Monday, February 8, 1993 at Boston Garden, Boston, MA
41ST ANNUAL BEANPOT CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Harvard Crimson (15-2-1) 1 1 2 - 4
Boston University Terriers (19-6-2) 1 1 0 - 2
FIRST PERIOD H-BU
1. BU1, Doug Friedman 12 (David Sacco, Jacques Joubert), 10:14. PPG 0-1
2. H1, Steve Martins 2 (Tom Holmes, Steve Flomenhoft), 13:04. PPG 1-1
SECOND PERIOD
3. H2, Brian Farrell 9 (Ted Drury), 11:11. 2-1
4. BU2, Sacco 16 (Stephen Foster), 13:59. 5x3 2-2
THIRD PERIOD
5. H3, Drury 15 (Farrell), 6:29. GWG 3-2
6. H4, Martins 3 (unassisted), 16:13. 4-2
SHOTS ON GOAL: Harvard 7--9--7 = 23
Boston University 11-11-10 = 32
SAVES: Harvard, Tripp Tracy (32 sh-30 sv).
BU, Scott Cashman (23-19).
POWER PLAYS: Harvard 1 for 2. BU 2 for 5. (unofficial)
PENALTIES: Harvard 6/12. BU 3/6. (unofficial)
REFEREES: Drew Taylor, Frank Cole. LINESMAN: John Jones?
ATTENDANCE: appr. 14,448.
MIKE'S THREE STARS: 1. G Tripp Tracy, Harvard (32 sh-30 sv).
2. F Steve Martins, Harvard (2-0--2).
3. F Ted Drury, Harvard (1-1--2, GWG).
In a game that was everything it was built up to be and then some, Harvard
freshman goaltender Tripp Tracy put on one of the most incredible
performances I have ever seen by a goalie. Tracy's 30 saves led Harvard
to a 4-2 win over Boston University in the championship game of the 41st
annual Beanpot Hockey Tournament at the sold-out Boston Garden.
In the consolation game played earlier, Northeastern (9-16-1) downed Boston
College (8-16-4) by a score of 4-3 to take third place.
Harvard captain Ted Drury was named the MVP of this year's tourney as
his goal and three assists against Northeastern last week were complemented
by a goal and an assist tonight, along with some simply outstanding play
at both ends of the ice. I thought both Tracy and Harvard forward Steve
Martins deserved some consideration, though, as Martins scored what might
have been the two biggest goals of the game for Harvard, the first and
fourth goals, and Tracy was THE reason Harvard won.
The Eberly Trophy for goaltending went to BU's Scott Cashman, who allowed
six goals over two games. When this was announced, there was a loud
chorus of boos from the Harvard fans who obviously wanted to see Tracy
win it, but the rules for the award state that the winner must have played
in both games. Harvard's other freshman goalie, Aaron Israel, played in
the 7-5 semifinal win last week. Cashman became the first player ever to
win the Eberly Award three times in his career.
After the two individual awards were handed out, the 26-pound silver Beanpot
was presented to Drury and the Crimson for the ceremonial winners' skate
around the Garden ice.
The win gave Harvard its 10th Beanpot, tied with BC and second to BU's 17.
The Terriers had been going for their fourth straight Beanpot, and Cashman
lost his first Beanpot game ever after five wins. While Jack Parker's bid
to become the first coach ever to win four straight Beanpots was thwarted,
Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni won his first Beanpot ever as a head coach.
The Crimson also gained revenge for their earlier loss at BU in November.
Best signs from my point of view from Harvard and BU had to do with BU
defenseman Dan Donato. Harvard had a sign that read, "#4 Donato - You're
No Ted!", while BU had one that read, "Who Needs Ted, We Have #4 Dan".
Dan is the younger brother of current Boston Bruin and former Harvard
player (and US Olympian) Ted.
THE GAME
FIRST PERIOD
Both teams came out hitting, and hitting cleanly. BU dominated the play
for much of the period, but while the puck was in the Harvard zone for
much of the 20 minutes, both Tracy and the Harvard defense were immense.
After Ben Coughlin went off for cross-checking halfway through the first,
BU struck first on the man advantage. After Doug Friedman got the puck
in close from Jacques Joubert, Friedman put a nice fake on Tracy and tried
to stuff it, but Tracy came up with an unbelievable skate save. He tried
to cover it up but David Sacco came in and knocked it loose, and Friedman
put it in for his 12th goal of the year at 10:14.
At 13:04, BU defenseman Stephen Foster hammered Drury at center ice and
was called for roughing, and it took only 10 seconds for Harvard to even
things up. After the faceoff, the puck went into the corner, and Steve
Flomenhoft got to it and fed Martins at the right boards. Martins had
a clear shot all the way, and Cashman appeared to give him too much room
to the glove side. Martins rifled it over Cashman's shoulder for his
second goal of the year, tying it at 1-1.
Later in the period, Harvard was called for too many men as they clearly
had six skaters on, but great defense allowed Harvard to keep the Terriers
off the board. The Crimson defend against the power play better than
almost any team I have seen, with near-perfect rotation and hard work that
allowed them to get to the puck and knock it away. Matt Mallgrave had
lost his stick and BU was threatening, but after a teammate swiped at
the puck and knocked it back high in the slot, Mallgrave got down and used
his hand to push the puck out of the zone, an outstanding play.
I thought that BU had pretty much blown its chance to put Harvard away
the way they had with BC in the Beanpot semifinal, as they had a lot of
great chances and controlled the play very effectively, but the game was
still knotted at 1-1 after one. As the game went on, Tracy seemed to gain
more and more confidence (this was his first game ever in the Garden) and
his team got stronger as well.
SECOND PERIOD
Two penalties in the first half of the period put each team on a power
play, but there was no scoring until the 11:11 mark when Harvard took
its first lead of the game. As a BU defenseman (O'Sullivan, I think)
was trying to gain control of the puck behind the net, Cashman took a poke
at it for some reason and it went onto the stick of Drury. Drury cut to
his left and found Brian Farrell wide open in front, and Farrell's one-timer
from about 5 feet found nothing but net. It was Farrell's 9th of the year.
The Crimson shot themselves in the foot soon afterwards with two dumb
penalties that put BU up 5x3, and the Terriers would capitalize. First,
Flomenhoft hammered Steve Thornton into the BU bench with a vicious check
that left Thornton laying on the ice for a few minutes, but he seemed to
be ok. Flomenhoft went off for boarding, but Parker seemed to want a
major on the call. Then, after Tracy tied the puck up, Peter McLoughlin
came along and cross-checked Joubert into Tracy and drew a minor for
hitting after the whistle at 12:35.
Harvard's two man down penalty-killing was just as superb as its one man
down job, with the three players coming out to challenge the Terrier
pointmen and not allowing them many great chances. For much of the power
play, Drury was doing a great job of moving all over and doing the work
of two penalty killers. But he ended up roaming too much and was caught
out of position when he went over to challenge Foster, who had the puck at
the right point, putting all three Harvard players on one side. Foster
wheeled and passed through the wide-open slot to Sacco at the left circle,
and Sacco's one-timer beat Tracy to make it 2-2, Sacco's 16th goal at 13:59.
That was how the period ended.
THIRD PERIOD
This one belonged to Tracy. He was coming out to challenge shooters,
cutting down the angles, poking away attempted centering passes, gloving
deflections, everything an outstanding goalie should do.
The game-winner came at 6:29 and was caused by a great job of forechecking
by MVP Drury. As Foster tried to control the puck in the corner, Drury
crunched him into the boards, allowing Farrell to take the puck and skate
unmolested to the front of the net and put a shot on. Cashman made the
save, but Drury followed Farrell in and put in the rebound for his 15th
of the year. He now has 15-26--41 in 18 games. From where I was sitting,
it was difficult to tell whether the puck had been tied up before Drury
put it in, but replays later showed that it wasn't and that referee Drew
Taylor (I think) was in perfect position by the net to see it and keep
the play rolling.
Taylor and Frank Cole called no single penalties in the third and let them
play. As I suggested in my post yesterday, the fact that Taylor and Cole
did this game and are from Hockey East seemed to definitely help Harvard
here, as an ECAC ref might have called some of the penalties that occurred.
For example, on one play, BU was on a 2x1 and Jon Jenkins was nearly in
the clear to take a pass for what would have been a point-blank scoring
chance, but Cory Gustafson hauled him down - no call.
Harvard's line of Martins-Coughlin-Nielsen did yeoman work when they were
on the ice in the third. They were most effective at keeping the puck
in the BU zone and frustrating the Terriers who just couldn't clear it.
This line would produce the insurance goal for Harvard late in the game.
At 16:13, Martins stole a pass from BU's Rich Brennan at center ice and
skated up the left side. He fired a shot from about ten feet out at
the bottom of the left circle that beat Cashman to the glove side, as
Cashman again seemed to have trouble with the angles. That was Martins'
2nd of the game, 5th of the year.
BU tried desperately to put together something in the final minutes,
especially after Cashman was pulled with a minute left, but it was time
for Tracy and his defense to shine. Harvard continued to knock the puck
away and bottle up the BU forwards along the boards, and Tracy used his
stick to alertly knock away centering passes. In the end, Harvard would
allow no goals at even strength while scoring three of its own. Both
teams' total team defense was very good in this game, but Harvard's was
*outstanding* and that combined with the incredible netminding of Tracy
was what allowed Harvard to take home the Beanpot.
POSTGAME
This was one of the best Beanpot final games I've seen in my seven years
of attending the tourney, ranking right up there with the 1987 final won
by BU over NU in overtime. At the start of the third, I looked around
and said that I couldn't remember a Beanpot championship game since that
1987 one in which every seat was still filled halfway through the third
period. Only after Harvard went up 4-2 with 3:47 left, at about 10:45 pm,
did folks start to head for the exits.
As a fan of college hockey in general, one who couldn't have cared less
who won the game except that I did pick Harvard :-), it was nice to see
Tripp Tracy rebound from his loss Friday at RPI to play so well tonight.
It was also nice to see that Tomassoni showed confidence in him by coming
back with him tonight after Friday and after Israel had already notched a
Beanpot win in the Garden the week before; from what I've seen, Tracy is
the better goalie and deserving of a start in the Beanpot championship.
On the interview after the game on TV-38 which I saw on tape after getting
home, Tracy said that the RPI game gave him motivation for this one as
well as the fact that his coach gave him the chance to redeem himself.
Although he's having an outstanding season, he has remained relatively
unknown in the Boston area, but I don't think people will be asking,
"Tripp WHO?" any longer.
I also didn't see any of the things that RPI folks on the list commented
on about Tracy's style of play and disposition. I can only guess that
that was either an aberration, or else Tomassoni talked to him and got
him to calm his act down, because apparently the Tracy of Friday and the
Tracy tonight were two different people.
Drury was outstanding as expected. As for the competition between him
and Kariya (and others, but I can only comment on those I've seen) for the
Hobey, it's hard because they are two completely different types of
players and great in their own ways. Kariya is the great playmaker and
producer of many scoring chances, while Drury seems to be everywhere,
hitting everyone and everything and carrying out his leadership duties
to a T. I thought Tracy deserved the MVP because he made so many great
saves that he had no right making; it was strange that he had to lose out
on the Eberly Award to Cashman because of the rules despite Cashman not
having a good night. But Drury is a worthy winner and was almost single-
handedly responsible for Harvard's 2nd and 3rd goals.
The BU seniors had a chance to become the only group of seniors ever to
end their careers without having lost a Beanpot game, as they were 7-0
entering tonight with three titles. However, captain David Sacco has
actually been on the losing end of a Beanpot game before. He was a
freshman on the 1988-89 BU team that lost in the final to Harvard, and
then he redshirted in 1989-90 with a shoulder injury that sidelined him
for almost the entire season. Still, the loss shouldn't take away from
what the BU seniors have accomplished in their Beanpot careers - the BC
and NU seniors, for example, ended their careers this season without
winning a single title, while BU got three.
I hope many of you got a chance to see the game as it was broadcast live
by superstation WSBK-TV38; from the little I saw of the replay, Sean
McDonough did an outstanding job as guest play-by-play man and seemed to
very much enjoy calling one of the best games in these parts of the season.
As color man Bob Norton noted afterwards, we will probably see both of these
teams in Worcester, MA on March 26-27 for the NC$$ East Regional, and if
they are seeded 2-3 as appears likely, there could be a third battle between
the two Boston rivals for the right to go to Milwaukee.
NEXT
BU will host Merrimack Friday night in the front end of a home-and-home
and then play at Merrimack Saturday night, as the Terriers return to
Hockey East play. Harvard returns to ECAC play this weekend by hosting
Yale and Princeton. The other two Beanpot teams, Northeastern and BC,
return to HE play this weekend as NU hosts Maine for a pair while BC plays
a home-and-home with UMass-Lowell.
For those looking ahead, the 1994 Beanpot semifinals will feature a rematch
of tonight's games, as BC will play Northeastern and BU will meet Harvard.
---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors
(Any opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.) *HMN*
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