Alright, so coming in half way through the season is not so ideal, but luckily we are just in time to talk Beanpot! The 61 year old tradition in NCAA Div. 1 hockey continues to grow in popularity. All four Beanpot games this season sold out at the TD Garden and television ratings were also high. If you don’t know what the Beanpot Tournament is than you are really missing out! Every year Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, and Harvard compete against each other in a four game series to determine who the best team in Boston is. For the fourth year in a row Boston College has run away with the win, which comes as no surprise. Almost every preview that I’ve seen in the last month pitted BC as the winner! College Hockey News said it best:
Another year, another Beanpot for Boston College … stop us if you’ve heard this one before…But if greatness is boring, it’s still great
— College Hockey News (@chnews) February 12, 2013
The real story in the tournament was the unforeseen disappointment of Boston University. BU was expected to play BC in the final again this year, but was upset by Northeastern in a 3-2 loss on February 4th. Kevin Roy scored all three of Northeastern’s goals in that game and added two in the final against Boston College. He became the first player in fourty years of the Beanpot Tournament to score at least five goals in the tourney.
As if not making the final wasn’t bad enough for BU, they were defeated in the third place game by Harvard 7-4 – even after producing 47 shots. Props to Harvard goaltender Peter Traber!
In the final game on February 11th, after a scoreless first period and a multitude of trips to the sin bin, BC came out guns blazing in the second with four goals, only one of which was answered by NOE. BC Eagles’ Johnny Gaudreau added two goals and assist to the win and teammate Steven Whitney helped out with three assists. The Boston College team’s senior class also became the first class to go 8-0 in four consecutive Beanpot Tournaments. The final score was 6-3 for BC.
You can check out the Championship game highlights here:
Can Boston College make it five in a row? We will see next year!
