BOSTON ― The Terriers scooped up all the beans again.
A run of four unanswered goals from the second period on and the continued stellar play of freshman goaltender Mikhail Yegorov propelled Boston University to a 4-1 upset win over top-ranked archrival Boston College in the Beanpot Championship.
With the win, the Terriers hoisted the ‘Pot for the second time in four years and a record 32nd overall.
Earlier in the evening, Harvard beat Northeastern 4-3 in the consolation game on the strength of four power-play goals, including two by Bruins defenseman prospect Mason Langenbrunner. Former Nobles standout Casey Severo had one goal and one assist for the Crimson.
Here are three key takeaways from the championship game.
BU freshmen came to play
The Terriers’ talented freshmen class played a huge role in the victory as Brandon Svoboda, Cole Hutson and Cole Eiserman (Newburyport, Mass.) all scored goals and Yegorov (43 saves) continued his incredible run since joining the team at the semester break from the USHL’s Omaha Lancers.
The Beanpot always seems to bring the best out of unsung hero-type players, and Svoboda’s game-tying goal provided a memorable moment from the team’s fourth line, sparking a two-goal turnaround over a 1:10 span in the second period.
Thayer grad Nick Roukounakis (Pembroke, Mass.) picked up an errant puck in the neutral zone and started Svoboda in transition to produce the tying goal at 5:43. Svoboda cruised down the right wing and ripped a perfect shot under the crossbar behind BC goaltender Jacob Fowler.
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“He plays a really good role for us,” BU coach Jay Pandolfo (Burlington, Mass.) said. “He’s a big body and he can really skate. He’s been excellent on the penalty kill, excellent on faceoffs. It was great to see him get rewarded with that goal. Very similar role to what he did for Team USA at the World Junior Championship. He chipped in with some huge goals there, and he did that for us tonight.”
Another big body at 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds, Roukounakis has turned into an everyday player for the Terriers of late, recording all four of his assists over the last four games after beginning the season as a scratch.
Hutson added to his stellar Beanpot with the go-ahead goal at 6:53, taking defense partner Tom Willander’s feed in the left circle and burying a wrist shot. The freshman defenseman, who also scored twice during a four-point effort in the 7-1 semifinal win over Harvard, was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
“Those two back-to-back goals really gave us life,” Hutson said. “When we were up, we’re a team that has been able to hold onto the lead pretty much all year so far. You’ve gotta be able to find a way to win in those close games.”
The run of freshmen goals concluded with Eiserman picking off BC junior defenseman Lukas Gustafsson’s pass and coasting down the middle of the ice to score his 16th goal of the season with 6:08 remaining in regulation.
The newcomer came up big in net
It’s hard not to be impressed with how seamlessly the 6-foot-5, 180-pound Yegorov has fit into the college game.
The Russian-born freshman and 2024 second-round draft pick of the New Jersey Devils came up with the highlight performance of his young Terrier career, which began in the second game of the Battle of Comm. Ave. series just three weekends ago.
“It was a little wild,” Yegorov said of his journey from Omaha to Boston. “I knew that the (Beanpot) was going to be unreal, but just experiencing this crowd, the emotions…was just incredible. I watched it on TV last year, now I’m here.”
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Yegorov’s 43-save Monday effort included 15 and 16 saves in the first and second periods, respectively, upping his save percentage to .951 for the season. He stopped 69 of the 71 shots he faced on the Beanpot stage for a .972 save percentage, the second-highest by a Terrier in tournament history.
“He has a calmness and confidence about him that you just see every day, and he’s fun to be around. You can just see the joy he has coming to the rink,” Pandolfo said. “I haven’t seen it yet, he does not get caught up in the moment. He enjoys the moment, thrives in the moment. That’s what he’s done for us here.”
Before the game turned around, it had been a dominant start for the Eagles, who opened the scoring at 6:51 on star sophomore Gabe Perreault’s slam-dunk finish at the net front. Part of a 15-2 start in shots on goal, Perreault received the final pass in a perfect sequence with linemates Ryan Leonard (Amherst, Mass.) and Andre Gasseau and slotted it home.
From there, Yegorov would not be beaten.
The Terriers came up with three penalty kills in the middle frame, and though the third was his slowest period in terms of shot volume, Yegorov made multiple key saves to keep his team ahead as the clock ticked down. One highlight came on Gasseau’s one-timer from the left circle with 9:45 left.
“If you watch the first 15 minutes of that game, we were under siege,” Pandolfo said. “It took us a while to find our legs, and this big fella (Yegorov) held us in the game. … Then, we found our legs and started playing our game and started playing the way we need to play to have success.”
Terriers look to build, Eagles look to move past
While all roads don’t end at the Beanpot, the venerable event can certainly be a launching point for the rest of the season with the Hockey East and national tournaments just over a month away.
The Terriers — now up to No. 6 in the Pairwise Rankings — are hoping for that type of surge in the coming weeks, having claimed Monday’s win on the heels of being swept by BC in January. Last February’s overtime loss to Northeastern galvanized BU, which took its only losses thereafter in the Hockey East title game and Frozen Four semifinal.
Pandolfo was pleased with his team’s night-to-night improvement during the BC series earlier this season, though it still lost a 2-0 game the second night following Yegorov’s controversial pregame protocol penalty. The third-year coach hoped that the memory stuck with his team, and it certainly did.
“It’s never fun getting swept in this league. It’s even less fun when you get swept by BC, that’s for sure,” he said. “I remember after that game, our guys talking about it, and they were going to remember this and they were hoping to get another shot at them in this tournament. … Our guys did the job to get here and found a way to win it, so good for them.”
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BC, meanwhile, isn’t going anywhere.
The Eagles are still the No. 1 team by a wide margin and had carried a nine-game win streak into the second Monday of February. The star power of the aforementioned Perreault and Leonard, freshman James Hagens, and Fowler gives coach Greg Brown (Southborough, Mass.) plenty of tools to succeed down the stretch.
“They were upset in the locker room, especially the ones who were getting their last shot at it … but BU played a little better than us,” Brown said. “Feel bad for those guys, but we can still do some things this season.”
