Donato, Crimson seniors get to take their first final

Ted Donato, now in his third year behind the Harvard bench, advanced to the Beanpot championship game for the first time as a coach.

But Donato was happier for his seniors - winless in their first three opening-round games - to get the opportunity to play in the late game next Monday.

"I'm particularly happy for my senior class," Donato said. "It's their first chance to get in the championship game of the Beanpot."

For the first three years of his Harvard career, captain Mike Taylor has had to grind through the misfortune of playing in front of the friends-and-family crowd at TD Banknorth Garden after losing in the first round.

This time, Taylor and his fellow seniors finally will experience the juice of a full Garden.

"Tonight, our class, especially, stressed to the team how bad we wanted this game," said Taylor, who had a goal and an assist in the 3-1 win over Northeastern. "To be honest, the first few years as a freshman and sophomore - especially me, being from Minnesota - you don't really realize the importance of the game."

Before the start of the season, the Crimson watched a video chronicling the Beanpot's history, which hasn't been particularly generous to Harvard lately. The Crimson haven't won the crown since 1993, and the video underscored to Taylor how important it was to at least get the opportunity to lift the trophy next week.

"You have to realize how special this time is," said Taylor. "Our class really wanted this one tonight, probably more than any game I've played in my career. We were able to get that through to the younger guys and come up with a good team effort tonight."

The anguish on Brett Bennett's face was easy to read, even with his goaltending mask still covering most of it. At 7:15 of overtime, the Boston University sophomore gave up the winning goal to Boston College's Nathan Gerbe and the Eagles advanced with a 4-3 win.

For Bennett, who was playing in his first Beanpot, it was excruciating. BC defenseman Carl Sneep had thrown the puck down from the left point, and freshman center Brian Gibbons fed it to Gerbe, who beat Bennett over the glove for his second goal of the night.

"It looked like it was up top and one of their guys threw it at the net," said Bennett. "And it hit one of their players. And then all I saw was [Gerbe] got the puck right to my glove side.

"It was a tough goal. It makes me feel real bad that I kind of let my team down, giving that one up. It hurts, obviously. It's a tough pill to swallow."

Coach Jack Parker in no way faulted his young netminder.

"He certainly didn't lose the game for us," said Parker. "He didn't have a chance on the winning goal.

"I thought he played extremely well. I thought it was a strong effort by our goaltender, that's for sure."

Bennett tried to enjoy the experience, even though it had a bitter ending.

"It was fun," he said. "Obviously, it's never fun to lose. We play again on Monday but before that, we've got a game on Friday [at UMass]. So we're just going to get ready for Friday night's game."

BC coach Jerry York heads into the Beanpot finals for the ninth time. He takes a 2-6 mark into the title game, which will mark first time he has faced a team other than BU in the final . . . BC's Gerbe wound up with a game-high nine shots on net . . . Benn Ferriero's assist on Gerbe's first goal gave him 100 career points . . . Northeastern defenseman Jacques Perreault left the game with a shoulder injury and did not return. There was no word on the severity of the injury . . . Alex Biega and Ian Tallett, partners on Harvard's blue line, both recorded game-high plus-3 ratings . . . Harvard forwards Alex Meintel and Michael Biega led all players in the opener with five shots apiece.

Northeastern goalie Brad Thiessen mistakenly left his net during a first-period delayed penalty. The call was on teammate Randy Guzior instead of Harvard. Fortunately, Northeastern gained control of the puck to force the whistle . . . The women's Beanpot starts tomorrow at 5 p.m. at Walter Brown Arena with Harvard taking on Northeastern. BC and BU square off at 8 p.m. BC is the two-time defending champion. Harvard had won the seven previous championships.