Southwest Player Notes and Updated Stats

With the Junior Leagues being fully underway for a couple of weeks now, plus the NCAA Season getting underway this past weekend. This is the first at will be a weekly segment on how players are doing from around the Southwest and taking a look at a stats update from our players that are playing around North America.

Southwest Player Notes

*After Cole Martin suffered a minor injury during training camp and staying out of the first few games. He got his first USHL Point in his USHL Regular Season Debut with an assist on a Dominik Shore goal early in the 3rd period in 5-3 loss to the Waterloo Blackhawks.

*In addition to Martin's first point, OKC Native Josh Berge was named captain of the team for the upcoming season. Lincoln Stars President told me in an email that Josh is a quiet leader who leads by example and was voted by a huge margin. He also got his first point in the season in the same game on a Ryan Dzingel early in the 2nd period, where the Stars were looking to mount a comeback as they scored twice within a minute early in the 2nd period.

*Eventhough Ryan Daugherty has had a slow start for the Omaha Lancers, he was named Assistant Captian of the team along with Seth Ambroz who's expected to be a top 10 pick in the NHL Draft this season. Also being named the main captain after Daugherty and Ambroz is Mike Chiasson.

*2011 NHL Draft Pick Colin Jacobs easily had his best game of the young season by having a 3 point night in a 6-3 win over the Chilliwack Bruins. His Goal and two assists was his first multi point game of the season and was part of a huge night for the T-Birds where teammate Brandon Rouse scored a hat trick and Mitch Elliot had a goal and assist in the game as well.

*Johnnie Searfoss and Erik Higby each got their first career points at the College Level over the weekend. Searfoss scored in a big time 8-0 thrashing of Clarkson University while Higby had an assist on an Andrew Cherniwchan goal early in the 3rd period that forced OT. But later lost to Michigan Tech 4-3 when MTU scored 5 minutes into OT.

*Chicago Steel Defensemen Ian Young has been off to a hot start to the season. In his first 4 games, he's gotten himself three points, including goals in both games last weekend on Friday against the Indiana Ice and on Saturday against the USNTDP. His 3 points (2G 1A) have him among the Scoring Leaders among defensemen just 1 point back of Alexx Privitera (Muskegon) and Brandon Russo (Youngstown) who each have 4 points.

*Joe Puruill who was with the Springfield Jr. Blues when the season started has been released. He only played in 3 games this season while hardly making an impact and has dropped off in his scoring production. Last year in 47 games for the Jr. Blues, he scored 10 points (2G 8A).

*2008 NHL Draft Pick Matt Donovan is looking to impress Team USA for another shot at the WJC as he had a 2 goal night in a 5-3 win over the University of Vermont. After being named to Team USA and a World Junior Team, he's looking to continue to impress the NY Islanders Staff about maybe getting an ATO Signing with their AHL Affiliate in Connecticut with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers perhaps at the end of the season. That's assuming that Denver doesn't make another long run in the WCHA & NCAA Tournaments in the spring.

*Michael Hill has continued his great start to the season where he was an Honorable Mention in the South Division Player of the Week Voting where he fell short to Texas Tornado Defensemen Ralfs Freibergs who won the award for this week. He currently has 17 points (8G 9A) in 10 games which leads the team in scoring and is ranked 5th in the NAHL Scoring Chart behind players like Rock Einersen who leads with 20 points and Beau Walker of Corpus Christi with 18 points as we getting to the one month mark of the season. Still kind of baffaling why he decided not to go to the Waterloo Blackhawks (USHL) after being picked so high in the USHL Entry Draft back in the spring.


Click on the Name to see the profile of each player

Here's the Stats Update for this week.

WHL/NCAA

F: Colin Jacobs  (Seattle)              6 GP   2G  3A  5 PTS    +1  6 PIM

F: Chris Brown  (Michigan)           3 GP   0G  1A   1 PTS         0 PIM

F: Erik Higby (No. Michigan)        2 GP   0G  1A    1 PTS        8 PIM

D: CJ Ludwig (No. Michigan)        2 GP   0G   0A   0 PTS        0 PIM

F: Austin Smith (Colgate)               1 GP   1G   0A   1 PTS        0 PIM


F: Armand de Swart (Cornell)         Season Hasen't started yet

F: Locke Jillson  (Cornell)                Season Hasen't Started yet

D: Keir Ross  (Cornell)                    Season Hasen't Started yet

D: Matt Donovan (Denver)             2 GP   2G    0A    2 PTS      4 PIM

F: Johnnie Searfoss (Neb.-Omaha)     2 GP   1G   0A   1 PTS    0 PIM      

F: Chase Grant (Minn. State)        2 GP    0G    0A    0 PTS       0 PIM   


USHL

D: Ian Young  (Chicago)                4 GP     2 G    1 A    3 PTS     E   7 PIM

F: Colton Hargrove (Fargo)          4 GP     1 G    1 A    2 PTS     -1   17 PIM

F: Blake Coleman (Indiana)           3 GP     2 G   2 A     4 PTS     +2   6 PIM

D: Cole Martin  (Lincoln)               1 GP     0 G    1 A     1 PTS     -1    2 PIM

F: Josh Berge  (Lincoln)                  2 GP     0 G    1 A     1 PTS     E     0 PIM

F: Ryan Daugherty (Omaha)           3 GP     0 G    0 A     0 PTS     -1    6 PIM

D: Greg Johnson  (Sioux City)         3 GP     0 G    0 A     0 PTS     E     0 PIM

F: Mike Williams (Sioux City)          2 GP      0 G    0 A    0 PTS     -1    2 PIM

D: Seth Jones (USNTDP)                  2 GP      0 G    1 A    1 PTS     0     2 PIM


NAHL

G: Frederick Leisner (Aberdeen)     6 GP     2-4-0      4.50 GAA    .858 SV%

D: Tommy Rizzardo  (Bismarck)    11 GP       1 G    2 A     3 PTS     +3     29 PIM

F: Nicholas Miglio  (Bismarck)          7 GP       1 G    0 A     1 PTS      0       8 PIM

F: Derrek Schartz (Corpus Christi)    9 GP     1 G     1 A     2 PTS      -5     14 PIM

D: Kyle Hughes  (Corpus Christi)     11 GP      1 G     5 A     6 PTS     -4      33 PIM

F: Sean Hendrick  (Texas)                  2 GP       0 G     1 A     1 PTS     +1     1 PIM

F: Taylor Hendron (Texas)                 9 GP       2 G     2 A     4 PTS      +3     2 PIM

F: Marc Biggs  (Texas)                        9 GP       2 G     2 A     4 PTS      +5     0 PIM

F: Alex Boyer  (Texas)                        9 GP       2 G     2 A      4 PTS       +5    4 PIM

G: Jake Stafford  (Texas)                   6 GP        2-2-2      3.43 GAA    .865 SV%

D: Jacob Poe  (Topeka)                       10 GP     0 G     5 A      5 PTS       -1     14 PIM

F: Michael Hill  (Topeka)                     10 GP     8 G     9 A      17 PTS      E     16 PIM

D: Mason Miller  (Topeka)                   5 GP       0 G     0 A      0 PTS        +1    2 PIM

D: Cory Ramsay  (Topeka)                  10 GP      1 G     1 A      2 PTS        -1     10 PIM

F: Kyle Sharkley  (Topeka)                  3 GP        0 G     0 A      0 PTS         -1    2 PIM

F: Tyler Hope  (Wenatchee)                 8 GP        2 G     3 A      5 PTS         E     20 PIM