Dallas Stars Daily Links: Is Colton Point College Hockey’s Best?

In case you haven’t heard, Dallas Stars prospect Colton Point has been pretty good this year. I suppose it shouldn’t be too surprising, though, given his draft position (the Stars picked him in the fifth round, just like Jamie Benn and John Klingberg). Heck, at this point I’m pretty sure Stars fans look forward more to who the team picks in the fifth than the first.

But all joking aside, it’s important to emphasize just how dominant Point has been for Colgate this year:

While Point was a back-up for Canada, he is well entrenched as the starter at Colgate and because of him there is belief the team could reach the NCAA tournament.

In 23 games Point has a .945 save percentage, 1.81 goals against average, and has four shutouts with an 11-8-4 record. On an average night he’s stopping 31 shots per game, and sometimes that work load climbs even higher.

This past weekend Point faced 95 shots in back-to-back games and stopped 93. That includes a 51-save shutout against Harvard on Saturday, a night where Colgate was outshot 51-21.

His outstanding play puts him in serious consideration for the Hobey Baker Award this year, which goes to the top player in NCAA hockey. But even if he does end up bringing home the hardware, don’t expect it to go to his head:

“He’s an elite-level goaltender and has a bright future, and he’s an unbelievable competitor,” Colgate coach Don Vaughan told USCHO.com after the game. “But he’s a team-first guy; he’ll never look anywhere else but in the mirror.”

You can read more in Sean Shapiro’s article here.

Stars Stories

All-Star Weekend has come and gone, and it seems like the Stars’ representatives had a good time:

To sum up those interviews: now that the weekend is over, it’s time to shift gears and focus on finishing strong. [NHL]

In case you missed it, here is some other Stars related All-Star news, albeit much sadder:

More All-Star Stuff

The Central unfortunately lost to the Pacific 5-2 in the first round of the All-Star tournament, while the Atlantic beat the Metro 7-4. The Pacific then took the crown with a familiar score:

The MVP of the tournament? Vancouver Canucks rookie Brock Boeser, who is the first rookie to win since Mario Lemeiux in 1985:

In addition to winning a car, Boeser is leaving Tampa with a little extra cash in his pocket:

Greg Wyshnyski breaks down the best and the worst from the event: [ESPN]

Luke Fox meanwhile stays a bit more on the positive side of things: [Sportsnet]

Speaking of the good, it seems the change to the shootout challenge was received very well by the goalie representatives:

Meanwhile one of the more questionable parts of the weekend was the presence of Brad Marchand, even though the Boston Bruins forward was recently being suspended five games by the NHL. He seems to have taken everything in stride though:

Everyone is talking about the Vegas Golden Knights recently, but All-Star weekend might have shown that the Tampa Bay Lightning are still the team to beat. [The Hockey News]

Don’t believe me? I’ll just leave finish off with this: a Nikita Kucherov hat trick.