BOSTON — Crowning a Women’s Beanpot champion at TD Garden isn’t a brand-new event anymore, and it retained its exciting, big-arena feel a second time around on Tuesday night.
Northeastern clinched its third consecutive and 20th all-time Beanpot title with a 4-0 win over Boston University. The game was a rematch of last season’s first-ever Beanpot decided on Causeway Street.
Another skate in front of a packed Garden crowd — 13,279 fans, the fifth-largest crowd in NCAA women’s hockey history — was special in itself, but keeping the trophy on Huntington Avenue made it even more so for the Huskies.
“The very first one I won [in 2023] was not at TD [Garden] yet, but still very, very special. The last two, to compete here, I feel like it’s a whole 'nother level and just great for women’s college hockey,” senior defender Tory Mariano said. “To play the Beanpot here is incredible, and to go out with a Beanpot championship, there’s nothing like it.”
The script wrote itself last January when now-senior center Skylar Irving (Kingston, Mass.) scored Northeastern’s only two goals, including the overtime winner.
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Irving scored a goal — an empty-netter with 2:44 left in regulation — and dished out an assist on Tuesday, but plenty of other Huskies from near and far stepped up this time around. Among them was a new Boston-area hero in junior Lily Shannon (Andover, Mass.), who netted the first of two Northeastern goals in a 40-second span late in the second period to cushion the lead.
The local duo of Shannon and Irving, who now co-lead the team with nine goals apiece, play a key role in carrying on the program’s tradition of success in the Beanpot and beyond.
“The players that have been here before, that have played in these pressure situations, have laid the groundwork, but they also develop our younger players,” said Northeastern coach Dave Flint (Merrimack, N.H.). “Our freshmen now see how the upperclassmen handle themselves in this situation and it carries (from) year to year.”
Those freshmen include goaltender Lisa Jönsson, who hails from not so close to home in Stockholm, Sweden. She pitched a 30-save shutout in the championship, her sixth in 14 career starts and the first in a Beanpot title game since 2016.
She was named Beanpot MVP after stopping 65 of the 67 shots across two games.
Did she know of the Beanpot’s prestige across the Atlantic?
“Actually, no,” said Jönsson, whose .955 save percentage is the nation’s best. “I knew it was a big tournament. Obviously, playing against teams in your town is always fun, but I didn’t know there was this much attention around it. It’s been such an awesome experience.”
Graduate defender Lily Yovetich’s first goal of the season opened the scoring 8:31 into the proceedings, and the 1-0 scoreline remained until the late stages of the middle frame when Shannon lit the lamp.
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After Clarkson grad transfer Jaden Bogden picked up a loose puck off a turnover and fired a shot on Terriers goaltender Callie Shanahan, Shannon charged down the slot to bury the rebound for a key insurance tally.
Bogden made it 3-0 just 40 seconds later.
“I don’t think she’s played in front of a crowd like that,” Flint said of Bogden. “She played in Frozen Fours [at Clarkson], but I think this crowd was on another level.”
From there, Jönsson had the utmost confidence.
“I just feel like once we get going, we are able to score a lot of goals,” she said. “And unless they score on me early, I’m not gonna let in any pucks.”
That mindset certainly gives a former goalie in Flint a good feeling on the bench.
“When I started coaching 29 years ago, a coach told me one time, ‘When you build a team, he said, G.A.A.G., Get A Good Goalie,’ ” Flint said. “That’s one thing I’ve always tried to pride myself on…and you can always build your team around that. Lisa proved tonight that she’s one of the best goalies in the NCAA.”
After raising the Beanpot for a sixth time as Northeastern’s coach, Flint acknowledged the total team effort beyond Jönsson. That made the victory even more special.
“So incredibly proud of this group,” Flint said. “That was a hard-fought win, and they stepped up on the biggest stage tonight. From the goal line out, everybody was going, everybody was working hard.”
The Huskies may have taken home Boston bragging rights, but the real winner was women’s hockey at large. It was another historic night for the sport, in a year full of them.
Few can put the growth of the Beanpot and the sport as a whole into perspective like BU coach Tara Watchorn, who not only starred as a Terrier from 2008-12 but won Olympic gold for Team Canada.
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Even in defeat, she couldn’t help but smile while shining a light on what it all means.
“What a great time for women’s sports, a great time for hockey in this city and women’s hockey,” Watchorn said. “I think I can speak for all of us in the hockey world and probably everyone in this room that I don’t think anyone’s surprised anymore. There’s a massive fanbase out there, and it goes beyond just young girls that want to play in these girls’ shoes.
“It’s so special every time.”
