By Jill Saftel, News Staff
After 25 years without a Beanpot win, Northeastern will have to wait one more as the Huskies fell to the Boston College Eagles, 6-3, in the Beanpot final Monday night. For the Eagles, it marks the fourth consecutive Beanpot championship, and the team’s seniors have won the tournament every year in their collegiate careers.
“They’re just too good of a team to give goals to,” head coach Jim Madigan said of the Eagles. “They’re too good to not convert on opportunities, and they did.”
The Eagles got off to a hot offensive start, holding onto the puck and generating some sustained offensive pressure in the Northeastern zone for the first minute and a half, until Northeastern captain Vinny Saponari took off with a breakaway. He shot high and wide, and BC regained control of the puck.
On that possession, the puck ended up in the Northeastern net after a scrum in front of Rawlings, but the officials had already blown the whistle. The play was reviewed, but remained a no goal.
BC had a power play chance when freshman Kevin Roy went off for slashing at 4:19. Saponari came up big in the penalty kill, clearing it off the opening face off and then again as the final seconds of the power play ticked off to keep it scoreless.
The Huskies went on their own power play chance when BC’s junior forward Bill Arnold was called for obstruction interference, but the Eagles came up with a kill of their own. Right off the penalty, BC caused another scuffle in front of Rawlings, who stuck his leg out by the goal post to avoid a BC goal. The Eagles were relentless and peppered Rawlings with rebound chances, but he held them off.
Northeastern’s best chance in the first period came when Roy fed senior forward Garrett Vermeersch the puck from behind the net. Vermeersch had a clear shot on Milner, but the Eagles’ goaltender came up with the save.
After a scoreless first period, senior forward Pat Mullane caused a scare for the Huskies when he rang one off the crossbar and it deflected down and out. It was the third rang post for BC on the night, the Eagles coming just close enough each time.
Eventually, things clicked for BC and when they did, the Eagles took advantage. Arnold got on the board first, taking a feed from Kevin Hayes after senior forward Steve Whitney took it into the Northeastern zone at 10:53 in the second period. Sophomore forward Johnny Gaudreau followed that up with one of his own to give the Eagles the 2-0 lead just one minute and 15 seconds after Arnold’s goal. The Eagles had taken just three shots in the second period and come up with goals on two.
Trailing by two, the Huskies got themselves on the board thanks to Roy, who scored his fourth goal of the tournament, getting one under Milner’s legs with 4:56 left in the middle frame. It looked like he might tie it up moments later on a breakaway, but was stopped by the Eagles’ goaltender.
BC countered with another goal as junior forward Patrick Brown deflected a shot from junior defenseman Isaac MacLeod with 1:23 left in the second to make it 3-1 Eagles. The Eagles’ offensive onslaught continued as the Huskies faltered defensively, and as final seconds of the second period ticked off Whitney beat Rawlings for the 4-1 lead.
The Huskies came out to play in the third period, Roy notching his fifth of the tournament with an assist Vermeersch and Saponari 11 seconds into the final frame to cut the Eagles’ lead to 4-2. Roy’s five goals would be good for Beanpot MVP, the first MVP from a losing team since 2004 and the first Northeastern MVP since 1988.
The Huskies then got some help from a power play and a Saponari shot was deflected off junior forward Braden Pimm’s leg to make it 4-3 at 3:56 in the final period.
As the Huskies spent the next 10 minutes searching for the equalizer, Gaudreau struck again to put the lead further out of Northeastern’s reach with an assist from Whitney. An empty netter from Mullane sealed it with just under 1:30 to play, making it 6-3 BC.
“I said to our seniors that I’m proud of the way they played and how hard they worked and that I felt sorry for them that they didn’t get the opportunity to experience a Beanpot championship,” Madigan said.
The Huskies return to the ice Friday night for a two-game home series against the University of Vermont.
