Flames' Prospect Johnny Gaudreau Pilots Boston College to Hockey East Crown

Precisely 11 years ago Saturday night, a Boston College freshman by the name of Chuck Kobasew garnered the Hockey East tournament MVP laurel.

Within three months, Kobasew would be drafted in the first round by the NHL’s Calgary Flames and established himself in the professional circuit within two seasons. He debuted with the parent club on Oct. 10, 2002, saw action in 23 games as a rookie and was a full-timer by the end of the 2004-05 lockout.

Could old patterns be recycling themselves between Chestnut Hill and Calgary?

We know this much: On this weekend of March 16-17, 2012, the BC Eagles are conference champions once more, and yet again, owe it heavily to the contributions of a rookie who is also on Calgary’s radar.

Johnny Gaudreau single-handedly outscored the Maine Black Bears, 2-0, within the first 20 minutes of Saturday night’s Hockey East championship game. It would ultimately be all the Boston College Eagles needed to ice an eventual 4-1 triumph for the school’s record third straight conference crown and 11th Hockey East pennant overall.

The pint-sized freshman winger, who ranks 10th among all Flames prospects on hockeysfuture.com, has prognosticators banking on a Martin St. Louis type of trek to the NHL. But throughout the weekend, Gaudreau also flaunted flashes of Ryan Smyth en route to a 3-1-4 scoring log over two games, including a game-winning power-play strike in both the semifinal and final.

In Friday’s 4-2 victory over Providence, Gaudreau converted the game’s first power play a mere 13 seconds into the special teams’ segment at 3:58 of the second period. Absorbing a downward feed from Paul Carey along the far wall, he deftly darted to the slot and lured Friars’ goaltender Alex Beaudry out of his crease and onto his porch.

With Beaudry out of position and screened by towering defenseman Kevin Hart, Gaudreau patiently utilized his time and space before inserting a superficially easy strike. This restored a one-goal lead that had been temporarily lost to the Cinderella Friars in the previous frame and set the top-dog Eagles back on their expected winning pace.

Roughly 26 hours later, after pumping in the icebreaker from within intimate distance of Maine stopper Dan Sullivan, Gaudreau again ended the night’s first power play with no hesitation. When the puck dropped after the Black Bears’ Joey Diamond was cited for interference, Gaudreau parked himself in the slot and gave himself easy access to a vulnerable Chris Kreider rebound.

As the puck ricocheted off Sullivan’s left boot and converged with his blade, Gaudreau slickly switched to his backhand and spooned home his second strike, giving Diamond unwanted parole after only nine seconds of penalty time.

Gaudreau subsequently garnered the primary assist on the Eagles’ first of two insurance tallies with 1:21 to spare in the second period. He alertly and keenly swooped behind the Maine cage to pick up Carey’s drop pass and centered it from behind to Pat Mullane for a one-time tap-in.

BC’s triumph extended its program record-winning streak to 15 games, in which time Gaudreau has appeared on 13 scoresheets, garnered both the Beanpot and Hockey East tournament MVP award and totaled 11 goals and 21 points. He has had a hand in five of the last 13 game-winning goals and pitched in to half of the Eagles’ output during their two-night stay at TD Garden.

In addition, BC is 22-3-0 on the year when Gaudreau logs at least one point and 7-7-1 when he's held scoreless.

At only 150 lbs., Gaudreau could probably stand to shore up his physique and take at least one more year at Chestnut Hill to put a stamp on his long-term value.

Considering he was chosen in the middle of the fourth round at last spring’s NHL draft, the Flames are likely in no rush to phase him into their system. But he's hardly taking any undue breaks or hesitating to make an impression in the collegiate ranks.