Huskies Take Down Harvard in Beanpot Semifinal

As things got underway for the Beanpot semifinal game between the Northeastern University Huskies and the Harvard University Crimson, the Huskies found themselves on the penalty kill at 3:56 of the opener when Jordan Harris was whistled for a tripping penalty. Harvard made the Huskies pay when Jack Drury notched his 14th goal of the season with 39 seconds remaining on the power play. Despite having outshot the Crimson up to that point, Northeastern had nothing to show for it. However, at 11:58 Henry Bowlby was sent off for a holding call for Harvard and 22 seconds into the man advantage Northeastern’s Zach Solow tipped in a one-timer from Ryan Shea at the blue line to knot the score up. And that was where they stood going into the first intermission.

The second period had a lot of skating, but not much else for most of the period. Harvard definitely had more control of the puck and spent some solid time in Northeastern’s end, but Craig Pantano refused to give them any chance at the net behind him. It looked like things were going to remain tied at one going into the second intermission, but then Austin Wong was called for an elbowing penalty and the Huskies were back on the man advantage. While they weren’t able to convert, it did give them a little bit of energy and four seconds after the teams were back at even strength, Brendan van Riemsdyk gave Northeastern the go-ahead goal. There were just 29.6 seconds remaining in the second period.

In both the first and the second periods there were goals that were under review for offsides. While it is true that everyone wants to get the calls right, when it takes minutes for the review it eliminates the energy on the ice and in the arena. Both goals were considered good goals—one for Harvard in the first period and one for the Huskies in the second. But both reviews took minutes to see that the call on the ice stood and nothing they looked at could overturn it. That disrupts the game. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a better way of handling that.

Despite being up by a goal, the Huskies started the third period on the penalty kill as Jayden Struble was whistled for a trip just as the second period ended. And to make things worse, Mike Kesselring got sent off for a cross-check for the Huskies just 16 seconds into the third period forcing Northeastern to kill a five-on-three for 1:45. Northeastern’s goaltender, Pantano, was huge for the team during this time.

“Yeah, I think killing penalties gives us more motivation than scoring a power play goal because all the guys are up on the bench. Everyone’s live. Every point matters and pretty much once you touch that puck you want to clear it and when you do you can hear all the boys yelling. But the five-on-three obviously, I think they’ve got the number one power play in the country. So, it’s… They score the first one we adjusted. Unfortunately, we got on a five-on-three but our compete level just went up five notches once that happened and we shut them down. I think that is what gave us momentum to kind of shut them down the rest of the game,” shared senior and Huskies captain Shea.

The Huskies continued to weather the shots of the Crimson and as Harvard pulled Mitchell Gibson with 2:04 remaining in regulation it looked like Pantano would have to stand all the taller. As the clock ticked under the one-minute mark and the Crimson were buzzing around, Shea made an attempt to clear the puck. Shea’s clearing attempt not only got the puck out of the Huskies’ end, but it ended up in the back of the net 200 feet at the other end and took the wind out of Harvard’s sails.

Overall, it is somewhat surprising that Northeastern was able to get the win. They were outshot in both the second and third periods by Harvard. During the third period especially, the Crimson were truly dominant, but Pantano kept them off the scoreboard. They outshot the Huskies 14-7 in the third and 28-24 in the game. Harvard definitely gave the Huskies some trouble.

“Well, they’re fast, they play fast. They’re good in transition. I didn’t think we defended as quickly as we needed to in their offensive zone so they extended shifts on us and then you know, when you extend shifts in the offensive zone, you get tired and now we’re chasing them and you know, that top line is as good as there is in college hockey and that might be, I don’t want to say the best, but it’s got to be up there in the top 1, 2, 3 or whatever. And then there are other lines they can come at you and skate, they’re good in transition. Also, we didn’t manage pucks well. We lacked some poise at certain times in the game. And they had a little bit of desperation, you know, being down one, so the pressure was on and you know, at some point there in the last five minutes, we don’t want to play in the offensive zone. We want to make sure we’re inside the dots and clogging the middle and taking away something from them, so our offense was a lot less,” explained Huskies head coach Jim Madigan.

However, it’s not necessarily how many shots you can put on goal, as much as how many can be put behind the goalie. And Monday night’s semifinal saw the Northeastern Huskies get their chance to defend their title—having one the Beanpot Championship the previous two years.

They will get that chance when they take on the Boston University Terriers, whom they beat in 2018 to win their first Beanpot in 30 years, when they play in the Beanpot Championship game on Monday, February 10.