Heading into Thursday, the 20-year-old centre from St. John’s shared the QMJHL scoring lead with Maxime Fortier of the Halifax Mooseheads (who played Thursday night).
Each has 69 points, Boland’s coming on 34 goals — second in the league only to the 36 scored by Giovanni Fiore of Cape Breton — and 35 assists.
Boland has been putting up points regularly in his 45 games since the start of the season, but his output since the beginning of December has been remarkable, registering an almost two points-per-game pace. He has 17 goals and 17 assists in his last 18 games, including scoring all four of the Océanic’s tallies in a 4-3 win over the Chicoutimi Saguenéens Tuesday night, a result that helped keep the Rimouski in playoff position.
Perhaps just as noteworthy about Boland’s hot stretch is that it has seen him go from a minus-eight player entering December to a plus-nine rating today.
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Boland isn’t the only player from metro St. John’s topping an eastern Canadian junior league in scoring this week.
Kyle Tibbo of Conception Bay South, a forward with the Truro Bearcats of the Maritime Hockey League, topped the junior A circuit with 30 goals and was tied for the league lead in points (56) heading into a Thursday-night road game against the Summerside Western Capitals.
Truro (21-9-1-1) headed into Thursday tied with Yarmouth for second overall in the MHL’s Eastlink Division with 44 points and trailing the league-leading Pictou County Crushers by just four points.
Both the 20-year-old Tibbo, who played in the QMJHL the last two seasons (with Moncton and Victoriaville), and Boland are in their last years of junior eligibility and both have formal leadership roles with their clubs — Tibbo is the Bearcats’ captain and Boland wears an ‘A’ for the Océanic.
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The last two Wednesdays have been memorable for Alex Wall.
On Jan. 11, the 26-year-old defenceman from St. John’s, played his first-ever American Hockey League game when he suited up with the Utica Comets in a win over the Syracuse Crunch.
After being released from his tryout contract with Utica, Wall returned to the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder — his regular team — and exactly a week after his AHL debut, skated in the ECHL all-star game. That showcase used an old-style format, one which saw the host Thunder take on a team of all-stars from the rest of the league.
Wall had an assist as the Thunder fell 8-7 in the game.