Game Day BU vs. Harvard in the 66th Beanpot

Terriers begin their quest for their 31^st Beanpot Championship tonight at TD Garden, taking on defending champion Harvard in the 66^th renewal of college hockey’s premier in-season tournament. BU lost to the Crimson in the title game last year after defeating BC in the opening round. Game time is set for 8 p.m. ET and the contest will air on NESN, TSN2 and TSN GO. BC and Northeastern face off in a 5 p.m. start.

BU comes into the contest with a five-game winning streak and is unbeaten in its last seven games. A key to the Terriers surge has been a return by goalie Jake Oettinger to his freshman form and the scoring of Bobo Carpenter, Jordan Greenway, Shane Bowers and Dante Fabbro.

Harvard, which is currently 23rd to BU’s 20^th in the Pairwise rankings, defeated Dartmouth, 4-1, Friday after having been shut out by Cornell and Colgate the previous weekend. It’s offense is led by Ryan Donato--with 30 points and a best-in-the nation 21 goals—and Lewis Zerter-Gossage with 20 points. Goalie Merrick Madsen has a 2.20 GAA and a .921 save percentage. Donato, like BU’s Greenway, will join the U.S. Olympic team in South Korea following tonight’s semi-final.

TONIGHT’S BU LINE-UP

Tkachuk-Greenway-Melanson

Cockerill-Bowers-Carpenter

Farrance-Amonte-Curry

Chabot-Phelps-Witkowski

Hickey-Fabbro

Kotkansalo-Crotty

Diffley-MacLeod

Oettinger

► BU Alumni Association-sponsored Watch Parties are set for 16 cities in the U.S. and Canada.  Details.

● GoTerriers.com preview, Game Notes, Live Stats, Terrier Sports Radio Network, BU Game Day

● Boston Hockey Blog Live In-Game Blog

● Daily Free Press preview

● BU Today: Calling All Hands: It’s Beanpot Time
New England Hockey Journal A season within a season

● Beanpot home page

● NESN.com preview

Former Terrier All-American, Olympian and two-time Stanley Cup champion Shawn McEachern will become the 16^th Terrier inducted into the Beanpot Hall of Fame. Currently the head coach at The Rivers School, McEachern played on BU’s 1990 and 1991 Beanpot champions and is tied for ninth on the all-time scoring list (14 points) with former BU captain and current Penguins coach Mike Sullivan.

● Beanpot records and Hall of Fame list