Beanpot final: BC vs. Northeastern

Tonight at what will be a full TD Garden, the #1 Boston College Eagles will seek to defend their Beanpot title, this time against the Northeastern Huskies. Both of these teams play in the Hockey East conference, but of course, this is no Hockey East game. For BC, it’s a chance to extend their recent domination of the tournament, while for Northeastern, it’s time to get a monkey off their backs.

The Eagles have taken two of the last three Beanpots, their most recent having been one year ago against Boston University. For Northeastern, well, it’s been a little longer than that – 23 years to be exact. The last time Northeastern hoisted the trophy, I was two years old. Boston College is seeking their sixteenth title overall, which the Huskies are looking for number five.

There is not a lot of history in the Beanpot finals between the Eagles and Huskies: in fact, they’ve only faced each other twice. The first time was in 1980 when Northeastern won 5-4, and the second was in 1983, when the Eagles opened an 8-2 can of whoop ass.

Of course, these teams have a lot more history with one another outside of the TD Garden, for they are conference rivals. Opening night of BC’s season back in October was against the Huskies, and was a 2-0 shutout win for the Eagles. Prior to that, the Eagles had last faced the Huskies in a February 2010 home and home, which they split. That mid-February loss would end up being the last loss they took all season, all the way to Detroit. They’ve not played since October, but thanks to the Beanpot, BC will now get the rare opportunity to face NU for the next three games in a row, all at different arenas.

Northeastern’s season to this point has been quite bland. They sport a 10-11-6 overall record and are 6th in Hockey East. One thing of note about them, however, is their goals allowed stat: they’ve given up 59 goals, which is 2nd-best in Hockey East – the best, of course, is Boston College. Northeastern goalie Chris Rawlings has the third-best goals-against average in the conference at 2.12, with our man John Muse leading the way at 1.88. Muse and Rawlings are also one and two, respectively, in save percentage in the conference. The problem with NU, however, is their offense. The Huskies are 7th in Hockey East with 2.48 goals per game (BC is 2nd with 3.78), and as such are not much of a threat to explode offensively. In fact, the most goals they’ve scored in any game this year was five, which they did twice. NU has only been shut out once, however – by BC.

Normally, I would say the Eagles will win the game in the same convincing fashion as they’ve been winning all year, but this is different. The Beanpot (usually) brings out the best in all of the teams who play, and for Northeastern, their first title in over two decades is very close. I expect a strong effort by the Huskies, not only to beat Number One, but to end their drought. We’ll see you at 7:30.