By Joe Concannon, Globe Staff, 02/13/1990

They didn't want to leave the ice; they wanted to savor the magic of the moment forever. They skated the old trophy over to a corner of the rink where their faithful had watched this championship game of the 38th Beanpot Hockey Tournament with understandable glee. Yes, in this magical moment of their athletic lives, they were in no hurry to go anywhere.

The record will duly note that, on this night in steamy Boston Garden, a Boston University hockey team that was struggling as the calendar turned to a new decade dispatched defender Harvard, 8-2, in one of the most decisive and thorough beatings in the tournament's history. Just once before had a team won by seven goals, and this was a seven-goal game until the Crimson's C.J. Young scored with 37 seconds to go.

The largest margin in this intracity celebration of the college game was hung up by a BU team against the Crimson 24 years ago, in the early years of a remarkable stretch put together by the Terriers in the Beanpot. To those who have seen this tournament over its life span, there have been few exhibitions in the championship game that were more impressive.

The Crimson, in fairness, had to play three games in four nights and six in 11 nights because of the Friday-Saturday ECAC hockey format. Coach Bill Cleary admitted it might have taken its toll, but he didn't alibi.

"They were a pretty tough team to beat," he said. "They deserved to win it. They were the best team tonight. I was proud our kids played hard right to the end."

If there was a goal that broke the Crimson's back and left little doubt as to which team would win, it was the one scored by tournament MVP David Tomlinson to give the Terriers a 5-0 lead at 7:12 of the second period. The Crimson had a two-man advantage, but Tomlinson broke into the Harvard zone, intercepted goaltender Allain Roy's clearing pass and shot it into the open net as he zipped by. This game was about to become history.

"I was trying to get the puck out primarily," said Tomlimson, who had two goals and a pair of assists. "Once I saw it was going down to their goalie and he wasn't handling the puck too well, I kept going. Their players were holding me up, but not concentrating where the goalie was going; I anticipated which way he was going to go. He didn't get too much on it. It was anticipation on my part, but the goalie didn't make too much of a play."

There was a slew of BU heroes. Joe Sacco, who

grew up in Medford and had dreamed of this all his life, had two goals and wore a smile as big as the Beanpot itself.

"We worked real hard the whole game," he said. "The goals were going in for us. We've been ready to explode for awhile. We're on a roll and we're not going to stop."

The Beanpot? "I've been dreaming of this ever since youth hockey," said Sacco. "I skated it over to show my parents."

BU goalie Scott Cashman, who made some big early saves and was credited with 29 for the game, saw the Beanpot as a recruit out of Kanata, Ontario, and decided on that night he wanted to play in it.

"This year has been a lot more than I could have hoped for, and this kind of made it even better," said Cashman. "I was there last year and I said, 'I want to play in that game.' I played it and we won. What more can you ask for?"

Mike Sullivan, the captain and one of just two BU seniors, played on a winning Beanpot team as a freshman and has seen this team mature.

"Everybody just stuck together," said Sullivan. "We went 1-6 in
December. The guys didn't get down. Every individual on the team knew we had some talent. It was only a matter of time before we put some wins together and gained some confidence."

Sacco started the Terriers on their way to a 3-0 lead in the first period when he moved through the slot on a power play, took a feed from Alexandre Legault and rifled a shot into the right corner past Roy at the 8:04 mark. Phil von Stefenelli picked up a pass from Ed Ronan and saw his shot from the left point go in at 11:53. Shawn McEachern, who has been a vital cog in the team's resurgence, made it 3-0 when he cut in and put a high backhander home at 16:56.

The Terriers, who had an 18-7 edge in shots in the first 20 minutes, forged a 4-0 lead when Sacco followed up his own rebound 2:28 into the second period. Tomlinson then converted to finish off his dazzling rush and the Terriers seemed as if they were on the power play even though they were still killing off two penalties.

The Crimson's dangerous Mike Vukonich finally broke through when Tod Hartje sprung him into the BU zone on a breakaway to cut the deficit to 5-1, but Tomlinson artfully deflected Peter Ahola's shot past Roy (11:35) and McEachern finished off a pass from Sacco (13:34) and BU was on top, 7-1.

BU coach Jack Parker, who played on three winning Beanpot teams, has now been involved in 14 of BU's 15 Beanpot championships as a player, assistant coach and head coach.

"We seem to be playing with a lot more confidence," Parker said. "I thought Cashman made an unbelievably great save early. It should have been a 2-1 game. It wound up 3-0."