Going into this year’s Beanpot, all eyes were on Boston College and Boston University. They were both ranked in the top three in the country. Their rosters were loaded with future NHL talent. For some, their first-round matchup last Monday looked like the de facto championship game.
Northeastern had other ideas. Once the team that could never win this tournament, the Huskies reminded everyone that the Beanpot now goes through them until further notice. After beating Harvard 3-2 in overtime last week, they knocked off BU 4-3 in overtime in Monday night’s championship game to capture their second straight title, and their fifth in the last six tournaments.
Did the Bruins deserve to get booed on home ice?
The Huskies trailed BU three different times, but came back to tie it each time, with Jack Williams’ power-play goal midway through the third period ultimately sending the game to overtime.
In the 3-on-3 extra session (insert complaints about the Beanpot being decided by a 3-on-3/shootout format here), Gunnarwolfe Fontaine cemented his place as a Beanpot legend, scoring the OT winner for the Huskies for the second week in a row.
Here are three takeaways from the game and tournament:
Gunnarwolfe Fontaine adds legendary feats to legendary name
Gunnarwolfe Fontaine is a legendary name all on its own. Now, it’s also one of the most legendary names in the 71-year history of the Beanpot.
Fontaine became the first player in the history of the tournament to score an overtime winner in both the semifinals and the championship game in a single tournament. The left wing from East Greenwich, R.I. also scored both of Northeastern’s goals in last year’s title game, which the Huskies went on to win in a shootout. He had two assists Monday night as well.
This year’s winner came 4:32 into overtime, 28 seconds before a potential shootout. After BU appeared to break up a 2-on-2 rush, Huskies captain Justin Hryckowian won the puck right back and centered for Fontaine, who rifled a shot past BU goalie Mathieu Caron.
Fontaine, a 2020 seventh-round pick of the Nashville Predators, now has seven goals and 18 assists in 27 games for the season. He has caught fire recently even outside of the Beanpot, with 11 points (3 goals, 8 assists) in the last six games. Not so coincidentally, Northeastern has won all six of those games.
“I feel like he seems to really get going the last couple years this time of year, heading into the second half of the year,” Northeastern coach Jerry Keefe said of Fontaine. “He’s been heating up lately, not just in the Beanpot. He’s been playing his best hockey. … Obviously this time of year is when you want to be playing your best hockey, and in these games he’s shown up. Obviously two game-winners in overtime, I don’t know how many people have done that in the Beanpot. That’s pretty special.”
Northeastern can play spoiler again
If the season ended today, Hockey East would have five teams in the 16-team NCAA tournament field. Northeastern would not be one of them. The Huskies are currently tied for eighth in the conference standings and sit 20th in the Pairwise rankings used to determine the NCAA field.
An awful start to the season (2-7-1 out of the gate) put Northeastern well behind the eight-ball, but don’t let their overall record for you: This is a team that has turned things around and is playing way better hockey now.
The Huskies have won six in a row after Monday’s win, beating No. 3 BU twice and No. 7 Maine once during that stretch. If you go back a little further, there’s a tie against No. 9 Quinnipiac and a weekend split with No. 1 BC on their resume as well. Their one loss in three meetings with BU came in overtime.
There’s still a month left in the regular season before the Hockey East tournament begins, but as things stand right now, Northeastern looks like a team none of the top seeds are going to want to face in a single-elimination quarterfinal game. No one should be surprised if the Huskies end up back at TD Garden competing for another trophy come Hockey East semifinals.
Keefe credited his team’s leadership group for the turnaround, which was fitting on a night when all four Northeastern goals came off the stick of a captain.
“You need your best players, your leaders to show up in these big games and lead the way, and that’s exactly what they did tonight,” Keefe said. “It’s a great group of kids. We have tremendous leadership. It hasn’t been an easy year. We started out the season 2-7, and we’ve had to just keep grinding through it. You have to give that leadership group a ton of credit, because they did not sway one ounce all year. They believed in each other and just kept focusing on getting better every single day, and right now I feel like we’re playing our best hockey of the year.”
BU, BC remain Hockey East, NCAA favorites
Legendary BC coach Jerry York used to refer to the Beanpot as the start of “trophy season.” This year’s BC and BU teams both justifiably have dreams of winning multiple major trophies, but their trophy seasons have now begun with disappointment.
That disappointment will be something both teams have to find a way to overcome, but make no mistake: The Eagles and Terriers remain two of the best teams in the country. They’re still the top two teams in the Hockey East standings (BU first, BC second) and two of the top three teams in the Pairwise (BC first, BU third).
The Terriers played well Monday night. In fact, they flat-out dominated long stretches of the game. They outshot Northeastern 36-17 on the night, and held a 23-8 advantage after two periods. They had all six shots in overtime before Fontaine scored on the Huskies’ first. One of Northeastern’s goals came on an odd-man rush after two Terriers ran into each other. Another came on a power play that was the product of a pretty weak call.
“Clearly disappointed with the end result,” BU coach Jay Pandolfo said. “Taking nothing away from them – they kept fighting – but I thought we were the better team for the majority of the game. I thought we controlled possession. I thought we had better scoring chances. But hey, we ended up on the wrong side of it. We lost.
“…We have to get past it. We have to keep our heads high. We played a good hockey game, so we can’t get discouraged by it, can’t get down. We have to be ready to bounce back.”
The Terriers had seemingly already turned the page on one bout with adversity. After getting swept by BC in a home-and-home series and then losing a third straight game a few days later at Northeastern, they responded with three straight wins, including a 4-3 revenge win over BC in the Beanpot semis last week. Now they’ll have to find a way to respond again.
BC, meanwhile, has seemingly bounced back just fine from last week’s loss to BU. The Eagles crushed No. 19 New Hampshire, 6-1, on Friday, then blew out Harvard, 5-0, in Monday’s Beanpot consolation game.