In one hell of a nail-biter of a game, the Boston College Eagles
triumphed over the Harvard Crimson in overtime, to take the Beanpot
Championship by a score of 2 to 1.
 
I have no hair left and about three ulcers after this game...
 
If the radio reports are correct, this makes the fifth time out of the
eight that Harvard has had a chance to repeat as Beanpot Champions that
BC has prevailed.
 
In the consolation round, I heard that BU shut out Northeastern by a score
of EIGHT to nothing.  I think someone was upset about losing last week...;)
 
It's way past my bedtime, so just a few quick comments:
 
Both goalies played an excellent game, by and large, with the Eagles'
Taylor having the edge in that he didn't really committ any egregious
errors, while Aaron Israel, in net for Harvard, had a couple of miscues
that almost resulted in goals.  Taylor won both the Eberly Award as best
goaltender of the tournament, as well as the Tournament MVP, deservedly.
 
BC had the edge in the offensive end, whether from strength or speed I
wasn't quite sure, but they certainly seemed to have more spark.  Only the
generally solid play of Harvard's experienced defense and numerous excellent
saves by Israel kept Harvard from falling behind, when in fact they maintained
a one goal lead until the third period.  (The first goal of the game by
Harvard was scored with about 5:45 left in the second--Sean McCann on the
Powerplay.)
 
From my view, Peter McLaughlin had a great game on defense for Harvard.
Captain Sean McCann was generally solid but in a number of instances just
had trouble handling the puck.
 
Despite the prevailing opinion that Harvard had the edge in speed
(or maybe this is just one of those self-perpetuating myths...it seems
everyone says this every year about Harvard.), BC's defense did a very good
job stopping the Crimson attack coming across their blue line.
 
There were also very few, if any, odd man rushes for Harvard and I think
only one break-in.  Good coaching for BC on defense!
 
All in all, a great suspenseful game that is what we've come to expect from
the Beanpot, which is...anything can happen in any game...
 
I'll leave the rest to the experts and get some sleep...
 
Julian
HU'93
 
Harvard-1993 Beanpot Champions
        1994 "Hey, we beat BU."  ;)