The Boston College Eagles claimed the school’s twelfth Hockey East championship with a 6-2 win over rival Boston University on Saturday night. Capitals’ first-round pick Ryan Leonard notched two points in the game.
Leonard, along with fellow first-round NHL draft picks Will Smith, Gabe Perreault, and Cutter Gauthier, combined for 13 points (6g, 7a) in the championship-winning game. Smith, a San Jose Sharks prospect, scored four goals and capped off his hat trick after receiving a nice backhanded pass from Leonard in the slot.
The goal put the Eagles up 4-1 six minutes and forty-six seconds into the third period.
Leonard also helped set up New York Rangers prospect Gabe Perreault for a power-play goal four minutes and forty-six seconds later to make it 5-1.
BU’s superstar freshman Macklin Celebrini would score for the Terriers late in the game, but it proved to be too little, too late.
Leonard and the rest of the Eagles skated around TD Garden hoisting the Lamoriello Trophy, securing the tournament championship for their school for the first time since 2012.
Leonard ended up with six points (2g, 4a) in the three tournament games to give him 54 points (27g, 27a) in 37 games in his freshman campaign.
He was handed the trophy for his spin around the ice by Perreault and then gave it to defenseman Aram Minnetian on the way back.
With the win, Boston College has secured an automatic bid in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The selection show, which determines their seeding and the region that they play in, will occur after the NCAA Women’s Hockey National Championship on Sunday evening.
BC was already ranked as the nation’s number-one overall team coming into Saturday’s game so they will likely be the number-one overall seed in the tournament.
Leonard and his teammates will have a few days to prepare before the regionals portion of the tournament begins on March 28. The four teams that advance out of their regions will advance to the Frozen Four at St. Paul, Minnesota’s Xcel Energy Center from April 11-13, with the National Championship taking place on the final day.
After the postseason is over, Leonard will have the option to forego the rest of his college career and sign an entry-level contract with the Capitals. General manager Brian MacLellan recently said that he would leave that decision up to Leonard, although he also believes the young winger is already ready to make the leap to the pros.
