BOSTON — If any of the four schools competing can claim the Women’s Beanpot as their own, it’s Northeastern. Just as kind as it’s been for the Huskies, it’s been equally unkind to the Boston University women’s hockey team.
For the 20th time, the Huskies hoisted the Beanpot after taking down the Terriers 4-0 on Tuesday night. BU’s all-time record in the Beanpot is now 18-59-7.
13,279 filed into the TD Garden for the final, beating last year’s mark of 10,633. It’s the fifth-largest crowd ever for a Division I women’s NCAA game.
Huskies freshman netminder Lisa Jönsson recorded a 30-save shutout, her sixth of the season, earning tournament MVP.
“We had some [chances] off the rush, where normally we can really wear teams down,” head coach Tara Watchorn said postgame. “I don’t think we did that as much.”
Even though the Terriers (14-8-1, 11-4-1 Hockey East) peppered Jönsson with 30 shots, BU struggled to garner high-quality looks. No. 15 Northeastern (15-8-1, 10-6-1 HE) put its bodies on the line, blocking 27 shots. When shots did reach the net, Jönsson was unflappable.
“She’s athletic for her size,” Watchorn said. “She scrambled well and kept them in the game in big moments.”
After a back-and-forth start to the contest, Northeastern opened the scoring at 8:31 of the first. Graduate defenseman Lily Yovetich ripped a shot from the point, which deflected off senior forward Ani Fitzgerald’s stick. Senior netminder Callie Shanahan was unable to react in time as the puck sailed past her to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead.
The Huskies had a clear speed advantage over the Terriers. It was evident that BU’s blue liners were wary of getting caught too far up the ice, which stopped the Terriers from getting out fast in transition.
“We played into their speed a little bit early on in the game,” Watchorn said.
BU’s best look of the frame came at 15:15. Junior defenseman Maeve Kelly ripped a shot from the top of the offensive zone, forcing a save from Jönsson. Sophomore forward Alex Law whacked a rebound on goal, but Jönsson corralled the puck and forced a whistle.
“Unless they score on me early, I’m not going to let in any pucks,” Jönsson said postgame.
Shanahan was solid in defeat, stopping 26 of the 29 shots she faced. As the Terriers’ offense struggled, she kept her team in the game. But there was nothing she could do at 17:39 of the second.
After senior defenseman Maggie Hanzel turned the puck over in the defensive zone, graduate forward Jaden Bogden fired a wide-angle shot. Shanahan saved the initial shot, but junior forward Lily Shannon buried the rebound to give Northeastern a 2-0 lead.
40 seconds later, at 18:19, the Huskies extended their lead to 3-0. Bogden redirected a point shot from junior blue liner Jules Constantinople that squirted through Shanahan’s five-hole.
The Terriers struggled to muster up anything offensively the rest of the way, and senior forward Skylar Irving found an empty net at 17:16 of the third to put an exclamation point on Northeastern’s 4-0 victory.
With BU being shut out Saturday against New Hampshire, the Terriers haven’t scored in their last 120 minutes of play.
“A lot of it comes from a mindset right now,” Watchorn said of BU’s goal-scoring woes. “We got to get out of our heads a little bit.”
Even though they wanted to win the university’s third Beanpot, Watchorn knows it doesn’t define her team’s success.
“We have a lot of hockey ahead of us,” Watchorn said.
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