{"id":23177,"date":"2017-02-13T23:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T05:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/?p=23177"},"modified":"2017-02-13T23:00:22","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T05:00:22","slug":"harvard-makes-beanpot-final-their-night-with-big-win-over-boston-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/2017\/02\/13\/harvard-makes-beanpot-final-their-night-with-big-win-over-boston-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard makes Beanpot final 'their night' with big win over Boston University"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
Harvard’s seniors – Phil Zielonka, Tyler Moy, Dev Tringale, Clay Anderson, Sean Malone, Alex Kerfoot and Victor Newell – pose with the Beanpot (photo: Melissa Wade).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BOSTON<\/b> — You’ll often hear people say about sports that things are cyclical, unless, of course, you’re talking about the Beanpot.<\/p>\n

It took 24 years for a team without ‘Boston’ in its name to win the title, but on Monday, Harvard ended a magnanimously long Beanpot drought, knocking off Boston University 6-3 in front of 15,941 at the TD Garden.<\/p>\n

The win was the first title for the Crimson since 1993, the last time that neither BU nor Boston College claimed the title.<\/p>\n

There have been numerous close calls, though few involved Harvard, which hadn’t reached the title game since 2008. All that made Monday’s win a little sweeter.<\/p>\n

“Our group felt like it was their night, and they were willing to work to make sure it was their night,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato. “It’s been a long time coming.”<\/p>\n

“You think about [the drought] leading up to games like this and after games like this,” said senior Alexander Kerfoot. “You hear a lot about the history and are proud to be part of the history, but going into games, you need to treat it like it’s any other game.<\/p>\n

“We’ve learned from some of the failures we’re have and that’s part of the success we’ve had this year.”<\/p>\n

Harvard held a lopsided edge in shots throughout the entire game but still found itself down, 2-1, midway through.<\/p>\n

With the Crimson trying to regain momentum after BU scored twice early in the second, Harvard’s Luke Esposito redirected a shot from the left point perfectly past Terriers netminder Jake Oettinger (40 saves) to knot the game at 2.<\/p>\n

BU might have been happy to reach intermission tied but couldn’t survive a late onslaught by the Crimson. With 1:06 remaining, Nathan Krusko roofed home the rebound of John Marino’s shot to level the period and give Harvard the lead at 3-2.<\/p>\n

Krusko, who finished with two goals, was the tournament MVP.<\/p>\n

A penalty on Krusko’s goal along with another just 44 seconds later to BU’s Charlie McAvoy put Harvard on a 5-on-3 man advantage that carried over to the third.<\/p>\n

And early pressure by the Crimson translated to Kerfoot burying a rebound for Harvard’s first two-goal lead 31 seconds into the third.<\/p>\n

Ryan Donato and Clayton Keller traded goals 33 seconds apart in the final eight minutes of the game, but that’s as close as the Terriers could get.<\/p>\n

Rookie Adam Fox scored from 200 feet away into an empty net with 1:50 remaining.<\/p>\n

A major part of the game was Harvard’s speed, which placed BU on its heels for the entire first period and much of the game. In the end it was a difference maker.<\/p>\n

“[Team speed] is something that is part of our identity,” said Donato. “We wanted this game to be about us. And that’s why I felt like we were relentless and stayed with the game we wanted to play.<\/p>\n

“I really felt we won a lot of races to the puck and, yes it’s about speed, but it’s about a level of conviction that our leaders brought that everybody else seemed to follow.”<\/p>\n

Despite a lopsided 18-2 shot advantage in the opening period, Harvard held just a 1-0 lead. And that goal took a two-man advantage to finish.<\/p>\n

A one-timer by Sean Malone was bobbled by Oettinger and fell into the crease, allowing Krusko to poke home the loose puck at 15:10 for a 1-0 Crimson lead.<\/p>\n

While the Terriers were down a goal, being out attempted in the opening period, 38-4, may have seemed like a moral victory,<\/p>\n

“We stressed that you don’t get anything for winning a period,” said Donato of his team’s attitude after the first.<\/p>\n

Early in the second, BU bounced back. After a penalty to Harvard’s Jacob Olsen for slashing, Kieffer Bellows poked home a rebound of a Brandon Hickey shot at 1:29 to even the game at 1.<\/p>\n

That goal turned momentum and at 15:38, a perfect deflection by Keller beat Harvard goaltender Merrick Madsen (14 saves) to give BU its first – and only – lead at 2-1.<\/p>\n

“From start to finish we were fighting an uphill battle,” said Quinn. “Sure, we had the 2-1 lead, but at the end of the day, this is a game of want and boy did [Harvard] want it.”<\/p>\n

“For that senior class, they want to be the group that broke the curse and leave a legacy,” said Donato of the Beanpot drought. “They did that.”<\/p>\n

Consolation: Northeastern 4, Boston College 2<\/h4>\n

Just as Harvard hadn’t won a title since 1993, Boston College hadn’t finished fourth in a Beanpot tournament since that same year.<\/p>\n

That, though, came to fruition when Dylan Sikura broke a 2-2 tie with 42.6 second remaining. Adam Gaudette added an empty-net goal to account for a 4-2 final. Matt Filipe scored twice for Northeastern.<\/p>\n

It appeared Boston College took the lead late in regulation when David Cotton scored. But video review ruled Colin White had interfered with goaltender Ryan Ruck. Less than a half minute later, Sikura netted the game-winning goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOSTON — You’ll often hear people say about sports that things are cyclical, unless, of course, you’re talking about the Beanpot. It took 24 years for a team without ‘Boston’ in its name to win the title, but on Monday, Harvard ended a magnanimously long Beanpot drought, knocking off Boston University 6-3 in front of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23177"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=23177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}