BOSTON — As most of the Boston University women’s hockey team left the net to line up for postgame handshakes, captain Tamara Giaquinto and goalie Callie Shanahan stayed behind for a prolonged embrace. The graduate and the senior slung both arms around one another after possibly the final Beanpot game either will play.
At the other end of the ice, Northeastern captain Taze Thompson and superstar freshman goalie Lisa Jönsson engaged in a similar moment. This was the only time in which the Huskies and BU were equals on Tuesday night.
In the end, there were no postgame handshakes, and the BU players in front of Giaquinto and Shanahan trudged off the ice, realizing Northeastern would be occupied with celebrating a staggering 20th Beanpot title. The resurgent Terriers, enjoying their best season in years, entered with their biggest chance to win the tournament since they last did in 2018 and, by both the eye test and coach Tara Watchorn’s evaluation, played a pretty good hockey game.
But opposite them was Northeastern, seeking a three-peat in this tournament, in the midst of a remarkable run not just in Boston but Hockey East, and beholding of a kind of formula — or magic — that wins the Beanpot over and over again.
Ultimately, Northeastern was just better — four deserved goals better on the ice, thousands of fans better in the TD Garden stands. And even though BU proved it could finally beat the Huskies earlier this season, everything NU brought to this enormous table was simply too much.
“This is such a cool environment for them,” Watchorn said of her team after the 4-0 loss. “It’s a lot of pressure and a lot of stress, and they put their best foot forward.”
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Watchorn, 34, who played at BU during the program’s heyday between 2008 and 2012, admitted she didn’t even know what the Beanpot was until she arrived in Boston. She came from Ontario, and women’s hockey was in a different (smaller) place back then.
15 years after Watchorn’s freshman year, however, here was Alex Law, stepping foot on Comm. Ave before her first season in 2023-24. She’s from Ontario, too, not far from where Watchorn grew up.
“One of the first things out of her mouth,” Watchorn recalled, “was ‘I want to win a Beanpot.’”
For a tournament without an NCAA bid on the line (or even regular-season points in Hockey East) and for a team that’s only one the thing once as a varsity program, no one in and around BU who spoke to the Blog this week acted like winning it didn’t matter. Senior Christina Vote, after admitting she isn’t the most competitive person, was asked Monday how badly she wanted to win and responded: “More than anything.”
The problem — for BU, Boston College and Harvard — is that the Beanpot is a religion at Northeastern by this point. After the semifinals at NU’s Matthews Arena, where the Huskies’ crowd broke a campus record, coach Dave Flint told reporters that when he was first hired, one of the biggest things administration stressed was winning the Beanpot. In its second year at TD Garden, the crowd for the women’s final on Tuesday broke more records at over 13,000 fans, and at least 80 percent were Northeastern supporters.
More than half the lower bowl told Shanahan she sucked after she conceded each goal. Vote received “A—hole” chants when she was sent to the box. There was a “F—k BU” cry in there, too, and nothing coming back the other way.
However much that impacted BU is one thing. But Northeastern, probably the best program in Hockey East and the most talented team at the Beanpot, getting that kind of boost?
“I actually got really encouraged by the crowd, instead of getting nervous,” said Jönsson, NU’s goalie. “I felt like they had our backs the whole way.”
She entered leading Hockey East in save percentage and made 30 more saves, winning Beanpot MVP honors. BU probably spent more time in its offensive zone then the Huskies did theirs — that’s how BU won in total shot attempts and tied with 30 on goal — but the Terriers never looked all that likely to score. Northeastern’s defense, one of the best in the country, blocked 37 shots to BU’s 13.
“It just fuels you to get through it,” NU’s Tory Moriano (7 blocks) said of the pro-Husky crowd.
Then again, Northeastern didn’t win just because of the crowd, it won because it’s a premier team that played a ruthless game. Watchorn feared the Huskies’ speed on the rush and got no surprises Tuesday. While two Husky goals were fortunate net-front deflections and another was an empty netter, Shanahan bailed BU out on a bevy of quality looks. The Terriers’ best chance was probably as good as the Huskies’ fifth or sixth.
This was not last year’s final, when BU took a heavily-favored NU to overtime then got dunked on by star forward Skylar Irving right away, but the gulf between the two programs still looked pretty big. Yes, BU has led Hockey East for most of the season and sure, the Terriers did beat the Huskies, 4-0, earlier this year — what everyone agrees was a pivotal breakthrough — but the reality is that BU now has one win in its last 14 tries against Northeastern.
BU’s revival from 14 total wins last year to 14 by mid-January this year has been extraordinary, but the Huskies are still the team that’s won 20 Beanpots and six of the last seven Hockey East titles.
“The players that have been here before, that have played in these pressure situations, have laid the groundwork,” NU coach Flint said when asked how the Huskies are so good in tournaments. “But they also develop the younger players. So our freshmen now see how our upperclassmen handle themselves in this situation, and it just carries over year after year.”
BU, which hasn’t won the Beanpot in six seasons and hasn’t won Hockey East in nine, doesn’t have that luxury. The type of run Northeastern is on is nothing new in the conference — before NU, it was actually BU that won four of five conference crowns in the early 2010s, and before the Terriers, it was UNH. The trend was something former BU head coach Brian Durocher, the godfather of the program, pointed out in an interview with the Blog earlier this week.
“We’re all striving to get on that type of run,” he said. “And hopefully, Tuesday might be the beginning of something big not just in the Beanpot, but the continuation of this season and in the future.”
You could make a case the Beanpot matters more to the fanbases involved than a conference title, so winning one would have certainly helped. For recruiting purposes, for confidence purposes, for everything purposes — especially for a program that hasn’t won a trophy in forever and is attempting to climb out of a dark place.
“It starts by giving you one tangible thing. You got a trophy. You’ve got instant recognition, you’ve got something you can tell people and show people,” Durocher said. “You continue the momentum and confidence, and you’ve got another building block to move forward with. All these things go a long way in keeping things together.”
It has been an impressive season for BU, a team that keeps proving everyone wrong. But for all the momentum the Terriers have built this season, they left their first big opportunity of the year with nothing to show for it.
And again, BU wasn’t bad on Tuesday. The team that always seems to be better was just better again.
Said a somber Watchorn in the crowded TD Garden press room: “I wanted more for our group.”
More reading on BU women’s hockey:
- Game recap: BU falls to Northeastern, 4-0, in Beanpot final
- How BU pulled off a last-second comeback in Beanpot semifinals
- In 2-0 shutout loss to UNH, BU falls victim to trap game
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