a shaky .895 SV% so far this year. They may be looking up at teams like Miami of Ohio and their arch rival Michigan State as the leaders of the CCHA and will be fighting it out in the middle of the Conference with teams like Norte Dame and Ferris State.

Upcoming Schedule: A pair of home and home series will be coming up with arch rival Michigan State coming up this weekend. Then it's a trip to Ohio to take on winless Bowling Green. Then the day after Thanksgiving, it's a pair of non conference games as they take on Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Wisconsin Badgers.

Brown scores loan marker as UM Falls to the Miami Redhawks:
www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-hockey/recaps/110609aaa.html

11/13: VS. Michigan State

11/14: @ Michigan State

11/20: VS. Bowling Green

11/21: @ Bowling Green

11/27: VS. Minnesota

11/28: VS. Wisconsin