After a year’s absence, college hockey’s premier in-season tournament, the Beanpot, is back and #19 Terriers (14-10-3) will kick things off in the early game against Harvard (12-7-2). Puck drop at TD Garden is at 5:00 p.m. The game airs on NESN and for those outside of New England, it will air on NHL Network.
Winners of the silver pot 30 times, BU enters this year's tournament with an all-time record of 91-45 (.669), but is looking to end a five-year title drought.
With Harvard not playing last season, the teams last met on Dec. 2019 with BU winning 5-2. After dropping consecutive games to Clarkson and RPI last month, Harvard has won three and tied one, including a 6-3 win against BC after trailing, 3-0.
Like the Terriers, the Crimson have key players at the Olympics—top scorer Nick Abruzzese (21) and Sean Farrell (19)—but they have ample firepower. Defenseman Henry Thrun also has 21, leading goal-scorer with 11 Alex Laferriere has 20 and captain Casey Dornbach has 17. Junior goalie Mitchell Gibson has a 2.10 GAA and a .911 save percentage in 17 starts.
Assessing the Crimson, Coach Albie O’Connell said, “They’re fast, like they could skate. We’re gonna have to really be ready to skate,” O’Connell said. Highly competitive, highly skilled. Really good power play. Teddy (Donato) always has a good power play.” (Prior to joining David Quinn’s staff in 2015, O’Connell was a Harvard assistant under Donato for three seasons).
O’Connell attributed the Terriers’ turnaround (10-1-1) to several factors: “We’ve been a lot more consistent in our details,” O’Connell said. “Our defensive competitiveness, our back-checking, our shot-blocking has really improved. And offensively, guys gained some confidence and I think our goalie started to gain some confidence.”
BU, which has won its last four games, is averaging 3.91 goals a game with a 1.5 GAA since the end of November. With five goals and an assist in the past five games, junior Robert Mastrosimone has taken over the team’s scoring (21) and goals (11) lead, followed by classmates Domenick Fensore and Wilmer Skoog with 20 points each. Juniors Jay O’Brien and Matt Brown, returned to health, have 15 and 13 respectively.
Sophomore Vinny Duplessis, fresh off his shut out of Maine, is the likely starter in goal for BU. He lowered his GAA to 1.80 and raised his save percentage to .920.
TODAY’S BU LINEUP
Mastrosimone-Skoog-Brown
Cockerill-Ty Amonte-Kaufman
Armstrong-Stevens-Peterson
Zabaneh
Vlasic-McCarthy
Fensore-Gallagher
Webber-Campolieto
Duplessis
Abel
● GoTerriers.com preview,
Game Notes,
Live Stats, Terrier Sports Radio Network, BU Men’s Hockey Twitter
● Coach Albie O’Connell media call
● College Hockey News Tale of the Tape
●BU Today Beanpot preview
● Boston Hockey Blog preview
● WTBU Sports preview
This Day in BU Beanpot history: February 7
2005—17 years ago, BU also was without its starting goalie for the Beanpot opener as John Curry was recovering from an injury. Junior Stephen Siwiec, who like Duplessis came to BU from the AJHL, stepped in to face #1 Boston College and led the Terriers to an upset win. USCHO reported:
In front of a raucous crowd of 17,565 at the FleetCenter, No. 13 BU bested top-ranked BC behind two John Laliberte goals and a heroic performance by netminder Stephan Siwiec, who stopped 36 of 37 shots while filling in for injured goalie John Curry.
For the Terriers, the victory gave them an astonishing 21 trips to the Beanpot championship game in the last 22 years and 38 semifinal wins in 42 seasons. Archrival BC has not beaten BU in the semis since 1981 — a year before Siwiec was born.
BC took a 1-0 lead at 14:18 of the first on a goal by Ryan Shannon and almost doubled the lead when Steve Gionta’s 2-on-1 bid was stopped by Siwiec. But with 15 seconds left in the period, Laliberte scored from the crease, which, following a review, knotted the score at 1-1.
Early in the second, Laliberte pounced on his own rebound to score the eventual game-winner.
● USCHO.com Semi-Tough:
Siwiec, Laliberte Lead BU To Beanpot Final
1972—Looking to win a third consecutive Beanpot title, BU took on Boston College in the first round and came away with a 4-2 victory. The victory improved BU’s record to 17-2-1 and would set up a repeat of the previous year’s championship game, a 4-1 win against Harvard.
After a scoreless first period, BU got on the board midway through the second on Mike LaGarde’s 60-footer, set up by Peter Thornton. Then, on a power play, captain Jake Danby scored from the right post, assisted by blueliners Bob Brown and Ric Jordan. Just before the end of the period, BC’s Joe Fidler cut the lead to 2-1.
Early in the third Danby struck again, burying the rebound of Paul Giandomenico’s shot for a 3-1 lead. Giandomenico added a fourth goal on a shot from the right circle, followed by Fidler’s second to close out the scoring.
Fidler’s two younger brothers, Mike Fidler and Mark Fidler, would become key contributors to the Terrier teams that dominated much of the 1970s, including the 1978 national championship.
Looking ahead
On Saturday, 2022 recruit Jeremy Wilmer scored his 15th goal and added an assist to lead Tri-City to a team record 11th consecutive win, a 5-0 blanking of Chicago.
On Sunday, Chicago won the rematch with the Storm, 4-3 in overtime with 2023 recruit Jack Harvey scoring his 13th goal. Wilmer had an assist for Tri-City and now has 50 points, fourth in the USHL and one ahead of future teammate Quinn Hutson of Muskegon.
tw-align-centerNumber 13 for number 13 this season!#FeelSteel https://t.co/7kW0E01cJl pic.twitter.com/kpi5MN1Zxp
— Chicago Steel (@ChicagoSteel) February 6, 2022
2023 recruit Shane Lachance scored his fourth goal in Youngstown’s 5-4 loss to Madison.
Women’s Team
tw-align-center— x - BU Women's Hockey (@TerrierWHockey) February 6, 2022
Former Terrier captain Jesse Compher, scored a pair of goals in Team USA’s 8-0 win against Switzerland. Compher has three goals in the tournament. The U.S. is 3-0 in the preliminary round and will next face arch-rival Canada in a battle of undefeateds Tuesday in Beijing, airing Monday night at 11:10 p.m. on USA Network.
Canada is captained by two-time Olympic gold medal hero Marie-Philip Poulin.
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