By Joe Concannon, Globe Staff, 02/12/1980

In one tumultuous moment at the end of an emotionally wrenching game, Wayne Turner swept in on the net, picked up a pass from a sprawling Dale Ferdinandi and wiped out 27 years of frustration and despair with the biggest goal anyone ever scored in Northeastern hockey.

It came just 2:47 into overtime in the championship game of the Beanpot hockey tournament last night before 14,456 roaring fans at the Garden. It lifted the beloved underdogs from Huntington avenue to a 5-4 win over Boston
College - and their first title in the 28-year history of the tournament. And it served as the climax to a performance that was charged with drama.

It was, quite simply, a victory for Everyman, for the guy on the beach who was fed up with getting sand kicked in his face by the bullies. Put down as the unwanted member of the Beanpot fraternity and looked upon in the past as an embarrassment, NU seized the occasion to prove a point.

Make no mistake about it, this was no fluke. In fact, once the Huskies came back from a 3-1 deficit to tie it, the underdogs were all over BC. In fact, NU outshot BC, 24-14, after the first period, came back from a 4-3 deficit to tie it on a goal by Paul McDougall with 3:36 left in the third period and all but won it when Turner went in alone as time ran out in regulation.

On that one, Ferdinandi slid the puck to Turner as he broke into the clear. Turner went in on surprise starter Bob O'Connor in the BC nets but came up empty. "If I had made a good shot," said Turner, "I had it. I was half on my backhand. He (O'Connor) forced it. I just couldn't lift it."

So they teamed up again in overtime, two seniors who have endured indignities for four years, and this time they connected. Ferdinandi was tripped and fell, but he managed to throw the puck over in the direction of Larry Parks. It wound up on Turner's stick, and he put it away.

"I was trying to get it to Parks," said Ferdinandi. "He overskated it," said Turner. "I just put it up high over his (O'Connor's) glove. He was leaning."

It touched off a turbulent celebration as the NU players engulfed Turner at one end of the ice and NU coach Fern Flaman quietly hugged freshman goaltender George Demetroulakas at center ice. On a night when there were all sorts of heroic NU performances, few outstripped that of the freshman from Chelmsford.

Not to be overlooked was defenseman named Dave Archambault, whose enormous prsence in an iron-man role was recognized with the MVP award. It was the ninth Beanpot for a member of the Scarborough, Ontario Archambaults. Brother Gene had played in four, brother Mike in two, and this was the third for Dave.

If he and his teammates left a legacy, it was simply put as he sat in a corner of the frenzied NU locker room. "People don't take too kindly to being the constant underdog. It was tough to take. This'll break the ice for the future. Hopefully, they won't be such underdogs."

BC, secure as the No. 1 team in the East but suspect in its last three games, broke on top, 1-0, when Bill Army took a pass from Lee Blossom and converted at 8:26 of the opening period. Gerry Cowie answered that goal just 31 seconds later to tie it, and suddenly the die was cast. NU would be no pushover.

Yet Army scored his second goal from the faceoff circle on a power play and Paul Hammer shot the puck into the far corner from the left slot for a 3-1 first-period lead. Parks picked up a loose puck at 0:48 of the second period and connected on a backhander, and McDougall scored a wondrous goal to tie it at 3:47.

He knifed through two BC defensemen, pulled O'Connor out and swept the puck behind the goalie as he fell to the ice. After Bobby Hehir gave BC a 4-3 lead at 6:27 of the third period on a rebound of a shot by Jeff Cowles, McDougall was set up by Sandy Beadle on a power play with 3:36 to go in regulation time, and he tied it with an unchecked shot from five feet. "It was wide open," said McDougall.

Perhaps it was appropriate that Turner won it. Certainly nobody traveled any farther to get to this night. He is from Kitimat, B.C., a town some 700 miles north of Vancouver on the Pacific Ocean. For the first time in his four years at NU, his parents were able to see him play in the Beanpot. In Game 1, NU beat Boston University, 6-5, at 5:09 of an overtime session and, well, last night speaks for itself.

"We didn't deserve to win," said BC coach Len Ceglarski, who started O'Connor in place of regular Doug Ellis because Ellis reportedly showed up late for a team meeting. The BC players filed out of the Garden quietly, leaving NU to bask in the sun. "I'm drained," said Ferdinandi. "I'm just drained."