By Joe Concannon, Globe Staff, 02/10/1981

Goals by Bill Larson and David Burke and the superb netminding of Wade Lau carried Harvard to a 2-0 upset of Boston College for the Beanpot hockey championship last night at Boston Garden.

In the lowest-scoring Beanpot game ever, Larson got the decisive tally on Harvard's first shot, which came at 12:41 of the first period, and Burke added the crucial insurance with 1:55 left in the game.

Harvard and BC last met in a Beanpot championship game 18 years ago, and BC emerged with a 3-1 win. BC had won the last three games in its series with Harvard, including a 6-2 victory last month in McHugh Forum.

Since ending a 17-day break for examinations, Harvard had won two games by a combined margin of 17-5, beating Notheastern in the opening game of the Beanpot last Monday (10-2) and St. Lawrence (7-3) last Friday night. BC had been unbeaten in nine straight games (8-0-1) until suffering a 5-2 defeat to Providence on Friday.

BC dominated the first 10 minutes of the opening period. Just 47 seconds into the game, Mark Murphy of BC was penalized for holding Harvard captain Tom Murray on a near break, but Harvard was unable to put a single shot on BC goaltender Bob O'Connor. With Gary Martin of Harvard in the penalty box, BC defenseman Jim Chisholm picked up a rebound at the top of the faceoff circle, and with Lau down and out, Chisholm shot it into a sprawling Harvard defenseman.

Larson, a sophomore who was called up during the Christmas break, scored just his second varsity goal to give Harvard a 1-0 lead at 12:41 of the first period. Jim Turner fed the puck out in front, and after it bounced over the stick of the attacking David Burke, Larson swept in, picked it up and put Harvard's first shot on net of the game past O'Connor.

For the next five minutes, Harvard enjoyed the territorial edge, with O'Connor turning aside a bid by Martin off a Rick Benson setup as Harvard came to life in the offensive zone. O'Connor kicked out a Ken Code blast from the right point, and Shayne Kukulowicz, sprung by Greg Britz, shot it wide of the BC net. Alan Litchfield of Harvard was penalized for elbowing at 18:37 of the period, but Harvard killed it off. BC had a 7-4 edge in what was basically a tight checking period of hockey.

BC had last won the Beanpot in 1976, and Harvard's last previous win had come a year later. So neither the two Harvard seniors nor the five BC seniors had ever played on a Beanpot championship team. That was the added incentive, even though the Beanpot games do not count in the ECAC Division 1 playoff standings.

BC was upset by Northeastern in the final a year ago, and O'Connor, an 11th-hour replacement as a freshman in the BC goal, had lived with that memory for 12 months. If he had been shaky in the first 10 minutes of the second period, Harvard might have taken a three- or four-goal lead. Fortunately for BC, he was superb.

Greg Olson had the first opportunity of the period, exploding in on O'Connor, who came out, stayed with him and turned it back. In a form reversal of the first period, BC went eight minutes before Robin Monleon put the first shot on net. It was a blistering shot from the right point that Lau kicked out.

From then until the end of the period, Harvard saw a rash of great chances negated by O'Connor. He stopped Olson, who had been set up from Murray, and smothered a Harvard rush when he fell on a Kukulowicz shot. O'Connor followed that up with a leaping gloved save of a Phil Falcone shot from the point.

Even when Burke left for a hooking call at 17:34, the Crimson had the better scoring chances. On one sequence, O'Connor made the initial save of a Turner shot from in close, then recovered to block a backhand rebound bid. Harvard outshot BC, 10-2, and the period ended with Harvard trying to get a final shot off a 2-on-1 break into the BC zone.

If these games do not count in the playoff picture, this was playoff hockey and the capacity crowd of 14,456 warmed up to it. This was the eighth sellout in the last nine Beanpot dates in the Garden, the sixth in succession.

If Lau wasn't tested as many times as O'Connor, he was there when he had to be. He came up with a big save on a Mark Switaj shot from in close at the top of the third period. But O'Connor managed to keep his position in a wild scramble in front of the BC net and a Falcone backhand wound up beneath a pile of bodies as it remained Harvard 1, BC 0.

In the consolation game, Boston University displayed its most productive offense of the season and received a 40-save performance from goaltender Bob Barich as it humbled Northeastern, 9-2.

BU is now 10-12 overall and 6-9 in ECAC Division 1 play. NU, which lost its fifth game in its last six outings, is now 13-5 overall and 12-2 in Division 1. Last night's game didn't count in the ECAC standings.

The loss was quite a comedown for NU, which won its first Beanpot championship last year. The Huskies have been in a tailspin, and they showed few signs of coming out of it.

BU jumped off to a 2-0 first-period lead on a 60-footer by Bruce Milton and a 5-footer by Todd Johnson.

BU came out flying in the second as Bill Cotter scored at 0:51 and Milton at 1:33. NU broke the Terrier momentum for a moment when Paul Filipe zinged home a 60-footer, but BU answered with goals by Cotter, Mark Fidler (who also had three assists), Daryl MacLeod and Bob Darling.

Both teams were chippy throughout the game, especialy in the third period. The only goals in the last period were by BU's Paul McDougall and BU's Marc Sinclair.