By: Jason Mastrodonato, News Staff
The Beanpot has been a sour subject for Northeastern fans, students, and alumni for the past 23 years.
While NU’s rival, Boston University, has bathed in Beanpot success over three decades, reaching the tournament championship game in 26 of the past 28 seasons, the Huskies have been left splashing around in the kiddie pool.
Northeastern hasn’t won the tournament since 1988, and has played for the title five times in 23 tries since then, including a heartbreaking loss to BU in 2009, when the Huskies were within one until two shorthanded goals for the Terriers once again sent Northeastern back to the bottom of the Beanpot foursome.
“Unfortunately, those were the memories for a lot of Northeastern people over the last 20 years,” Northeastern head coach Greg Cronin said. “The near misses.”
But after a decisive 4-0 victory over Harvard in Monday night’s Beanpot opener at TD Garden, the Huskies will return to the title game, looking to build on its tournament-worst four championships. They’ll take on No. 1-ranked Boston College, which needed overtime to skate to a 3-2 victory over BU, Monday night in the Beanpot finale.
“Guys like Tyler [McNeely] and Wade [MacLeod] and all the rest of the team, it was in their minds,’’ sophomore goaltender Chris Rawlings said. “But that was in the past. Now it’s completely different. We’re not too worried about what happened in the Beanpot years ago. It’s a new year and we’re going out and playing.”
Harvard (4-18-0) put pressure on Rawlings early, ripping off 17 first-period shots, and nearly beating him on several rebound chances.
But Rawlings was resistant, stopping 41 shots on the way to his fourth shutout in five games.
“I thought it would be a low scoring game, and [Harvard] threw a lot of pucks to the net and we knew that [would happen],” Cronin said. “I thought our defense did a good job clearing out the front. And [Rawlings] was terrific.”
Junior forward Mike McLoughlin got the scoring started for the Huskies, cutting through two Crimson defensemen before beating Harvard goalie Ryan Carroll in the first period. McLoughlin scored again in the second, when his shot took a bizarre bounce of Carroll that went air-bound before landing behind the goaltender and giving NU the 2-0 lead.
“I’d been telling myself a lot lately to shoot the puck more, particularly this year because last year I didn’t have a lot of luck,’’ McLaughlin said. “I seemed to hit a lot of posts and miss the net, so this year I’ve just been telling myself to shoot the puck, and I saw a lane and it just bounced off the goalie and went straight in the air.”
Senior forward Steve Silva and freshman forward Brodie Reid also scored for Northeastern, which improved to 9-11-6 overall.
“I didn’t know a lot about the Beanpot when I came here,” McLaughlin said, a native of Ontario, Canada. “But it’s nice to contribute and get one step closer to getting another title.”
News Staff Photos / Laura Pond
