Ryan Leonard Dominates and Eamon Powell Paces the Blue Line: Boston College Men’s Hockey Weekend Thoughts

Looking back on the last few weeks of games

The Boston College men’s hockey team has bounced back in a big way after dropping their Beanpot opener against BU, winning four straight games by a combined 22-6 margin and putting themselves atop the Hockey East standings with just three weekends of games to go. The Eagles blew out UNH and Harvard two weeks ago before taking two huge games from UMass Amherst this past weekend thanks to some huge weekends from their best players.

RYAN LEONARD DOMINATING FEBRUARY

Ryan Leonard had an absolutely massive weekend against UMass, following up a two-goal performance on Friday night with a hat trick in Sunday’s win. And just talking about his goals from those two games might actually undersell his performance as a whole, because Leonard was everywhere on the ice in both games against the Minutemen, finishing the weekend with 10 shots and a bunch of hits as the freshman line really ended up being the difference on both nights.

Looking back a bit farther in the schedule, Leonard has really been heating up in the month of February. Leonard has scored eight goals in the past six games to move comfortably into second place on the team in goals and his recent five point weekend has made him the fourth Eagle to break the 40-point total so far on the season.

We’ve talked so, so much about the play of all three of the big name freshman forwards this season, but it feels like just about every weekend, one of them puts together a few games like this that are just worth gushing about for a few minutes. Leonard didn’t win the games against UMass by himself, but he was far and away the best player on the ice for both and he seems to be really heating up at the perfect time for BC.

EAMON POWELL CONTINUES TO SHINE

Eamon Powell has quietly been playing some great hockey for BC for really the better part of two seasons now, but he’s hit another level recently. He actually matched Leonard’s scoring output from the weekend series with UMass by putting up five assists in the two games and his scoring in general has been way up recently. Powell has 14 points in his last eight games, which has bumped him all the way up to sixth on the team in scoring with 24 points, just enough to double up the next closest defenseman on the list.

More important than the raw point totals, however, has been just how consistent Powell looks every single night. Powell runs the point on the top unit of the third ranked power play in the country and he plays big minutes on the nation’s top ranked penalty kill. He’s been rock solid in his defensive zone all season and right now, he’s got so much confidence in his game that it’s easy to see on the ice. Look no farther than his gorgeous goal against Harvard for proof

BC’s defense as a whole has taken a massive step forward this season, and a lot of credit for that needs to go to the man who has been here the longest. Powell has been great all season for BC and his strong play has finally started to manifest itself on the scoresheet over the past few weeks, which can only be a good thing for the Eagles.

SPECIAL TEAMS CLICKING ON ALL CYLINDERS

This was mentioned earlier, but the special teams play from Boston College this season has probably been the team’s biggest strength.

For a while early on in the season, it seemed like BC was scoring at a good clip on the power play despite not looking all that great. They were just able to roll out so much talent that some pucks were going to hit the back of the net whether or not the structure of the power play was leading to success.

That is without a doubt no longer the case. When the Eagles get set up in the offensive zone now, the puck moves and the puck moves fast. There’s constant motion from players and you can see how many different options a puck handler has at any time. Gabe Perreault and Cutter Gauthier have been the main beneficiaries of this so far, with eight power play goals each, but seven different Eagles have scored at least twice on the power play. They have nine goals in 21 opportunities over their past five games and they look dangerous every single time they touch the ice. They’re up to third in the nation now and that feels right. It’s a ton of fun to watch this team when they go on the man advantage.

The penalty kill finally dropped just below 90 percent on the season, but they remain the best in the country, having conceded just 11 goals in 108 chances. This has been where the depth players have really showed up for BC. Players like Mike Posma and Jamie Armstrong haven’t been lighting up the scoreboard, but they make their impact felt in the toughest situations to play in. The whole team has a constant willingness to block shots and Jacob Fowler continues to look phenomenal in net as his freshman season continues. Special teams have been a massive strength all season for BC and there’s no real sign of that slowing down. It’s something that has won them games all season, and hopefully something that will win them games down the stretch.

ONE FINAL CLIP OF THE FRESHMEN

I mean come on

That’s as ridiculous of a pass as you can make and Ryan Leonard makes it so casually. These guys are a joy to watch.