Huskies with Beanpot Three-peat

(Photo: Northeastern Men’s Hockey, with permission)

The Beanpot Championship game is always an experience. The energy in the building, from the pep bands, the student sections and the fans in general, gives life to the arena even before the teams come on the ice. As the Northeastern University Huskies and the Boston University Terriers went at it Monday night, there was animosity from both sides. For Northeastern it was an opportunity to garner their third straight Beanpot championship. For the Terriers it was a chance to get back on top, having last won it in 2015, when they beat Northeastern in overtime.

The first period showed that the Terriers were all business from the first puck drop. They controlled much of the play and tilted the ice in their favor. Jake Wise, who had been a healthy scratch for the Terriers’ losing game against the Merrimack Warriors on Friday, cleaned up a rebound right on the crease at 2:49 of the opener, assisted by Matthew Quercia and David Farrance. Later in the period, Northeastern’s Tyler Madden was sent off for a boarding call and while on the power play Trevor Zegras notched his ninth goal of the season to give the Terriers a 2-0 lead. Meanwhile the Huskies seemed to be having a bit of a struggle getting their legs going and their shots on BU’s Ashton Abel, who didn’t have too much to do for the first half of the period. In fact, Northeastern didn’t get their second shot on net until 13:21 of the first, but from that point on they did pick up the pace a bit. Unfortunately, they were also having some issues with giveaways that could have been costly. The Huskies were lucky to get out of the first period down just two goals.

As the second period got underway it was clear that the Huskies had discussed their first period performance and were determined to bring a full effort. They began the period controlling the play and Tyler Madden got Northeastern on the scoreboard at 2:53 of the middle frame with assists from Aidan McDonough and Julian Kislin, and with that the scoring doors opened for the Huskies. In the next 8:30 of play the Huskies had three more goals, and the Terriers had pulled Abel, replacing him with backup goaltender Sam Tucker. The Huskies second goal came from McDonough, with his tenth of the season, sending it home from the top of the slot. Perhaps it was frustration at the game being tied, but at 8:51, Cam Crotty was whistled for a tripping, giving Northeastern their first power play chance of the game. And while on that man advantage, they would soon find themselves up two men, when Alex Vlasic was whistled for a cross-check at 9:51, giving the Huskies 1:25 of time with a 5 on 3 chance. Zach Solow scored from the top of the slot, and they still had 1:46 of time on the second power play. With five seconds remaining on that power play, Grant Jozefek would give the Huskies a two-goal lead that they would take into the second intermission.

The third period saw the Terriers cut the Huskies’ lead in half just 1:56 into the period when Farrance got his 13th goal of the season, assisted by Patrick Harper and Logan Cockerill. And that was where things would remain as both teams tried to keep the other to the outside. As far as shots on net, everything was even at nine each, but it appeared that the Huskies may have been trying to play some “safe hockey” to maintain the one-goal lead they still carried, while the Terriers were doing their best to tie things up. It looked like Northeastern would be hoisting the Beanpot for the third straight year, when, with just 1.2 seconds remaining in regulation, Zegras got his second of the game and gave the Terriers a chance to win it in overtime. To a person, those watching the game were absolutely astounded at the finish of regulation.

The new NCAA rules dictated that the two teams play a traditional five-minute overtime period and that if nothing was decided in that time that as far as the NCAA records were concerned it was a tie. And that is exactly what happened Monday night. Despite the Terriers putting five shots on Craig Pantano while preventing the Huskies from any opportunities to test Tucker at the other end, the five minutes counted down and the two teams headed to their respective dressing rooms for an intermission in preparation for a full 20-minute sudden death period.

For the Huskies, that intermission was a chance to refocus and reset. Having come so close, down to 1.2 seconds, their ability to get out of the mandated five-minute overtime, was more the priority than trying to score.

The second overtime period began and things picked up right where they left off with the Terriers peppering Pantano with the puck. Pantano was definitely dialed in, as he seemed square to the shots, grabbing many of them with a glove in a calm manner. The Terriers attempted 16 shots in the second overtime, with ten of them finding their way to Pantano. Meanwhile, the Huskies attempted 12 shots, and six were on goal. At 13:18 the first penalty of the extra innings was whistled. Harper was called for a tripping on Ryan Shea, sending the Huskies to the man advantage. Some felt that was a penalty that shouldn’t have been called. As the power play began the Terriers were strong on clearing the puck and having seen two shorthanded goals scored in the BC-Harvard game, it was always a possibility that the Terriers would accomplish something similar. However, 1:15 into the power play, as the Terriers failed to clear the puck, Jordan Harris took a pass from McDonough at the right point and walked the puck to the center of the blue line, before he took his shot. He was able to get the puck past Knight. Solow, who got the other assist, had been instrumental in keeping the puck in the BU end. With that the Huskies won the Beanpot for the third straight year.

This was the first time in the history of NU’s hockey program that they had won the Beanpot in three consecutive years. Pantano, with 40 saves, was named the 2020 Eberly Award winner, while Solow joined the likes of Adam Gaudette and Cayden Primeau, when he was named Beanpot’s MVP.