BOSTON — The Cinderella story was going to write itself.
With little more than 10 minutes left in regulation Monday, Northeastern’s Kevin Roy lifted his sagging team onto his back with a great individual goal to bring the Huskies within one. Less than two minutes later, the suddenly energized underdogs tied the game, and off it went into overtime.
[scg_html_beanpot2015]If Northeastern won it in OT, the school’s Beanpot drought that dated to 1988 would be over. Writers would remind everyone that the last time the Huskies claimed the ‘Pot, Ronald Reagan was President, Boston Red Sox fans still suffered cardiac arrests at the mention of Bill Buckner and the New England Patriots were a laughingstock.
Roy’s terrific game-changing goal would go down in Beanpot lore. Cinderella would have found her prince.
Instead, a penalty nine seconds into overtime put Boston University on the power play, and in short order, tournament MVP Matt Grzelcyk fired a slap shot into the corner of the net.
Cinderella’s shoe didn’t fit.
All true. But it’s not as though the BU Terriers equate to Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters, the two of them waltzing off hand-in-hand with the prince.
True, this was Boston University’s 30th Beanpot title, almost half of the 63 overall. Yes, the Terriers have appeared in 50 of the 63 championship games.
But that’s the BU of Beanpot history.
This year’s squad contained only two players, seniors Evan Rodrigues and Cason Hohmann, who had won so much as a single Beanpot game. As freshmen, they’d defeated Harvard in the first round, but then lost to Boston College in excruciating fashion, with six seconds left in overtime.
The next two years, the Terriers finished with back-to-back last place finishes, the only such time in BU history.
So while the school’s Beanpot history is one filled with pride and accomplishment, this year’s edition had suffered only humiliation.
Their only marks in the record books were for all-time school worsts.
Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters?
Hardly.
“BU hadn’t won a Beanpot in way too long,” Rodrigues said after sending the pass to Grzelcyk for the title-winner. “We weren’t going out without a Beanpot in our career. We told each other that we were going to make it happen no matter what it took.
“We got it done. It feels good.”
Perhaps it was most fitting that Grzelcyk scored the game-winner on a laser beam from the point.
“Grizzy’s been working on his shot an awful lot over the last two years,” BU coach David Quinn said. “His two goals tonight were the result of an awful lot of hard work. You don’t win championships by accident.”
BU won its 30th Beanpot not through blue-blood hockey privilege nor by accident.
The Terriers won it the old fashioned way. Through hard work.
