By Marisa Ingemi
BU News Service
The Boston University men’s hockey team defeated Northeastern 3-1 on Monday night to advance to the Beanpot Tournament championship game. BU won the Beanpot title last season and will seek its 31st all time next Monday against Boston College.
“It was a really good effort” said head coach Dave Quinn after the game. “From start to finish, we were ready to play.”
The Terriers opened up their Beanpot slate against the Huskies, the hottest team in college hockey. Going into the contest, the Huskies had won nine straight games, the longest streak in the nation.
It took a while for the game to develop flow, with the Terriers being held without a shot until about five minutes in. Ryan Ruck made the first three saves on strong opportunities from Oskar Andren, Ahti Oksanen, and Jordan Greenway.
The scoring began with a little more than 13 minutes gone in the first period when Robbie Baillargeon scored his sixth goal of the season to give the Terriers a 1-0 advantage. Bobo Carpenter backhanded a shot onto Ruck, and it deflected to the side of the crease where Bailargeon was able to tap it in.
Minutes after Baillargeon’s goal, defenseman Charlie McAvoy made the advantage 2-0 in favor of the Terriers with a wrister under the crossbar on Ruck’s blocker side. San Jose Sharks draft pick Danny O’Regan picked up the assist.
Northeastern struggled to get shots off as the Terriers dominated the possession game. The best opportunity of the second period for the Huskies came on a short handed 2-on-1 where they whiffed on the shot as McAvoy laid out on the ice to make the block.
O’Regan had a chance for his second point of the night and his first goal when it appeared he had jammed it home in the third period, but replay determined he played the puck with his glove, and the goal was disallowed.
However, the no-goal would not matter, as the Terriers were able to hold on to defeat the Huskies by the 3-1 score and advance, despite one late extra-attacker goal from Northeastern captain John Stevens. BU’s Dylan Somerby scored the empty-netter to seal the victory.
Despite inconsistent play in the early pat of the season, BU goalie Sean Maguire has turned a corner in the season’s second half, with Monday night behind his latest strong performance.
“Sean struggled early.” Quinn said of his goalie. “Since then, he hasn’t looked back. He’s had a great attitude. He’s played some great hockey in the last month and a half, and there really wasn’t much of a decision to play him tonight.”
Earlier in the day, Boston College defeated Harvard 3-2 in the first game. BU will face its crosstown rival next Monday night at TD garden at 8 PM.
Said coach Quinn about facing BC next week, “We’re going to have to play a lot better than we did against them three weeks ago if we want to have a chance.”
“It’s kind of how you draw it up,” said O’Regan after the game. “We definitely owe them after a few weeks ago.”
