No. 1 ranked Boston College continued its love affair with the Beanpot championship game on Valentine’s Day night, defending its title with a 7-6 overtime victory over Northeastern.
The 59th Beanpot, held at the TD Garden, is an annual hockey tournament among Boston’s four major college hockey schools that awards the winner bragging rights over its cross-town rivals. Boston University leads the competition, also consisting of Harvard and Northeastern, with 29 championships, their last being in 2009.
The win for the Eagles is their second-straight and third in the last four years. Junior Jimmy Hayes netted an overtime goal to give Boston College the championship. The game sold out, with an attendance of 17,565.
New York Rangers draft pick and Eagles sophomore Chris Kreider scored two goals in the victory and earned an assist, feeding the game-winning goal to Hayes. Halfway through the third period, Kreider, the Beanpot MVP, put BC ahead 6-5 with an impressive goal. Northeastern forced overtime with senior Wade MacLeod’s score with just 1:46 remaining in regulation.
Last year’s Beanpot MVP and Eagles goalie John Muse recorded 21 saves. The senior has led BC to three championships in his four years at the school.
BC defensemen Tommy Cross and Brian Dumoulin each notched three-point performances in the winning effort, which saw seven lead changes and six tie scores throughout.
Worthy of mention was Northeastern goalie Chris Rawlings, who made 39 saves in the losing effort. Despite the loss, Rawlings was awarded the Eberly Trophy, which awards the goalie with the best save percentage in the Beanpot.
Merrimack resilient in win over UNH
Merrimack continued its great play against Hockey East foes with an overtime victory at home over New Hampshire Saturday night. The victory for the No. 11 ranked Warriors gave them the weekend sweep of the No. 6 Wildcats, as well as their sixth-straight win.
Merrimack (19-5-4, 13-5-3 HE) moved ahead of Boston University into third in the Hockey East with the pair of victories. The Warriors now stand alone in third place just three points behind both Boston College and UNH (17-7-4, 15-4-2 HE).
The Warriors notched their third overtime victory of the season on their first and only shot of the overtime period. Freshman defenseman Jordan Heywood netted the game-winner while adding two assists, giving him a hand in all three Merrimack goals.
Both teams bombarded the net, with the Wildcats out-shooting Merrimack, 40-39. The last few minutes of the third period saw game-saving saves from both Joe Cannata of the Warriors and Matt DiGirolamo of New Hampshire. UNH saw seven power-play opportunities with 14 shots on net, but were able to convert just two in the loss.
The Warriors will next play a home-and-home series with UMass, while the Wildcats will play two in Burlington this weekend.
Vermont not ready to give up
Despite the third-lowest point total in Hockey East, Vermont has been playing especially well of late. Their great play continued Friday night in Maine, as the Catamounts ran away with a 7-2 victory over the Black Bears.
Vermont (7-15-5, 5-11-4 HE) jumped out to an early lead, scoring four goals in the first period. Anthony DeCenzo and Jack Downing each netted a pair of goals for Vermont.
Maine (11-10-6, 8-8-4 HE) came within two goals after a short-handed goal from junior and Sweden native Gustav Nyquist. Vermont had an answer for everything, though, scoring less than a minute later to extend the lead back to three.
Sloppy goalkeeping by Vermont’s duo of Martin Ouellette and Dan Sullivan led to a combined three goals off deflections. Sullivan made six saves in nine attempts in less than 15 minutes of play. On the other side of the ice, Catamounts netminder Rob Madore made 37 saves.
The Black Bears were scoreless in eight power play opportunities, while Vermont was able to capitalize three of six times on the man-advantage. Despite mediocre play in other areas of the ice, the Catamounts finished the match with a 39-25 shot advantage on goal.
Matt Strong can be reached at [email protected].
