During the last few seasons, the Bears had the luxury of having two top-tier face-off specialists who have since graduated, which limited Smith’s reps as an underclassman. In the non-conference portion of the schedule so far this spring, Smith’s still finding his way, but his performance against Culver’s young but dangerous 1-2 punch was certainly encouraging and something he could build off of. The Mt. St. Mary’s commit lost his first attempt, but then bounced back to win his next seven face-offs, with two coming on Culver’s violations. Overall, he did a really nice job with his counters and getting the ball to his wings. Smith even drew a flag that led to an EMO goal, and then won another that led to a longpole goal by Hopkins-bound JT Mathura. If Smith can keep up that kind of success to feed a young Bears’ offense, look out.

During the last few seasons, the Bears had the luxury of having two top-tier face-off specialists who have since graduated, which limited Smith’s reps as an underclassman. In the non-conference portion of the schedule so far this spring, Smith’s still finding his way, but his performance against Culver’s young but dangerous 1-2 punch was certainly encouraging and something he could build off of. The Mt. St. Mary’s commit lost his first attempt, but then bounced back to win his next seven face-offs, with two coming on Culver’s violations. Overall, he did a really nice job with his counters and getting the ball to his wings. Smith even drew a flag that led to an EMO goal, and then won another that led to a longpole goal by Hopkins-bound JT Mathura. If Smith can keep up that kind of success to feed a young Bears’ offense, look out.