Should Boston University be fortunate enough to win the Beanpot for the 31st time on Monday, freshman forward Cole Hutson knows exactly what he’s going to do with the iconic trophy — figuratively, if probably not literally.
“Super excited, obviously,” said Hutson, who is the younger brother of former BU standout Lane Hutson, who currently plays in the NHL for Montreal. “Got a chance to do something Lane hasn’t done, so hopefully we can get a win and I can hold it over his head.”
So now Cole Hutson, who scored twice in BU’s 7-1 rout of Harvard in Monday night’s semifinal, has a chance to help bring the Terriers their first Beanpot title since 2022, predating Lane Hutson’s time at the school, where he was a first-team All American in both of his two seasons. Junior forward Devin Kaplan also scored twice vs. Harvard.
In BU’s way Monday night will be longtime rival Boston College — the 23rd all-time Beanpot championship meeting between the Eagles and the Terriers (BU holds a 12-10 edge). BC, which earned its way to Monday night’s final with an 8-2 win over Northeastern, is No. 1 in the latest USCHO men’s D-I poll but will be looking for its 21st Beanpot title and first since 2016 — the longest drought of any of the four annual participants.
“It’s been a few years,” BC’s third-year coach Greg Brown said. “They’ve heard enough stories. They watched other BC teams do well before them, so they want to have a chance at that, be a part of it. The last couple of years we didn’t get to the final game, so you could feel the gravity, the importance of this game (vs. Northeastern). The older guys were pushing that message before the game and the team responded well.”
For BU, the opportunity is there not only to add another Beanpot to their record haul, but to avenge a two-game sweep of a home-and-home series at the hands of BC just two weekends earlier. BC won 6-2 at home on Jan. 24 and 2-0 at BU the next night.
“We just made too many mistakes the first night, really careless mistakes with the puck,” said fourth-year Boston University coach Jay Pandolfo. “Their transition game’s so good, and (we) didn’t do a good job with it. Second night, I thought we were more detailed. We still made some puck-management mistakes the second night, (but) we were a more competitive team the second night we played them.”
Before Monday night’s clash, BC and BU have regular-season business to take care of on the Friday between, which Pandolfo said is not necessarily an unwelcome scenario.
“I think it actually helps,” said Pandolfo. “You’re not thinking about the (Beanpot) final all week. You have some other things to focus on. It’s actually a good distraction that we have that game on Friday so we can focus on that and not worry too much about Monday night.”
Both BC and BU will be on the road Friday — BU is at Merrimack and BC, currently No. 1 in the USCHO men’s D-I poll, will be at New Hampshire.
Brown said he also welcomes the opportunity to play a regular-season game and pump the breaks on the Beanpot hoopla.
“You have to kind of temper emotions,” Brown said. “If you think about the Beanpot final all week, you might be pretty mentally tired by Monday. So we’re going to put all our attention right now on things we can do better from this game.”
NOTES:
Monday’s Beanpot championship will be the third of potentially five meetings between the schools this season (rematches in the Hockey East and NCAA tournaments are more than plausible).
The Terriers will be hoping recent history repeats itself. Last year, BC also swept a home-and-home series just one weekend before the Beanpot and BU won 4-3 when the teams met in the semifinals.
Monday will mark the first time BC has advanced into the title game since 2019 and the first final vs. BU since 2016, a 1-0 overtime win for the Eagles.
BU’s 2022 Beanpot win was the only one in a six-tournament stretch won by a school other than Northeastern.
The final will air live on NESN following the conclusion of the consolation game between Northeastern and Harvard, which starts at 4:30 p.m.
