BOSTON — For the fourth time in five tournaments, Northeastern is bringing the Beanpot back to Huntington Avenue.
It was already going to be a historic Monday night featuring the first-ever title game clash between the Huskies and Harvard in the tournament’s 70-year history, but it also became the first Beanpot decided in a shootout after the NCAA’s decision to make the ending of all games uniform with a 3-on-3 overtime followed by a best-of-three shootout. Northeastern emerged with a 3-2 victory.
After a thrilling extra session ended with the score still tied at 2-2, Northeastern captain and leading scorer Aidan McDonough (Milton, Mass.) scored the lone shootout goal, and junior Devon Levi stopped all three shots he faced to send the DogHouse and a packed crowd of Huskies fans to its feet.
“We knew it was going to be a battle tonight. It was going to be a close one,” Northeastern’s Jerry Keefe said following his first Beanpot victory as head coach. “I’m really proud of these guys. Seeing them jump off the bench when (Levi) made that save … it just means a lot to the players, to our school and all of our families.”
Harvard sophomore Matthew Coronato finished the Beanpot with four goals after scoring twice in the second period, but Northeastern forced overtime as junior Gunnarwolfe Fontaine (East Greenwich, R.I.) scored his second of the game 4:57 into the third period.
Here are four takeaways from the game.
Devon Levi gets his revenge
The first meeting of the season between the two teams on New Year’s Day didn’t go Northeastern’s way as the Crimson piled a season-high nine goals on Levi.
If anyone was going to make sure the results were different on the second Monday in February, it was the goalie with plenty of big-game experience from his time in net for Canada at the World Junior Championship and Olympics over the last two years.
“Looking ahead before the first Beanpot game, I wanted Harvard to beat BC,” Levi said. “I wanted to see them in the finals again because they put on a clinic against me and I wanted revenge. … The boys played unbelievable in front of me today.”
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Levi had to shake off a bit of an uncharacteristic goal within the game, spilling a rebound to the top of the crease that Coronato was able to bang in from a tight angle for his second tally. He later saved all three shootout attempts including one by Coronato and the clincher by Crimson junior Alex Laferriere.
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All told, he stopped 65 of the 68 shots he faced in the tournament for a .956 save percentage, which was the seventh-best in Beanpot history. Levi earned both the Most Valuable Player and Eberly Award (top goaltender) honors, becoming the fifth consecutive winner of the latter award from Northeastern.
After being away from the team during the tournament a year ago, his first experience in the Boston tradition lived up to the hype.
“Everyone says how big the Beanpot is, but I didn’t realize it until I was here,” Levi said. “Seeing all the fans go crazy in a packed NHL rink, it’s a really cool feeling and probably something you only get to do once in your life. College hockey is such an amazing experience, let alone the Beanpot and let alone winning it.”
McDonough does it all
McDonough leads Hockey East with 19 goals and has developed a penchant for the big strike throughout his career, but the Northeastern captain was certainly at the center of the opposing gameplan.
He was largely taken out of the game with physical play, though he did have a golden chance in the second period that bounced in the crease and past his stick with an open net in front.
In the third, he delivered a big open-ice hit on Laferriere that energized the bench during a tied game.
“When I was looking down the bench and (McDonough) was fresh, he was going,” Keefe said. “I think myself and his teammates have that much confidence in him. He was going to do whatever it took to win tonight, whether it was finding a way to score a huge goal which he did in the shootout, defend, whatever you had to do.”
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The Huskies were credited with five of the seven shots in overtime, but Harvard senior Mitchell Gibson (27 saves) came up huge and stopped freshman defenseman Vinny Borgesi on a breakaway among his five saves during the extra five-minute session.
After Fontaine picked a key time to break his eight-game goal drought, McDonough delivered when his team needed him most and buried the lone shootout goal, busting down the slot with speed for a wrister over Gibson’s blocker.
Despite not playing his best, McDonough was still credited with a pair of shots and two blocks in regulation and overtime. As Keefe said, he did whatever it took.
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“It wasn’t my best game, by any means, personally. I was a little frustrated not getting the touches I normally get there, but they were being physical,” McDonough said. “You’ve just got to stick with it. Coach always talks about a 60-minute game. … I had a feeling my time was coming, so you’ve just got to stick with it and not get too frustrated.”
The Northeastern era of the Beanpot
Northeastern had won three straight Beanpots for the first time in program history from 2018-20 before Boston University broke that streak last season. With Monday’s win over Harvard, though, the Huskies have now beaten all three city rivals within their run of four titles in the last five Beanpots.
Meanwhile, the 31-time tournament champion Terriers have fallen into the cellar for the fourth time since 2013 and only the eighth time ever after losing the consolation game to Boston College, 4-2.
BU entered Monday as the No. 4 team in the Pairwise Rankings, but its second straight loss dropped them from the No. 1 seed line in NCAA tournament projections.
“It speaks to how good all four teams are,” Keefe said. “The Beanpot is anyone’s game. You’ve got to play really well to win this tournament. I hate to say it, but I can see why it took so long (a 30-year drought until 2018) for Northeastern to win one. It’s not an easy tournament to win.”
As for the shootout, it was a disappointing ending to such a competitive game that featured high-quality chances for both teams.
“I think both sides would probably agree that it’s a tough way to lose the Beanpot championship, but they deserve a lot of credit,” Harvard coach Ted Donato said. “It’s one of those games where you really don’t want it to end. You want it to end with somebody making a play.”
How Northeastern and Harvard move forward from this
The Beanpot can often be a springboard to success in March and beyond.
After all, each of the national championship seasons that BC and BU have put together since 2001 had a Beanpot trophy in the trophy case. There is a long way to go until then, but every journey has to begin somewhere.
Northeastern has been a different team since the aforementioned loss to the Crimson, going 6-1-2 in nine games since. The Huskies are just one point out of first place in the Hockey East standings with just five games left to play.
“We’ve figured out what we have to do to have success,” Keefe said. “We went through a little tough stretch there without some defensemen. … We didn’t really put a lot on that loss because we didn’t play a great game and defend very well that night. (We wanted to) stick to that 60-minute (game), stick together and it worked out.”
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Harvard, meanwhile, has plenty of offensive firepower and can ride the likes of Coronato, 42-point junior Sean Farrell (Hopkinton, Mass.) and healthy senior defenseman Henry Thrun (Southborough, Mass.) along for a deep run in ECAC Hockey.
“I think it’s an incredible opportunity to play in that environment,” Donato said. “I think your whole team grows up to a certain point, and once the hurt wears down a little bit I think it’s pretty obvious that we elevated our game. … If we want to have success at the end of the year, we’re going to have to play in high-stress situations and we’ll look back at this as a growing opportunity.”
