It’s the first Monday of February, and New England hockey fans know what that means.
The Beanpot is back.
The men’s tournament takes center stage at TD Garden over the next two weeks, with Boston University taking on Harvard and two-time defending champion Northeastern facing No. 1 nationally ranked Boston College in the semifinal round on Feb. 3. The winners will face off a week later for the championship.
All four Beanpot teams are chock full of players who honed their craft locally at the prep level. Of course, many of those players are native to New England as well.
Here are some former New England prep standouts who will battle for the Beanpot.
Casey Severo
Harvard | Junior | Forward
After scoring 56 goals during a three-year prep career at Nobles, Severo leads the Crimson with eight and has totaled 13 points —tying last season’s career-high marks in both categories — through his first 20 games. The New York native lit the lamp three times in January and netted a hat trick against Merrimack at November’s Friendship Four in Belfast.
Ian Moore
Harvard | Senior | Defenseman
Hometown: Concord, Mass.
One of Harvard’s 11 Massachusetts natives, Moore hopes to captain the Crimson to its first Beanpot since 2017. The former St. Mark’s standout scored both of his goals in the current campaign in January, including a game-tying goal in the third period of Friday’s final pre-Beanpot test against Princeton. The Anaheim Ducks picked him in the third round of the 2020 NHL Draft.
Ben MacDonald
Harvard | Sophomore | Forward
Hometown: Weston, Mass.
One of MacDonald’s five goals last season came in the Beanpot against Northeastern. This season, the Nobles product has four goals, including two in his last three games. The son of former Hobey Baker Award winner Lane MacDonald, Ben became a third-round draft pick of the Seattle Kraken after leading Nobles with 14 goals in 2021-22.
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Shane Lachance
Boston University | Sophomore | Forward
Hometown: Andover, Mass.
Lachance captained Tabor and the Clark Cup-winning Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL prior to his arrival at BU, where he is currently the first sophomore wearing a ‘C’ in program history. The 6-foot-5 power winger is the team’s third-leading scorer with eight goals and 23 points. He scored his first goal since November in a Friday win over New Hampshire.
Matt Copponi
Boston University | Senior | Forward
Hometown: Mansfield, Mass.
Copponi developed into an NHL draft pick and a team-leading scorer over three seasons at Merrimack and now looks to impact his first Beanpot. He posted 13 points over 10 games through Jan. 10, but has been quiet since. Copponi notched 20 goals for Dexter Southfield in 2019-20.
Jack Hughes
Boston University | Senior | Forward
Hometown: Westwood, Mass.
Hughes, who switched from Northeastern to BU following his sophomore season and logged a career-high 19 points as a junior, has points in seven of his last nine games. As a St. Sebastian’s freshman in 2018-19, he was the Arrows’ second-leading goal scorer with 15 and posted 25 points in 29 games.
Teddy Stiga
Boston College | Freshman | Forward
Hometown: Sudbury, Mass.
Stiga has been red hot ever since scoring the gold-medal-winning goal for Team USA at World Juniors. Upon his return to BC, the freshman is on an eight-game point streak, which brought his season total to 21. The Belmont Hill product was a second-round pick by the Nashville Predators last June and is playing on a line with first-round pick Gabe Perreault and potential high first-round pick James Hagens.
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Lukas Gustafsson
Boston College | Junior | Defenseman
Gustafsson is a steady presence on an Eagles blue line that has dealt with various injuries, recording one goal and nine assists in 22 games. He has points in our of the last six contests. The Georgia native spent three years at Cushing before the Heights, captaining the Penguins in 2020-21.
Will Vote
Boston College | Sophomore | Forward
Hometown: Arlington, Mass.
The Dexter Southfield product scored just once during an injury-shortened freshman season but enters this Beanpot Monday with seven across 24 games. Two have been game-winners. Vote quickly eclipsed last year’s total with four goals in the first five games and scored in the first game of a Battle of Comm. Ave. sweep against BU last weekend.
Jack Williams
Northeastern | Junior | Forward
Hometown: Biddeford, Maine
Leading the Huskies’ trio of double-digit goal scorers who all prepped in New England, Williams has 12 goals and 29 points in 24 games. The junior team captain and center — on a line with Cushing’s Cam Lund (Bridgewater, Mass.) and Salisbury’s Dylan Hryckowian — was hot in January with 11 points in seven games. He was a freshman at Berwick in 2016-17, posting nine goals and 24 points.
Jackson Dorrington
Northeastern | Junior | Defenseman
Hometown: North Reading, Mass.
A regular on the Northeastern defense since his freshman year, Dorrington boasts 10 points, 57 shots on goal and a plus-2 rating across 24 games this season. His best game was a three-point performance in the Huskies’ Nov. 23 win over Boston College. Fortunately for Dorrington, he’ll get another chance to do that on Monday night. Dorrington had 27 points in 34 games during his second year at Cushing.
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Joe Connor
Northeastern | Freshman | Forward
Hometown: Nottingham, N.H.
The former Avon Old Farms star is the top producer among Northeastern’s rookies with four goals and nine points, but he has gained some confidence of late after finishing January with points in three of his last four contests. Connor dramatically increased his production and grew into one of New England’s top players by his senior year at Avon, logging 44 points to help the Winged Beavers to the 2023 Elite 8 title.
