Northeastern tops BU for third straight Beanpot

NHL

BOSTON — Jordan Harris scored 14:33 into double overtime, and No. 12 Northeastern beat Boston University 5-4 to win the 68th annual Beanpot championship Monday night.

Harris skated into the high slot and fired a wrist shot that sailed untouched under Terriers goalie Sam Tucker with 46 seconds remaining on a Huskies power play.

The Huskies (15-8-3) won their third straight Beanpot title for the first time. The feat was last achieved when Boston College won five in a row from 2010-14.

Northeastern beat BU 5-2 in 2018 to win their first Beanpot since 1988, and then topped BC 4-2 last year to win back-to-back Beanpots for the first time since 1984-85.

Aidan McDonough, Tyler Madden, Zach Solow and Grant Jozefek also scored for the Huskies, and Julian Kislin had three assists. Craig Pantano made 40 saves.

Boston (10-9-8) came up short in its bid to add to its tournament record of 30 Beanpot crowns, which is 10 better than second-place rival BC. The Terriers have not won since 2015, when they beat Northeastern 4-3 in overtime in the title game.

Trevor Zegras had two goals and Jake Wise and David Farrance also scored for the Terriers. Ashton Abel allowed four goals on 14 shots before he was replaced by Tucker, who finished with 18 saves.

Due to NCAA rules implemented this season, the game was officially recorded as a draw for both teams. After teams play one five-minute overtime, the NCAA awards a tie and does not count any stats from additional overtimes.

In the afternoon consolation, No. 7 Boston College cruised to a 7-2 win against Harvard. Jack McBain had a pair of goals, Matt Boldy added a goal and two assists and Spencer Knight made 26 saves for the Eagles.

BC blew multiple two-goal leads before falling 5-4 in double overtime to the Terriers in last Monday’s semifinal. Northeastern beat Harvard 3-1 in its opener to reach its 20th Beanpot title game.

The four-team tournament played on the first two Mondays in February has been mostly dominated by BU and BC since its inception in 1952. Harvard is a distant third with 11 Beanpot titles while Northeastern has won seven.

The Terriers reached the title game in five of the last six seasons and 54 of 68 overall.

After the Terriers pulled Tucker with 1 1/2 minutes remaining, Zegras forced OT with his second goal as time expired in regulation. The freshman collected a pass from Wise through the crease, pulled the puck out from behind the net and backhanded it in.

Farrance got BU within a goal 1:56 into the third when his shot from the high slot deflected off a defender’s stick and got past Pantano.

Madden scored the first of the Huskies’ four unanswered goals in an 8 1/2-minute span on a left-circle wrist shot 2:53 into the second period.

McDonough tied it nearly three minutes later on a wrist shot from the slot, and Solow scored from the same spot just 15 seconds into a 5-on-3 power play to give Northeastern the lead with 10:18 left.

Jozefek’s power-play goal less than two minutes later made it 4-2 and capped the Huskies’ surge of four goals on four shots.

The Terriers led 2-0 after the first on goals by Wise and Zegres. Wise scored at 2:49, poking in a loose puck after Matthew Quercia’s initial shot from the point was stopped by Pantano.

Zegres skated into the left circle and beat Pantano glove-side on a wrist shot with 12:10 left in the opening period.

The Terriers beat the Huskies 6-3 in their first of four meetings this season on Dec. 7 at BU.

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