Monday, February 22, 2021

Honors for Tuch, Compher; '70-'71 flashback: Bernie's first Beanpot


For the third time this season, a Terrier is Hockey East's Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week. Luke Tuch, whose overtime goal completed BU's 3-2 come-back win against UConn, joins classmates Drew Commesso and Vinny Duplessis, who each won the award in the past five weeks. Named to the weekly list of top performers were Captain Logan Cockerill, who assisted on all three Terrier tallies, and Jay O'Brien, who scored his seventh goal and added a helper.

● GoTerriers.com report

Poll Story 

Terriers have jumped up three spots to #8 in the USCHO Weekly Poll. They're also #8 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, having moved up four spots.  BU is #7 in John Buccigross's rankings and remains at #2 in Pairwise, #3 in RPI.

’70-’71 Flashback Feb. 22, 1971, Beanpot Championship:  BU 4 Harvard 1


Going into the 1971 Beanpot Championship game, the #1-ranked Terriers were looking to defend the title they’d won the previous season, defeating BC, 5-4, on Wayne Gowing’s third-period hat trick. And they wanted to make amends for one of the two blemishes on their 21-1-1 record, a 4-4 tie with Harvard in the fifth game of the season. The Crimson came into the game with a 12-4-1 record.

The Terriers initiated the scoring at 6:31 of the first period when Captain Steve Stirling set up Paul Giandomenico for a 10-foot snapshot that beat goalie Bruce Durno.  In the second period BU’s penalty killers, including Stirling, Gowing, Jake Danby and Bob Murray, were put to the test as BU took three consecutive penalties and was down to three skaters for 2:25. They killed all three, but Harvard finally broke through at 14:15. After Bill Corkery pulled goalie Dan Brady out of position, Dave Hynes hit the empty net.

In the final minute of the period, BU regained the lead. Following shots by Danby and Bob Brown, Stirling scored the eventual game-winner from the crease.

BU clamped down on the Crimson in the final period while expanding the lead. At 6:42, Murray and Mike LaGarde set up Steve Dolloff for a solo rush down the left wing. The Melrose native stick-handled past four defenders and beat Durno with a 15-foot backhander. Six minutes later, Toot Cahoon put the game out of reach scoring from five feet out, assisted by Stirling and Giandomenico, to make it 4-1. Brady, making 26 stops--many of them highlight reel saves--remained perfect at 10-0-0.

Head Coach Jack Kelley: "I was pleased to see us keep our cool with all those penalties. It will be hard to move us out of the number one spot now." The Terrier defense completely shutdown Harvard's vaunted top line of Joe Cavanagh, Dan DeMichele and Steve Owen.

For BU it was the 19th Beanpot title and would be the second of four consecutive Terrier titles. With a goal and two assists in the final—plus another goal and three assists in the tournament’s opening round against Northeastern—Stirling was named Beanpot MVP, just one of many honors for the senior captain that season. 


Fifty years later, that win still stands out for Stirling, who remarked: “That is one game I remember well. We played to a 4-4 tie at Harvard in early December and then got slapped 5-1 at Cornell in mid-January. Those were our only two blemishes on the season, so playing Harvard in the Beanpot Final was a chance to show Harvard our real team. We got into penalty trouble and I remember how hard we had to work against a skilled Harvard power play; killing the 5-on-3 was probably the catalyst to winning the game.” 

The 1971 Beanpot was the first of 49 in a row for Bernie Corbett, longtime BU play-by-play announcer who has called the tournament nearly three dozen times and still has strong memories of number one:

"Fifty years ago, I attended my first Beanpot.   I'm sure my 10 year-old version would be enthralled to know that I would go on to broadcast 34 of them (and counting), pen the tournament's half century history and not have a Beanpot to celebrate my personal 50th anniversary because of a global pandemic. That night February 22,1971 remains vivid in my memory.   I went to my first BU game with my parents in December 1967, a team captained by a kid from Somerville named Jack Parker.   Whatever became of him?   I also got to see Dryden and Cornell play BU in the ECAC tournament the following March.  My mother was on the Unfit-To-Play-list that night.  I can't recall if upper or lower body.   That night at the Garden was a Friday.   The Beanpot remained a Holy Grail.  Monday.  School Night.   Deemed a little too late for this Stoneham Pee Wee hockey player.   Then I got the parental OK.   BU-Harvard for the Pot.    

"It was a great night for the Terriers and this rabid young Dog.   My lasting memory is BU killing a 5-on-3 for 2:25...the bulk of the work as I recall by All-American captain Steve Stirling and defensemen Bob Murray and Mike Lagarde.   I can close my eyes and still see the BU corner of the Gahden loge seats rise as one in salute to arguably the greatest PK sequence in tournament history.  The eventual National Champion Sons of Jack Kelley skated to a 4-1 victory... a second straight  Beanpot title and the fifth in six years.   I don't remember being tired in Mrs. Gaumer's  fifth grade class at Robin Hood School the next day.  I had a good story for all my fellow young players.  And I have never looked back, not missing one since, until Covid-19 stuck the Pot on the shelf.   To this day, even with both gone, I think of Mitch and Fay and getting the OK.   It's still a Monday and still a School Night.  Hope to see all of Terrier Nation back on Causeway Street on the first Monday of next February.   Go BU!"

Looking back

A trio of Terriers found the net in the Bruins 7-3 win against the Flyers in the NHL Outdoor Sunday game at Lake Tahoe. Philadelphia’s Joel Farabee scored his eighth in the first period and Charlie McAvoy picked up his second for Boston later in the period. Charlie Coyle’s third goal late in the second period was the game-winner.

● NHL.com recap and highlights

McAvoy was featured in a New York Times article about his expanded roles on the Bruins blueline.

● nytimes.com With Charlie McAvoy, the Bruins Filled a Void From Within

Brady Tkachuk’s sixth goal was the overtime winner as the Senators beat Montreal, 3-2. Tkachuk also assisted on Ottawa’s second tally.

● NHL.com recap and highlights

Trevor Zegras scored a pair of goals in the San Diego Gulls’ 7-3 win against Colorado. Shane Bowers had a goal for the Eagles. With a 4-5-9 line in eight games, Zegras was tied for the AHL scoring lead through Saturday.

On Sunday, Zegras was recalled to Anaheim, who will play Arizona tonight.

● NHL.com report

41 years ago today, Mike Eruzione fired the shot heard ‘round the sports world and beyond as Team USA, with Jim Craig, Jack O’Callahan and David Silk, defeated the Soviet Union, 4-3, en route to winning the gold medal at the Lake Placid Olympics.

● Eruzione discusses his autobiography "Making of a Miracle"

Women's Team


Captain Jesse Compher, who had two goals and an assist in BU's 3-2 come-from-behind win against BC, is the Army ROTC Hockey East Player of the Week for the second consecutive week. Compher scored the game-winner with 40 seconds remaining in regulation.  Goalie Kate Stuart, who made 27 saves in the game was named to the weekly list of top performers. 

● GoTerriers.com report

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