‘Human nature’ gets best of BU in 3rd-place match

When the Boston University men’s hockey team took the ice last Monday for its Beanpot opener with then-No. 2 Boston College, TD Garden filled with noise. Student sections jeered and hurled taunts at each other. The Terriers moved and played at a pace that had slowly come into form over the previous two weeks. And while BU ultimately lost to the Eagles, a point in time existed where it appeared as though the Terriers might make it to the tournament championship.

With a continued increase in effort during its tie with then-No. 7 University of Massachusetts-Lowell, it looked as though Monday afternoon’s Beanpot consolation game might just turn into the Terriers’ (8-16-4, 3-8-3 Hockey East) second win since the end of November.

When the teams took the ice, though, there was hardly a noise from the stands and the sound of blades slicing through the ice echoed throughout the cavernous Garden. BU may have taken an early lead against Harvard University, but the team that put pressure on some of the top-ranked squads in the country last week lacked the same mental intensity. By the final buzzer, that lack of intensity put them on the losing side of 6-2 game.

“I think it’s hard to kind of get up for these games, but you have to find a way to,” said junior wing Evan Rodrigues. “Tonight just wasn’t our night. What it was, I don’t know. Whether it was the time of the game, the venue, the fans. That’s something you kind of have to put behind you no matter what kind of game it is.

“You have to find a way to get up and we just didn’t tonight.”

For BU coach David Quinn, the team did not lose to Harvard. Instead, they lost to themselves.

“Human nature won tonight,” Quinn said. “It’s human nature to play a game like this, and really not go through the motions and not be ready to play.

“It’s a difficult game to play. Well, you know what? Being a Division I athlete’s hard and winning is hard. And we let human nature win out tonight.”

For just the seventh time in the Terriers’ history, the team came in fourth place in the Beanpot. Four of those last-place finishes came at the hands of Harvard (8-12-3).

BU’s challenge with the Crimson, though, goes beyond that. The Terriers have not defeated the Crimson in two full seasons, and they have lost to Harvard in the consolation round in three of the past four Beanpot tournaments.

This season, the teams feature similar records with Harvard improving to 8-12-3 and the Terriers falling to 8-16-4 after Monday’s game. Like in years past, BU has struggled to hold on to its initial lead over the Crimson this season. In fact, the only times this year Harvard has defeated a team after falling behind early was in its two tilts with the Terriers.

“Games like even last year there were games we were up 5-1, they seemed to find a way to get it done and we haven’t been able to, be it the consolation game of the Beanpot or whether it’s just a regular in-season game,” Rodrigues said. “They just have our number. They just have our number and you can look at different things, different reasons why. It just comes down to winning and losing, and we have to find a way to get it done.”

With only six games left in the regular season, all of which are against Hockey East opponents, the Terriers are running out of opportunities to capitalize on the momentum that it picked up after its mid-season slump that spanned from the beginning of December through mid-January.

“Too often we would get the puck and not have any clue what we were going to do with it,” Quinn said of Monday’s game. “There was no mental anticipation. There was no pace – not just physical but mental pace.

“We just did not look like we were ready to play a hockey game, which is very, very disappointing because I’ve been really happy with what’s been going on the last three weeks.”