BOSTON — The more years that the game of hockey is played, the more difficult it is to make history.
Winning a fifth Beanpot for a school technically might not even be historic, but when you think about the fact it was that school’s 66th opportunity and that same school hadn’t skated around the Garden ice with the championship trophy in 30 years, somehow historic feels like a more appropriate term.
Northeastern had to go through the tournament’s top two contenders — Boston College (20 titles) and Boston University (30 titles) — but scored a 5-2 victory over the Terriers on Monday to capture the school’s fifth Beanpot title and first since 1988.
The 30-year tournament drought was the longest in tournament history, topping only Northeastern’s winless streak from the inception in 1952 to its first win in 1980.
“Wow,” said a near-speechless coach Jim Madigan, who has won two Beanpots as a player (1984, 1985), one as an assistant coach (1988) and now one as head coach. “I’m ecstatic. I’m elated. I’m thrilled for so many parts of Northeastern, first and foremost to our hockey club who just worked their tails off and was focused on this tournament this year and bringing the Beanpot back to Huntington Avenue.”
Adam Gaudette scored a hat trick, including the empty-net goal with 30.1 seconds remaining that sealed the victory, to pace the offense and earn the Steve Nazro Most Valuable Player trophy. Freshman goaltender Cayden Primeau posted the third-highest save percentage in tournament history to earn the Eberly Award as the tournament’s top goaltender.
Gaudette, who was under consideration for the U.S. Olympic hockey team and would have missed Monday’s game had he been in South Korea, was asked if the Beanpot trophy was more exciting.
“I’d rather win a Beanpot, to be honest with you,” said Gaudette. “The Beanpot is way more special to me than being on an Olympic team. My family and friends were here and this is something I’ll remember forever. This is a group of guys I can call my family. That makes it all the more special.”
A key part of the victory was Northeastern’s power play, which entered the night clicking at 25 percent, tops in Hockey East and sixth in the nation. That rate simply increased before the Beanpot was skated around the Garden ice.
Three times Northeastern struck — twice in the first by Nolan Stevens and Gaudette and again late in the second when Gaudette buried a shot past BU goaltender Jake Oettinger (22 saves) with 3.5 seconds remaining to spot the Huskies a 4-1 lead.
Special teams certainly was the spark plug for the Huskies, but in the other locker room the penalties that Boston University took and its inability to kill them was the Achilles’ Heel.
“I thought we were doing a good job early, and then we take two offensive zone penalties,” said BU coach David Quinn. “We haven’t been doing that lately and then we do it. It’s disappointing. It’s shooting yourself in the foot.
“If you’re going to win games of this magnitude, you can’t implode like that, you can’t take penalties like that.”
Early in the game, the futility of three decades seemed like it was bound to continue. Boston University thought it had scored the first goal at 2:09 of the first when Drew Melanson poked home a rebound. Brady Tkachuk, though, had bumped Northeastern’s Primeau (38 saves) when getting off the original shot and kept the netminder from playing his position, thus the goal was disallowed.
A little more than 10 minutes later, though, the Terriers struck. A blind pass from behind the net by Logan Cockerill deflected off the moving stick of Primeau and into the net.
Suddenly it felt for Northeastern like the destiny wasn’t on its side yet again.
The one glaring strength for the Huskies, though, was the power play. Three power-play goals, along with an even-strength snipe by defenseman Trevor Owens, sent Northeastern to the second intermission with a three-goal lead.
Then it was simply surviving.
“I’m looking at this as the win in 1980,” said Madigan. “It took us 28 years to win our first, then we had success following it.
“The curse is broken. We’ve won now. It took us 30 years to win again. Hopefully this is momentum and impetus for future success for us.”
