Matt Caria looks like a man on a mission this season.
Ten games into the current hockey campaign and the Sault Ste. Marie native tops the nation in scoring with 19 points, four more than his nearest rival.
Caria said he’s simply making the most of his opportunities, but isn’t paying too close attention to how many points he’s accumulating.
“I’m just trying to help my team win,” he said. “This is my second-and-a-half year, so I know what the league’s about. I just feel accustomed this year. I have to give a lot of credit to our team. The players have stepped up and helped me. The defences are getting the puck up, the goaltenders are shutting the door, so it’s easy hockey.”
It helps, of course, to be blessed with depth, an array of scoring that takes the pressure off the top line.
On any given night someone seems to be upping their ante, which more than anything means the opposition can’t limit their focus to Caria and his linemates, which more often than not this season have been Trevor Gamache and the now-healed Ryan McDonald.
“This summer the coaches did a huge recruitment of guys and that helps with depth, which on this team is great,” Caria said. “On this team, on the last run we went through – and unfortunately it came to an end –we’ve got guys stepping up on all lines.
“(Devin) Welsh is stepping up, other third and fourth line guys are stepping up, so that’s great.”
Not that Caria is getting off Scott-free, said LU coach Joel Scherban, who has been working with his talented star to make him more of a team player this season and not take as many bad penalties at crucial points in the game.
“When we play teams, I think a large part of their game plan is still to try to shut Matt down. You’ll see teams are pretty chippy with him and you see a lot of slashing and that type of stuff behind the play on Matt. He has to put up with a lot. The teams do focus on him,” Scherban said Tuesday after practice in his Fort William Gardens office.
“But when we do have depth, it’s a little bit tougher for them as far as determining their line match-ups and who they want their top D-pairing to play against.”
The 23-year-old Caria burst onto the Canadian university scene midway through 2009-10, after an aborted stab at the professional game. He put up 22 points in a dozen outings, then followed with a 36-point campaign a year ago.
He’s trying to become just the second Thunderwolves player to win an OUA scoring championship, the first being Dan Speer in 2008, when Speer, Brock McPherson and Mark Soares finished 1-2-3. He's also on pace to break Jeff Richards's single-season point mark of 50, set in 2004.
Statistics are not front and centre in his thinking at this stage of the season.
“Right now it’s something in the back of my mind, but I don’t want to press the stick to much or concentrate on that. I think it’s more important that our team finishes high in the standings and at least make it to the national championship. That’s the only goal I have,” Caria said.
Claw marks: Forward Brennan Menard will likely be on the sidelines again on Friday night, when the Guelph Gryphons arrive in town for a pair of games … Defenceman Mitch Maunu, who missed practice on Tuesday, was being evaluated and will be a game-time decision … The Wolves split a road trip against Laurier last weekend, winning 3-1 on Friday before falling 3-2 the following night. Despite the loss, LU maintained its No. 8 spot in the weekly national rankings.
