The 39th Beanpot Tournament opened last night at Boston Garden. The
scores and some comments, all off the top of my head:
BOSTON COLLEGE (22-7-0) 5, NORTHEASTERN (4-22-2) 3
The Huskies coughed up a 3-1 second period lead as David Emma became
Boston College's all-time leading scorer. Tom Cole made *51* saves in
the NU net. Northeastern had no right being in this game, but Cole kept
them there. Cole did everything in this game, including sell popcorn
and take tickets. Remarkable stat of the week: NU has led every game
it has played since the beginning of January, but they have a 2-8-1
record to show for it.
There was no score in the first period; the Huskies went on top
2-0 in the second on goals by Sebastien LaPlante and Rob Kenny
before BC got on the board. Emma had one goal called back when he
angled his skate to redirect a wide shot into the net; he screamed
vigorously at referee Steve McBride, who refused to call a penalty
presumably because he is David Emma. McBride had originally
signalled a goal but waved it off when one of the linesmen brought it
to his attention. In fact, McBride, who had trouble keeping up with
the play, did both the BC-Merrimack and BC-NU games this weekend, and
BC's opponents had a combined total of one power play in 120 minutes
of play. Hmm.
BC held the edge in shots, 46-18, after the second period but the
score was tied at 3; the magnitude of shots finally caught up with
Cole in the third as the Eagles went ahead and then Emma iced it late
in the game.
Sandy Galuppo played in net for BC and made 23 saves; inside word has
him starting over LaGrand in the championship next Monday.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY (18-9-2) 8, HARVARD (10-9-0) 2
Harvard was in this game for about three minutes. That's how long it
took for BU to crank up its high-octane offense and blow the Crimson
to smithereens. Harvard, which had earlier been shut out at home by
the Terriers, 4-0, simply could not skate, check, or score with BU.
In the third period they resorted to some cheap play, particularly on
the part of Steven Flomenhoft (successor to Kevan Melrose) who took
more steps than I have ever seen anyone take in charging someone -
and then he wasn't called for it.
In building up a 5-1 lead at the end of the first period, the Terriers
were guilty themselves of running Allain Roy quite a bit. On one goal,
BU's Darin MacDonald scored two points for the takedown of Roy, then a
teammate put the rebound in - and I was amazed that referee Ammian (ECAC)
let the goal stand. Harvard did a poor job of protecting its goalies
(Chuckie Hughes played the third), but they couldn't match up sizewise
with BU.
The most beautiful goal of the year came in the second period. Amonte
and McEachern were in top, top form last night. It was something to see
when McEachern would pick up the puck at the red line, suddenly shift
gears and blow right by the Crimson's matador defense. More often than
not, he and Amonte had a 2-on-1; this time, he got the puck to Amonte who
put a quick fake on Roy, then flipped the puck in to continue the rout.
At 7-2 and with the clock approaching 11:30, the Garden was empty for the
start of the third period except for a balcony full of Terrier fans. Scott
Lachance, the CSB's third-rated player for the 1991 NHL draft, rounded out
the scoring when he took the puck from Tomlinson on a power play, faked the
shot and walked around a defender to fire a wrist shot past Hughes.
I think Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni made a mistake by not taking Roy out
of the game after the first period (five goals on 11 shots) with his team
down by four. By the time he did go to Hughes, it was 7-2. I can't fault
Roy for most of the goals because his teammates were just outplayed, but
maybe a change after the first period would have fired up the Crimson a bit.
John Bradley played the whole game for BU and wasn't tested very much. He
will probably start next Monday against BC.
The 39th Beanpot Championship will be televised live on Boston's WSBK-TV 38
next Monday at approximately 8 pm. (WSBK is carried by many cable systems
throughout the Northeast.) BU will be playing in its 8th straight Beanpot
Championship I believe, while BC will be in its first since 1983.
- mike
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