Eagles clobber NU, 8-2

By Joe Concannon, Globe Staff, 02/15/1983

With 5:28 remaining in the second period of the 31st Beanpot Tournament's championship game last night in steamy Boston Garden, Boston College's Bill McDonough fielded a little poke pass from Lee Blossom, turned it on as he swept through center ice and went in alone to beat Northeastern's Mark Davidner.

When the puck went in the net and everybody on the BC bench started warming up to what now seemed inevitable, there was Blossom, kneeling and alone, throwing both arms into the air, his stick clenched tightly in one hand. In this solitary tableau, the story of the 31st Beanpot was symbolically spelled out.

The score, at that juncture, was BC 6, NU 1, and for all practical purposes, the countdown had begun. The Eagles went buoyantly on their way to an 8-2 win before a capacity crowd of 14,523 to win their first Beanpot since 1976 and put to rest the legacy of recent seasons when the word was they simply couldn't win the big game.

This was an emphatic statement, the most decisive victory in a Beanpot final since Boston University pinned Harvard, 9-2, in 1966. From the opening moments, when tournament MVP Bob Sweeney scored a power-play goal just 40 seconds into the game, until the closing minute, when the BC bench became a festive Garden party, this was the night to be an Eagle.

In an athletic year that has seen the BC football team make it to the Tangerine Bowl and the basketball team crack the national Top 20, the hockey team no longer has to take a back seat at The Heights. This team is top shelf, a band of players not picked to do much of anything this season. Here they are with BC's second Beanpot in 18 years, its 10th in history.

The unkindest cut was four straight defeats at the Beanpot summit. Zero for four. "It's nice, too, because it's not just for us," said BC goaltender Billy Switaj. "It's for all the guys who played here the past seven years and didn't get a Beanpot. You could see the disappointment in their eyes when we'd lose. I guess if you're going to win it once, it's nice to do it your senior year."

"We did it, we finally did it," said cocaptain Blossom. "The big thing, unfortunately, is the pressure that was put on us by our own people. We won this for the school, for the athletic program, for everyone involved with BC athletics. I think we got a lot of people off our backs."

Mike O'Neil, the other BC cocaptain, has had to live with the memories of his picture on the Beanpot program after NU's Wayne Turner scored the overtime goal in 1980 that gave the Huskies their only Beanpot. "I've heard a lot about that picture," said O'Neil, "so this is nice. I can't explain what it really means. Three years of losing in the finals. It's so frustrating. It's a beautiful way to go out."

There is also quiet, gentlemanly Len Ceglarski, the coach who won his second Beanpot in 11 trips to the tournament. He'd heard the gripes, the voices of the syndrone after three ECAC quarterfinal defeats and the four straightBeanpot defeats on the Second Monday. "We know there's an awful lot of
pressure on the coach," said O'Neil. "He's always the first guy to take the blame for the loss. I think it'll quiet a few of our critics for a while."

Sweeney, who poked the puck away from Harvard's Mitch Olson in the opening round to set up Ed Rauseo's overtime goal that put the Eagles in the championship game, pounced on a loose puck for the 1-0 lead (after Bob Averill's high sticking penalty 0:12 into the game), and Dave Livingston made it 2-0 when he stole the puck from NU's Craig Frank, went in through the faceoff circle and shot the puck through Davidner's legs at 8:33.

NU's Mike O'Brien scored at 10:01 of the opening period, but BC's Dog Brown finished off a 2-on-1 with Robin Monleon with a low shot from the top of the circle into the far corner to create a 3-1 lead as the teams left the ice after the first period.

The game turned decisively in two segments of the second period. After Sweeney had picked up Livingston's rebound for a 4-1 lead 2:08 into the second period, the Huskies had a power play and they were all over the Eagles. Ken Manchurek mirrored the frustration of the night as one shot went wide of the net and another bid was muffled by Switaj.

Neil Shea picked up a gift goal that trickled past Davidner for a 5-1 lead at the 12:54 mark, and then Blossom and McDonough teamed up for the sixth goal at 14:32. "He (Blossom) poked it across to me," said McDonough. "I was curling in behind him. It became a foot race. I had a head of steam (on the NU defender) and I saw Davidner start to drift into the net. I went to the right, and . . ."

Livingston's second goal, at 14:32, gave the Eagles three within a 2:08 span and many of the 14,523 started heading for the exits. O'Neil finished off a setup from freshman Scott Harlow at 17:51 to give BC its fifth unanswered goal in the second period. "We let in too many easy goals," said NU coach Fern Flaman. "Our goaltender (Davidner) had a bad night, but he got us where we were. There were 19 others who contributed or didn't contribute tonight."

"I have a feeling that this is our night," BC assistant Paul Barrett had said before the game. He'd played in the 1976 Beanpot team, and he took a reading on the emotion in the pregame locker room. "In other years," Barrett said, "it seemed there was a fog coming down on our shoulders. (This year) you could sense we were relaxed." He then relaxed in the press box and watched the team he works with fulfill its Midwinter's Night Dream.