
Northeastern faces Boston College in TD Garden Monday night at 8:00 p.m. for the first round of the men’s Beanpot tournament, and it’ll be the biggest test they’ve had all season.
The Huskies are no strangers to being underdogs in the local competition, especially as the caliber of their opponents has increased. Northeastern holds a two-year Beanpot win streak, and all four games in that span came against top-10 teams. This year will be no different, with BC the No. 1 team in the country for the second year in a row, and BU at No. 10.
The Huskies are 20th in the national Pairwise rankings, which isn’t too shabby for a team with a record of 9-12-3 overall and 4-9-3 in conference, but they’ve also had one of the toughest seasons of any team in the NCAA, facing opponents like Denver, Maine, and of course, BC.
The Huskies and Eagles last met back in November with a home-and-home series that ended in a split with each team earning a win in their own barn. At the time BC was ranked third in the country and the loss to Northeastern was shocking, as the Huskies were 1-6-3 on the season, and 0-4-3 Hockey East at that point.
So a win against BC is possible. It just won’t be easy.
The key for the Huskies, simply put, is scoring.
The Eagles average 3.3 goals per game, but just 1.7 goals against — second in the country in scoring defense and scoring margin — and they haven’t been shut out all season. In fact, they haven’t scored less than two goals in a game.
Their attack is led by a trio of cunning underclassmen who’ve not only led BC, but the country, this year. After the departure of Will Smith from BC’s freshman line last year when the rookie signed with the San Jose Sharks, rookie James Hagens stepped in to fill the role alongside the two powerful sophomores; Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault.
This top line has taken the world by storm as the top unit for the gold-medal winning US team at the IIHF world juniors back in early January, and they haven’t slowed down.
Surprisingly, Leonard is the only one on the Eagles’ roster with double digit goals, but he leads the country in goals per game (0.92) with 22 (including three against the Huskies) and eight assists. He’ll be the biggest threat for Northeastern come Monday. However, BC has three other formidable 20+ point players in points leader Perreault (9-22-31), Hagens (6-21-27), and Teddy Stiga (9-12-21).
“You gotta play a certain way against them,” said head coach Jerry Keefe about BC after the Huskies’ last game. “You gotta make sure that you’re obviously really good through the middle of the rink and you get in the neutral zone and you gotta manage pucks against them. You can’t give them anything in transition.”
So the Huskies will have to attack even harder.
Leading the effort for Northeastern is a top line of junior captain Jack Williams (12-27-29), junior Cam Lund (11-14-27), and sophomore Dylan Hryckowian (12-12-24).
Both Williams and Lund have earned themselves Hobey Baker nominations for their work on the ice, as well as junior defender Vinny Borgesi (5-15-20).
Lund in particular has been a thorn in the Eagles’ side in his three years of collegiate hockey. The talented forward has two career hat tricks, both against BC, and he shoots more than anyone on Northeastern’s team with 116 in 24 games.
Facing off against the Eagles, sophomore goaltender Cameron Whitehead will have to be on his A-game. Last year, Whitehead won the Eberly Award as the top goaltender in the Beanpot, making 54 saves on 59 shots and backstopping the Huskies through two overtime wins. With a .915 save percentage and a 2.62 goals against average so far this season, his marks are pretty similar to last year’s .917 SV% and 2.62 GAA. However, he’s let through a fair share of soft shots this season, especially under heavy pressure, so he can’t let himself get rattled when facing an offense as heavy-hitting as the Eagles’.
In the opposite crease, sophomore Jacob Fowler, the Eagles’ star goaltender is “day-to-day” with injury, which could work in the Huskies’ favor. Fowler is third in the country in GAA with 1.63,sixth in SV% at .938, and a Hobey Baker nominee himself. However, sophomore Jan Korec, who got his second start of the season Friday night against No. 8 UMass Lowell, is no slouch either. Against the River Hawks, he made 22 saves, earning his second career shutout to extend the Eagles’ win streak to seven.
Northeastern, on the other hand, will hope to change their luck as they head to TD Garden. Although the Huskies have fared better in the second half of the season thus far, going 4-3 since Jan. 1, they’re currently riding a two-game losing streak with losses to No. 6 Maine and Merrimack over the past two weekends.
“Just turn the page and get ready for Monday night,” Keefe said after the Huskies’ most recent game at the Alfond Arena in Maine. “If you’re not ready to show up on Monday night, you’ve got an issue, so we gotta turn the page and just be ready to come out and play the number one team in the country on Monday night in the Boston Garden.”
The Huskies will take on the Eagles in the pair’s third matchup of the season Monday night at 8:00 p.m., while Harvard faces BU in the other opening round game at 5:00 p.m.
WRBB will have full coverage of the 72nd Men’s Beanpot tournament live from TD Garden, with Matty Wasserman, Daisy Roberts, and Amelia Ballingall on the scene to capture all the action. The trio will be live on 104.9 FM from before puck drop to the final buzzer.