HAMDEN, Conn. – Quinnipiac University men’s ice hockey senior Bryan Leitch (Coquitlam, B.C.) has been named the ECAC Hockey Player of the Week.
The senior wing is the first two-time ECAC Hockey Player of the Week this season, and the first since Colgate’s Jesse Winchester last season to win the award twice. He joins St. Lawrence’s Kyle Rank, Clarkson’s Steve Zalewski and Winchester as the only players to win the award twice in one season.
Quinnipiac has now had a player take home an ECAC Hockey award in four of the six weeks this season. Leitch entered the weekend without a goal scored in eight games, but led the team in assists with six.
Against Union, Leitch tallied the first hat trick of his career while also assisting on two more goals. While Leitch accomplished the same feat in an exhibition win over Prince Edward Island – which earned him his first ECAC Hockey Player of the Week nod of the season- he had never scored three goals in a game before.
His five points matched his previous career high, set at Brown on March 7, 2007. Leitch followed his three-goal, two-assist performance against the Dutchmen with a two-assist game against RPI on Saturday night, helping the Bobcats to a 5-1 win. He joins teammate Brandon Wong as the only two players in the Bobcats’ lineup with back-to-back multiple point games and the only Quinnipiac skater to do so twice this year.
Leitch now has three goals and an ECAC Hockey-best 10 assists for a league leading 13 points. His 44 career goals are tied for 13th in Quinnipiac’s Division I history and 21st all-time. His 79 assists put him in 5th place at the DI level and tied for 12th place all-time. Leitch’s 123 career points also rank 9th among all Division I Bobcats and tied for 15th in Quinnipiac history.
Quinnipiac returns to action this weekend when it heads to Clarkson and St. Lawrence on Friday, Nov. 21 and Saturday, Nov. 22, respectively. Both ECAC Hockey match-ups are set for 7 p.m. starts.
