Blackwell’s five points propel Prep to Super 8 final

NORTH ANDOVER – Colin Blackwell did everything but carry St. John’s Prep’s equipment into Lawler Arena on Wednesday for the Super Eight semifinals. And with his performance, he took the Eagles to a new height.The Harvard-bound Blackwell put on one of the best individual performances of the season as he had a hat trick and figured on freshman Shane Eiserman’s two goals as the Eagles reached the 1A final for the first time with a 5-1 win over Weymouth.Click here for a photo gallery.MC will play St. John’s Prep on Sunday (6) in the title game at TD Garden.”I’ve become kind of accustomed to seeing Colin do things like that,” St. John’s coach Kristian Hanson said. “Colin is the best player in the state and maybe the best high school player I’ve ever been around.”That’s pretty high praise from a coach who had 63 points his senior season at the Prep – a record until Blackwell shattered it on Wednesday. The North Andover native now has 64 points heading into TD Garden on Sunday.”Colin is such a great player on the ice and a leader in the locker room,” Hanson said.The Eagles (18-5-1) were never really in trouble on Wednesday as Eiserman and Blackwell teamed to give the Prep a 1-0 lead just 4:42 in when the freshman was sprung on a breakaway against Weymouth’s Brian Brady.”Those two work so well together on the ice and Colin has kind of mentored Shane as the year has gone along,” Hanson said.Eiserman’s goal was the only damage in the first period before Blackwell skated through all five Wildcats and scored a shorthanded goal to make it 2-0 just 15 seconds into the second.From there, the Eagles were never in real danger.Blackwell got his second of the game and 31st of the season at 6:06 when he was sent in alone by Jon Farrow for a breakaway. In the final minute of the second, Eiserman got his second of the game on a power play off a perfect pass out of the corner by Blackwell.Weymouth made things interesting on the first shift of the third when Riley Flanagan snuck a shot past David LeTarte at the :16 mark. But Blackwell completed his hat trick in style by taking a Farrow pass and deking Brady out of his pads at 5:06.”We got the bounces (Wednesday) and Weymouth didn’t get a lot of them,” Hanson said.