Boston College freshman Ryan Leonard has earned more recognition for his play this season.
The Washington Capitals’ top prospect is riding a seven-game point streak, finding the scoresheet in every game since returning from winning a gold medal with Team USA at the World Junior Championship. His latest exploits came against BC’s biggest rivals, Boston University, in a two-game, home-and-home series this past week.
In the two games, Leonard totaled three points (1g, 2a), helping BC sweep the series and move to first place in the Hockey East standings. For his efforts, the conference awarded him with rookie of the week honors.
Leonard, Fowler recognized with Hockey East weekly awards after Eagles' standout weekend.
📝 https://t.co/H2mkiOcBS1 pic.twitter.com/LCpQEqunOl
— BC Men's Hockey (@BC_MHockey) January 29, 2024
Leonard kicked off the scoring in BC’s first victory, firing a pinpoint wrister by goaltender Mathieu Caron. He added an assist in that game on Gabe Perreault’s goal after doing the dirty work in the Eagles’ defensive zone.
The 19-year-old winger then chipped in a sweet primary assist in the second win. He slid a backhand drop pass to Cutter Gauthier for BC’s third goal in that contest and then taunted the hostile BU home crowd.
With the two Green Line Rivalry wins, BC moved up to number one ranked in the NCAA. Two polls are used to determine rankings in college hockey and the Eagles are first in both. They garnered 47 of the 50 first-place votes in the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports poll and all 34 first-place votes in the USA Hockey/The Rink Live poll.
This week’s https://t.co/2QgdyNoa0Z Division I Men’s Hockey Poll is here! pic.twitter.com/QbrKEAiAl4
— USCHO.com (@USCHO) January 29, 2024
Leonard now has 29 points (13g, 16a) in 23 games in his freshman season. His line, featuring fellow gold medal winners Gabe Perreault and Will Smith, has combined for 33 points in six games since returning from the World Juniors.
The rookie of the week recognition isn’t Leonard’s first of the year. He has already claimed player of the week and rookie of the month honors back in November before eventually departing for the World Juniors.
