RV/No. 20 Northeastern Upsets No. 3 Boston University for the 71st Beanpot Title
Written by Ariana Ottrando - February 16th, 2024The Beanpot is officially staying on Huntington Avenue another year.
In a thrilling back-and-forth race for “top dog” on Monday, the RV/No. 20 Northeastern University Huskies were crowned the 71st Beanpot champions by upsetting No. 3 Boston University Terriers 4-3 in overtime.
For a perfectly scripted ending, the underdog came out victorious to defend its title and take back the trophy for the fifth time in six years. The win is also ironic considering all three matches between the rivals this season came down to 4-3 in overtime, driving home how records and standings can be thrown out the window this time of year — especially in this tournament.
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Let’s revisit how the 2024 Beanpot Championship game unfolded below:
While the Huskies took the cake in the end, they were chasing from the start.
The Terriers led shots on goal (SOG) 7-2 after the opening ten minutes and sustained pressure in Northeastern’s zone, looking for that first goal.
The Huskies generated two quality scoring chances in the following minutes, as they settled into their game and repeatedly broke up BU’s rushes on the backcheck, but it was a defensive turnover that ultimately put BU on the board for the lead.
In an attempted pass up-ice, Northeastern grad transfer D Pito Walton lost possession in between the dots for BU freshman forward Jack Harvey to set up the most dangerous Terrier, freshman center Macklin Celebrini, for the top-shelf one-timer. Following his consecutive goals in their Semifinals matchup against BC, Celebrini opened scoring yet again for the Terriers on the big stage to give them the 1-0 advance at 14:41.
The first period didn’t look promising for NU as they handed BU the lead goal and couldn’t net anything headed into intermission, with the SOG count 11-3 in favor of the Terriers. However, the Huskies were all the more determined to get even going into period two, and did so early.
Off the setup by NU sophomore winger Cam Lund, senior forward Gunnarwolfe Fontaine attempted the stick-side one-timer and caught Matt DeMelis for the rebound on the doorstep instead. The grad forward netted the equalizer at 5:52 for his second goal of the season, getting the Huskies right back in the game.
A few shifts later, NU sophomore defenseman Hunter McDonald found himself in a 2-on-1 and nowhere to turn but the puck. In an effort to break up the play, the 2022-23 Hockey East Best Defensive Defenseman got the deflection into his own net and the Terriers were back on top yet again at 2-1. The go-ahead goal was credited to BU’s Devin Kaplan, with the assist by Tom Willander, the 11th overall pick in the 2023 NHL draft.
But the lead was shortlived. With an immediate response 30 seconds later, NU junior captain Justin Hryckowian got his own rebound off the boards and went five-hole past BU junior goaltender Mathieu Caron for his 8th goal of the season and a 2-2 game.
“It was a good play on the breakout,” said Hryckowian post-game. “We checked pretty well and that was a good battle by my brother [Dylan]. And then [Alex Campbell] getting it off the wall, getting it to me — [I] kind of just wanted to get a shot on net.”
The first special teams action of the contest came at 13:51 on a tripping call against Northeastern, but the tying goal boosted them through the penalty kill — not only preventing any SOG from the Terriers’ 26.2% power play, but generating a shorthanded chance as well [per Hryckowian.]
While BU still led SOG plentiful through the middle period, the Huskies held their own on the scoreboard.
That is, until BU sophomores Jeremy Wilmer (F) and Lane Hutson (D) got through on their last rush of the period with 7.2 seconds to spare. Through a sea of Huskies, Wilmer drove down the left wall and got the puck to a waiting Hutson who netted his 11th goal of the season out front, reclaiming the lead for a third time for a score of 3-2.
Yet again Northeastern headed to intermission down a goal, but weren’t discouraged. In fact, the chase only fed into coming back even hungrier for the third and final frame. After all, the Huskies are a third-period team.
“Going into the third period, there wasn’t panic,” said Northeastern head coach Jerry Keefe. “You’re going into the Beanpot championship game — you’re either up a goal, down a goal, or tied, and that’s exactly where you want to be. Knowing that if you win a third period, you [have] a chance to win a Beanpot.”
Adversity continued in Northeastern’s corner to start the third when McDonald was sent to the box for tripping, giving BU a second power play opportunity to double its lead and create a two-goal hole for NU to climb out of. The Terriers notched two SOG on the man-advantage, but couldn’t get any past NU freshman goaltender Cameron Whitehead.
The favor was soon returned when Northeastern was given its first 5-on-4 play of the game off a holding call on BU freshman defenseman Gavin McCarthy.
For his team-leading 15th goal of the season, NU sophomore center Jack Williams buried the Huskies’ first SOG on the power play to tie up at three. Sophomore defenseman Vinny Borgesi dished the pass and Williams fired the one-timer home for a 3-3 game with ten minutes of regulation to spare.
Both teams only got two attempts on net in the final minutes, but BU came closest to calling it. The Huskies D-core was able to keep the puck away from NU’s crease otherwise, but struggled to clear the zone or create its own chances to end it before the final buzzer.
With the only goal for the frame, Northeastern forced BU into overtime and headed into an extra Beanpot frame for the 2nd time of the tournament. BU finished with roughly double the SOG than Northeastern, with a total count of 30-16 for the 60 minutes.
The Terriers’ momentum carried into overtime as Hutson, Celebrini and graduate center Sam Stevens started the five-minute period stacked against Hryckowian, Borgesi and Fontaine representing the Huskies. BU dominated possession and scoring chances, testing Whitehead six times, but Northeastern helped its goaltender block and break them up to stay in the game.
They say the stars always show up under the spotlight and for a miraculous finish for Northeastern, all it took was one shot by “Mr. Beanpot”: Gunnarwolfe Fontaine.
With 29 seconds left of overtime, Hryckowian sauced the backhand feed through two Terriers to the left circle for Fontaine to strike over Caron for Northeastern’s second consecutive Beanpot title and ninth in program history.
“I think it started off as a two-on-two with me and Justin [Hryckowian]. I tried to drop pass to him and the play got a little messed up. Justin [Hryckowian] had a great second effort, he made a nice little sauce play to me, and [I] just got a nice shot on net … I’m glad that we just won as a team out there. To be a two-time Beanpot champion, that’ll stick with me for the rest of my life.”
Collecting two OT-winning goals for the tournament — two of his career total of five — Fontaine took home more hardware with the 71st Beanpot MVP award. And with 54 saves on 59 shots in both games, for a .915 SV%, Whitehead was honored with the 2024 Beanpot Eberly award.
“In these games [Fontaine]’s showed up, and obviously getting two game-winners in overtime — I don’t know how many people have done that in the Beanpot, but that’s pretty special. Good for him,” said Keefe.
So how was RV/No. 20 Northeastern able to upset No. 3 Boston University for the 71st Beanpot title, and a second time this season? According to Keefe, it all comes back to leadership.
“You need your leaders to show up in these big games and lead the way, and that’s exactly what they did tonight,” said Keefe. “We started off the season 2-7, and we’ve had to just keep grinding through it. You [have] to give that leadership group a ton of credit because they did not sway an ounce all year. They believed in each other and just kept focusing on getting better every single day. Right now, I feel like we’re playing our best hockey of the year.”
