Breaking Down the BC Men’s Hockey Shift of the Year

Well into the 2nd period of last night’s NCAA men’s hockey regional matchup between Boston College and Michigan Tech, things weren’t quite going the way the BC faithful had expected. Despite launching to a quick 1-0 lead, the Eagles allowed Michigan Tech to bounce back and tie the game with a shorthanded tally.

For quite a long time, the Huskies were largely hanging right in there with the Eagles. That was a testament to Tech showing up to play, but it was also thanks in no small part to a plethora of uncharacteristic turnovers out of the BC skaters that could have put the Eagles in a hole were it not for the outstanding efforts of goaltender Jacob Fowler. No doubt about it; Boston College was definitely treading water.

But as has happened more than once this season, one of BC’s elite forwards showed up to put the team on his shoulders and turn things around on a dime. This time the man of the hour was Ryan Leonard with what was, without hyperbole, the most incredible shift out of a BC Eagle in the entire 2023-2024 campaign.

Let’s break it down.

14:32 remaining in the 2nd period
Mike Posma gains the red line and dumps for a line change

BC’s fourth line had just wrapped up a shift, and after gaining possession Leonard’s line comes out to try to turn things around.

14:19 remaining in the 2nd period
Will Smith centers a cross ice feed to Leonard, but it’s broken up by MTU

Leonard starts in his own end, skates back to set up the rush, and re-enters the offensive zone here. The pass is challenged early by Michigan Tech putting it a bit offline, and one of of the black and gold jerseys is there to break up the play.

This was one of the common turnovers Boston College faced over the first half of the contest — the Huskies were quick to collapse on the BC skaters and the Eagles weren’t quick or crisp enough to stay ahead of it.

14:08 remaining in the 2nd period
Eamon Powell re-enters the zone to start another rush

Not much doing on this entry at all. Leonard mostly mans the point here and the one time the puck heads back his way, his attempt to send the puck back in is deflected off a MTU stick in the complete opposite direction, landing on a Husky stick to start a Tech rush 3-on-3 the other way.

13:53 remaining in the 2nd period
The Eagles start a 3-on-3 rush through the neutral zone, but it’s quickly smothered

Full sprint here from Leonard! Gabe Perreault gathers the puck to start the rush, and Leonard crosses through the slot in an attempt to clear things out for Will Smith on the near side. Unfortunately, Perreault is dispossessed, and nothing comes of the rush at all. Another microcosm of how things had been going to this point.

13:36 remaining in the 2nd period
A quick pass up the ice from Aidan Hreschuk starts a scoring chance

Hreschuk goes goal-line-to-offensive-blue line on a great long pass up to Will Smith, but that’s just part of the story. Somehow the longer the shift goes on, the more Ryan Leonard picks up steam. That streak in white at the bottom left of the screen during the pass is Leonard, yet again in a sprint up ice, and he gets across the blue line in time for the back pass from Smith.

Leonard gets creative with a ludicrous blind 360 right onto the tape of Perrault on the opposite side of the ice, but Perrault’s shot is blocked by Michigan Tech.

13:23 remaining in the 2nd period
Another BC offensive zone turnover leads to a MTU 2-on-1

Now things get ridiculous. Leonard is the only player back for BC here, and he has to get into yet another end-to-end sprint to defend the play. You’d have understood if he just got burned altogether at this point, but not only does he keep the play behind him, he also gets the block of the pass, keeps the puck, kicks it up to his stick, and immediately starts the breakout from behind his own net.

This alone would have been worthy of a shift breakdown, but it all turns to gold from here.

13:16 remaining in the 2nd period
Ryan Leonard goes coast-to-coast and crashes the net

This is the point where all of us in the stands are on our feet applauding the effort to break up the preceding rush, and we’re just happy to gain the red line to dump the puck in and get the change…

…But Leonard does not dump the puck in. Watching the Michigan Tech players, you can see a few things happening:

1. The Huskies are taking their own line change,
2. They’re pretty damn casual about it, allowing Leonard to get to the blue line before all their changing forwards do, and
3. The two MTU defenders are relaxed and on their heels as he just keeps skating in on them.

All of this is to suggest that Tech most definitely — and most reasonably! — assume that Leonard & Co. are going to take the opportunity to dump and change. Leonard sees this and knows there is an opportunity here to catch the Huskies napping and get a free entry without having to bust through yet another Michigan Tech clog of the blue line.

MTU defender Matthew Campbell, wearing #15, now unexpectedly has one of the best young players in the world flying in at him and makes a desperation flail to break things up, with at least mild success as Leonard can’t get too much on his shot — though he does get something of a shot off in the end.

13:03 remaining in the 2nd period
Ryan Leonard gets absolutely blown up… and scores anyway

After getting his shot off, Leonard sticks around down along the goal line as the Eagles regain possession. Hreschuk sends the puck back into the mixer with a tremendous pass over to Malone, and at this point the Huskies know their goose is fully cooked.

Malone gets blown up, but gets the pass off across the goal mouth to Leonard first. Leonard then has a wide open net for the tap in while getting absolutely nuked with a cross check to the throat for his troubles. But no matter — the damage is done, and the Eagles have a lead that they would never relinquish.

Just how incredible was this shift? Leonard went end to end (either O-Zone to D-Zone or D-Zone to O-Zone, outside the blue lines) a whopping 8 times, often at full sprint, including a late breakup of a 2-on-1, one last coast to coast skate, and the go-ahead (and eventual game-winning) tally.

Here’s the full route taken by #9 over the course of the shift:

There were certainly some nervy moments to navigate after this goal (specifically the kill of the 5 minute major late in the period), but this was where the overall flow of the contest finally tilted firmly in BC’s direction. The Eagles would get through the rest of the 2nd period before exploding in the 3rd for the 6-1 victory.

We all would have expected the Eagles to come away with this win one way or another. As so often happens when a great team is struggling, it just takes a moment of brilliance from one elite player to change the trajectory of a game. Last night, that moment came from Ryan Leonard.