LeClerc Named Finalist For Frozen Four Skills Event

Dec. 8, 2006

Yale senior defenseman Bill LeClerc has been named a finalist for the East squad at the NCAA Frozen Four Skills Competition. The skills challenge will be held April 6 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, the site of the NCAA Frozen Four.

LeClerc, who has three goals and nine points this season, is tied for second on the Elis for points and ranks third among conference defensemen with 1.0 points per game in league play. Last year he scored eight goals and had 16 points, coming within two goals of the school record for blueliners which was 10 by Dave Baseggio in 1988-89. LeClerc now has 13 career goals with 21 assists in 92 games.

Last year's Frozen Four at Milwaukee's Bradley Center hosted the first skills competition with the East taking a close contest broadcast live on ESPNU.

The schedule of events for "Friday Night at the Frozen Four" this year will include the presentation of the Hobey Baker Memorial Award at 6:00 p.m., the presentation of the Hockey Humanitarian Award at 6:35 p.m. and the NCAA Frozen Four Skills Challenge at 7:30 p.m. (shown live on ESPNU). The NCAA championship is scheduled for Saturday, April 7.

The Skills Challenge competition will be held in an East vs. West format with each team having six male position players, six female position players, two male goaltenders and two female goaltenders. The competitions will include puck control relay, fastest skater, hardest shot, rapid fire shooting, accuracy shooting and penalty shot.

The finalists were pared down from an original list of 181 student-athletes who were nominated by their head coaches. From this list, the selection committee, consisting of NCAA staff members, members of the NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Committee, representatives from the American Hockey Coaches Association, Nike Bauer Hockey and the six Division I men's ice hockey conferences, will select the 32 players that will compete in the event. All college players that will exhaust their eligibility this season were eligible to be nominated.

Yale women's hockey star Sheila Zingler was also named a finalist for the 2007 skills event.

report filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director