By Joe Concannon, Globe Staff, 02/12/1991

In a remarkable stretch of offensive hockey, Boston University turned the 39th Beanpot Hockey Tournament into another triumphant ride on the Green Line to the Back Bay campus, as a sellout crowd of 14,448 last night at Boston Garden watched the Terriers conquer a demoralized Boston College team that offered little resistance over the final 30 minutes.

So complete was this dismaying 8-4 rout that people started heading for the exits with 7:39 to go, and as time ran down with their 16th Beanpot securely in their grasp, captain Mark Krys ended it all by sweeping the puck up the ice and counting down the precious moments until he could joyously skate the trophy around the Garden ice.

The Eagles, whose Beanpot history has been painfully punctuated by games such as this, saw it blown apart when MVP Tony Amonte picked this evening to rise above the rest of his teammates. In a wondrous stretch, he set a Beanpot record with three goals in 5:24 of the second period, as the Terriers outscored the dazed Eagles, 5-1, over the final 7:42 of the period.

There wasn't a happier person in the rink than BU goaltender John Bradley. He'd waited four long and sometimes agonizing years for a game such as this. The scintillating stop he made in the early moments of the second period, when Bill Guerin took dead aim at the open side of the net, set the tone for the fireworks that followed.

The Eagles, who had beaten the Terriers in two earlier games this season at Kelley Rink, have lost the last six times they have met their Green Line rivals in the Beanpot and 14 of the last 16 times since 1965. The Eagles have won just two Beanpots in those 26 years, and David Emma, the career scoring leader at The Heights, wound up without a Beanpot to show for his efforts.

"We had a good game last week," said BC coach Len Ceglarski. "We played well Friday against New Hampshire. I thought the practices this week were good. I felt we could have a good game tonight. The last two or three minutes of the second period turned it around, and after that, we were never in the game."

"The puck was bouncing in the net for us," said BU coach Jack Parker, who matched BC's legendary Snooks Kelley by winning his eighth Beanpot. "We played so hard. We played with a lot of intensity. I knew we were in good shape because Bradley played so well. The MVP was deservedly Amonte's, but the big plays all night were made by our goaltender."

The Eagles (24-8) owned the first three leads of the game. Emma opened the scoring just 54 seconds into the game when he took a feed from Joe Cleary and swept a backhand past Bradley. Krys, a mainstay on the BU defensive corps, scored his first collegiate goal in 125 games, rifling a shot over Scott LaGrand's shoulders at the 1:57 mark.

Steve Heinze, who returned to the BC lineup for the first time since Jan. 29, staked his team to a 2-1 lead when he went up the right boards, cut back and around defenseman Kevin O'Sullivan and tucked it behind Bradley at 6:08. The Terriers (20-9-2) answered when Petteri Koskimaki teamed up on the Finnish Connection and took a setup from Peter Ahola at 7:44.

The Eagles went on top, 3-2, when they owned a two-man advantage following penalties to Keith Tkachuk (8:41, interference) and Ed Ronan (9:01, holding). Cleary's shot from the top of the left circle went past Bradley at 9:25. After the Terriers held up for the duration of Ronan's penalty, the onslaught began.

Amonte started it when he picked up Phil von Stefenelli's rebound and flipped it home at 12:18. Amonte came back on a power play, swooping in to pick up Shawn McEachern's rebound and shooting it in at 13:03. The Eagles tied it at 4 when David Franzosa burst through traffic to score what would be his team's final goal at 13:21.

Amonte, who had just one multiple-goal game in two years, triggered a mild barrage of hats onto the Garden ice when he swept in to pick up a loose puck and shoot it between Cleary's legs and past LaGrand at 17:43 for a 5-4 lead. Doug Friedman made it 6-4 with a blistering shot from the right wing at 18:28. The Eagles looked like a beaten team, and with just one second left in the period, Mark Bavis spun around and put a weak shot on net that went in for a 7-4 lead.

Chris McCann closed out the scoring at 14:43 of the third period with a cannon shot from the left wing, and many of the BC faithful had already started to file out as the BU fans warmed up their lungs, chanting, "It's all over. It's all over."