Three Stars (Week 16)

Austin Smith

First Star: Austin Smith (Colgate)
On Friday night, Smith was shutout by Union in a 3-1 loss in Schenectady. It was only the third time this season he was held pointless. Was this a sign of Smith being human? No, this guy is not human. The following night he promptly responded with a four goal performance at RPI. He scored a goal in each period, netting Colgate's first, third, fifth, and seventh goals in a 8-3 romp of the Engineers. So, a weekend that began looking grim for the Hobey hopeful, turned into one of his most productive weekends of the season.

Smith now has 30 goals in 28 games this season, which leads the nation. The second leading goal scorer is Minnesota's Nick Bjugstad, who has 21 goals. His 45 points and 1.61 points per game is also second in the nation behind Maine's Spencer Abbott.

Greg Carey

Second Star: Greg Carey (SLU)
The Saints swept their weekend road trip to Yale and Brown this weekend, finally ending their six-game winless streak (also lost eight of last nine games). The streak would have at least gone to seven games if it wasn't for Carey. Against the Bulldogs, he scored SLU's first goal of the game and then assisted on their third tally. Yale came back to tie the game at three in the third period, but luckily Carey came to the rescue when he scored the game-winning goal on the power-play 2:25 into the extra frame. While he went pointless the following night, his performance on Friday was important in building momentum for his team heading into the final games of the regular season. His 21 points is second on the Saints behind Kyle Flanagan.

Shayne Gostisbehere

Third Star (tie): Shayne Gostisbehere (Union) & Colin Stevens (Union)
This was a huge weekend for first-place Dutchmen as they welcomed third-place Colgate and second-place Cornell. While Union's upperclassmen stepped up over the weekend (Wayne Simpson & Kelly Zajac), the freshmen also came up very big in a big three-point weekend. Gostisbehere, a confident puck-moving defenseman from Florida, showed off his incredible poise and play-making abilities with a five-point weekend. On Friday, he assisted on Simpson's game-winning power-play goal in a 3-1 win. "Ghost" was unbelievable the following evening when he picked up four assists in a 4-4 tie with the Big Red. Look for Gostisbehere to be one of the best offensive-defenseman in the league for years to come.

Colin Stevens

While Gostisbehere has played in every game for the Dutchmen this season, the same cannot be said for his classmate Colin Stevens. It was announced prior to Friday's game that starting goaltender and the nation's leader in GAA Troy Grosenick would not play due to injury. So, the rookie Stevens was thrown into the fire in arguably the biggest weekend of the year to date for Union. While Stevens had one bad period against Cornell (allowed three goals in the second period), he had a very solid weekend. On Friday he made 27 saves against Colgate, including one highlight reel save on Austin Smith, and then stopped 23 stops against Cornell, while going toe-to-toe with Andy Iles. "Steve-O" should be applauded for his excellent performance this weekend while under a ton of pressure.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that both of these guys are 18.

Honorable Mention:
Rob Kleebaum (Princeton): 3a vs. UConn; 1g, 1a vs. Dartmouth
Andrew Calof (Princeton): 2g vs. UConn
Eric Neiley (Dartmouth): 2g vs. Princeton
Ben Sexton (Clarkson): 3a vs. Brown
Wayne Simpson (Union): 2g vs. Colgate; 1g, 1a vs. Cornell
Kelly Zajac (Union): 1g, 2a vs. Cornell
Marshall Everson (Harvard): 1g, 2a vs. QU
Alex Killorn (Harvard): 3a vs. QU
Danny Biega (Harvard): 2g vs. QU
Matt Weninger (SLU): 31 saves (3GA) vs. Yale; 27 saves (3GA) vs. Brown
Kyle Flanagan (SLU): 2a vs. Yale; 1g vs. Brown
Kenny Agostino (Yale): 1g, 1a vs. SLU; 1g, 1a vs. Clarkson
Brain O'Neill (Yale): 1a vs. SLU; 2g vs. Clarkson
Jack Maclellan (Brown): 2g vs. SLU