By Nate Owen, News Staff

‘ ‘ ‘ Even though it’s been three days since Northeastern lost to Boston University in the Beanpot championship game, many fans might still be mourning the team’s loss, which ensured the Huskies will have to wait another year to end their tournament drought.
Just don’t count head coach Greg Cronin among the mourners.
Even while talking about the team’s loss during the post-game press conference Monday, his mind was already on Northeastern’s upcoming weekend series with Hockey East foe Massachusetts.
‘It’s a game,’ he said. ‘It’s over, it’s done. I’m not worried, I’ve got no afterglow. I’m already thinking about UMass [this weekend]. I was thinking about UMass 20 minutes ago.’
This season is different. In the not-so-distant past, a Beanpot victory would have been a season highlight for Northeastern. But right now the team has much bigger aspirations that won’t be deterred by what can be considered in crude terms as a non-conference loss.
‘I think the maturity that our seniors possess will give us that mental toughness to get through this,’ Cronin said.
And the Terriers? Well, they’ve got bigger things on their minds, too.’
One of which might be catching the first place Huskies. While Boston University is ranked No. 1 in the USCHO.com/CBS Sports national poll, they trail third-ranked Northeastern for first in Hockey East by two points.
‘We’re not going to dwell on this,’ Terrier forward and Beanpot MVP Nick Bonino said. ‘It was a great win and we’re going to celebrate and be happy, but we’re going to come to practice looking at Maine and looking forward to the weekend up there.’
For BU head coach Jack Parker, the game offered a preview of what should be an exciting stretch run and postseason for both squads.
‘It was a great college hockey game by two very good college hockey teams,’ he said. ‘Two teams that are going to be battling each other in two weeks and battling each other at the end of the season in Hockey East and hopefully battling each other in the NCAA tournament.’
If Parker and the Terriers hope to catch the Huskies atop the conference, it’s a matter of keeping the win in perspective.’
‘Don’t get too full of yourselves because you’ve won an in-season tournament,’ Parker said. ‘We’ve won three in-season tournaments, obviously the biggest of which is the Beanpot, which is nice. It doesn’t have anything to do with how we’ll play Northeastern two weeks from now or how we’ll play up in Maine this weekend. It’s a nice feather in our cap, it was available and we won. What’s next?’