WAKEFIELD, Mass. – Senior
Stefanos Lekkas, junior
Ace Cowans, and freshman
Jacques Bouquot swept the final Hockey East weekly awards of the calendar year following the 2019 Catamount Cup.
Lekkas earned defensive player of the week honors, Cowans earned player of the week honors, and Bouquot picked up rookie of the week honors.
RELATED LINKS
Hockey East Release
CatamounTV Highlights: Union | Lake Superior
Lekkas posted a 26-save shutout in Vermont's 2-0 win over Union to open the Catamount Cup. He followed that performance with a 31-save shutout in a 2-0 win over Lake Superior State to win the holiday tournament. It marked the first time a Vermont goalie has posted back-to-back shutouts since Rob Madore '12 blanked New Hampshire in consecutive games in the 2010 Hockey East quarterfinal round.
The senior netminder also passed Madore for second most saves in program history against Union. Lekkas currently has 3,391 career saves, only trailing UVM's all-time leader, Tim Thomas '97 (3,950).
Lekkas is just one of seven NCAA goalies with three or more shutouts in 2019-20. With six shutouts in his career, Lekkas ranks fifth in program history.
Cowans earns conference player of the week honors for the first time in his career after a two goal and three-point weekend in the 2019 Catamount Cup. The Beverly, Massachusetts native netted the game-winning goal against both Union and Lake Superior and had a plus-3 rating.
The junior leads the team in goals (5) and is tied for the team lead in points (9) with Bouquot.
Bouquot picks up his first career weekly honor after scoring a goal and adding two assists in Vermont's consecutive 2-0 wins over Union and Lake Superior State. The South Windsor, Connecticut native assisted on both game-winning goals scored by Cowans and added the empty-net insurance goal against Union.
Bouquot finished the weekend with a plus-3 rating. He is tied for the team lead in points with Cowans and leads the team with seven assists and a plus-5 rating.
Lekkas earned Catamount Cup MVP honors and earned a spot on the All-Tournament team along with Cowans.
The awards sweep marks the first time one Hockey East team has garnered all three accolades in the regular season since Vermont did on December 21, 2010. However, UVM was the lone Hockey East school competing that weekend.
The Catamounts return to Hockey East conference play with a single game at No. 4/5 Boston College (11-4-0, 5-2-0 HEA) this Saturday (Jan. 4). The game is slated to begin at 4:30 p.m. at Conte Forum and will broadcast on NESN.
Handy Toyota is the presenting sponsor of the 2019-20 men's hockey season
