BOSTON ― There will be a Commonwealth Avenue takeover in the Beanpot championship.
For the first time since 2016, archrivals Boston College and Boston University will meet for the title at TD Garden.
Monday’s semifinal had the top-ranked Eagles oust two-time defending champion Northeastern 8-2 after the Terriers took care of business in a 7-1 triumph over Harvard. Before this year, no single Beanpot game had featured a seven-goal output since 2020.
Here are some takeaways from each game.
Lachance starts Terrier flurry
The Terriers had to overcome a game-opening, power-play goal from former Nobles star Casey Severo, Still, a five-goal middle frame left no doubt in clinching their second consecutive and 57th all-time berth in the championship game.
Sophomore co-captain Shane Lachance (Andover, Mass.) scored the ultimate game-winner on a highlight-reel move at the net front at 3:25 of the second, taking a Quinn Hutson pass and making a between-the-legs finish upstairs on Harvard goaltender Ben Charette.
The former Tabor standout used his 6-foot-5 frame to make a play that was nothing new to BU coach Jay Pandolfo. He’s done it plenty in practice.
“He’s got a great skill set around the net. That’s where he’s really good,” Pandolfo said. “It’s not an easy play to make under pressure when you’ve got a guy trying to get a stick in there, but he did it really quickly and that’s tough for a goalie to save.”
Lachance had been on a nine-game goal drought before scoring in Friday’s 7-2 Terrier win over New Hampshire. “Hopefully he can take off from here. You just need a little confidence,” Pandolfo added.
The floodgates opened from there, with freshman Cole Hutson and junior assistant captain Devin Kaplan each finishing two-goal performances. Hutson added two assists.
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The Terriers are finding their game and their goalie
Last February’s Beanpot title game loss was one of just two for the Terriers during a late-season run (12-3-1) that landed them in the Frozen Four. Pandolfo’s current group hopes that Monday night’s victory can be a springboard to something similar.
BU did not have a win to show for its effort in the Battle of Comm. Ave. series against BC two weekends ago, but left encouraged by its improvement through a 2-0 loss on the second night of the series. Two wins by a combined 14-3 score have followed.
“I think that game (at BC) could have gone either way besides the unfortunate (protocol) penalty to start the game, but I thought we bounced back and were resilient,” Kaplan said. “I think just taking the positives from that and using them down the stretch…and play the same way we know we can every shift.”
The arrival of freshman goaltender Mikhail Yegorov from the USHL’s Omaha Lancers at the semester break has also contributed to the Terriers’ success over that stretch. The Russian-born Yegorov made several strong stops among his 26, upping his save percentage to .944 through three games.
“He was great, he was calm and composed,” Pandolfo said. “He has a confidence and belief in himself. He’s certainly not from around here, so I don’t think he gets caught up in the moment. I think he enjoys the moment. He made some of the saves look easy.”
All about depth for BC
The Eagles certainly got plenty of production from sophomore Ryan Leonard (Amherst, Mass.), who finished with one goal and two assists and had multiple other chances stopped by Northeastern’s Cameron Whitehead (23 saves).
But it was a night showcasing the depth that has Greg Brown’s team on an eight-game win streak and topping the national rankings.
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After Teddy Stiga (Sudbury, Mass.) opened the scoring with his sixth goal in the last eight games and 10th of his freshman year, senior assistant captain Connor Joyce (Westwood, Mass.), who’s on the fourth line, netted his first goal of the season. Three defensemen found the back of the net, too.
“That was a huge night for the whole team,” sophomore defenseman Aram Minnetian said. “I thought our third and fourth lines were buzzing and our D were joining the rush, getting involved and (made huge contributions), but it came from playing the right way and defending first.”
Fifth-year senior blueliner Eamon Powell ripped a perfect wrist shot from the left circle for the eventual winner with 1:31 remaining in the first, and the run of four straight Eagle goals continued just 35 seconds into the second when Cushing grad Lukas Gustafsson benefited from Leonard’s incredible vision and tapped in a diagonal cross-ice feed to the back post.
Overall, the Eagles’ eight goals were scored by eight different players. Sophomore goaltender Jacob Fowler made 28 stops, showing no signs of a day-to-day ailment that kept him out of Friday’s game at UMass Lowell.
Can the Eagles finish?
The Eagles have won the Beanpot 20 times, but it has been a long time since they had a chance to add to that number. They have appeared in just one championship game since the last BC-BU clash, falling to Northeastern in 2019.
Stiga knows a thing or two about the magic of the first two Mondays of February. He’s hoping to be a part of some next week.
“The older guys in the room have been preaching it, it’s hard to do,” Stiga said. “It’s two games, so really anything can happen.”
Brown believes that the confidence built in a game like Monday’s can pay dividends moving forward, especially with some unlikely sources of offense stepping up on the big stage to support the likes of Leonard, whose 23 goals are two more than any player nationally.
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“It felt like a lot of guys were having good first halves, but not getting on the scoresheet at all. So, they were frustrated,” he said. “To get your contributions spread throughout the lineup is such a good feeling, makes everybody a bit taller and feeling good about their game.”
On the opposite side, Northeastern’s goals came from freshman Ben Poitras and sophomore Dylan Hryckowian, while junior Anthony Messuri (Arlington, Mass.) had an involved game on the fourth line, drawing two penalties. Hryckowian, a former Salisbury star, leads the Huskies with 13 goals.
