Every handful of years or so, someone breaks out a column about the Beanpot losing its luster or something along those lines.
There were reasons to wonder if 2022 might be one of those years. Going into Monday, none of the four schools were in the top 16 of the national Pairwise rankings used to determine the 16-team NCAA tournament field (Northeastern and Boston University were just on the outside).
All four teams were missing key players to the Olympics as well -- three players from Boston College, two first-liners from Harvard, and the No. 1 goalie from both BU and Northeastern.
You would not have known any of that based on the games Monday night and the atmosphere at TD Garden. On the contrary, the sheer excitement of having the Beanpot back after it was canceled because of COVID-19 last year -- making it the first year without a Beanpot since the tournament began in 1952 -- far outweighed anything related to the first four months of this season or who wasn’t there.
BU senior captain Logan Cockerill, for instance, said that trying to win a Beanpot was one of his primary motivations in returning for his final season. His Terriers are trying to end a seven-year Beanpot drought, something that’s almost unheard of for the school that has won more of these (30) than anyone.
Cockerill went out and scored the opening goal of BU’s 4-3 win over Harvard, driving aggressively to the net and finishing a nice backhand past Crimson goalie Mitchell Gibson. His coach, Albie O’Connell, said afterwards that it was one of the best games Cockerill has played in his four years at BU.
“I didn’t want to get too caught up in it being my last one or how I’d feel if we lost,” Cockerill said. “Just trying to treat it like another game, but this was one of the main reasons I came back to BU. I wanted to win a Beanpot. I’m happy I get a chance to compete for it next Monday.”
That first game also featured a touching tribute courtesy of Matt Brown. After giving BU a 3-1 lead with a power-play goal early in the second period, Brown kissed his glove and pointed to the sky to honor his mom, who recently passed away.
“I thought he was terrific. I thought he really handled himself well when he was going through the process,” O’Connell said of Brown. “…He’s a passionate guy. He probably has a heavy heart right now, but I think he’s looking up, thinking about his mother when he’s scoring the goal. So I was really happy for him. He played really hard.”
Sophomore goalie Vinny Duplessis stopped 22 of the 25 shots he faced in BU’s win, earning his second straight win since taking over for Drew Commesso, who is in Beijing with Team USA.
In the night’s second game, Northeastern freshman T.J. Semptimphelter stepped in with even less experience and put on even more of a show in replacing Devon Levi, the Hobey Baker candidate representing Canada in the Olympics.
Making just his third career start, Semptimphelter stopped 41 of the 42 shots he faced to lead the Huskies to a 3-1 win over BC. The Eagles, who are now on a program-record 10-game winless streak, certainly had their chances to do more damage. But Semptimphelter made one big save after another, including a pair of point-blank robberies on Casey Carreau and Brandon Kruse and 17 saves in the third period alone. It took a 2-on-1 for the Eagles to finally beat him in the third and cut Northeastern’s lead to 2-1, but that would be as close as they’d get. Justin Hryckowian tacked on the insurance goal with 14 seconds to go.
The atmosphere for both games was great, especially the second game, which featured at least eight balcony sections full of students for both Northeastern and BC. The announced attendance was 15,535. It should be electric again next Monday when the Huskies face BU in the final. Northeastern is looking to win its fourth straight Beanpot, while the Terriers are looking to end that seven-year skid.
“I thought it was a great college hockey game,” said Northeastern coach Jerry Keefe, who picked up his first Beanpot win in his first season as head coach. “BC really made a push on us. T.J. played great in net. It was an unbelievable atmosphere from the start of the game. The fans up top, the Northeastern crowd, was outstanding. That gave our team a lot of life right off the faceoff.”
The Beanpot as a whole had a lot of life Monday, and it definitely didn’t lack any luster.