Huge Night for Austin Smith

Austin Smith had a huge night back on Saturday and it's a night that could turn the tide in the Hobey Baker Race as he had a 4 goal night in a 8-3 victory over RPI back on Saturday Night. This takes him to 30 goals for the season and takes him an impressive 9 goals over Nick Bjugstad (University of Minnesota) for the goal scoring lead. He helped get Colgate back up to 2nd Place overall in the scoring race who's just 2 back of Maine's Spencer Abbot.

According the latest voting on the Hobey Baker Fan Voting Poll; Smith is still in 3rd Place by picking up 12% of the fan vote which only trails Spencer Abbot who's on top with 18% and Jack Connolly with 16% of the vote with a little over a month to go in the fan voting process. You can cast your vote here. The Fan Voting wraps up on March 1 and counts for 1% of the overall process to determine who gets into the top 10 which will be announced on March 15.

Smith is also the only player in the entire country that is averaging more then a goal a game this season and could have a chance to score 40 goals if he has another big night like this over the final three weeks of the regular season & the ECAC Conference Playoffs.



Austin Smith playing for Colgate: Photo from Colgate Atheltics

He's also beginning to climb some all time Colgate Lists which includes climbing up to 6th Place on the All Time Scoring List as he improves his NCAA Career to 148 points in 142 games played and could finish in the 35-40 goal range with just 6 games left in the Regular Season as the Raiders sit in 3rd Place in the ECAC as they sit just 2 points back of 2nd Place Cornell where they sweeped the Big Red at home on January 27th & 28th.

According to the United States of Hockey, he is only the eighth player in the NCAA To score 30 in a single season and is looking to chase down Ryan Potulny's 38 that he scored back in the 2005-2006 season and the first ECAC Player since Brad Trapper in the 2000-2001 season to do so.

Colgate is down to their final 6 games of the regular season with a home weekend against Yale & Brown coming up this weekend as they look to chase down Cornell for 2nd Place and looking to at least get a chance to get the #1 Seed for the ECAC Hockey Playoffs which begin on March 2nd.

Here's the remaining Colgate Raiders Regular Season Hockey Schedule.

2/10: VS. Yale  6:00 PM

2/11: VS. Brown  6:00 PM

2/17: @ St. Lawrence  6:00 PM

2/18: @ Clarkson  6:00 PM

2/24: VS. RPI  6:00 PM

2/25: VS. Union  6:00 PM



Here's a look at the ECAC Hockey Websites Video Page and look for the video called "Smith Steals show at Big Red Freak out".

Colgate VS. RPI Game Highlights 

New Dallas Stars Poll Question

This time, the poll question revolves around the Dallas Stars goal scoring leaders Brenden Morrow, James Neal and Loui Eriksson as they are currently leading the way in scoring as we enter December.

Currently James Neal and Brenden Morrow are tied for the team scoring lead with 11 goals while Loui Eriksson is just behind them with 9 goals but also has 12 assists which is 3rd in assists with the team behind Mike Ribeiro with 13 assits and Brad Richards who's leading the team by a huge margin with 25 assists so far this season.

So the poll question is who will finish the season as the teams goal scoring leader? Brenden Morrow, James Neal or Loui Eriksson as we are currently 27 games into the season. I like to see your comments on this and see your pick to be the Dallas Stars goal scoring leader.

Right now, the Dallas Stars is in the 8th and final playoff spot right now, he's currently tied with Nashville and Phoenix with 31 points.

The Stars will need find their grove as the gap from 5th place Los Angeles to 10th place Vancouver is just 4 points right now and if even one of those teams can start to pull away. It's going to be very tough to get up in the standings, and get into the top 4 and be fighting it out for home ice at least in the 1st round and be fighting it out for the Division title. Most likely the San Jose Sharks who's currently leading the Western Conference right now.