First they knocked off Boston College, adhering to unwritten university policy that once the Beanpot rolls around, there is no room for failure, whether or not the opponent is the number one ranked team in the nation.
In the Beanpot finals, the situation was different. Northeastern, the only unranked team in the tournament, was the only impediment left for the Boston University Terriers and its proud, and nearly yearly ritual, of Beanpot success.
“I think it’s just something that’s part of the school, it’s tradition,” said BU senior defenseman Bryan Miller, “It seems like the Beanpot belongs to BU.”
The same compulsion that pushed the Terriers (18-10-2) to a 3-1 win over BC in the first round, was matched by a championship-driven Husky (12-14-4) team on Monday night at the FleetCenter. Despite a valiant effort that saw NU push the game deep into overtime, BU was still able to hoist its 26th Beanpot Championship in the 53 years of the storied contest on a rebound shot from freshman Chris Bourque for a 3-2 victory.
For 60 minutes BU coach Jack Parker, the coach responsible for 18 of the trophies that Commonwealth Avenue calls its own, and a 30-plus year mastermind of 710 victories, wasn’t quite sure how to group his team together against a rushing Husky offense.
“I didn’t know how to get them out of it, I didn’t want to make them more nervous,” the coach said of his team’s play, which saw the Terriers fall behind a whopping 30 in total shots attempted, 82-52, after three frames.
“I’ll give you the same comments I just gave my team,” Parker said. “I think we really dodged a bullet. For 60 minutes, I think we really got outplayed. I thought we got outplayed because we were trying too hard not to lose. We were jumpy with the puck, and we almost reverted back to the way we were playing in early January; we were really uptight with the puck.”
Northeastern coach Bruce Crowder saw his team fall behind 2-0, only to continually press the Terrier defense. Behind defenseman Jon Awe’s first goal of the season midway through the second, and Jared Mudryk’s game-tying goal with just over two minutes left in regulation, the Huskies were within grasp of their first Beanpot victory skate since 1988.
Netminder Keni Gibson, who soon after Bourque’s tournament-ending goal was handed the Eberly Award as the Beanpot’s goaltender with the highest save percentage, stopped 11 in overtime and 26 overall, while preventing a loss numerous times before the game-winning goal.
“He left it all out there, like all of our seniors,” Crowder said. “For Jay Guerriero, and [Donny] Grover and Awe, Timmy Judy, it’s devastating. We knew we’d been playing well and had a good chance to win this hockey game and they didn’t quit. There’s no reason those guys can’t go out of here with their heads as high as possible.”
With 2:05 remaining in the third period, and just when it seemed BU would be able to hold a 2-1 lead for good, the Huskies found the net in dramatic fashion.
From the right point, senior defenseman Tim Judy was able to fire one in at BU goaltender John Curry. Curry blocked the attempt, but unbeknownst to the sophomore, the puck was laying on the ice right next to him. Mudryk then rushed in and pushed the puck forward to tie the score.
For Parker, Mudryk’s goal didn’t just set the table for the overtime period, but may have justified a Terrier win.
“I thought we were going to win it 2-1, and if we had won it 2-1, we probably didn’t deserve to win,” he said. “If they didn’t get the goal in the last two minutes, we probably didn’t deserve to win.”
Curry, returning from an injury that sidelined him since Jan. 27, held the Huskies scoreless through a period and a half, and allowed just two in three periods despite his team being outshot, 31-18.
“I thought [Curry] played real well the whole game. He gave us the same type of first period that we got from him over at Northeastern [3-1 BU win Jan. 7],” Parker said. “In general, I was concerned about the way things were going, but real confident in the way Curry was playing. I was thinking about the fatigue factor, because he hadn’t played in a while, but he played real well into overtime.”
BU took the initial 2-0 lead on two quick plays. First, at the 6:45 mark, Miller intercepted a pass on the Husky defensive end and rushed in from the blue line to blow one past Gibson for a shorthanded tally.
Then at 15:32, Brian McConnell stood near the blue line and fired one in that passed a set of Huskies and Gibson.
“They wrist one from the blue line and it goes in and scores, they get a shorthanded opportunity that our guy kind of had his head down on, intercepts it in the neutral zone and goes down and scores,” Crowder explained. “We made two glaring mistakes in that first period, but for the next 40 minutes plus overtime, our kids stayed pretty steadfast.”
In the overtime period, BU began to attack on the offensive end. John Laliberte was able to pass the puck from the corner, setting up a Brad Zancanaro attempt that Gibson stood ready for.
Then minutes later, Zancanaro stopped near the slot and backhanded one between two Husky defensemen that Gibson blocked again.
It was a final rush by Miller, however, that sealed the fate of both teams. Skating up on the left side after finding some breathing room, Miller was able to rush up the ice, and attempted a shot on net that rebounded in front.
Bourque saw the puck and the net, and a backhanded attempt sailed into the goal for the game-winner.
“The Beanpot was one of the main reasons I came to BU,” said Bourque, who followed his Hall-of-Fame father Ray’s practice of game-winners on the FleetCenter ice, as the former Bruin ended the 1996 NHL All-Star Game with a game-winner. “It was an unbelievable experience these first two games here in my first year, and scoring the goal to win it isn’t a bad feeling either.”
Awe finally ended the Husky drought when he was found wide-open near the Terrier right face-off circle. A falling Guerriero executed a pass to Mike Morris, who then saw Awe waiting at the other end of the ice.
Awe then fired it to the upper right corner of the net past Curry to cut the BU lead to one.
“NU certainly deserved a better fate,” Parker said. “They had a hell of a game; Gibson had a hell of a game.”