{"id":144704,"date":"2024-01-23T22:19:02","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T04:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?p=144704"},"modified":"2024-01-23T22:46:33","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T04:46:33","slug":"commentary-playing-womens-beanpot-at-td-garden-was-as-much-about-the-future-of-womens-hockey-as-the-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2024\/01\/23\/commentary-playing-womens-beanpot-at-td-garden-was-as-much-about-the-future-of-womens-hockey-as-the-present\/","title":{"rendered":"COMMENTARY: Playing Women’s Beanpot at TD Garden was as much about the future of women’s hockey as the present"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey hold the Women’s Beanpot trophy at TD Garden before the Championship Game. 10,633 fans witnessed the first-ever NCAA women’s hockey games played at TD Garden (Photo: Brian Babineau\/Hockey East)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BOSTON \u2013 Skating up and down the TD Garden ice on Tuesday night might have felt like the ultimate moment for the women of the four Beanpot schools – Boston College, Boston University, Harvard and Northeastern \u2013 but by the time that the two games ended and Northeastern won the Beanpot title on a dramatic overtime goal by Skylar Irving, all of the players and coaches realized that what they had just done meant so much more than just the hockey games played on the ice.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s truly amazing being here at the Garden, it’s historic,” said Irving. “[Scoring the game-winning goal] is something that I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.”<\/p>\n

The crowd \u2013 an impressive 10,633 that came to TD Garden to watch the first women\u2019s Beanpot tournament final ever played in the NHL building \u2013 was a little bit different than your typical hockey atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Cheers and boos were replaced by shrieks, those that any parent of a young girl would recognize.<\/p>\n

The TD Garden seats, while boasting plenty of students from the four schools in attendance, were in essence overrun by girls\u2019 youth hockey teams, most clad in their club\u2019s sweaters.<\/p>\n

A break up the ice \u2013 loud shriek. A great save \u2013 loud shriek. For a goal \u2013\u00a0 add 20 decibels to that shriek. The OT game-winner \u2013 an absolute explosion.<\/p>\n

The players may have woken up thinking they were making history playing the Women\u2019s Beanpot at the TD Garden for the first time in the event\u2019s 45-year history, it didn\u2019t take long to figure out that the game was as much about the future of women\u2019s hockey as the present.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat an incredible atmosphere,\u201d said Boston College coach Katie King-Crowley, whose team finished fourth in the event, losing twice in a shootout after battling to two ties, still seemed in awe postgame.<\/p>\n

King-Crowley knows great atmospheres. She\u2019s won Olympic gold. She\u2019s coached in the Frozen Four. And she, herself, is a member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also a mother to a 10-year-old female hockey player. She understood that as important as the game was for her players as they drive towards the end of the regular season, Tuesday night at TD Garden was equally as important to the aspiring talent in the seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of teams of little girls who get to experience a game like this in this building, it\u2019s so special,” King-Crowley said. “It certainly makes it all so exciting for the future of women\u2019s hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1978, five years after the advent of Title IX, the women\u2019s coaches of the four schools all got together in a small bar in Cambridge better known for birthing rock bands than hockey tournaments and decided to take the chance and form the Women\u2019s Beanpot as a companion event to the men\u2019s event that was formed in 1952 as a way to fill open dates in the doldrums of winter at the old Boston Arena.<\/p>\n

The idea of the Women’s Beanpot was ambitious. At the time, only one of the four programs \u2013 Northeastern \u2013 was varsity with one more (Harvard) in the process of transitioning to varsity. BC and BU were 20 years away from making that move.<\/p>\n

Former Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertanga, who had played in the Beanpot with Harvard\u2019s men\u2019s team and was coach for the Harvard women, understood the importance of having a trophy to award to the annual champion. Thus, he scoured antique stores for a Beanpot, ultimately finding a porcelain version that was painted shades of brown.<\/p>\n

That first “trophy” cost $6 and was the tournament award for a number of years starting with the first in 1979. A wood base was added before there was a decision to replace it with the metal Beanpot trophy used today. The original Women\u2019s Beanpot trophy is located in the New England Sports Museum.<\/p>\n

According to Bertagna, there has been a strong push to bring the women’s event to the same stage as the men, inside of an NHL building. Tuesday\u2019s massive crowd \u2013 one of the largest to ever watch a women\u2019s hockey game \u2013 is one that the organizers hope can be repeated.<\/p>\n

And when they do \u2013 next year and for generations forward \u2013 you can believe that every women who dons their university\u2019s sweater on the TD Garden ice will be playing for the name on the front as well as for every little girl watching.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these little girls, they\u2019re all going to want to play here,\u201d said King. \u201cTo play in this atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey hold the Women’s Beanpot trophy at TD Garden before the Championship Game. 10,633 fans witnessed the first-ever NCAA women’s hockey games played at TD Garden (Photo: Brian Babineau\/Hockey East)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":144705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[819],"coauthors":[800],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCOMMENTARY: Playing Women's Beanpot at TD Garden was as much about the future of women's hockey as the present - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey hold the Women's Beanpot trophy at TD Garden before the Championship Game. 10,633 fans witnessed the first-ever NCAA women's hockey games played at TD Garden (Photo: Brian Babineau\/Hockey East)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144704\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COMMENTARY: Playing Women's Beanpot at TD Garden was as much about the future of women's hockey as the present - 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