For players, coaches and fans, a special aura surrounds the Beanpot Tournament.
The first two Mondays of February are uniquely Boston, a true "city championship," in Northeastern head coach Jim Madigan’s words. Perhaps the only thing that could add even more excitement to this year’s 68th annual edition would be it coming one night following another Super Bowl championship for the New England Patriots. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be for the Pats.
Nonetheless, the first two Mondays of February are circled on the calendars of sports fans throughout Boston, New England and beyond.
There are always plenty of reasons to watch the annual battle for bragging rights among the two-time defending champion Huskies, Boston College, Boston University and Harvard, but here are a few for 2020:
Quest for history
Coaches often say anything can happen on any given night in hockey. While that claim certainly holds true in this tournament, the Beanpot had eluded the Huntington Hounds since 1988 before clinching back-to-back championships — the fifth and sixth in their program’s history — in 2018 and 2019.
Madigan (Milton, Mass.) was a player during Northeastern’s previous most recent championship seasons, in 1984 and 1985, so being at the helm of the program when the long drought ended two years ago was truly special.
The ninth-year head coach emphasized setting a new program standard with last year’s second straight crown, but the Huskies have never won three in a row. That can change with two victories against a field of three clubs that all have been ranked nationally at some point this year. (BC, Harvard and Northeastern were listed in USCHO’s Jan. 20 edition of the top 20.)
“We’re in a town with three 800-pound gorillas, and they’ve had a lot of success in this tournament,” Madigan said after last year’s championship victory against BC. “For us to continue to grow our program we needed to win back to back, and now we’ve got to win three in a row. … With four teams, you think it’s easy to get to the championship, but these are four real good teams. It’s hard, and we know that because we went through a drought.”
The Huskies have appeared in five Beanpot championship games since 2013.
Stars of tomorrow
There certainly will be no shortage of star power on display in the Beanpot.
BC and BU are tied for the second-most NHL draft picks in the country with 12 each, but three of the Eagles’ newcomers were drafted in the first round last June. Nine Harvard players have professional logos next to their names on the line chart, as do eight from Northeastern.
Goaltender Spencer Knight (Darien, Conn.) has lived up to all of the lofty expectations that were set since the Florida Panthers made him the 10th-ever American netminder to be picked in the first round, while Alex Newhook and Matt Boldy (Millis, Mass.) also have contributed to BC’s return to the top echelon of Hockey East.
“I know I have an outstanding hockey team in my dressing room and I think we’re going to have some great celebrations coming down the second semester here,” BC coach Jerry York (Watertown, Mass.) said on Jan. 25. “I think this is a special team. I like how we’re developing and playing in all three zones.
“I think all the games are going to be like this, where one play decides them. We’ve been in a lot of those going back to the beginning of the year, but especially the last four, five games have been close.”
All 15 Beanpot meetings between BC and BU since 2001 have been decided by two goals or less. Eleven have been one-goal games and six have needed overtime, so expect nothing less on a sheet of TD Garden ice filled with talent.
Harvard sophomore Jack Drury is one of four current Beanpotters — one from each school — who represented their country at the IIHF World Junior Championships. Few players in all of college hockey have been more productive since that tournament concluded.
The Carolina Hurricanes prospect led the country with seven goals in his first six games since returning from the Czech Republic, while his 12 points were second to North Dakota’s Jordan Kawaguchi.
“He’s just a really sound, fundamental player and a tremendous teammate and leader,” Harvard coach Ted Donato (Dedham, Mass.) said. “From the day he walked on campus, he’s been asked to do a lot of things, play against the team’s top line every night. He’s one of the most impressive and mature players I’ve ever worked with.”
Chance of a lifetime
Playing in the Beanpot is a dream for aspiring hockey players all over the Boston area. Per usual, all four schools have a group of players that turned those dreams into a reality.
Northeastern’s roster includes 14 Massachusetts natives, and BC, BU and Harvard have six each. The Huskies boast this year’s lone Beanpot captain from the Bay State in senior defenseman Ryan Shea (Milton, Mass.).
However, there may be no player in the tournament who will be more excited to see the team wearing the opposite colored jersey on Feb. 3 than BC freshman Mike Hardman. The Hanover, Mass., native’s grandfather, Bobby Sylvia, was BU’s captain in 1964-65 and played against York.
“(Hardman) kind of surprised everybody by coming to this side of Comm. Ave., but we’re very fortunate that he did that,” York said of the rookie who entered the final week before the Beanpot with points in five of his last seven games, including a Jan. 18 goal against BU.
The Eagles and Terriers will be meeting in a Beanpot semifinal for the first time since 2017. Hardman, who prepped at Winchendon, knows what to expect when the archrivals meet again at TD Garden in what is always a game that needs little added motivation.
“They’re a really good team, well-coached and have some really skilled guys running around on their power play,” Hardman said. “I think it’s going to be another great game at the Beanpot as well, so we’ve just got to (use the January win) to see what we can do to get another ‘W’ against them.”
Peaking at the right time
The Terriers have a Beanpot-record 30 championships to their credit, though returning the trophy to Agganis Arena for the first time since 2015 and snapping a stretch that includes championship losses to all three competitors won’t be the immediate focus.
BU is playing some of its best hockey of the season at the right time, having entered the final week of January with a 5-2-1 record in an eight-game stretch.
“We’re just focused on getting better every day and treating each game as a one-game series, so that’s our mindset as we come down to this time of the year,” BU senior assistant captain Patrick Harper (New Canaan, Conn.) said. “The morale has been high because we know we’ve been playing some pretty good hockey. We had those wins over (Harvard and Northeastern before Christmas) and just kept it rolling into the second half.”
Early in the second half, junior Logan Cockerill’s return from an October injury has proved to be a big boost and allowed the Terriers to better stabilize their forward lines and create depth.
“He brings a lot of jam and reliability to our team, and those are things that we were missing when he was out of the lineup,” Harper said. “Having him back brings more confidence to the group.”
BU also added two players at the semester break in forward Wilmer Skoog, who scored in his first two games, and goaltender Ashton Abel.
@JoshuaKummins
