It was recently suggested to me that I should focus some time on the defensive side of the ball. That is where we start today. 

Regular readers regular readers of this column will be familiar with the idea of the impact point. The formula is pretty simple: 

Impact Points = Goals + Assists + Loosies + 2x(Caused Turnovers)) / Games Played

The leader this year by a long shot is defender Levi Verch (Victoria, British Columbia) of St. Joseph’s, who is averaging more than 11 impact points per game. He has an incredible 1 goal, 4 assists, 24 caused turnovers and 59 ground balls in just 10 games this season. That is good for fourth in the entire country when you include Americans, as Verch has just been an absolute terror to play against. 

Just behind Verch on that list is Mitchell Dunham (Hamilton, Ontario) at Richmond, who has 21 caused turnovers of his own and 24 loosies. That’s good for 7.3 impact points per game. 

Sandwiched between those two defenders are the two premier faceoff men among the Canadians. Ohio State’s Jack Oldman (Pickering, Ontario) is winning 52.2% of his draws this year and has 87 loose balls, 3 goals, and 2 assists. Robert Morris athlete Bo Columbus (Fergus, Ontario) has 4 goals and 69 loosies of his own, and has won 62% of his faceoffs on the season. 

St. John’s LSM Dylan Lee (Oakville, Ontario) has 16 CT’s on the year, followed by Owen Tapper (Whitby, Ontario) at Robert Morris and Owen Tasse (Ottawa, Ontario) who has 12 for the St. Bonaventure Bonnies. 

Ty Banks is likely going to be a first-team all conference selection for the Georgetown Hoyas, but plays a quiet statistical game, mostly because teams choose not to dodge him very often. He has a goal and an assist in 9 games, and his 11 caused turnovers are matched by Michael White (Whitby) at Queen’s and Lucas Fraser (Burlington, Ontario) for Jacksonville. 

Luca Pivetta (Victoria) at Utah had 10 caused turnovers, while Michael Grace (Hamilton) and Nathan Ruff (Caledon, Ontario) have 8 each for Syracuse and Robert Morris respectively. Toggle the spreadsheet at the bottom of the page for the full list of defensive stats. 

Jumping to the offensive side, UAlbany attackman Silas Richmond is leading all Canadians in scoring with 42 points this year. That comes on the back of back-to-back 6 point efforts in his last two outings. Similar to last year, the big fella is heating up at the right time for the Danes as playoff time approaches. 

As I am publishing this, Silas added another goal to his season against Cornell.

Up in Buffalo, Jaxon Fridge (Coquitlam, British Columbia) is on a tear. He has 9 assists and 14 points in his last three outings as the Griffs have won four of their last six. More sticks!

Syracuse attackmen Owen Hiltz (Peterborough, Ontario) has 9 points of his own in the last two, with back-to-back hat-tricks against Colgate and at Virginia. At 8-2 with their only losses to ranked teams in Maryland and Harvard, the Orange are still a team to be reckoned with late in the Spring. Hiltz is shooting 50% on the season, and is one of the most efficient high-volume shooters in the nation. 

I also wanted to give a shoutout to Vermont’s Max Frattaroli (Tecumseh, Ontario), who made his season debut in the two weeks since our last article. He followed up a 6-goal debut with another hat-trick in his second game of the season. Presumably returning from injury, it’s nice to see Max back on the field. 

Speaking of heating up at the right time, Denver’s Noah Manning (Victoria) had a career day in the win of the season for the Denver Pioneers, scoring 6 goals and adding 2 assists in a win against Duke. He followed that up with 3 goals and an assist against Villanova. Denver lost that game, but Manning has retaken his starting spot and it’s paid off for coach Brown and the Pios. 

Richmond’s Lucas Littlejohn (Courtice, Ontario) continues his strong year as well, having achieved four straight hat-tricks. That includes the victory for the Spiders over the Georgetown Hoyas, which kept them alive for a possible automatic qualifier. 

In New Haven, Yale’s David Anderson (Cambridge, Ontario) had 5 goals and 2 assists in their conference victory over Brown. Combined with his 3 goals against Cornell, the big righty has been on a tear. The same is true for Stony Brook’s Brendan Marino (Otonabee, Ontario) who has 8 goals in two games including a hat-trick against then undefeated Fairfield. 

For the full list of stats, check out the spreadsheet below!

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