When the puck drops on the 66th annual Beanpot tournament Feb. 5, the banner commemorating the previous year’s tournament champion in the TD Garden rafters will look different than it has for the entire lifetime of any player stepping onto the ice.
Since Harvard broke its 24-year championship drought — and the combined tournament reign of Boston College and Boston University — with a 6-3 victory over the Terriers last Feb. 13, the Beanpot has taken on a whole new meaning for 14th-year head coach Ted Donato’s club.
"Our guys got a taste of having success in the Beanpot," Donato (Dedham, Mass.) said of his Crimson winning their first title since 1993, one that preceded a second ECAC crown in the past three seasons. "And, it was such a great experience and such an achievement that I would almost say it’s taken over a bigger meaning because the guys are now excited about the opportunity to try to win it again."
But, it’s anybody’s ballgame this year. Harvard has had an upand- down season, much like its Beanpot counterparts, enduring a 4-6-1 start before an eight-game (5-0-3) unbeaten run lifted it within three points of a return to the USCHO top 20 national poll and just two off the ECAC lead.
If there is any year that Northeastern is the likely "favorite" though, this is the one.
The Huskies have held a spot in the national polls all year, and their No. 8 ranking, as of Jan. 22, leads the Beanpot field. Jim Madigan’s club won 11 of its first 16 Hockey East games, reaching the 15-win mark overall before the Beanpot for the first time since 2008-09.
Led by the offensive exploits of junior Adam Gaudette (Braintree, Mass.), who teamed up with senior Dylan Sikura to score 70 combined points in the season’s first 24 games, the Huskies have remained consistent and stormed toward the top of the Hockey East race. Gaudette’s classmate and fellow Thayer Academy product Lincoln Griffin (Walpole, Mass.) knows what has led to that success.
"The kid works harder than anyone I know, and that’s what’s gotten him here," Griffin said of Gaudette, who entered the last weekend of January as the nation’s scoring leader with 36 points. "I think he’s got a lot more in store. And, we’ve been playing well, so I think the team has a lot left, too."
All four teams have played some of their best hockey of late, so the first two Mondays of February should live up to their usual hype again. No matter what states the teams are in recordwise in any given year, it usually does, as evidenced by four of the eight games over the past two tournaments going to overtime.
"Whether you’re a favorite or a team struggling going into the Beanpot — and there isn’t a team struggling this year — it’s its own animal altogether, right?" said Madigan (Milton, Mass.), whose Huskies haven’t won the tournament since 1988. "You’ve got to control your emotions, but I think more than anything we have to embrace the pressure. Every time you play, there’s pressure. From my end, just embrace the opportunity and what the Beanpot brings, and embrace the pressure.
"It’s not just another game, but when the puck drops, you have to treat it like it’s just another game."
For the 26 combined Massachusetts natives among the four teams, it will never feel like just another game. Playing in the Beanpot is a lifetime dream for many hockey-playing locals, but one that few actually accomplish.
Harvard senior tri-captain Eddie Ellis (Burlington, Mass.) grew up as a BC fan as his father, Doug, is a former Eagle, but the family’s allegiances are now colored Crimson. Playing in the tournament has been a dream come true for Ellis, but helping to bring the ’Pot back to Cambridge made his story even that much more special.
Like Donato, too, he sees a bit of a changed mind-set and renewed confidence entering this year’s installment.
"We’ve made a lot of steps in the last three or four years as a program, but (winning last year’s Beanpot has) been one of the biggest, I think," the Phillips Andover alum said. "A lot of us know what it takes now. You’ve got to win games against two great teams, but having been there and knowing the little things you need to do to win playing in that atmosphere, I think it definitely adds an element of experience and some confidence for us."
Every team wants to win the Beanpot, of course, and BU has done so a tournament-record 30 times. Last year’s result left a sour taste in the mouths of the Terriers, who ultimately were 24-game winners on the season and came within a game of reaching the Frozen Four for the second time in three years.
What happened last year, though, is a definite positive for the tournament’s overall health.
"We want to win championships," said Quinn, whose team did not win back-to-back games until beginning a four-game unbeaten streak Jan. 12 at New Hampshire. "I wasn’t going to run in the locker room and celebrate with him, and I still wish we’d won, but I’m happy for Teddy. … It is good for the tournament when another team wins it, for sure."
Because of their Beanpot championship dominance, BC and BU have finished fourth and last in the field just seven and six times ever, respectively. One of those years was 2017 for the Eagles, who enter this year’s tournament with a 0-5-3 record in non-conference play.
BC is playing this season without a true senior on its entire roster, a wrinkle that Jerry York (Watertown, Mass.) had never before experienced over his storied head coaching career.
Although the Eagles are the youngest team in college hockey, they know the opportunity to change that zero in the nonconference wins column that lies ahead at TD Garden is a massive one for the team’s postseason aspirations. Last year marked BC’s first fourth-place finish in the Beanpot since 1993, and the Eagles later fell short of the NCAA tournament after a one-goal loss to UMass Lowell in the Hockey East title game.
"We’re always excited for the Beanpot because I think it brings out a different mentality in everyone," said BC junior defenseman and captain Casey Fitzgerald. "We’re looking forward to hopefully getting back on the winning track and playing for a title. I was lucky enough to win it my freshman year, so I’ve been hungry for wanting it back."
BU junior assistant captain Bobo Carpenter — who, like Fitzgerald, calls North Reading, Mass., home — is feeling a similar hunger, in multiple respects. He was not only a member of last year’s BU team that fell in the title game, but he’s looking to tie the score with sister Alex, who capped her BC career with a Women’s Beanpot title two years ago.
"Even if you’re not from around here, the Beanpot catches on to you quickly," Bobo said. "I was lucky enough to grow up with it, so it’s an especially fun time. My sister won one, and everyone’s been around it, so it’d be really nice to grab one of those, too."
While the first half of BU’s season felt like a rollercoaster, Carpenter saw momentum building in the group at the start of this semester. With such a talented team up and down the lineup, including five players drafted last June, watch out for the Terriers if they can keep up their hot play down the stretch.
"When you play good hockey, it kind of catches on and everyone gets excited," he said. "(What happened last year) gives you that extra boost, but our goal is just to get better every day. If we can do that, the outcome should be pretty good."
After all four teams had players at least garner consideration for several countries’ teams competing in the upcoming Olympic Winter Games, BU junior Jordan Greenway and Harvard star Ryan Donato (Scituate, Mass.) were selected to represent the United States and will be departing for PyeongChang, South Korea, prior to the second day of Beanpot action.
The opportunity for collegiate talent to be showcased during the Games adds a unique wrinkle to this year’s Beanpot, but it’s not one that changes the game plan for the defending champions entering the first Monday. Winning is, of course, still the name of the game.
"I haven’t given it a lot of thought, but we’re just going to play with the guys that we have, and we’re going to work hard," Ted Donato said. "The difference is that we kind of know in advance whereas if someone gets hurt or other issues arise, the lineup would change (more immediately). We just want to get ourselves to the final, then we’ll see where it takes us."
Ellis knows what a special chance this is for Donato, and what a special chance, too, becoming a repeat Beanpot champion would be.
"It’s truly great to see Ryan make the Olympic team," Ellis said. "He deserves it very much because he works really hard, so we’re really looking forward to cheering him on out there, despite the fact we will be missing him for a couple games.
"I think that every guy on our team is going to have to collectively pick their game up a notch or two for us to be successful," he added. "For those of us who grew up here, the Beanpot is especially special, but winning it is a big goal of ours as a team."
The 11-time Beanpot champion Crimson are gunning for their second straight championship appearance for the first time since 1994, so beating BU in this Beanpot would put yet another lengthy streak to rest. Before last February, Harvard had not played for the title since 2008.
The best part about the Beanpot? The rest of the season’s stats go out the window. It’s all about what happens on those two Monday nights.
