The Boston University men’s hockey team owns the Beanpot Tournament.
Well, not literally, of course. But figuratively, yes. Just look at the stats.
The Terriers have won 29 of the 57 Beanpots, including last year’s. They’ve won 12 of the last 15 titles and 15 of the last 20. They’ve reached the title game in 26 of the last 28 years and 41 of the last 46. They haven’t finished last in 30 years. They’re 25-3 in the tournament since it moved to the TD Garden in 1995, and haven’t lost to anyone other than Boston College during that span.
‘We’ve always had the key ingredients to win a short tournament,’ BU coach Jack Parker said at Wednesday’s Beanpot Luncheon. ‘For the most part, we’ve always had real good goaltending and we’ve always been a pretty good defensive team. You can kind of bank on those two things in a short tournament. And we’ve been very, very lucky sometimes.
‘The fact that we’ve won 29 is quite a statistic, but we’ve gotten to the final an awful lot, too. Sometimes, we were really not expected to win, but we did.’
All that bodes well for tonight, when BU (9-11-3) takes on Northeastern University (11-11-1) at 8 p.m. in the first round of this year’s tournament. The Terriers defeated the Huskies 5-2 in last year’s title game, but are 0-1 against them this season, suffering a 1-0 loss at Matthews Arena on Nov. 6.
BU outshot Northeastern 43-20 in that contest, but couldn’t slip the puck past freshman goalie Chris Rawlings. Junior forward Wade MacLeod netted the game-winner with a power-play tally 12:37 into the third period.
Although that game came in the midst of a season-worst four-game losing streak, Parker was happy with the effort, and still views it as possibly the best game his team has played this season.
‘I’d like to play the same game we played last game,’ Parker said. ‘If we can get that type of effort, I’d be happy. Maybe Rawlings will do the same thing to us, or maybe we’ll get five goals. Who knows? But I thought we played very, very well in all three areas of the game ‘-’- offense, defense and special teams.’
There are plenty of reasons to think the Terriers can replicate that effort. For starters, they’ve looked like a completely different team in the second half than they were in the first half.
At the break, the Terriers were just 4-9-3 and sat in ninth place in the Hockey East standings. But they went 5-2-0 in January, climbing to sixth in the conference in the process. Four of those wins came against either No. 14 BC or the No. 15 University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
The second half hasn’t been without low points, though. On Jan. 23, BU ‘laid an egg,’ according to Parker, in a 4-1 home loss to the No. 13 University of New Hampshire one night after a thrilling 5-4 overtime win at BC.
But a pair of meetings last Monday and a great week of practice seemed to refocus the team, culminating in a 6-2 thrashing of UMass on Friday night.
Another reason to be optimistic is the fact that the Terriers have dominated in front of big crowds and at neutral sites over the past year and a half. BU is 7-0-1 in front of crowds of 10,000-plus and 10-0-1 at neutral venues during that span. The one tie was a 3-3 draw against No. 8 Cornell University at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 28.
‘I don’t think they’ll be nervous. I don’t think they’ll be jumpy,’ Parker said of his players. ‘We have experienced goaltending, experienced defensemen. I’m sure the freshmen will be a little bit in awe because it’s the Beanpot, but not because it’s a big crowd.
‘They’ve already played in front of 38,000 [at Fenway Park]. They’ve already played in front of 18,000 down at Madison Square Garden. That should help us out a little bit, too.’
Even if the Terriers weren’t playing better, even if they didn’t own the Beanpot, even if they weren’t dominant on the big stage, there would still be a reason for BU fans to get excited ‘-’- the promise of great hockey.
‘The fact is that you will see great hockey this week,’ Parker said. ‘I haven’t been to a Beanpot yet that you didn’t see some great hockey games. And I’ve been to a few of them.’
Game note: Sophomore Kieran Millan will start in net for BU, Parker said. Millan saved 39 of the 41 shots he faced in Friday’s 6-2 win against UMass. He saved 45 of the 50 shots he faced in two wins in last year’s Beanpot.
