NU loses game, wins admiration

By Bob Duffy, Globe Staff, 2/12/2002

50TH ANNUAL BEANPOT Full coverage  FROM THE GLOBE Feb. 13, 2002 Inspired Pandolfo gave BU a lift Women: Harvard claims the title Feb. 12, 2002 Lately, it's BU MVP puts fresh spin on tourney NU loses game, wins admiration Notebook: Early birds get the win  BEANPOT TITLES BU | 24 BC | 12 HARVARD | 10 NU | 4 Year-by-year results and MVP's  BEANPOT MEMORIES 1952 The inaugural "New England Invitational" tournament was played at the Boston Arena (now Matthews Arena) in December as Harvard beat Boston University, 7-4, in the final. Then-Boston-Garden president Walter Brown will later commandeer Tony Nota with the task of sending an appropriate trophy. Nota, a mailroom employee, settles on a silver-plated pot. 1954 The tournament moves to the Boston Garden, which will host the next 42 before its demolition in 1995. Opening-night attendance in 1954: 711. Attendance in 1995: 14,448. 1955 Bill Cleary leads Harvard to its second title and wins the tournament MVP award after tallying four goals in one period – a tournament record that still stands. Cleary eventually will be known as "Mr. Beanpot" – the only man to play, referee, and coach in it. Cleary even had a son who played in the Beanpot. 1978 The blizzard of the century is no match for diehard Beanpot fans as 11,666 of them trek to the Garden for the opening round.Many of the fans were stranded there for four days. 1980 Wayne Turner's overtime goal for Northeastern in the final triggers a frenzied celebration as the Huskies end 27 years of Beanpot frustration and earn their first championship with a 5-4 win over Boston College. 1988 After dispatching BU for the title in 1985 with a spectacular 32-save performance as a freshman, goaltender Bruce Racine caps off his senior season by leading NU to its fourth Beanpot of the ’80s. 1989 After not making it past the first round in seven years, Harvard ran up the offense with a 9-6 victory over BU for its first title since 1981. It was the highest scoring championship game in tournament history. The Crimson's crowning moment also gave coach Cleary his 300th career victory. 2000 BU etched its name on the trophy often in tournament history, winning eight of 10 titles from 1966 to 1973. The Terriers added eight more in the '90s,and made it clear in the first tournament of the new century that their dominance would continue. A 4-1 win over Boston College at the FleetCenter gives BU a record sixth straight championship and brings BU coach Jack Parker his 15th title. 2001 The last six years may have belonged to BU, but this was undeniably BC's year. The Eagles knocked out the Terriers, 5-3, and then continued their tear through the season, adding a Hockey East championship and a national title to their spoils.

he Northeastern players were still trying to absorb the ambush when they got struck from behind.

The Huskies had just captured the Beanpot disconsolation prize, dissipating a one-goal lead after two periods in a 5-3 loss to Boston University, and now they formed a picket fence of misery. Their souls were as black as their uniforms. Their moods were bluer than the FleetCenter line at which their downcast eyes stared. Victimized after coming within 72 seconds of improbably forcing overtime, they suddenly felt another sharp object in their backs.

But this was a gesture of tribute, not torture. Senior defenseman Jim Fahey, in his second year as captain and fourth year of Beanpot deprivation, wasn't about to let this loss fester.

As the Beanpot spoils were wheeled out for BU, Fahey exorcised his personal gloom and tapped each of his teammates on the backside with his stick.

''I thought our guys played a great game,'' he said. ''From top to bottom, I'm proud of our guys and the way they played. That's all it meant.''

It meant volumes for the program coach Bruce Crowder is still trying to grow in his sixth year, because the Huskies' effort deserved the salute that was as eloquent as it was understated. Despite the outcome - despite the frustration of watching a 3-2 third-period lead disappear on a goal by Mike Pandolfo and visions of Beanpot glory vanish on Justin Maiser's dagger with 1:12 left - the Huskies took a giant step toward credibility.

Historically, they are accustomed to being runners-up - in the first round of the tournament, where they have lost 40 times. And while their 10th trip to the final failed to yield their fifth championship, they reaped countless points for gallantry.

''You definitely want to get to this game,'' said Crowder, who only once before, in 1999, had known what it's like to play after the dinner hour on the second Monday in February. ''This is a program we're still building, and you have to get in games like this, take some hits.''

But the Huskies gave some as well, in a game of punch and counterpunch that duly impressed BU coach Jack Parker.

''One of the things that jumped out at me was people saying, `You've got NU,''' said Parker, his inflection intimating that the general impression was BU had a cakewalk. ''But if you look at the last few games we've played, they've all been the same. Great hitting, great poise, and close.''

That last word almost caused Parker to break into a sweat, just as the Terriers had to do to regain the title after a one-year interruption by Boston College.

The skeptics seemed like prophets as BU overwhelmed the Huskies in the first period, besieging freshman goaltender Keni Gibson with 14 shots - ''14 good shots,'' amended Crowder - to NU's seven. But Gibson had the last laugh, permitting just one goal. Ironically, it came on perhaps his easiest challenge, a spray of whipped cream from Maiser that traveled from the left goal line between Gibson's legs to the far corner of the net.

Parker knew the toll could have been much greater.

''I thought we should've had a bunch of goals,'' he said. Indeed, there were a bunch in the second period, but the majority belonged to NU.

''I thought after the first period, we kind of got things going a little bit,'' said Crowder. Actually, it took a bit longer. First BU built the lead to 2-0 on Ryan Whitney's goal at 4:47 of the second, and you could almost read 17,565 minds in the stands thinking, ''I told you so.''

But the Huskies rattled off the remaining three goals in the period - a pair of power-play strikes by Chris Lynch just 1:35 apart and a Fahey stunner from the left point 10 seconds before intermission.

''But it's like Coach always says,'' relayed Fahey. ''You can't get too high or too low.''

That seemed an empty axiom after BU's third-period rejoinder, during which NU's futility was punctuated by wide-open shots that just missed from Mike Ryan and Tim Judy.

''It just wasn't meant to be tonight,'' sighed Fahey. ''But I'm not going to hang my head leaving this building.''

He tried to nudge his teammates toward the same sentiment. They deserved at least that much of a reward.

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 2/12/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.