Beanpot

By Amanda Kusek

If you had the pleasure of listening to my show, Out-of-Bounds, with Evelyn Lau on February 7th, you most likely heard an extensive conversation about this year’s Beanpot hockey tournament. I’m not going to take a lot of time explaining this to you because 1. You should have been listening and 2. There is always Wikipedia (I checked, it’s in there). What I will tell you is that it is a tradition between Harvard, Boston University, Northeastern University, and Boston College. It’s such a big deal that these guys get to play in the Bruin’s very own TD Banknorth Garden. I’m sorry— the GAHDEN.
Hey bro, I know what you are thinking right now. Sound a little like—“Why do I care about a hockey tournament on the Northeast Coast? There’s $2 U-Call Its at ETC. and I’m really only a fan of the Hawkeyes. (LET’S GO HAWKS!)”
But check it out, you can be one of few out here who appreciates hockey and with this knowledge you can one up the guy who claims he “likes all sports.” So sit back, scroll down and pick up some interesting facts about the Beanpot and well, hockey itself.
Matched up for the 57th Beanpot tournament were the Boston University Terriers and the Northeastern Huskies. The Terriers entered their first game against the Harvard Crimson with amazing odds. The powerhouse Colin Wilson was leading the Hockey East conference in scoring and their coach Jack Parker was basking in the glow of an 800th win. Though the Crimson managed to pick off the Terriers early on last year, it wasn’t the case for 2009. BU won 4-3.
The Huskies absolutely plowed through Boston College in their matchup winning 6-1. The Huskies, though coming in during an amazing season, were historically the underdogs only winning 4 of the 57 tournaments played to date. (BC managed to redeem themselves in their match-up with Harvard winning 4-3.)
Northeastern entered the game ranked as No. 3 with a record of 17-6-2 and Goalie Brad Thiessen who, at the time of the game, was ranked 8th in the NCAA with a .934 save percentage. Thiessen went on to win the Eberly Award as the top goalie of the Beanpot.
The Huskies managed to leave the first period with a tied game. BU was down a player because Luke Popko was sent into the box for boarding. (For all you hockey illiterate, the “box” refers to the penalty box and boarding is called when a player pushes another into the boards of the hockey rink while the player is facing the boards. See? Hockey does have rules.) McLaughlin scored on a rebound with 26 seconds left in the period.
The second period came to be the last in which Northeastern managed to score—surely leaving Northeastern fans sitting sore for the remainder of the game. McNeely made this goal on an empty net much to the chagrin of BU goalie Kiernan Millan.
It was all downhill from there for Northeastern. BU managed to score twice in the second period and twice more in the third leaving the final score 5-2 BU. This was Terrier’s 29th Beanpot win putting them at the top followed by Boston College with 14 wins, Harvard with 10, and of course Northeastern, at 4.
As a rabid or avid (whichever) fan of Northeastern Hockey, I was sorely disappointed by the loss. This now gives my co-host, Evelyn Lau, bragging rights for quite sometime seeing as she is sooo into BU. Next year, Huskie fans, next year. Besides, wouldn’t you rather be a Huskie rather than a Terrier? A little bit cooler, a little bit bigger.
Of course, nothing beats a Hawkeye. Though many of my alliances lay with the Northeast (my homeland) I am a Hawkeye. Now football fans, maybe you can start to appreciate Hockey? At the very least, it’s another excuse to get drunk and start a fight.