Harvard Tops No. 14 BU for Beanpot Consolation

Last night, the Harvard men’s hockey team shocked No. 14 Boston University in the 59th annual Beanpot.

The Crimson (5-18-1, 3-13-1 ECAC) upset the Terriers (14-9-7, 11-5-5 HEA) in the tournament’s consolation game, 5-4. What BU Coach Jack Parker said was an “embarrassing display” makes history as his team finished last for only the fourth time in the history of the tournament and the first time since 1980.

Harvard, the clear underdog in the match, battled back from being down twice in the game. The matchup was full of ups and downs for both teams, but the Crimson came out on top.

“It was a strange game, back and forth, a lot of goals against,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91, “Our guys battled hard, and I was happy with the way they stayed with it.”

The first period started off slowly, with the teams nearly even in shots on goal and time spent in each other’s zones. Both teams were skating well, but a penalty on Harvard was costly.  BU’s top scorer, sophomore Alex Chiasson, netted his own rebound, putting the Terriers up 1-0 just five minutes into the game.

The period ended with a hard hit from behind by Harvard junior Daniel Moriarty, resulting in his ejection from the game and a five minute power play for BU going into the second period.

At the start of the next frame, the Crimson’s leading scorer, junior Alex Killorn, capitalized on a short-handed opportunity, scoring on a feed from sophomore Alex Fallstrom to put Harvard on the board.

The Crimson struck two more times before the Terriers could get their feet back under them. Defenseman Ryan Grimshaw slapped the puck under BU goaltender Kieran Millan just 54 seconds after Harvard’s first goal.

Up by one, the Crimson repeated the passing pattern from Killorn’s first goal to score again 19 seconds later. After the puck once again progressed from sophomore defenseman Danny Biega to Fallstrom, Killorn beat a BU defenseman to keep possession. From the goal line, Killorn managed to sneak another past Millan at a nearly impossible angle. The shot looked as though it would cross in front of the net, but it crossed the goal line to give Harvard the 3-1 advantage.

But even with the lead, the Crimson struggled to stop the Terriers’ strong power play offense in the second half of the period.

“When we were up 3-1, we probably played the worst five minutes of the game,” Donato said.

After Harvard was called on another hit from behind penalty, BU freshman Garrett Noonan lifted the puck over the Crimson’s senior goaltender Ryan Carroll.

Carroll had 45 saves on the night, but couldn’t stop another Terrier goal just 43 seconds later.

By the end of the second period, the game was tied, and the fans for the next game were streaming in for the Beanpot championship, but Harvard and BU were still vying for third place.

The Terrier’s Chiasson found the net again on a power play with about six minutes left to play, making his team 3-for-6 on man-up opportunities and regaining the BU lead.

“We [got] what should have been the winning goal, and then [went] to sleep again,” Parker said.

But what should have been the winning goal was not, thanks to two late Crimson goals in the third period.

Biega tied it up at 4-4 with a shot from the point into a mess of players, sneaking it past Millan with 4:03 on the clock.

Captain Michael Del Mauro then finished off a series of good passes on a rebound from sophomore Connor Morrison’s shot to bring the Crimson into the lead with just over two minutes left.

“[Del Mauro’s] work ethic and commitment to the team are unmatched,” Donato said. “I couldn’t be happier for him—he deserves it.”

With the game on the line, the Terriers pulled their goalie for an extra man on the ice, but the sixth skater could not put one past Carroll.

In an unusually high-scoring matchup, the nine goals scored certainly made it entertaining for the small crowd that came out early for the consolation game.

Visibly displeased, Parker commented on the disappointing play of the BU team.

“That win doesn’t mean a lot to Harvard, but that loss means an awful lot to us,” he said.

On the contrary, the review from the Crimson’s players was overwhelmingly positive.

“There’s always some sentiment that it’s the last time we’re playing in the Beanpot, so it’s hard, but winning the last game is something that really does feel great,” Del Mauro said. “Knowing that the team is moving in the right direction is something that feels even better. And you know hopefully next year these guys will be playing in the big game.”

Coming off a string of losses, Harvard has recently been playing better than its record suggests.

“We’ve been playing some very good hockey and not getting the results we wanted,” Del Mauro said. “This finally translated into success.”

“We had a little bit of a tough go, but things are starting to click,” Biega added. “And today was really big moving forward.”