The No. 7 Boston University women’s hockey team claimed the 2019 Beanpot title with a 3-2 win over Harvard University Tuesday night. This is the Terriers’ first Beanpot win since 1981, before the team was a varsity program.
“It’s been a long time coming,” BU head coach Brian Durocher said. “Needless to say that we’re all excited that the monkey’s off the back. … I couldn’t be prouder of this team.”
Both the Terriers (17-6-7, 13-5-5 Hockey East) and the Crimson (10-12-3, 8-8-2 ECAC) came into the game on successful waves. BU had not lost a game since Jan. 5 at the University of Maine (14-13-4, 7-13-4 Hockey East), and they had been 8-0-2 since.
The Crimson came into the Beanpot championship on a five-game winning streak, with two of those wins coming against No. 8 Boston College (21-10, 17-7 Hockey East).
One of these two teams was going to slip Tuesday night. Both the Terriers and the Crimson fought until the very end, trying to ensure that they would not be the ones to crack.
Both the players and the fans were ready for the opening stanza in Cambridge. The 1,329 fans in attendance were rowdy and ready to watch a champion be crowned.
Before the scoring books opened, BU had 13 shots on goal, and Harvard had 10. It wasn’t until the end of the opening stanza until the scoring began.
After 13 saves from Crimson goaltender Lindsay Reed in the first period, senior defender and tri-captain Reagan Rust took advantage of a power play and got the puck past the netminder at the 18:28 mark. Redshirt junior defender Abbey Stanley and junior forward Natasza Tarnowski picked up the helpers.
Harvard responded just over a minute later, getting hold of their own power play as sophomore forward Kristina Schuler took a penalty for holding. Crimson defender Kaitlin Tse took a pass from forward Kristin Della Rovere, waited for a while looking for an opportunity and wrist-shotted the puck past Terrier junior goaltender Corinne Schroeder.
The first stanza ended with a score of 1-1. Throughout the period, the crowd went crazy every time either Schroeder or Reed made saves. Both Terrier and Crimson fans were present and ready for two more periods of excitement.
Redshirt junior forward and tri-captain Sammy Davis said after the game that she was a fan of the energy the BU Pep Band brought to the game.
“We’re so grateful,” Davis said. “We have the best band in all of college sports.”
The action from the end of the first transferred into the second. Four minutes in, Schuler laid a check onto Crimson forward Brooke Jovanovich, causing Jovanovich to collapse in front of the rink wall in front of the Harvard fan section. Boos from those fans ensued.
This gave Harvard a power play on the checking penalty, where the Crimson would get their revenge. Della Rovere got the goal right at the five-minute mark, with forwards Dominique Petrie and Lexie Laing getting the helpers.
The Crimson would hold this lead for 10 minutes, until the Terriers struck back and tied the game at two apiece. It was Tarnowski who got the goal — her seventh of the season — and junior defender Abby Cook who got the helper.
The score would remain this way at the end of the second and through the rest of regulation. The third period consisted of a lot of back-and-forth aggression from each team, with each set of fans cheering and bowing as both Schroeder and Reed made huge saves.
Regulation ended with BU leading Harvard in shots on goal 48-23, with Reed making 46 total saves before overtime began.
Per Beanpot championship rules, overtime was to last 20 minutes, and the game would go on until one team scored a goal. There would not be any shootouts to determine a winner, unlike in BU’s victory in the first round of the tournament.
Overtime was lively right from the start. Within the first eight minutes, there were nine saves by Schroeder and six saves by Reed. But eventually one of these goalies was going to have to give up a goal to end the game.
Seven-and-a-half minutes into overtime, the championship would be decided at the hands of Davis, the tri-captain who missed all of last season due to a knee injury.
After Harvard’s Laing got a penalty for roughing, BU went on the power play. The very next shot attempt was from Davis, who took a pass from sophomore forward Jesse Compher and buried the puck from the right side into the Crimson net to clinch the Beanpot win.
“I’m going to be honest, I kind of blacked out,” Davis said about scoring the goal. “I looked at Jesse [Compher], and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we just won the Beanpot!’”
For this goal, Davis would win the honors of Beanpot MVP from the writers in attendance at the game. Reed would win the Bertagna Award as the tournament’s top goaltender. She recorded 51 saves on the night, an effort that ultimately fell short.
“I’m really proud of my kids and how hard they played,” Harvard head coach Katey Stone said. “Obviously we’re disappointed, … but BU also earned a victory.”
The Terriers will ride the high of this Beanpot victory into Saturday, when they will come back home to play the University of New Hampshire (13-14-4, 10-13-1 Hockey East).
Durocher said the Beanpot win is going to be a confidence booster for the Terriers going forward.
“The optimal word is confidence,” Durocher said. “It’s super important that we have that confidence going for a long time.”
Super Game by BU Women. Now if only a lot more fans will come see the this gritty team play.