By Joe Concannon, Globe Staff, 02/14/1995

They lowered the Beanpot curtain for the final time in 66-year-old Boston Garden last night, a suitably nostalgic occasion in the barn on Causeway Street that has staged 42 of the tournament's 43 renditions. The Beanpot has been a town-and-gown occasion in the building through parts of five decades, and this was a night for the 14,448 who managed to secure a ticket to became part of Garden lore before it gives way to Shawmut Center later this year.

There was a good dose of deja vu for the Boston University faithful who have been a part of the school's tradition here. The Terriers have been the dominant team in the Beanpot since the mid-'60s. Coach Jack Parker, who won three titles as a player and had been an assistant coach before taking over the reins in the mid-1970s, kept saying how nice it would be to hoist the last Beanpot on Garden ice.

So they went out against Green Line rival Boston College and showed why they were the preseason pick to be the nation's No. 1 team, erupting for three goals within 3:34 of the second period en route to a 5-1 victory that clinched the first leg of Eastern college hockey's triple crown.

The only team to win that trifecta -- the Beanpot, the ECAC and the NCAAs -- was the Terriers of 1972. Now they'll shoot for the Hockey East championship and then the NCAAs at Providence Civic Center.

"We felt if we played our game we were going to win," said BU captain Jacques Joubert, whose team has beaten the Eagles 12 straight times, including three this season with one game to go. "We had success against them earlier in the year. It was nice to see all those great BU fans looking down on you.

"We don't want to get overly psyched about this. It's a nice thing, but we're going to have to put it in the back of our minds."

Tournament MVP Ken Rausch, a walk-on who didn't play very much as a freshman, scored the first and third goals. The first was on a shorthanded rush when he poked the puck between two defensemen at his blue line and went in alone on Greg Taylor.

"They almost hit themselves, the puck was free and I just poked it free," said Rausch. "I saw nothing but ice in front of me, and I just got my legs going and put it home."

The Terriers (21-5-3) then erupted in the second period, forcing the Eagles to play catch-up against a quicker and more explosive opponent. Bob Lachance created the second goal when he carried the puck around the net and slid it across to a breaking Mike Prendergast, whose low wrist shot went past Taylor (34 saves) at 4:59 to make it 2-0.

They stormed right back again, just 18 seconds later. Chris Drury of Trumbull, Conn., who earned early fame as the winning pitcher of the Little League World Series, fed Rausch on the opposite wing, and Rausch put his own rebound between Taylor's pads for a 3-0 edge.

"He made a great pass," said Rausch. "Taylor made the first save. I just happened to stop in front of the net and the puck came right back to me."

Before the period was over, BU goalie Derek Herlofsky -- winner of the Eberly Award for having the tourney's best save percentage (91.7) -- came up with one of his several big stops, getting his right pad to the open side of the net to blunt a golden chance by David Hymovitz.

Mike Grier lifted the Terriers to a 4-0 lead when he swooped in to tip Chris O'Sullivan's shot into the upper part of the net at 8:33 of the period.

The Eagles finally broke through when Timmy Lewis was in position to take Rob LaFerriere's pass at 17:18. The Terriers made it 5-1 at 8:31 of the third period when Matt Wright converted a pass from Joubert, who had circled the net.

This was a return to the Garden for first-year BC coach Jerry York, who played in the Beanpot with the Eagles in the '60s.

"I thought the atmosphere was excellent," said York. "I thought our play was good. It was a 5-1 game, but we've closed the gap on them based on our earlier two games against them. We are getting better. I'm happy we hung in there."