THE 41ST ANNUAL BEANPOT HOCKEY TOURNAMENT at BOSTON GARDEN
Mon 2/1/93 6:00 pm Northeastern vs Harvard
9:00 pm Boston College vs Boston University
Mon 2/8/93 5:00 pm Consolation
8:00 pm Championship
41st BEANPOT PREVIEW by Mike Machnik
(An updated version of the 40th Beanpot Preview from 1992.)
HISTORY
The Beanpot Hockey Tournament has been played since 1952 by the four
DivI hockey schools in Boston: Boston College, Boston University, Harvard,
and Northeastern. The winner is able to lay claim to the title of
Champion of Boston for the next year. It began in December, 1952, as the
New England Invitational Hockey Tournament although it never has been an
invitational tournament except for that first year. The Beanpot has been
played in the Boston Garden since the second Beanpot in 1954. That first
tournament in 1952 was held in the Boston Arena, now Northeastern's
Matthews Arena, and was won by Harvard.
The famous beanpot-shaped trophy is named the Edward J. Powers Memorial
Trophy, in honor of the longtime president of Boston Garden who was a
lifelong supporter of the tournament until his death in May, 1973. The
trophy stands 14 inches tall and weighs 26 pounds.
Over its history, the Beanpot has been held in four different months. The
first tourney was held in December. When the next season rolled around,
the tourney had been moved to the Garden and was played in January 1954.
In 1955, it was moved to February, and 1958 it began to be held with one
week between the opening round and the championship night. It is now
played on the traditional first two Mondays in February. That is, except
for 1978.
That was the year that the Northeast endured the memorable Blizzard of '78.
11,666 showed up at the Garden on February 6th despite the fact that Boston
was being pounded with a snowstorm that had begun earlier that day. It
would continue for days. After the second game was over, fans left the
Garden to find that T service had been brought to a grinding halt. Several
hundred, maybe a thousand fans were snowbound and spent several nights
living in the Garden along with two teams. The championship, scheduled for
February 13th, was postponed to March 1st - the only March Beanpot date.
This was really the year that the Beanpot gained widespread notoriety.
The Beanpot has been sold out long in advance since 1979 and has become
the premier college hockey event in New England, certainly one of the top
events in the nation. It is the only time during the year that college
hockey (usually) gets front page coverage by the Boston Globe and Boston
Herald, and the three major network affiliates - channels 4, 5, and 7 -
send their top reporters to the Garden to report live from the first game
during the 6:00 newscasts. In fact, most lead the 6 and 11:00 news with
the Beanpot.
The success of the Beanpot has spawned other "Beanpots" involving the
four schools. There is also a women's Beanpot, although this year BU has
dropped out and been replaced by Brown. And, there is a baseball Beanpot
held in the spring in Fenway Park. An attempt was made to hold a basketball
Beanpot, but this never gained widespread popularity.
For whatever reason, the Beanpot has been dominated by BU, recently at
least. The Terriers have won 17 Beanpots, six since 1982. BC has won
10, but none since 1983 and only two in the last 27 years. Harvard has
won 9, the last in 1989, and only two since 1978. Northeastern ranks at
the bottom with only 4 Beanpots - but after winning none in the tourney's
first 27 years, the Huskies won four in the 1980s - more than any other
team! The Huskies' first win in 1980 is credited with singlehandedly
turning the school's struggling program around, and just two years later,
in 1982, Northeastern made its first and only NC$$ Final Four appearance.
This Beanpot will mark a beginning for one coach. BC's Steve Cedorchuk
will be behind the bench for his first after taking over at the helm for
Len Ceglarski, who coached in 20 Beanpots. In fact, other than BU's Jack
Parker, the other three coaches (Cedorchuk, Harvard's Ronn Tomassoni,
Northeastern's Ben Smith) have coached in a combined total of 3 Beanpots
with a record of 1-5. This is Parker's 20th Beanpot, tying the tourney
longevity record held by Ceglarski and Ceglarski's predecessor at BC,
John "Snooks" Kelley. Parker has won 9 Beanpots thus far.
If the Terriers win the Beanpot again this year, they will tie the record
for most consecutive Beanpot championships. That is also held by BU, which
won four Beanpots from 1970-73. A win would enable Parker to set a new
record for most consecutive Beanpots won by a coach, since two different
coaches were involved in BU's wins from 1970-73.
By the way, 15 of the 24 players who played on the 1992 US Olympic Team
played in the Beanpot during their careers. Goalie Scott Gordon won the
Eberly Award as Most Outstanding Goaltender in 1986 with BC. Ted Donato
was the tourney's high scorer with 2-4--6 in 1989 for Harvard. And
Shawn McEachern was the MVP in 1991 and high scorer for BU. The 1992
Beanpot was aired by satellite in France during the Games and quite a few
friendly wagers were made among the Olympians.
BEANPOT STATS
FINISHES TEAM vs TEAM
1st 2nd 3rd 4th BU BC HVD NU
BU 17 15 5 3 x 16-8 20-11 18-7
BC 10 9 16 5 8-16 x 13-12 24-7
Harvard 9 12 10 9 11-20 12-13 x 17-7
NU 4 4 9 23 7-18 7-24 7-17 x
TEAM STANDINGS OVERTIME RECORDS (Last OT Game)
BU 54-26 3-4 (W vs NU 89)
BC 45-35 8-4 (W vs Harvard 87)
Harvard 40-40 6-5 (L vs BC 87)
NU 21-59 5-9 (L vs BU 89)
YEARS WON CHAMPIONSHIP
BU (58, 66-68, 70-73, 75, 78-79, 82, 86-87, 90-92)
BC (54, 56-57, 59, 61, 63-65, 76, 83)
Harvard (53, 55, 60, 62, 69, 74, 77, 81, 89)
NU (80, 84-85, 88)
BEANPOT COACHING RECORDS
COACH (SCHOOL - #, YEARS) W-L PCT FINISHES
Leon Abbott (BU - 1, 73) 2-0 1.000 1-0-0-0
Jack Kelley (BU - 10, 63-72) 15-5 .750 6-3-0-1
Jack Parker (BU - 19, 74- ) 27-11 .711 9-7-2-1
John "Snooks" Kelley (BC - 20, 52-72) 26-14 .650 8-2-8-2
Ralph "Cooney" Weiland (H - 19, 52-71) 22-16 .579 5-7-5-2
Harry Cleverly (BU - 10, 52-62) 10-10 .500 1-5-3-1
Len Ceglarski (BC - 20, 73-92) 19-21 .475 2-7-8-3
Bill Cleary (H - 19, 72-90) 17-21 .447 4-4-5-6
Fern Flaman (NU - 19, 71-89) 14-24 .368 4-2-5-8
Don McKenney (NU - 2, 90-91) 1-3 .250 0-0-1-1
Ronn Tomassoni (H - 2, 91- ) 1-3 .250 0-1-0-1
James L. Bell (NU - 15, 56-70) 6-24 .200 0-2-4-9
Herb Gallagher (NU - 3, 52-55) 0-6 .000 0-0-0-3
Ben Smith (NU - 1, 92- ) 0-2 .000 0-0-0-1
Steve Cedorchuk (BC - 0; first) 0-0 .000 0-0-0-0
TOURNEY RECORDS
GOALS
One Team, One Game: 15, BC vs NU, 1961 (15-1)
Two Teams, One Game: 17, BC (9) NU (8) OT 1973
Harvard (11) BC (6) 1974
BU (12) BC (5) 1978
One Team, One Period: 7, BC vs NU, 1961 (15-1)
One Team, One Tourney: 19, BC 1961 (15-1 & 4-2)
BU 1978 (12-5 & 7-1)
Lowest Score: 2-0, BC vs NU 1952
Harvard vs BC 1981
INDIVIDUAL RECORDS
GOALS
Period: 4, Bill Cleary (H) vs NU, 1955 (H 12-3)
Game: 5, Bill Cleary (H) vs NU, 1955 (H 12-3)
Ed Sullivan (BC) vs NU, 1961 (BC 15-1)
Mike Powers (BC) vs NU, 1973 (BC 9-8 OT)
Tourney: 7, Bill Cleary (H) 1955
ASSISTS
Game: 6, Billy Daley (BC) vs NU, 1961 (BC 15-1)
Tourney: 6, Billy Daley (BC) 1961
David Silk (BU) 1977
Herb Wakabayashi (BU) 1967
POINTS
Game: 7, Bill Cleary (H) vs NU, 1955 (H 12-3) 5-2--7
Tourney: 11, Bill Cleary (H) 1955 7-4--11
SAVES
Game: 52, Jim Barton (BC) vs BU, 1970 (BU 5-4)
Tourney: 91, Bill Fitzsimmons (H) 1965, allowed 8 goals
LAST BEANPOT SHUTOUT
1991, Tom Cole (NU) vs Harvard, 5-0, consolation
TEAM SHUTOUTS
Harvard: 4 for, 1 against
BC: 4 for, 2 against
NU: 2 for, 7 against
BU: 1 for, 1 against
1992 BEANPOT RECAP
2/3/92 Harvard 6, Boston College 4
Boston University 5, Northeastern 4
2/10/92 Cons: Boston College 5, Northeastern 3
Champ: Boston University 5, Harvard 2
1992 AWARD WINNERS
MVP: F Mike Prendergast, BU
Eberly Award (Highest Goalie Save Pct): Scott Cashman, BU
41ST BEANPOT QUICK PICK
Northeastern vs Harvard (6 pm): At time of posting, Huskies were 8-12-1
while Crimson were 13-1-1. This game is eerily reminiscent of the 1987
first round matchup between these two, when Harvard was 15-1-0 and NU
was struggling at 6-16-3. NU took a 4-2 lead into the final minute, but
goals by Lane MacDonald at 19:14 and Tim Barakett at 19:32 sent the game
into overtime, where NU D Brian Dowd scored the winner at 6:20. By the
time next Monday rolls around, Harvard will have been idle for 16 days.
Can you say deja vu? Northeastern 4, Harvard 3.
Boston College vs Boston University (9 pm): Terriers have won all three
meetings between the two teams. In fact, the Eagles have lost in the
first round 7 of the last 9 years and dropped six straight Beanpot games
to BU. BU is better in every area of the game except penalty-killing
and defense. Boston University 6, Boston College 2.
TV: Mon Feb 1: NESN 6 pm & 9 pm LIVE (first round); also taped later
Mon Feb 8: WSBK-TV38 8 pm LIVE (championship); also taped later on NESN
PS: This will be my 7th straight Beanpot...I have spent three on the
bench, with Northeastern from 1987-89, and the last four as a spectator.
Among the highlights I've seen are the Northeastern win in 1987 I noted
above, the first Beanpot game I ever saw in person; Mike Kelfer's goal in
OT that same year to give BU the win over NU in the final; NU's first
Beanpot shutout ever over BC in 1988; NU goalie Bruce Racine nearly throwing
the first two-game Beanpot shutout ever when he also kept BU scoreless
through two periods of the 1988 championship; NU's 1988 Beanpot win; the
awesome performance of the 1989 Harvard team enroute to winning the 'Pot;
the same of the 1991 BU team; and NU goalie Tom Cole nearly breaking the
Beanpot record for saves with 50+ against BC in 1991. Not much else in
college hockey matches the level of excitement in the Garden just preceding
the start of the championship game. And, it is something to see to be
there at the start of the consolation, when there are about several hundred
people in total in the Garden at about 5 pm, and to watch the Garden slowly
fill up until the middle of the third period of the consolation when the
sellout crowd of 14,448 is on hand. Oh, and I have held the Beanpot trophy,
too. :-)
---
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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