In case you missed it, the 61st annual Beanpot kicked off Monday night in the city I call home.

Northeastern defeated Boston University in the tournament for the first time in 25 years. Boston College defeated a fledgling Harvard team without any trouble, receiving a pair of goals from grinder Quinn Smith. The games set up next Monday’s matchups with BU and Harvard playing the consolation game, and Northeastern and BC battling for a Beanpot championship.

The storylines for each club couldn’t be more starkly contrasted. BC is looking for its fourth straight Beanpot title, a feat the program has never accomplished. Northeastern, on the other hand, seeks its first tournament championship since 1988. None of the players on Northeastern’s roster were born the last time the club won the tournament. Despite the dominance of BU and BC in the last two-plus decades, it’s shocking, really, that 25 years could pass without Northeastern winning. The fact that it’s now 20 years without a championship from Harvard is equally astounding.

The “Harvard is all about academics argument” doesn’t hold water in regard to hockey, since its one of the few sports an Ivy League school can still attract top talent in. Similarly, Northeastern’s problems are strange given the improving talent level on St. Botolph Street. Even with their struggles in Hockey East in the last four seasons, the Huskies’ roster features several high-end players.

Watching the two games last night really made the last 20 tournaments even stranger than I already thought they were. There are countless examples of a lesser opponents beating a better team during college hockey’s regular season and even into the regional and national playoffs. Never in the Beanpot, though. BC and Northeastern will play for the tournament championship next Monday, and history tells us the game is in the bag for the Eagles. As does the 9-3 drubbing they handed the Huskies on Jan. 19.

Northeastern coach Jim Madigan, his captain Vinny Saponari and freshman star Kevin Roy — who tallied a hat trick in Monday’s win over BU — unanimously agreed that a quarter decade of failure has nothing to do with next week’s game. They’re right, of course, but a loss would only add to the stigma and frustration for the program and those that follow it.

The Beanpot still matters

BU captain Wade Megan is the most prominent member of the first BU class to graduate without winning the tournament since 1965. After last night’s game, he fought back tears to address the issue. Composing himself just enough to answer questions from them media, Megan expressed his genuine guilt at failing to bring the trophy back to the East End of Commonwealth Avenue. (more…)

BOSTON — Defeating Harvard Monday night, 4-1, at the TD Garden, Boston College will play for the Beanpot trophy next week. The Eagles won the second of the tournament’s semifinals. Northeastern defeated Boston University, 3-2, in the evening’s first game, both before a sell-out crowd of 17,565. Sophomore forward Quinn Smith scored twice for the Eagles, which offered an overall dominate defensive performance. In next Monday’s final, the Eagles have an opportunity to win their fourth-consecutive Beanpot title — the first school to earn that achievement since Boston University in the mid-1990s.

What I Saw

During the third period, the sense of comfort among the BC fans in the building was tangible as the Eagles seemed firmly in control (3-0 lead), while giving Harvard little space with which to operate. Danny Biega knocked the deficit to two, launching a slap-shot from the point on a screened Parker Milner mid-way through the stanza. Six minutes later, the Eagles firmly determined the outcome, as Steven Whitney skated from his own blue-line into the Harvard zone and scored on a stoic Crimson defense.

Harvard looked about to be escaping the second period only down one goal, having been vastly outplayed in the frame. With two minutes left, however, Smith scored his second of the game. This time it was a long rebound surrendered by Raphael Girard that the sophomore returned past the goalie. Then, just 44 seconds later, the Eagles converted a power play opportunity as defenseman Michael Matheson launched a one-time shot from the right face-off circle directly into the net.

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BOSTON — Advancing to the Beanpot finals, Northeastern defeated Boston University, 3-2, at the TD Garden Monday night. Freshman sensation Kevin Roy scored a hat trick, taking advantage of three crucial BU defensive breakdowns. This is the second time in three years that the Huskies have played in the tournament final. It also marks the first BU senior class since the 1960s to not win a Beanpot trophy. NU will face the winner of Boston College-Harvard next Monday, February 11th.

What I Saw

Playing in his first Beanpot, Roy scored a hat trick, notching goals in each of the three periods. The freshman is a special player and constantly puts himself in position to be successful. The performance was reminiscent of Boston College forward Johnny Gaudreau’s emergence into the national spotlight last year as a freshman, who had four points in BC’s pair of victories. Overall, Roy has a rare hockey vision and consistently creates scoring chances for himself and teammates. His second goal of the game was representative of Roy’s awareness. He got himself to the net on the rush and was rewarded with a simple goal, after BU carelessly turnover the puck. The third goal, however, was probably his most impressive. Roy, again, got himself to the net and was in perfect position to craftily convert the large rebound from BU goalie Matt O’Connor out of the air and into the net.

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Can the standings get any tighter than they are right now? Just five points separate second place Mercyhurst from tenth place RIT. Aside from Niagara (who pretty much have the top spot all but sealed up) and AIC and Sacred Heart (both stuck at the bottom of the standings), every other team has a shot of getting a first round bye. (more…)

Our top team was idle this weekend, but there’s plenty of movement in the rest of the top six. The No. 2 team pulled a little closer to the top, and teams three through six are all in a different position than last week. The bottom half continues to be much less chaotic, as teams seven through 12 all stand pat for the second week in a row.

1. Minnesota (18-4-4, 10-4-4 WCHA) — Last week: 1
The Gophers had the weekend off, so they stay at the top. They remain second in the Pairwise, but St. Cloud has opened up a five-point lead on them in the race for the MacNaughton Cup. Minnesota does have two games in hand, though.

2. St. Cloud State (17-10-1, 14-5-1 WCHA) — Last week: 2
The Huskies outscored Bemidji 8-1 in a weekend sweep, extending their unbeaten streak to six games. They also now have a three-point lead over second-place UNO, and they’ve climbed to eighth in the Pairwise. Ryan Faragher saved 24 shots on Friday to earn his second shutout of the season, then stopped 21 of 22 on Saturday. Drew LeBlanc notched a goal and two assists in the series, while Jonny Brodzinski scored a pair of goals. LeBlanc leads the WCHA with 30 assists and ranks second in points with 38.

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Durham, NH – UNH had many chances in the first period but failed to capitalize throughout the period. Merrimack would score the first goal of the game six minutes, 18 seconds into the game as Clayton Jardine sent a pass to Shawn Bates all alone in the high slot and the latter fired over Casey Desmith’s glove to give Merrimack the 1-0 lead, which would hold through the first intermission. The second period would be dominated by UNH, where they would send 20 shots toward Merrimack goaltender Sam Marotta but they would be outscored 2-1 in the period. Merrimack took a 3-1 lead into the final stanza.

UNH continued to dominate the game through much of the third period sending another 20 shots toward Sam Marotta, but Marotta saved them all and was in the zone. Merrimack would add an empty-netter to up the lead to 4-1 and they would get the win in front of 5499 disappointed Wildcat fans.

Merrimack improves to 12-10-5 overall, 10-6-2 in Hockey East, while UNH falls to 16-7-2 and 11-6-1. UNH continues to sit in second place two points behind Boston College in the Hockey East standings. Merrimack jumps into third place one point back of UNH in second and one point ahead of fourth place. Despite the loss UNH actually rose in the Pairwise because RPI became a TUC. Merrimack now enters the national picture in a big way after a weekend sweep of UMass-Lowell and UNH. (more…)

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Coming off of last weekend’s poor showing against Maine at home, BC looked to get things back on track Friday night at home against Vermont, which is just what they did with a 4-1 win.

Vermont actually led 1-0 after the first period after scoring just 4:14 into the game off of a slap shot from Anders Franzon, which went off of Parker Milner’s glove and into the net. BC had numerous scoring opportunities in the period, but couldn’t put the puck home.

BC eventually found the back of the net with two second period goals, less than a minute apart. Senior Pat Mullane got the first at 10:30, and Quinn Smith followed just 47 seconds later to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead. Boston College added two goals in the third period from senior Steven Whitney and sophomore sensation Johnny Gaudreau.

Milner was impressive in the BC goal making 38 saves, on 39 shots and UVM freshman goaltender Brody Hoffman played well despite the loss finishing with 26 saves.

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NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — Massachusetts-Lowell’s 11-game unbeaten streak came to an end Friday, as Merrimack (11-10-5, 9-6-2 Hockey East) downed the River Hawks 1-0 in a defensive struggle. Justin Hussar scored the game’s lone goal with 12:20 left to play when he took a pass from Rhett Bly and beat Doug Carr (26 saves) with a wrist shot from the left circle. Sam Marotta stopped all 25 shots from Lowell (14-8-2, 8-7-2 HE) to earn his second shutout of the season.

What I saw
-Lowell went 0-for-8 on the power play, and that was clearly the story of the game. Most notably, the River Hawks had two power plays in the final 2:24 of the game, including 10 seconds of a 5-on-3. They pulled Carr before the start of the first power play, so it was really 6-on-4 for 2:24 and 6-on-3 for 10 seconds. Marotta made a few big saves, the Merrimack penalty kill came up with some key blocks, and the River Hawks struggled to get to rebounds. That was really the story of the whole game when they were on the power play. They’d get a chance or two, but they weren’t quite aggressive enough to turn it into sustained pressure. At one point in the second period, they had four power plays in an 8:32 span and failed to capitalize.

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Amherst, Mass. – Michael Pereira scored two goals and two assists to lead Massachusetts to a convincing, 5-1 win over Boston University on Friday night at the Mullins Center.

Having big nights along with Pereira were linemates Branden Gracel and Conor Sheary, finishing with a goal and assist apiece.

Gracel got UMass on the board first with a goal 17 minutes, 21 seconds into the first period from the slot following a nice feed from Pereira on the odd-man rush. Kevin Czepiel scored the Minutemen’s second goal at 18:30 of the second period after redirecting a slapshot from Mike Busillo.

UMass proceeded to pour it on with three goals in the final period of play, including a shorthanded tally by Pereira at 11:03 to make it 5-0.

Ben Rosen scored the Terriers only goal of the night at 15:38 of the third with the game well out of reach.

Goaltender Kevin Boyle finished with 19 saves in his first start since Jan. 11. BU’s Sean Maguire was just a strong, if not better, but didn’t get the same defensive support as his counterpart.

With the loss and a New Hampshire win, the Terriers fall to third in the conference standings and now sits 15th in the Pairwise. UMass remains seventh in Hockey East with the win.

What I Saw: 

• Boyle got the nod for the first time since Jan. 11 in a 5-4  loss to Providence, with fellow sophomore Steve Mastalerz starting the last four, and showed no signs of rust. The sophomore made some big saves in the first two periods, including a big one with just over four minutes remaining in the first. Evan Rodrigues had a nice breakaway opportunity and tried to beat him blocker side with the backhand, but Boyle made the save with his blocker hand then secured it with the glove. It was shortly after that big save that UMass broke the scoreless tie and seized momentum from there. Boyle was also effective by making saves with the pads and secured the puck well in order to prevent second-chance opportunities. (more…)

Orono, Maine- Maine and Providence locked into a defensive battle early and stuck with it most of the contest. The Friars took a 1-0 lead 11 minutes, seven seconds into the first period on a goal by Mark Jankowski. Providence would  hold that lead through the first and second intermissions, as neither team was able to solve the opposing goaltender. Joey Diamond finally solved Jon Gillies with 7:27 left in the third period on the shorthand and he would also score a goal with three minutes to go on the power-play to send the game into overtime.

The overtime was uneventful until the waning seconds where Noel Acciari would come in on a breakaway, but Maine goaltender, Dan Ouellette would make the huge save to preserve the tie. Providence goes to 10-10-5 overall, 8-6-4 in Hockey East, while Maine moves into a tie for ninth in the standings at 7-14-5, and 3-9-5 in Hockey East. The Black Bears now sit a single point out of a playoff spot and Providence sits in a tie for fourth place. (more…)