Colton Point feels like a much better person this season.
The Colgate sophomore goalie and Dallas Stars prospect is eating better, he’s sleeping better, he’s less stressed, and he’s playing better hockey.
“This feels really good,” Point said on Tuesday. “Just to be able to be able to finally able to prove that I should be here and the coaches made a good choice and all that, it feels tremendous to just be able to finally show what I have.”
Point was expected to win the starting job last season as a freshman, but illnesses and injury limited him to 10 starts and he struggled with his overall fitness level.
So he changed everything during the offseason, using the Dallas Stars July development camp as a springboard.
While the on-ice skills and drills are valuable, Point said the most important part of the week-long development camp were the off-ice conversations. He met with a sleep expert, he met with a nutritionist, and he took both of those lessons to heart.
“They bring these people in for a reason and they know what they’re talking about,” Point said. “So I spent some time figuring out my nutrition and tried to get more sleep and all that and it all ended up adding up. And by the end of the summer I was like a different person than I was at the end of the season last year.”
Point refined his diet and his sleep schedule. He started eating smarter, adding more nutrients to his diet, and started getting at least nine hours of sleep each night.
“A lot of it’s not using your phone before bed and getting to bed at a reasonable time, your body needs nine hours of sleep, especially with how much hockey I’m playing,” Point said. “It’s not a hard thing to do, you just need to be better with your time management on all the other stuff.”
And Point is seeing the results on the ice.
The 6-foot-4, 220-pound goalie is undefeated with a 4-0-4 record in eight starts. He has a .965 save percentage, a 1.08 goals against average, and a pair of shutouts.
His save percentage and goals against average are tops amongst all NCAA Goalies that have played at least six games this season.
Point has also thrived with a high quantity of shots. This past weekend he had a 43-save shutout in a 0-0 tie with Princeton, then stopped 33 shots in a 4-1 win against Quinnipiac the next night.
In six of his eight starts Point has faced at least 30 shots, but the goalie maintains the his teammates have done a good job on cutting down on the quality.
“Our defense core is very, very strong, the whole team is doing everything it needs to do to be a shutdown team,” Point said. “We might let up 30 shots a game, but if you look where those shots are coming from, there coming from the outside. Obviously my stats are really good, but that’s the team as a whole.”
While he gives his defenseman credit, you can’t ignore the fact that Colgate lost both games and allowed 10 combined goals in the two games Point didn’t play this season.
If you watch Point closely you’ll see the small details in his game that have made a difference.
He’s still a big goalie and uses his size to his advantage, but the movements are smoother and more compact. He doesn’t open unnecessary holes, which was an occasional weakness in the past, and he is properly reacting to plays as opposed to overreacting.
There is also the mental element that you can’t break down on film, but has had a huge impact on Point’s play.
“Another big thing is my confidence level is a lot higher this year,” he said. “Last year I never really knew when I was gonna get a start and I missed nine weeks, it was a roller coaster. This year I know what I’m expected to do it, I just go out there and I’m controlled, smooth, fast.”
Having a clean bill of health certainly helps, and he hasn’t been forced to play catch-up in the classroom like he did last season.
“The stress levels are down quite a bit. I haven’t missed three weeks of class and missed five midterms and two essays, so I’m all caught up in school work,” Point said. “So that stress is much better. It does add up really quickly.
Point is hoping it helps add up to a lengthy season for Colgate.
The Raiders were picked to finish last in the ECAC Preseason Polls, and Point said that stung a bit. But it was also a rallying cry, and the Raiders are using that preseason snub as a motivational tool.
“We know we’re better than that,” Point said. “I think we last weekend we started to prove that, obviously are goal is make it to (the ECAC Championship in) Lake Placid and keeping move it on to the (NCAA) tournament.”
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