Entering Tuesday evening, only one Harvard player — Alison Kuusisto — had ever won four Beanpot trophies. Now there are six.
Harvard coach Katey Stone gave the honor of closing out the Crimson’s 7-0 Beanpot final victory over BC to her five seniors: Jennifer Botterill, Tracy Catlin, Kalen Ingram, Jamie Hagerman and Pamela Van Reesema.
“They deserve it,” Stone said.
Botterill led the Crimson (20-1-0) with three goals and two assists and earned Beanpot MVP honors for the third time in her career. Freshman Julie Chu had a goal and four assists. Junior Lauren McAuliffe scored two, including the game winner.
The Beanpot title was the fifth in a row for the Crimson. None of them came by a more comfortable margin than this one. Harvard needed an overtime victory over Northeastern to win each of the last four — Botterill provided the game winner on three of those occasions and McAuliffe added the fourth.
“It did come a little bit more easily to us this year; however, it is just as important and just as valuable,” Stone said.
For BC, the victory was a considerable improvement over the 17-2 defeat it suffered two weeks before. Babson credited an improved defensive zone coverage for the result. The Eagles gave up few odd-man rushes for the day, but managed just eight shots on goal to Harvard’s 50.
“This a great Harvard team, there’s no question about it,” Babson said. “I’ve been watching women’s college hockey for 10 years and this is the best team I’ve seen.”
BC netminder Lisa Davis, who made 43 saves, earned the Joe Bertagna Award for Hockey East’s most outstanding goaltender. Bertagna, one of the Beanpot’s founders, presented the award. Stone credited Davis for being solid from start to finish.
With 7-0 wins over both BC and BU in the Beanpot, Harvard became the first team since 1989 to win the Beanpot with two consecutive shutouts. Junior Jessica Ruddock and freshman Ali Boe split time in net to silence BC’s infrequent opportunities.
A first-period power-play goal gave Harvard all the offense it would need six minutes into the first period, when McAuliffe hung in the slot and deflected home a pass from Chu for the 1-0 lead.
BC held Harvard in check for most of the first period as Davis played solid in net and Crimson players whiffed on several chances. But Botterill delivered a dagger with 11 seconds left in the period when she snuck into the zone off a steal from Hagerman and beat Davis five-hole as the defense closed in.
Botterill didn’t wait long to put the game out of reach. In the first minute of the second period, she came down ice and set up Chu on the opposite side of the net for a 3-0 lead. Three minutes later, Botterill deflected home a shot from the point by Hagerman for the 4-0 advantage. She finished up the hat trick on a setup from Chu at the 14:49 mark.
Banfield gave Harvard another lift six seconds prior to the intermission when she scored on a screen shot. McAuliffe added the final goal in the third period.
