Boston College Athletics
National Tournament Aspirations Await Beanpot's Shiny Grasp
January 31, 2018 | Men's Hockey, #ForBoston Files
2018 tournament sees four teams fighting for NCAA Tournament berths.
There's something of a familiar cadence to college hockey. The second half of the season starts in January, after holiday tournaments and the World Junior Championships. It kicks up with conference play as teams start to get rolling. By the end of the month, the steamroller is at full throttle in its top gear as leagues start to get red hot.
That's when Boston takes a break. In the midst of emotional hockey games, four schools step outside and remind everyone that traditions are never broken. They hit the pause button on those respective conference chases, instead stepping inside hallowed grounds for a shot to hoist a shiny trophy first introduced in 1952.
"It's really exciting," Boston College men's hockey coach Jerry York said. "Every year it comes in that February time, on Monday night, when there isn't that much going on. The four teams involved are in their own championship (races) in our own leagues - in Hockey East and ECAC - but for those two Mondays, we block everything out and really focus on trying to get that shiny Beanpot back on our campus."
It's a tradition unlike any other in sports. It transforms college hockey into an older time defined by parochial heritage. It's a source of a local pride that seems to always define Massachusetts, and it's something born to a proud people who want to win the trophy for their heroes who came before and are still yet to come.
"Every year, it's a new experience," junior defenseman Casey Fitzgerald said. "You don't get used to it because it's always awesome. You step onto the Garden ice, and there's always so many fans who show up because it's a tradition. Growing up, I went to Beanpots. I always looked up to those guys (who played), and now I get to go out on that ice and maybe kids are looking up to me."
The Beanpot continues to represent that tradition, even as the game around it is changing. College hockey is becoming more global, with worldwide talent creating an unprecedented parity. Harvard's championship last year was its first since 1993, and it created a scenario where three different teams won in three consecutive seasons.
That parity is perhaps more evident this year than ever before. Northeastern, who hasn't won the Beanpot since 1988, is the highest-ranked team at No. 11 in the USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll. But the Huskies are two points behind Boston College, ranked No. 16 in the USCHO poll, in the Hockey East standings entering this weekend.
Boston University is right in that race, tied for fourth in Hockey East with 20 points. And Harvard, the lone ECAC entrant, remains in a dogfight for a first round bye; the Crimson are four points clear of fifth-place Colgate despite having played five less games overall as an Ivy League institution.
The conference standings won't matter in this series, but the national rankings will. The Pairwise Ranking is a mathematical formula largely used to determine who is inside or outside the NCAA Tournament bubble. The Huskies are inside the bubble at a very tenuous No. 14, with the remaining three schools on the outside. Boston College sits at No. 20 with Boston University three spots behind it and Harvard at No. 27, meaning wins in this tournament could eventually make or break tournament dreams.
"It's a very tight-knit, competitive tournament," Fitzgerald said. "Everyone is very close, but it doesn't matter with this anyways. If you're struggling or whatever, you know it's going to be a battle in the Beanpot. It's going to be a game no matter who you play."
"Make no mistake about it that the national championship is the be all and end all," York said. "All of the teams point to it. The Beanpot is coveted by all of us, but the national championship is our Holy Grail. Having that said, these games really become magnified because the only team getting in with the Pairwise right now is Northeastern. So we have to look at this as getting victories for a chance to maybe sneak into that 14-15-16 range. That makes it doubly important (for everyone)."
The Eagles open this year's tournament on Monday with Northeastern in a rematch of last year's consolation game. The Huskies won that one, 4-2, to hand BC a fourth-place finish in the Beanpot for the seven time overall and first since 1985. But it was also their only win over the Eagles last season, losing in the two conference regular season meetings. This season, the Huskies split with BC, losing at home in Matthews Arena in November, 4-1, before winning at Conte Forum, 5-2, a month later.
"I think it keeps me up at night because (everyone) are difficult outs," York joked. "But we start with Northeastern. They're a highly skilled team, terrific dynamics, skilled offensively and present a bunch of different challenges for us. We have a game Friday at UConn but when we talk about the Beanpot, we only talk about Northeastern."
The Huskies are led by a group of NHL draftees, including three forwards. Adam Gaudette and Dylan Sikura, drafted by Vancouver and Chicago, respectively, are both 35-point scorers. Gaudette will likely have 40 points by the time the team rolls into the Garden since he has 39, evenly displaced with 19 goals and 20 assists, entering Friday's game against New Hampshire.
They're joined by Nolan Stevens, a St. Louis Blues' draftee with 16 goals, and defenseman Jeremy Davies, a sophomore drafted by New Jersey who has 16 assists. In back, freshman Cayden Primeau has a 2.06 goals against average and a .920 save percentage, numbers that get better against Hockey East teams.
"They play good team defense," York said. "They have a good freshman goaltender (in Primeau). Everyone talks about their offense and their power play and poise and the skill up front, but we've seen them and know they're tough to score goals against. This is one of the best teams (Northeastern head coach) Jim (Madigan) has ever had."
"It's a great game every time we play them," Fitzgerald said. "It's a big rivalry, and we know it's going to be huge no matter what. It's going to be very fast-paced and up-tempo. There's a lot of back-and-forth. They have a very good offensive team, and I think, so do we. We can match (them) with four solid lines, and the way we play will (need to) contribute well against them."
The Eagles have one game left on Friday at the XL Center in Hartford against UConn at 7:05 p.m. That will set the stage for Monday, when the Eagles and Huskies play at 5 p.m. at TD Garden, followed by BU and Harvard. Winners advance to the Beanpot Championship on February 12 at 7:30 p.m., while losers will play in the consolation game at 4:30 on that same date.
That's when Boston takes a break. In the midst of emotional hockey games, four schools step outside and remind everyone that traditions are never broken. They hit the pause button on those respective conference chases, instead stepping inside hallowed grounds for a shot to hoist a shiny trophy first introduced in 1952.
"It's really exciting," Boston College men's hockey coach Jerry York said. "Every year it comes in that February time, on Monday night, when there isn't that much going on. The four teams involved are in their own championship (races) in our own leagues - in Hockey East and ECAC - but for those two Mondays, we block everything out and really focus on trying to get that shiny Beanpot back on our campus."
It's a tradition unlike any other in sports. It transforms college hockey into an older time defined by parochial heritage. It's a source of a local pride that seems to always define Massachusetts, and it's something born to a proud people who want to win the trophy for their heroes who came before and are still yet to come.
"Every year, it's a new experience," junior defenseman Casey Fitzgerald said. "You don't get used to it because it's always awesome. You step onto the Garden ice, and there's always so many fans who show up because it's a tradition. Growing up, I went to Beanpots. I always looked up to those guys (who played), and now I get to go out on that ice and maybe kids are looking up to me."
The Beanpot continues to represent that tradition, even as the game around it is changing. College hockey is becoming more global, with worldwide talent creating an unprecedented parity. Harvard's championship last year was its first since 1993, and it created a scenario where three different teams won in three consecutive seasons.
That parity is perhaps more evident this year than ever before. Northeastern, who hasn't won the Beanpot since 1988, is the highest-ranked team at No. 11 in the USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll. But the Huskies are two points behind Boston College, ranked No. 16 in the USCHO poll, in the Hockey East standings entering this weekend.
Boston University is right in that race, tied for fourth in Hockey East with 20 points. And Harvard, the lone ECAC entrant, remains in a dogfight for a first round bye; the Crimson are four points clear of fifth-place Colgate despite having played five less games overall as an Ivy League institution.
The conference standings won't matter in this series, but the national rankings will. The Pairwise Ranking is a mathematical formula largely used to determine who is inside or outside the NCAA Tournament bubble. The Huskies are inside the bubble at a very tenuous No. 14, with the remaining three schools on the outside. Boston College sits at No. 20 with Boston University three spots behind it and Harvard at No. 27, meaning wins in this tournament could eventually make or break tournament dreams.
"It's a very tight-knit, competitive tournament," Fitzgerald said. "Everyone is very close, but it doesn't matter with this anyways. If you're struggling or whatever, you know it's going to be a battle in the Beanpot. It's going to be a game no matter who you play."
"Make no mistake about it that the national championship is the be all and end all," York said. "All of the teams point to it. The Beanpot is coveted by all of us, but the national championship is our Holy Grail. Having that said, these games really become magnified because the only team getting in with the Pairwise right now is Northeastern. So we have to look at this as getting victories for a chance to maybe sneak into that 14-15-16 range. That makes it doubly important (for everyone)."
The Eagles open this year's tournament on Monday with Northeastern in a rematch of last year's consolation game. The Huskies won that one, 4-2, to hand BC a fourth-place finish in the Beanpot for the seven time overall and first since 1985. But it was also their only win over the Eagles last season, losing in the two conference regular season meetings. This season, the Huskies split with BC, losing at home in Matthews Arena in November, 4-1, before winning at Conte Forum, 5-2, a month later.
"I think it keeps me up at night because (everyone) are difficult outs," York joked. "But we start with Northeastern. They're a highly skilled team, terrific dynamics, skilled offensively and present a bunch of different challenges for us. We have a game Friday at UConn but when we talk about the Beanpot, we only talk about Northeastern."
The Huskies are led by a group of NHL draftees, including three forwards. Adam Gaudette and Dylan Sikura, drafted by Vancouver and Chicago, respectively, are both 35-point scorers. Gaudette will likely have 40 points by the time the team rolls into the Garden since he has 39, evenly displaced with 19 goals and 20 assists, entering Friday's game against New Hampshire.
They're joined by Nolan Stevens, a St. Louis Blues' draftee with 16 goals, and defenseman Jeremy Davies, a sophomore drafted by New Jersey who has 16 assists. In back, freshman Cayden Primeau has a 2.06 goals against average and a .920 save percentage, numbers that get better against Hockey East teams.
"They play good team defense," York said. "They have a good freshman goaltender (in Primeau). Everyone talks about their offense and their power play and poise and the skill up front, but we've seen them and know they're tough to score goals against. This is one of the best teams (Northeastern head coach) Jim (Madigan) has ever had."
"It's a great game every time we play them," Fitzgerald said. "It's a big rivalry, and we know it's going to be huge no matter what. It's going to be very fast-paced and up-tempo. There's a lot of back-and-forth. They have a very good offensive team, and I think, so do we. We can match (them) with four solid lines, and the way we play will (need to) contribute well against them."
The Eagles have one game left on Friday at the XL Center in Hartford against UConn at 7:05 p.m. That will set the stage for Monday, when the Eagles and Huskies play at 5 p.m. at TD Garden, followed by BU and Harvard. Winners advance to the Beanpot Championship on February 12 at 7:30 p.m., while losers will play in the consolation game at 4:30 on that same date.
Players Mentioned
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