LOWELL-Jack Parker has a Beanpot tradition that, every year, is somewhat of a challenge for the 33-year Boston University men’s hockey coach.
The task? Making a case for why his Terriers won’t win another Beanpot. This year, with BU playing so well, it was even harder than usual. This was his effort:
“[Northeastern University has] to be the biggest underdog, so I’m picking them to win the tournament,” Parker said at last week’s Beanpot luncheon. The Huskies enter first-round play 1-18-6.
In this – the year the Terriers try to make an even half of the Beanpots theirs (they’re vying for No. 27 in Beanpot No. 54) – their résumé is more impressive than ever. The No. 8 Terriers have won a national-best eight straight and are coming off possibly their most impressive effort of the year in a 5-1 road trouncing of UMass-Lowell.
Meanwhile, BU’s opponent at 8 p.m. tonight at the TD Banknorth Garden is Harvard University. The No. 20 Crimson (12-8-2) are only three games removed from a three-week exam break and are 2-3-1 in their last six, but perhaps more relevant is the fact that they haven’t won a Beanpot first-round game since 1998 – seven straight losses.
The last time BU lost in the first round – 12 years ago, in 1994 – it was to Harvard, by a 4-2 decision. They responded with an 8-0 win over Northeastern in the consolation game and haven’t lost a first-round game since. Harvard has only won one.
It’s no secret that history – both recent and long term – is on the Terriers’ side tonight. But the reason BU always seems to do so well in the Beanpot is because they don’t seem to be thinking about history too much when they take the ice.
“I think that in all probability, it helps us a little bit from a pressure point of view. It’s not like, ‘Jeez, we haven’t won this in five years.’ We gotta win this,” Parker said. “But at the same time, sometimes it’s more incentive for a club. ‘We haven’t won this in a while, we haven’t been in the final for a while. Let’s at least get in the final.'”
That’s where Harvard is right now. Five years? Harvard hasn’t won the tournament for 13, and Northeastern hasn’t been victorious in 18. Not that they haven’t come close. Last year, the Crimson lost their first-round game to Northeastern in two overtimes. The last time they played BU, in 2003, the Terriers needed a late Freddy Meyer goal to take a 2-1 win.
This year, they’ve already beaten Boston College and tied the Terriers, 2-2, in a game they probably should have won. Harvard outshot BU, 14-0, in the first six minutes of the game, and led, 2-0. The Terriers clawed back and tied it on a fluky Kevin Schaeffer goal late in the game.
“They’re a great team,” said BU goalie John Curry. “They outplayed us earlier in the year, when we probably didn’t play our best game. They were slumping a little bit in the last month, but come Beanpot time, it doesn’t matter. The best teams show up.”
But unless Harvard finally does show up to the tune of a victory on Causeway Street, those November wins and impressive performances don’t mean quite as much. And second-year coach Ted Donato knows it.
Harvard has a typical Crimson squad – a bevy of quick, balanced forwards and solid goaltending – but they have their work cut out for them again this year. If the Terriers show up Monday like they have been for the past month – and it would be hard to believe they won’t – Harvard’s going to see a smooth-skating, slick-passing bunch that throws pucks at the net from all angles and forces its opponents into poor play.
“We’ve gotten into our game that we have to skate. We’ve gotten back to the simple things,” Curry said. “Now that we’re doing that, everything comes natural. You’ll make a few mistakes and let up some goals here and there, but overall, speed kills.”
Traditionally, in the Beanpot, it’s been goaltending that’s killed BU’s opponents. With Curry hurt, Stephan Siwiec put forth an impressive performance against Boston College in the first round last year, before Curry took over in the overtime win against Northeastern in the title game. Two years ago, an unreal performance from Sean Fields nearly won BU the Beanpot over BC in a game that had no business being close.
This time, the Terriers certainly have the goaltending, but they figure to attack the game with the well-rounded scoring and solid defensive play that’s been a recipe for such success recently. They still probably won’t have senior forward John Laliberte (sprained knee) back, but the Terriers’ depth has been their best strength recently.
“We just take it as another game,” said junior defenseman Sean Sullivan. “We get jacked up a little bit more because it is the Beanpot and you’re in front of 18,000 people. But we always say we don’t play in consolation games, so we take it to that first round, and hopefully we’ll be in the finals.”
One of the many bright spots recently for the Terriers has been the freshman class, which will be playing in its first Beanpot. Although Parker said freshmen often struggle beneath the big spotlight, but Chris Higgins said he’s ready.
“All the guys comfort us and stuff, just tell us to relax and play our game,” Higgins said. “They’ve done it before, so they know how to handle it. They’re just telling us ‘Just stay calm, just play your game out there and just be yourself.'”
If they are themselves, they will likely be playing at 8 p.m. next week, too, against the winner of today’s BC-Northeastern game (5 p.m.). Even the No. 3 Eagles have lost two of three (one of those to the Terriers) coming into the Beanpot.
If BU wins the Beanpot this year, the Terriers will not only have half of them, but no other team will even have a quarter. Their seniors already have two Pots, but that doesn’t make them want this year’s any less.
“[Senior year]’s the year you wanna make sure you’re carrying the trophy around,” Parker said.
Right now, the Terriers are playing like this could be a special season. If they don’t win tonight, it will be special in all the wrong ways.
“Hopefully, we can keep the tradition going,” Higgins said.
Staff writer Matt Stout contributed reporting to this story.