By: Jason Mastrodonato, News Staff
Each goal was celebrated as if it was the biggest one of the season, and at least for a few minutes, it seemed like it was.
The men’s hockey team put up six goals on No. 1 Boston College during Monday night’s Beanpot Tournament finale in front of a sold-out crowd of 17,565 at TD Garden, but let three leads slip away as the Eagles (22-6-0) outlasted NU (10-12-6) 7-6 in overtime.
Northeastern has now gone 23 years without winning the Beanpot, with the trophy last appearing on Huntington Avenue in 1988.
“This one hurts,” said senior forward Wade MacLeod, whose goal with 1:46 remaining in regulation temporarily gave the Huskies new life. “A lot more [than losing to BU in the finals two years ago] because we got it to overtime and we tied it up with a couple minutes left. We just couldn’t finish it off.”
The 59th Beanpot Championship was a game of constant back-and-forth action. The first half of the opening period appeared to be slow, but what followed was electric.
After freshman defenseman Luke Eibler tied the score at 1-1 in the first period, it wasn’t until late in the third that either team had the lead for more than three minutes.
“If someone told me it would be a 7-6 game, I would have been shocked,” said NU head coach Greg Cronin. “Obviously our guys to start the game were jittery. We have a young team. I think they were a little nervous at first and when Eibler got that goal on the power play, I think it helped.”
Freshman forward Brodie Reid scored a minute later, slapping a one-timer from MacLeod past BC goalie John Muse, who entered the game leading the country in save percentage (.935).
The Huskies opened the second period with a 2-1 lead, but it took 53 seconds for that to change, as Pat Mullane scored after a shot bounced off the boards behind NU’s net and came back out for an easy put-back to tie the game.
The Eagles were on the power play one minute later and appeared ready to strike again, but NU freshman forward Rob Dongara outskated two BC defensemen and converted a highlight-reel breakaway, as his falling body followed the puck into the net. The Huskies took a 3-2 lead off the shorthanded effort.
Two quick lead changes followed, and Reid notched his second score of the game nine minutes into the third period, putting the Huskies up 5-4.
The Eagles beat sophomore goaltender Chris Rawlings, who entered the game third in the country with a .934 save percentage, twice just two minutes later in the third to regain the lead.
But with 1:46 remaining in the game, senior forward Steve Silva out-muscled two BC defenders and dished a pass to MacLeod, who sniped a one-timer past Muse and sent the game into overtime.
“I told them [after the third period] they had a great opportunity and I was excited for them and excited to watch them respond,” Cronin said. “I wanted them to enjoy it.”
After two and a half periods of fast-paced hockey, the two squads appeared to be running out of gas during overtime. The Eagles outshot NU 46-27, including 6-0 in the final frame, eventually winning when forward Jimmy Hayes poked a rebound into a half-empty net.
“At the end of the day, the team that had the puck more won,” Cronin said. “They established a forecheck early in the overtime to get us on our heels and they finished us off doing what they do better than anyone in the country, and that’s playing one heck of a transition game.”
BC picked up its third championship in four years, and now has 16 titles in the tournament’s history, second to Boston University’s 29. Northeastern has four, but coach Jerry York said he believes the Huskies will be a contender in the Beanpot for years to come.
“You have to throw records out,” said York, whose Eagles have played for the tournament title in 10 of the last 16 seasons. “If you just picked up the paper and saw the win-loss records of both teams, you’d think this is going to be a relatively easy game. But they have really become a very, very good hockey team.”
Three days prior to the Beanpot finale, the Huskies scratched out a 3-2 overtime win against last-place University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Junior forward Mike McLaughlin carried his momentum over from the opening round Beanpot win against Harvard, scoring a shorthanded goal with less than three minutes remaining to force overtime.
With 14 seconds left in OT, freshman forward Jamie Oleksiak sent a wrister in just inside of the post to send the Huskies home with some momentum.
“That was one of those ugly games and we’re blessed to come out of it with a win,” Cronin said. “You try and minimize the impact of the Beanpot on these games but every year, I’ve done this, and it’s obviously magnified by the championship game. So it’s an issue of us getting them focused and we looked kind of off-sync a bit.”
Northeastern enters the heart of its Hockey East schedule with a home-and-home series with Boston College this weekend. The Huskies are on the road Friday night, but return to Matthews Arena at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
“We know we can play with the number-one team in the country,” MacLeod said. “I think that’s what we can take out of this game.”
