StatWatch: Everybody Is Scoring For Lake State; Against Wisconsin

Two weeks into the season is still a very small sample size; roughly 10% of a season, but we're starting to get enough data where some trends are emerging in this year's season.

Here are a few stats that have caught my attention early on in this season.

- We touched on this last weekend in talking about Lake Superior's 4-0 start, but it is worth repeating again. Lake Superior's list of goal-scoring leaders so far this year currently looks like this: Kevin Czuczman and Andrew Dommett are tied for the two goals. Then there is an 11-way tie for third place with one goal. 13 different players have a goal for the Lakers this year. A few teams match the Lakers in number of goal scorers, albeit with a few more goals scored, but those are teams like Boston College and Minnesota, which is certainly good company to keep.

On the other end of the spectrum, Miami finds themselves in a three-way tie for most goals scored so far this year, but has only had eight different players light the lamp.

-One of the big sagas over this past summer, was incoming freshman Mike Szmatula trying to back out of his commitment to Northeastern to play at Denver for head coach Jim Montgomery. Northeastern refused to grant Szmatula a release to Letter of Intent, and Szmatula ultimately stayed at Northeastern. How is that working out so far?

Well, Szmatula has had a hand in eight goals for the Huskies this season, with a goal and seven assists, which puts him tied for third nationally in scoring, and tops among freshmen. Meanwhile, Denver's entire team has only scored nine goals on the season. Now, Northeastern has played two pretty soft opponents so far, while Denver's schedule has been tougher, but it's becoming obvious how big it was to lose Szmatula.

The good news for Denver is that the player they brought in after Szmatula fell through, Matt Marcinew, is tied for second in scoring for the Pioneers with a goal and two assists.

-The chasm between the Big Ten's Big Three and Little Three grew even wider last week, even with Wisconsin taking a pair of shellackings. Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin are now a combined 9-2-1, while Michigan State, Ohio State, and Penn State are a combined 1-7-0. It's going to be fascinating later in the season to see what affect that huge gap has on those top teams when it comes to national computer rankings. There's not going to be much to be gained, and a lot to be lost when one of the Big Three meets one of the Little Three later this year.

-I mentioned last week that Minnesota freshman Taylor Cammarata went scoreless in his first weekend of college hockey, and had never gone three straight games without a point in his USHL career--and probably not in his entire hockey-playing life. He came close this past weekend, being held off the scoresheet for two periods on Friday night against Bemidji State. But Cammarata picked up an assist 4:26 into the third period, and added another on an empty-netter to close out the game. He scored his first goal, and added another assist on Saturday to give him four points in four games so far this year.

-Wisconsin gave up 16 goals last weekend on a nightmarish trip to Boston that they'd probably rather forget. That's more goals than the Badgers gave up in their final seven games combined of last season.

-Bowling Green has been without last year's leading scorer Ryan Carpenter so far this year, as he recovers from surgery on his finger. Stepping up into his place has been senior forward Bryce Williamson, who has four goals and three assists to lead Bowling Green in scoring. He's already well on pace to surpassing his career-best 19 points last season. If Williamson can keep that scoring up for the Falcons once Carpenter returns, Bowling Green could have one of the more dangerous 1-2 punches in the WCHA.