By Gordon Weigers, news correspondent
The Northeastern men’s hockey team upset the five-time defending champion Boston College (BC) Eagles in the semifinals of the 2015 Beanpot at the TD Garden by a score of 3-2 on Tuesday night. The Huskies will advance to their third consecutive Beanpot finals where they will face the Boston University (BU) Terriers who came off of a double-overtime win against Harvard University in their Beanpot matchup.
The win was the first time NU beat BC in the Beanpot since the 2009 semifinals, also marking the last time that BC did not reach the finals.
A doubleheader night of hockey, Harvard and BU started at 5 p.m. The two teams went into overtime, so the Huskies and Eagles had to wait patiently in their respective locker rooms for a winner to be decided. Expecting the puck to drop at 8 p.m., the 9:35 p.m. actual start time put both teams at an unexpected disadvantage. Head Coach Jim Madigan had to make sure his team would be ready to play whenever the first game ended.
“We had guys putting equipment on, taking it off and then putting it back on,” Madigan said. “Some guys were throwing a football around the room to stay loose.”
Once the game finally began, it took a few minutes for each team to get going. The players soon picked up the pace and the hits piled up. Midway through the first period, freshman defenseman Garret Cockerill laid a massive hit on BC senior forward Cam Spiro on open ice. Late in the period, BC’s junior defenseman captain Michael Matheson drilled freshman forward Nolan Stevens in the corner. Matheson would receive a minor penalty for boarding and the Huskies began their first of six power plays of the night.
Shortly after Matheson’s penalty expired, BC freshman forward Alex Tuch was called for interference, which put Northeastern back on the power play with 1:11 left in the period. The Huskies couldn’t capitalize on the power play before the period ended and the teams went to the locker room tied at 0-0.
Northeastern began the second period still on the power play and it didn’t take them long to strike. Junior forward Kevin Roy sent a pass to the front of the net looking for junior forward Mike McMurtry. The puck went past McMurtry and right to junior defenseman Colton Saucerman. Saucerman didn’t hesitate and fired the puck past BC’s sophomore goalie Thatcher Demko. It was the fifth goal of the season for Saucerman.
Northeastern’s lead would evaporate four minutes later as BC sophomore forward Ryan Fitzgerald broke in behind Northeastern’s defense and deked out redshirt senior goalie Clay Witt. Witt made a remarkable left-pad save on the goal line. Senior forward Destry Straight followed Fitzgerald to the net and poked home the rebound to even the score at 1-1. The play was reviewed to see if Straight had kicked the puck in the net, but the goal stood.
After sophomore defenseman Steve Santini went to the penalty box for holding, NU was put on the power play again. In the final minute of the man advantage, sophomore forward Mike Szmatula fired a pass to sophomore forward John Stevens who sent a bullet into the top-corner of the net behind Demko. Sophomore forward Zach Aston-Reese provided a screen in front of Demko who had no sight of the Stevens rocket. It was the second goal of the season for Stevens and NU took a 2-1 lead. With under two minutes to play in the second period, Fitzgerald found himself on another breakaway for BC. This time, Fitzgerald popped a backhand shot over the shoulder of Witt to knot the score at 2-2.
The Huskies and the Eagles battled in the third period. In the final two minutes of the game, Roy sent the puck deep into BC’s zone, where it was picked up by sophomore forward Dalen Hedges. Hedges worked the puck back up the board to Roy, who slid it across to junior defenseman Dustin Darou. Darou snapped a quick wrist shot on goal that avoided the traffic in front of the net and got behind Demko to put NU ahead for good. Witt survived a flurry of BC shots in the final minute of play to preserve the 3-2 win.
“It’s one thing to beat BC, but to score the game-winning goal was really surreal for me,” Darou said.
It was only Darou’s second goal in a Husky uniform and it turned out to be the team’s biggest goal yet.
NU will take on the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Friday night in a regular season game before returning to TD Garden for the Beanpot finals against BU next Monday night, Feb. 9.
Photo by Brian Bae
For more photos, click here.
