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After a week of built up anticipation and excitement, Northeastern’s hopes of ending the school’s quarter-century long Beanpot drought came up short Monday night at TD Garden.
The Huskies had their chances and will surely focus in on a trio of missed opportunities on the breakaway that could have tied and changed the outcome of the game.
Amidst the disappointment, freshman star Kevin Roy took home a well-deserved Beanpot MVP award, scoring five of the Huskies’ six goals in the tournament. He became the first player since 1973 to be able to count the number of goals he scored in the tournament with all five fingers.
While silver linings are tough to swallow at this level of competition, it needs to be said that the Huskies took on the No. 4 Boston College Eagles, one of the best teams in the country neck-and-neck deep into the third period without two of their top defenseman, Josh Manson and Drew Ellement. When things looked to be winding down as BC took a 4-1 lead, Northeastern battled right back to make it 4-3. The team, much like its massive fan section, did not give up when it looked all but over.
No more needs be written or said about the 2013 Beanpot championship. For far too long, Northeastern fans have hedged season after season on winning the tournament. Sacrilegious as it may sound, there is more to the season than the Beanpot. A truly successful and confident program will not call it quits after losing a two-game tournament (even if it has not won in 25 years).
The 2012-13 campaign is still far from over and this weekend the Huskies need to put the Beanpot in the rear view mirror and focus on the task at hand. Northeastern sits in 10th place in Hockey East (11 points), needing to move up to eighth to qualify for the playoffs.
This weekend has the potential to make or break Northeastern’s playoff chances. NU will take on the University of Vermont Catamounts on Friday and Saturday night at Matthews Arena. Vermont currently occupies the final playoff spot (14 points) for the Hockey East Tournament, three points ahead of Northeastern.
The Huskies thus have the potential to overthrow the Catamounts via two home victories for the final playoff spot in Hockey East. They will then play the University of Massachusetts-Amherst the following week and would have a chance to pull into a tie for seventh seed in the conference. The three upcoming bouts for NU will likely determine how far their season goes.
If Northeastern takes its level of intensity from the Beanpot to its remaining Hockey East schedule, it will be a tough team to beat. Not to mention, its standout freshman, Kevin Roy, shows no signs of slowing down.
The Huskies’ final opponents this season; Vermont, UMass, Providence College, University of Maine and Boston University are all beatable teams. With 18 Hockey East points left on the table and a tight playoff race, the season is not even close to being over.
Any team in the Hockey East Tournament has a chance. In 2010, eighth-seeded Vermont used a deep run to make it to the NCAA Tournament. No team this season, not even BC, has broken away from the rest of the group as overwhelmingly dominant.
The 2010-11 Huskies regrouped after a crushing 7-6 OT loss to BC in the Beanpot championship, defeating and then tying the Eagles later that same week. The squad would make it into the Hockey East playoffs and defeat Boston University in a first round series at Agganis Arena, earning a trip back to downtown Boston to face off again against BC.
Northeastern’s dreams of bringing the Beanpot back to Huntington Avenue can wait until Feb. 3, 2014 when the team opens the tournament against Harvard. Right now, there is still a season to make the most of. If the Huskies play their remaining competition at the level they played in the Beanpot, there could be a trip back to TD Garden in the future with a much bigger trophy at stake.
-Kwabena Stefan can be reached at [email protected]
