Weekend Recap: Beanpot Champs

The BU Terriers went into the weekend with a chance to lock up their first two trophies of the 2014-2015 season. They partially achieved one and won the other. First, the Terriers tied and lost to Notre Dame at Agganis Arena in two games that they dominated in possession and scoring chances. Notre Dame freshman goalie Cal Peterson kept his team in both games and Notre Dame, per usual ,took advantage when they did get opportunities. BU outshot Notre Dame 82-41 over the two games but only came away with one point which turned out to be enough to clinch a share of the league title.The Terriers now need just one point from their two remaining league games to clinch  the outright league title and the #1 seed in the Hockey East tournament. Now, a lot of people were worrying about the state of the team after the 1 point weekend but they straight up dominated Notre Dame and just got no bounces. That isn't anything to worry about. As a point of reference, BU had over 20 more shots in two games this year against Notre Dame than they did in three games last year. They just didn't get the bounces or finish their chances. This hasn't been a prolonged problem all season and I don't think it will start now. Notre Dame is going to be a tough out in the Hockey East Tournament but I'll take a freshman goalie not standing on his head like that again. The real reason to want to avoid Notre Dame in the conference tournament is because they play the most boring style of hockey ever and they make me want to go watch paint dry instead of watching them play.

                                     

Monday night, the Beanpot championship game,delayed two weeks by snow, proved to be worth the wait as BU won 4-3 in OT on a Matt Grzelcyk powerplay goal. The win ended a 6 year drought and gave BU it's 30th Beanpot all time which leads the four schools. The game started off well for BU as Mike Moran scored the game's first goal  less than three minutes into the contest on a breakaway goal. Unfortunately, Northeastern tied it up shortly later. Northeastern had the better chances in the first overall as BU seemed to feel the nerves of the moment early on. Things changed quickly in the second as BU titlted the ice and took control. They went up 2-1 on Robbie Baillargeon's second goal of the season off a great Cason Hohmann shot that left a nice rebound for Baillargeon to bang home. The Terriers would extend the lead to 3-1 to Grzelcyk's first goal on a bomb that beat Northeastern goalie Clay Witt to the stick side. Northeastern would tie the game up after a great individual play by Kevin Roy to make it 3-2 and a Dustin Darou goal after BU's couldn't get a line change or clear the puck out of the zone. David Quinn was very smart to take his timeout at that point to settle things down. BU settled down and had the better chances down the stretch before the game headed to OT.



Above is the penalty called on the first shift of overtime as Danny O'Regan was hauled down with a scoring opportunity. Matt Grzelcyk scored the game winner on the ensuing powerplay so of course Northeastern fans are whining about the call. O'Regan gets hauled down pretty blatantly in front of the referee who calls the most penalties per game in the conference. What did you expect to happen? They are lucky that the hook on Eichel's initial rush wasn't called.  Powerplays were still 3-2 in favor of Northeastern overall for the game. The difference is that BU executed on theirs.

The ensuing celebration was great to see as guys like Cason Hohmann and Evan Rodrigues got a Beanpot in their last shot to do so. The pure joy of the moment was great for BU fans after the disappointment of the last 5 tournaments. This could easily be the beginning of a new BU run in the Beanpot with the recruiting classes coming in the next few seasons that are full of skilled, physical players. BU will have another chance to clinch a trophy on Friday as they host the same Northeastern team at Agganis needing one point to seal the Hockey East regular season title.

          Eichel for Hobey! Eichel currently sits atop the nation with 50 points in 30 games played #RES9ECT


P.S. I saw some people online saying that they feel bad for Northeastern's 27 year Beanpot drought and run of irrelevance. I couldn't disagree more. I am thoroughly enjoying their misery because even if they have the worst luck ever and it's terrible morally for me to root for this to happen to another fan base...