BOSTON -- Three in a row. For Northeastern.
It had never been done before in 67 years of Beanpot history.
After a 4-4 tie between the Huskies and Boston University was officially recorded for NCAA purposes, sophomore defenseman Jordan Harris (Haverhill, Mass.) made history for the venerable tournament and his team Monday night at TD Garden.
Harris sent a wrister through traffic and beat Boston University graduate student goaltender Sam Tucker (Wilton, Conn.) for the Beanpot-winning goal at the 14:33 mark of the second overtime.
The Huskies trailed 2-0 less than eight minutes into the game and were just 1.2 seconds away from winning the title in regulation before BU freshman Trevor Zegras scored to tie the game, but they showed resilience yet again in coming back -- questionable power play aside -- in order to capture their seventh Beanpot.
Here’s what we saw on the second Monday of February at TD Garden:
Why Northeastern won
The Huskies had heart.
To put it simply, the team wearing white was chasing the game in overtime. Northeastern allowed all five shots on goal in the initial (five-minute) overtime and then the first four during the full-length second extra session. Before Tucker made a pair of key saves on tight shots five minutes into the second overtime, BU had put together a remarkable 18-0 run in shots.
When it mattered most, though, the Huskies got it all done while playing without freshman defenseman Jayden Struble (Cumberland, R.I.) and senior forward and assistant captain Matt Filipe (Lynnfield, Mass.). Ninth-year coach Jim Madigan’s team has had to rally to win before, although it had not previously recovered from a two-goal deficit this season.
They did this time, however, keeping the Beanpot trophy on Huntington Avenue for another year.
“We’ve been through it a lot,” Madigan said. “I don’t know if I was even-keeled, so it’s hard to ask the players to be even-keeled. We needed to get through the first five minutes of overtime. We needed to reset, and I thought we reset in the locker room.”
Leaders such as senior captain and defenseman Ryan Shea (Milton, Mass.) led both on the ice -- recording a team-high five of 21 blocked shots and assists on two of his team’s first three goals, by freshman Aidan McDonough (Milton, Mass.) and junior assistant captain Zach Solow -- and in the locker room with a between-periods speech about belief and doing it for the guy in the next stall.
McDonough finished with a four-point night for the second time this season, recording his third assist on the Harris winner.
There were unheralded stars as well. Most notably, sophomore defenseman Julian Kislin assisted on each of the team’s first two goals to double his previous point total through his first 14 games this season.
Two Beanpots in a row for Northeastern seemed unfathomable to many for years and years, but this Huskies team had an eye on history and doing something that had never been done before.
“They’ve set the bar high,” Madigan said. “This is a team people will be chasing for a while.”
Play of the game
The winning goal did not come without controversy.
Northeastern was granted the lone power-play chance after overtime when BU senior Patrick Harper (New Canaan, Conn.) was called for a questionable tripping penalty while challenging Shea for a loose puck coming down the right wing. Harris went on to score the Huskies’ third power-play goal in eight attempts as compared to two in three for BU.
“I’m not supposed to comment on officials, but the one thing I will say is that the diving in that game that was called is unreal,” BU coach Albie O’Connell said. “Karma didn’t catch up to that one. It will. It’s just a tough thing to watch.”
Madigan has been on both sides of such a situation. A similar call went against Northeastern in 2015 and led to then-Terrier captain and current Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk’s (Charlestown, Mass.) game-winning goal.
“I’m sure BU didn’t like the call,” Madigan said. “I’ve been there. … The game could have gone either way. We got the break. I sympathize with BU. We lost to BU on what we didn’t think was a good call in 2015. These things have a way of evening themselves out.”
Key player
With solid play all night before his game-winning goal, Harris certainly atoned for a slashing penalty just 1:29 into the third period that led to BU junior David Farrance cutting his team’s deficit to one goal. The former Kimball Union standout was a plus-1 on the night, took three shots on goal and blocked two shots whole partnering with Jeremie Bucheler, who was one of three rookies on the back end.
Harris is a player who Northeastern has expected a lot out of since he set foot on campus last year and, as the coach put it, “he delivers.” In this circumstance, though, he didn’t try to do too much. Good things happen when you put pucks on net.
“Right when we got the power play, we came over to the bench and the coaches mentioned that if we get the puck, try to get it to the middle and get a shot on net,” Harris said. “I tried to do just that. Thankfully the lane opened up and it went in.”
O’Connell thought his BU team played an outstanding game from beginning to end, minus the final result, and had a slew of star performers as well. Sophomore Jake Wise (Reading, Mass.) scored his second career goal just 2:49 into the game, assisted on Farrance’s, and finished the night with a plus-2 and five shots on goal. The incredible playmaking duo of Zegras and Harper contributed two goals and two assists, respectively.
Top honors
Most Valuable Player honors for the tournament went to Solow, who gave Northeastern its first lead of the game at 9:42 of the second period. The Huskies took advantage of a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:25 by scoring twice, with senior Grant Jozefek adding another goal less than two minutes later, at 11:23.
Solow is the eighth Beanpot MVP from Northeastern and the seventh Husky to win the award, joining current professionals Adam Gaudette and Cayden Primeau from the last two championship runs.
“It’s really special to be in a class with those guys,” Solow said. “This award really could have gone to everyone on our team. That’s what makes our team so effective -- is that every guy plays like an MVP every night. When we have everyone going, we’re a hard team to beat.”
In BU’s net, Tucker relieved freshman Ashton Abel after Northeastern’s fourth goal, his fourth on 14 shots.
The graduate student in the other net -- Bridgewater, Mass., native Craig Pantano -- was another MVP for Northeastern. The Merrimack transfer earned the Eberly Award as he compiled the highest save percentage (.930) over two-week combined Beanpot play, making 67 saves on 72 shots. On Monday, 10 of his 40 saves came in the second overtime.
“Everyone believed that we were going to win,” Shea said. “We’ve been in situations like that before, we won two (Beanpots) in the past. I don’t think we needed to be nervous or worried, because we’re confident. Pantano played unbelievable once again, he’s given us that all year and now we just move on to (two games this weekend against) UMass Lowell.”
