Three things we learned Monday at TD Garden as the 61st Beanpot tournament got underway:
1) History doesn’t always repeat itself
It had been 25 years since Northeastern had beaten Boston University in the Beanpot and the Huskies snapped a 15-game losing streak against the Terriers in the tournament with a shocking 3-2 win on Monday night.
It wasn’t a fluke either with freshman forward Kevin Roy netting a hat trick and Northeastern’s penalty kill flawless. The Huskies held BU to a Bruins-esque 0-for-6 on the power play. The turning point of the game was the two-man advantage for 1:56 in the second period when BU couldn’t score and Northeastern was nursing a slim 2-1 lead. In fact, right after the Huskies killed that, they were whistled for another penalty that carried over until the third period but they squelched that as well. Huskies head coach Jim Madigan picked up his first career Beanpot win (he had been 0-2) which had to possess some extra meaning for him since he also played for Northeastern (Class of 1986) when they went to the final three out of four times and won it all twice. Madigan said his team is only focusing on themselves and not the past although “I want them to see what that’s like too.”
2) BU seniors never won a Beanpot in their four years on Comm Avenue
For a team that has captured 29 of the 61 Beanpots all-time, it has been a long four years for BU. That much was evident on the face of senior captain and forward Wade Megan who was quite emotional in the postgame press conference.
“I wanted to win this so bad for my teammates, classmates and school,” Megan said.
The Terriers’ last Beanpot title was in 2009 when they beat Northeastern 5-2. Since then, they lost 4-3 to BC in the 2010 final; went 0-2 in 2011; lost 3-2 to BC in the final last season and then were upset by Northeastern on Monday. Next Monday vs. Harvard in the consolation game (4:30 p.m.) will only be for team pride but you can be sure that they really don’t want to go 0 for 2 twice in three seasons.
“I feel bad for my team, especially my captain here (Megan), that they won’t get to experience winning a Beanpot,” admitted Parker.
3) BC tries to extend their Beanpot dynasty next Monday
While things are tough over at BU, their main rival BC hasn’t experienced a better stretch of Beanpots as they go for their fourth straight title (something that has never happened before in program history) next Monday (7:30 p.m.) against Northeastern after a 4–1 win over Harvard.
BC head coach Jerry York claimed “there is no magic formula (to the past four years) but it helps when you have talented players that look forward to Mondays in February.”
The Eagles used to be built for the NCAA tournament but they would routinely fall short in the Beanpot, usually against the Terriers. That has certainly changed thanks to a deep roster that seems to reload every season rather than rebuild. To that point, the offensive star of the game for the Eagles was sophomore Quinn Smith. The fourth liner had a career-high two goals which gave BC a 2-0 lead late in the second period.
