The Terriers and Huskies shake hands after the game. Photo by Jenna VanSickle.
The Boston University men’s hockey team fell to Northeastern, 5-4, in double-overtime at the 68th Beanpot final at TD Garden last night. Click here for Brady Gardner’s full recap of the game. Here are my three takeaways from the game – all opinions are my own.
The 68th Beanpot was one for the ages
I’ll start on a positive. The semifinals and championship game featured phenomenal goaltending – overall – teams trading chances, and incredible comebacks. In the games that mattered, the quality of play was high and we got some of the most exciting moments in recent memory. On a personal note, it was my first time fully covering the Beanpot, I got to call play-by-play of BU’s comeback versus BC last week, and got to be there for the biggest moments of the finals. Aside from the final loss, it was a dream week.
An awful call helped decide an amazing game
Look, I don’t like pulling the “woe is me” card or blaming it all on the officials – they’re not fully to blame, bad call(s) or not, as BU did themselves zero favors, which I’ll get into during my next point. However, the tripping penalty on Patrick Harper was one of the softest calls I have ever seen, along with the hook called on Trevor Zegras at the end of the second period. At the end of the day, it is what it is, but it is unfortunate that a game as great as that had to have so much controversy at the end.
Bad call or not, the Terriers put themselves in a bad position
In another case of BU’s skill players trying to be too cute, Harper’s attempt to flutter a backhand saucer pass to David Farrance went limp, allowing Shea to bat it out of the air and head the other way, leading to the tripping call. I understand a player with Harper’s ability and vision of the ice executes that pass almost every time, but at that point in a long game, that play cannot happen.
Also, I was shocked that it took four unanswered goals for Northeastern for BU head coach Albie O’Connell to use his timeout. If not after Madden opened the scoring for the Huskies, you could definitely feel the momentum completely swing in NU’s favor after Aidan McDonough tied things up in the second.
BU will play UNH this weekend.
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