Huskies sniff early lead but then get reigned in

By Nick Cafardo, Globe Staff, 2/4/2003

or one period, the magic of the Beanpot lived. The story was warm and fuzzy. The underdog Northeastern Huskies were up by a goal on Boston College after the first 20 minutes of last night's second game. And if you realized that the Huskies and Eagles were playing on the one-year anniversary of the Patriots beating the Rams in the Super Bowl, a Cinderella storyline seemed appropriate.

But the Eagles never bought into it.

''The game was way tilted toward NU the first 10-12 minutes,'' said BC coach Jerry York, whose team roared back to a 5-2 victory to advance to the final next Monday night against Boston University. ''They put us back on our heels. But we were able to withstand that and come out in the second period with a lot of fire.''

That fire showed up when the Eagles (17-6-3) scored three goals in a little more than six minutes, leading to an ending that the majority of the 17,565 at the FleetCenter - most of whom were gone by the middle of the third period - had expected.

The Eagles, who have outscored opponents, 14-2, in their last two games, scored five straight goals in all, by five different players (J.D. Forrest, Ty Hennes, Tony Voce, Stephen Gionta, and Ryan Shannon) to earn a final date with the Terriers for the 16th time. The Terriers, 2-1 winners over Harvard in the early game, hold a 9-6 advantage over BC in Beanpot title games, though the Eagles have won three games against the Terriers this season.

BC dominated every phase of the game following the Huskies' first-period success and outshot NU, 35-26. A strong opening period by NU goalie Mike Gilhooly gave way to a consistent effort by Bruins draftee Matti Kaltiainen in the BC net.

The Eagles, who beat the University of Massachusetts, 9-0, Friday night, took a while to get their offense going, but they had it cranking by the second period, obliterating that 1-0 deficit.

It wasn't until the 3:19 mark of the second period that BC was able to tie the game, on Forrest's wrist shot that slipped beneath Gilhooly's glove. Forrest battled NU winger Mike Ryan along the boards and came away with the puck with enough separation to get a clean shot on goal.

''I took it to the net,'' said Forrest. ''I always tell the forwards, good things happen when you take it to the net.''

The NU defense, which had played so well in front of Gilhooly in the first period, started to get careless. Murphy gathered in an unattended puck and passed in front to Hennes, who flipped it past Gilhooly's far side at 7:23, giving BC the lead.

''We just got beat by the better team tonight,'' said NU coach Bruce Crowder. ''They were able to capitalize on mistakes in the second period. Gilhooly played great. I don't think this is Mike's fault. We left him out to dry, missed a couple of assignments that hurt us.''

With its band blaring in the background, BC picked up steam. The Eagles scored again at 9:34 when Voce stuffed a loose puck past Gilhooly in front on a power play.

The Eagles picked up their play in their own end, too, killing off a two-man shorthanded situation (for 1:06) late in the period, which seemed to deflate the Huskies.

The Eagles certainly came a long way after a sluggish start. At 13:43 of the opening period, the Huskies were able to keep the puck in the BC end for a spell, and it resulted in Eric Ortlip's seventh goal, a rebound of his own shot. Ortlip was left alone in front of Kaltiainen and received a crisp centering pass from Jason Guerriero from the left side.

The Huskies (9-15-2) didn't score again until the 16:24 mark of the third period, when Jared Mudryk found the net. By then, the Eagles were on their way to the Beanpot final, and the young Huskies were headed for the consolation game against Harvard.

This story ran on page F1 of the Boston Globe on 2/4/2003.
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