BC Beats BU 4-3 in 58th Beanpot Championship

2/8/2010 - Boston College 4, Boston University 3 - 16-8-2 (11-6-2 Hockey East)

2010 Beanpot Champions! WIN!

It was a very tenuous start for Boston College. The nerves of this young Eagles team were clearly getting the best of them. And when you think about it, that's understandable. While we all know that the Eagles are clearly the more talented team this year, Jerry York's squad had already lost to Boston University twice in 2010. Not to mention one of those losses came on one of the biggest stages of any college hockey player's career - Fenway Park. So the Eagles came out a little shell-shocked to start the game. BC went into the first intermission down 1-0, after Boston University's Kevin Shattenkirk converted a Eagles' turnover in the defensive zone into the first goal of the game at 13:36 of the first period. Shattenkirk capitalized on a bad clearing pass from BC defenseman Philip Samuelsson and went in uncontested.

That's when Jerry York worked his magic. I'm not sure whether York gave a speech or simply played Kenny Power's audio book "You're f-cking out, I'm f-cking in" to his players. Whatever York decided to do or say to this team during the first intermission, simply, worked. BC came out firing on all cylinders in the second period, scoring just a little over a minute into the second period. Stephen Whitney (assisted by Cam Atkinson and Brian Gibbons) scored on the remainder of the 5-on-4 power-play that started the second period. Then at 12:33, defenseman Carl Sneep made it 2-1 with a blistering shot from the point that may have deflected by a BU defender. Sneep's goal was assisted by Matt Price and Matt Lombardi. Finally, Chris Kreider joined in on the scoring by turned a 1-on-1 breakaway into arguably one of the best goals of the years for the Eagles.

I know New York Rangers fans are already salivating over the thought of you playing at the next level, Chris, but ... please stay? How 'bout another year? Kreider has really come on strong of late. Kreider went into the winter break and the World Juniors with just 2 goals in his young BC career. The goal tonight marked Kreider's 5th goal in as many games, bringing his season total to 7.

The Eagles took a 3-1 lead into the second intermission, but the game was far from over, as nothing comes easy for us Superfans.

BC again got on the board 4:22 into the third period, when Barry Almeida turned an odd man rush into the Eagles' fourth goal of the game. Almeida wristed a shot over the blocker side of BU goalie Kieran Millan. After making it 4-1, however, Boston University would respond with two goals in the third period, including a shorthanded goal from BU's David Warsofsky at 9:00. The Terriers would then cut the lead to 1 with just under 3 minutes left in the game, when Colby Cohen scored the power play goal. The teams were skating 6-on-4 as Jack Parker had pulled Kieran Millan during the BU man advantage.

BU would again pull Millan with a little over 90 seconds left in the game, and BC held off a flurry of BU shots to secure the victory. BU's Nick Bonino had the best shot at tying the game when, with just 19 seconds left, he swatted at the puck twice, only to be denied by Muse's left pad.

With the victory, BC wins its 15th Beanpot Championship and second in the last three seasons.

Gibbons Point Streak. With an assist on Stephen Whitney's goal to tie the game at 1, Brian Gibbons extends his consecutive points streak to 11 games. The 11 game point scoring streak dates back to January 1 in the opening round game of the Denver Cup vs. St. Lawrence.

Good things come in 3s. Could winning the Beanpot be a sign of better things to come for the Eagles? For the past two seasons, the winner of the Beanpot has gone on to win the Hockey East Tournament and then the NCAA National Championship. BC pulled off the "Beanpot-Hockey East-NCAA" hat trick in 2008, while BU pulled off the feat last season.

H/T Superfans. Big ups to the Boston College faithful for being loud and bringing it all night. The Superfans cheers were loud and audible all night on the NESN telecast. Several classic cheers could be heard while watching the game on NESN, including:

"Sucks to BU!"
"Safety school ..."
"Why so quiet?"
"BU football"
"We can't hear you!"
"It's all your fault!"

All classics. Between the awesome cheers and fans singing to the band's cover of Coldplay's Viva la Vida, the Superfans were in full-force tonight.

Next up. The Eagles have the week off before playing a home-and-home against UMass-Lowell this weekend. The new year hasn't been kind to the River Hawks. Lowell went into the holiday break with a 10-4-1, but has gone only 4-6-1 in 2010, including a current three game losing streak to Northeastern, BU and Merrimack. Lowell currently sits in a three-way tie for 5th place with Boston University and Vermont in the Hockey East standings. In the first game of the season series, Lowell defeat the Eagles 3-1 at Tsongas Arena back on January 23 (the Eagles last loss).

The Eagles will be looking to gain ground on New Hampshire as the Wildcats only play one game this weekend (Friday vs. Providence). BC is currently 3 points behind first place UNH.

Go Eagles!