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Men's and women's Beanpot title recap |
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At long last, the 2015 show…
David Quinn was an assistant under Jack Parker the last time Boston University won the Beanpot, and “finally” on Monday night, he was able to snag a piece of his former boss and mentor’s legend by restoring the Terriers’ program to its rightful place as champions.
On the score sheet, it was junior defenseman and team captain Matt Grzelcyk’s second goal of the contest, coming on a power play just 51 seconds into overtime, which gave BU a hard-fought and hair-raising 4-3 victory over Northeastern in the 63rd annual championship which did it. But for Quinn, who is in his second year at the helm after Parker’s retirement, his first Beanpot was the university’s 30th, and it was done the hard way after enduring three overtime periods.
"It was exciting. I couldn't be happier for our players. I just love that passion and result tonight," noted Quinn, who will go down as the coach who brought back the silver trophy to campus for the first time since Parker’s 2009 squad won it on the way to their last national championship. "We really could have gotten down after giving up those two goals in the third. We've shown that we're a pretty resilient group. We did a pretty good job of weathering the storm. This was incredibly difficult."
Everything went against type for the Scarlet and White.
In the semifinal three weeks ago, Harvard’s Steve Michalek withstood a barrage for four-plus periods, coming up with a personal and tournament record 63 saves before Danny O’Regan sent the Terriers into the final with a goal 2:18 into the second overtime for a 4-3 result. Last night, there was an iron-clad 3-1 lead after 40 minutes of play. However, a 12-0-0 record this season when leading after two periods, a plus-37 goal differential in the final period along with a staggering 51 percent of its total goals in the third didn’t matter a whit. Instead, the Huskies struck twice in a span of 95 seconds in the midway point of the third and sent a chill down Commonwealth Avenue.
(Michalek, by the way, won the Eberly Award, given to the tourney’s top goaltender based on save percentage)
What’s more, is that the player touted as the best undrafted American player who will be taken in June’s draft, had little to do with the outcome.
Jack Eichel leads the nation with 49 points, but was blanked in the ‘Pot against both Harvard and Northeastern, two of the six times he’s been held off the scoreboard in 30 games during his otherwise stellar freshman campaign.
His line, the #1 unit which includes O’Regan and the criminally-underrated Evan Rodrigues actually drove the play which created the OT power play when Huskies defenseman Matt Benning to commit the game-deciding hooking infraction. But the Eichel which has been touted by the NHL as a hot property, the one who has three overtime winners to his credit already, didn’t materialize. And while we’re at it, Rodrigues has crept up right behind Eichel for second in the country with 44 points, thanks in large part to a program record six-assist performance against UMass in the game before the Beanpot semis.
That’s the way it’s been for Boston University all year to observers peering in from the perch of the NHL, forging ahead and proving that their team is more than just Eichel kicking it into high gear on a nightly basis. The Beanpot glory often seems to go to players who dwell away from the spotlight, and appropriately its MVP award was given to Grzelcyk, who was the best player on either team and in all three zones.
The native of Charlestown, whose father used to work at the old Boston Garden, recorded his second career multi-goal effort, second in a span of four games, but forever etched his name in city lore with his game winner. He’ll join the likes of Brian McGuirk (2007), Nick Gillis (1998) and Mike Kelfer (1987) as February overtime heroes on Causeway Street but the success didn’t go to his head right away.
“The first line, it was kind of their time to shine,” said Grzelcyk. “They had been playing well all game and not getting the fortunate bounces. But Jack [Eichel] made the great playing off the opening draw and Danny [O'Regan] drew the penalty.”
Strangely enough, BU –- which clinched at least a share of the Hockey East title over the weekend despite a tie and loss at home to Notre Dame –- can do the job properly this weekend in a home-and-home, season-ending two-game set against the Huskies.
Northeastern bridesmaids again
Poor, poor pitiful NE. So close and yet so far away.
For the third straight season and fourth in the last five, the Huskies return to their Huntington Avenue campus as runners-up. They haven’t won since 1988, the final of four championships in a span of eight years which left no doubt that the 80s belonged to Fern Flaman’s team.
The three-week layoff between Beanpot rounds did little to dampen the enthusiasm of a team trying to crack the top four in Hockey East and gain a precious first-round bye. Jim Madigan’s kids went 4-1-0 between the semis and the final, including four straight wins by a combined score of 26-8. A 6-3 loss to Maine at Alfond Arena was the program’s lone defeat in a span of 10 games dating back to a January 10 loss to Boston College (8-1-1).
When Kevin Roy and semifinal hero Dustin Darou scored in a span of 95 seconds in the third period to wipe out a two-goal deficit, and then turn the tables with play that attacked BU’s mode of sending three players back on the defensive end, the energy was palpable. It was carried along by a vocal throng of Huskies supporters and didn’t stop until the winner came from the other side.
But in the end, it was another defeat, this one perhaps a little more bitter than four years ago, when Northeastern hung tough with the defending national-champion Eagles. In that game, the Huskies led 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 and 5-4 but trailed 6-5 when Wade McLeod punctured an unusually porous BC defense for the tying score with 1:46 to play. Current Florida Panther Jimmy Hayes put an end to that dream exactly six minutes into OT, giving Boston College the second of its five straight Beanpots.
“For our older guys, they’ve been here before,” Madigan lamented. “I don’t know if they’re dwelling much on experience. You have to get over the hump. I know that game aged me. We’ve been in a lot of tight games this year and if we want to get back to this location (TD Garden for the Hockey East semifinals) we’re going to have to find a way to win. It’s good experience for the younger kids. Our kids had the conviction and believability that we were going to get it done.”
Roy, for his part, ended his career with a staggering seven goals and 11 points in Beanpot action, but the Huskies sank to 8-32 all-time against the Terriers in February Monday action and went to 3-9 in the city championship contest.
Another Beanpot
Time to set the record straight. Long overdue recognition in this space goes to the women’s side of college hockey.
After tracking the travails of Boston-area players in the Sochi Olympics, the connection went dead, in the rush to keep abreast of the emerging Christian Folin saga between the Flyers, Wild and several other NHL teams. No excuses anymore.
In between the snow-delayed men’s Beanpot, the 37th annual women’s tournament went over without a hitch on February 3 and 10 at Bright-Landry Center in Allston, just across the Charles River from Harvard’s famous main campus.
In a total reversal from how the men’s tournament shakes out, here are the last four winners of the women’s Beanpot: Northeastern, Northeastern, Boston College and Harvard. The Huskies are the dominant program in the group, having won 16 overall titles while the Crimson clock in with 14, the Eagles third at five and the Terriers just one, way back in 1981.
Boston College entered the final two weeks back with a perfect 27-0-0 record thanks to a semifinal 3-1 win over Northeastern, and dominated the weekly rankings as the No. 1 program in the country, but the script was totally flipped.
Karly Heffernan and Miye D’Oench scored just over two minutes apart in the second period to help the Crimson take a one-goal advantage. Crimson netminder Emerance Maschmeyer stopped 12 shots in the third period to preserve No. 4 Harvard’s first Beanpot championship since 2010 with a 3-2 decision in front of a friendly crowd.
It was sweet revenge for the queens of the Boston hockey scene, who were soundly thrashed by a 10-2 count against BC back on Nov. 18.
Andie Anastos and Haley Skarupa (3rd in country with 61 points) tallied earlier to give the Eagles a 2-1 edge, around a score from Harvard’s Mary Parker. In a bizarre parallel, BC forward Alex Carpenter -- daughter of former NHLer and Eastern Mass native Bobby Carpenter and the nation’s top scorer with 71 points in 31 games (2.29 PPG) -- was held off the board for the second straight time in the Beanpot. The fleet junior had struck for nine points (4G, 5A) in her previous four games.
“I think one of the big turning points for us was when BC scored their second goal,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “I think it really woke us up and ticked us off a little bit, and we were a different hockey team after that than we were in the beginning. I thought we played really well after that. We turned around and answered quickly. We had a fire and we were on our toes.”
Marie-Philip Poulin, senior forward at Boston University, which finished in fourth place this year, represented her native Canada and won Gold in Sochi. She is currently ranked ninth in country with 42 points (21G, 21A) in 27 games so far.
The State of Hockey once again will host the Frozen Four, at Ridder Arena at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on March 20 and 22.
Celebrity Secrets
The next edition of the young and dumb chronicles of a budding broadcaster takes up back to the 2000 Beanpot, one which ended up being a landmark for Boston University which won its still-standing record sixth championship in a row.
As a senior at BC and given special broadcast privileges with that standing, a prime spot like the Beanpot finals was just about the best thing that could have happened from a resume-building standpoint just four months into my tenure at WZBC.
How did I celebrate this accomplishment as the primary color commentator? By being so nervous and keyed up that I ended up intoxicated on the air.
I’d like to point out that public drunkenness didn’t even come close to entering into the equation. As a 22-year-old first-year broadcaster who was admonished by then SID and now the late Dick Kelley to remember that I was representing BC both on and off campus at all times, being a drunken idiot was simply not an option. I just took advantage of some leftover booze to calm the nerves.
Back in the day, Tradewinds ice tea was sold in long-neck, glass 20-ounce bottles. There was just enough liquid to make the addition of a small amount of liquor good enough to create a palpable buzz. I grabbed the remains of a handle of Hampshire vodka ($9.99 at one of the state’s liquor barns just across the border from Massachusetts) and poured about three fingers into the Tradewinds bottle and let the concoction go to work while play-by-play man Ryan Welch and I worked out the details of the broadcast from start to finish.
Just about the time our long T ride from the BC terminus to North Station concluded, roughly 45 minutes in rush-hour traffic, I sank the last of the iced tea and started getting that distinct warm and fuzzy feeling. It was an hour until post time, which was a hair after 7:30 with the consolation game having finished in regulation and I was floating. Talking trash about BU, talking up how good this broadcast was going to be as a prelude to a long playoff run, talking vaguely philosophical nonsense in that opening stage of inebriation we all feel once our alcohol tolerance has reached a zenith.
This was a contest between Jerry York’s Eagles and Parker’s Terriers for Boston bragging rights. BC to that point was looking for its first Beanpot win since ’94 in its first final since ’97. Parker and BU was looking to cement a legacy with a record in what came to be called the “BU Invitational.” In goal that night was two players who ended up with a combined 509 games of NHL experience: freshman and future No. 1 overall pick Rick DiPietro (318) for the defending champs and junior Scott Clemmensen (191) for the challengers.
As “luck” would have it, my roommates, unprompted, set up a cassette to record my time on the air, in the pregame as well as the first and third periods doing color. All I can say is, 15 years on, I’m surprised I haven’t burned it or chucked it into the river. I guess I keep it as a reminder where the mythical line between clever and stupid lies.
I don’t sound like I’ve had 25 booze-infused ounces of tea on an empty stomach, but my timing was clearly off during the first period. I was unable to properly complete a thought with tight deadlines. I topped Ryan one too many times while incorrectly anticipating the end of his thought process in between whistles. It was a cross between Steve Coates for volume/staccato rhythm and Ian Darke if he had one too many pints before a game. There wasn’t much expert analysis when viewing the game through foggy eyes and brain. The third period sounds like I gained my equilibrium back, more flow and better continuity.
BU won by a 4-1 count, but that’s hardly important.
The lessons here for future broadcasters of America are: don’t decide to throw away common sense on a milestone broadcast. Make sure to do it when it’s guaranteed nobody is listening. Do it once, never again, just to say you did. And always make sure you possess any and all incriminating evidence while ensuring no copies exist.
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