The Boston College men’s hockey team has won three straight and four of its last five to help push into the NCAA tournament as we now have just four games left in the regular season. Things have been going well for the most part, and the team’s recent sweep of a two-game series against UConn has them on the right side of the tournament bubble as things stand. With a big series against BU coming up, let’s take a look at some of what’s been happening for the Eagles as they look to solidify their postseason status.
THE POWER PLAY IS COMING IN A BIG TIME
BC’s power play has been a huge part of their success this season. After a down year in 2024-25 when they converted on less than 18 percent of their chances, the Eagles are sixth in the NCAA this year and atop Hockey East with a 28 percent success rate. They have 28 goals so far with a human advantage and they are scoring them in great moments. James Hagens scored the eventual game-winner Friday night with a power-play goal and the team combined for three a few weeks ago to help win the Beanpot against BU. In some ways, this felt like a weakness last season despite the presence of Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault, so it’s impressive that the team has improved to such a degree.
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A big reason for the improvement has undoubtedly been the addition of Ryan Conmy to the team. Conmy has four power-play goals on the season (well, third-most on the team) but has recently made his presence felt more as a distributor. Take a look at his assist on Dean Letourneau’s power play goal from Saturday afternoon for an example of that.
The puck goes in and out of Conmy’s stick and into Letourneau’s stick almost immediately. It gives Dean the extra time he needs to make a perfect shot and set things right. And then there’s his pass to prepare Hagens for the aforementioned winner on Friday night.
A perfect cross-ice pass right in the wheelhouse for Hagens to get a one-time shot home. Those are the kind of quick passing plays that make a power play successful, and BC has certainly been making the most of its man advantages lately.
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ANDRE GASSEAU REMAINS ON FIRE
Andre Gasseau has been in full swing since returning from injury in January and is playing the best hockey of his college career. The senior forward is already sixth on the team in scoring despite playing in just 17 of 30 games and is breaking a point-per-game pace for the first time in his career. He has played 12 games since rejoining the lineup on Jan. 16 and has at least one point in 10 of those games. Five of those games have been multi-point games and he had a three-assist night on Friday in the team’s 5-2 win against UConn.
Gasseau has primarily been skating on the team’s top line with James Hagens and Oscar Hemming lately and that trio has looked fantastic in basically all of their minutes. They may not be as dominant a trio as some of the better lines we’ve seen from BC in recent years, but they’re clicking on all cylinders right now and as we approach the end of the season, that’s all you can really ask for. And it’s good to see this type of success for Gasseau in particular, who has been an extremely solid and reliable player basically since he stepped on the ice in his first season. Now he stands out more on an individual level and makes plays like this to help close out games in overtime:
That’s a great play from start to finish by Gasseau. Basically a start-to-finish run that includes burning a UConn defender, he gets stopped on his opportunity from close range, but is able to retrieve the loose puck and quickly make a difficult pass on the tape to Lukas Gustafsson, who gets the winner with a nice shot. Gasseau has been a big part of the team’s success these past few months and it’s great to see him play so well after missing some time mid-season.
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JAKE SONDREAL COOLING DOWN
It’s a little disappointing, but Jake Sondreal has really settled down after a great start to his second season. That’s not to say he’s been bad, he’s still quite noticeable on the ice and he’s certainly had some moments in recent weeks, but the scoring numbers are down quite a bit. After scoring 19 points through the end of December, Sondreal has just one goal and one assist in his last 12 games and no points in his last seven.
Again, that’s not to say he’s been playing poorly at any point and his season total of 21 points in 30 games is already a big step in the right direction after scoring just six in 36 games last year. And perhaps it’s not entirely surprising since their slump coincided with Gasseau’s return to the lineup and Oscar Hemming’s addition to the team. He’s playing a deeper role now than he did in October and November, when he appeared in the top six. But two points from 12 games is more than a slight drop in pace from the first half of the season and they haven’t scored a goal since January 23. He’s struggling a little bit right now and that’s not the end of the world, especially since the team has been playing well around him. It would be nice to see him rediscover some of that scoring touch he had a few months ago, because for a while he looked like a really solid player.