BOSTON — There is an old adage in sports that if you have the horses, you need to ride them.
In Monday’s opening game of the 66th Beanpot tournament, Northeastern entered the game with the top horses — a top line of Nolan Stevens, Adam Gaudette and Dylan Sikura — and the Huskies rode those horses right into next Monday’s Beanpot title game with a 3-0 victory over Boston College.
Northeastern is looking for its first Beanpot title since 1988.
The power trio for the Huskies, reunited on Jan. 27 after a couple of games apart, contributed all of the offense for the victors. And while they were the story you might expect to tell on the offensive side, the other side of the puck featured an 18-year-old rookie in Cayden Primeau playing his first game in the vaunted tournament.
Primeau finished the game with 37 saves for his third shutout of the season. Any shutout is special, but getting one on the TD Garden stage in the Beanpot, a tournament that is magnified on campus given the school’s three-decade absence in the winner’s circle, is extra special.
“People on campus have been talking about the Beanpot, saying, ‘Are you going to win it this year?'” said Primeau, “‘What are your odds? How are your chances looking?’
“It’s big in Boston. But I kind of knew the significance going into the year.”
His coach, Jim Madigan, also knows the significance, having played and won two of Northeastern’s four titles and having now coached his team to the finals in four of his seven seasons. And he was impressed, though not overly surprised, by his rookie netminder’s composure on this big of a stage.
“Cayden Primeau is balanced, the son of an NHL player,” said Madigan of Primeau, son of former NHLer Keith. “The pedigree is really good. His dad’s worked with him on the mental part of the game. And even though his dad was a forward and he’s a goaltender, you have that mental toughness which Primeau has. He never goes high or low. He just stays the course.”
Primeau was successful at frustrating an Eagles offense that had solid offensive zone time in multiple stretches in the game, particularly the final two periods when they mustered 29 shots. Additionally, the players in front of Primeau did an excellent job of boxing out on rebounds, keeping the Eagles from burying that dirty goal.
“People talk about Northeastern’s offense but they’re pretty good defensively,” said Eagles coach Jerry York. “I have to break down the film for how many rebound opportunities we had. I think we had some good opportunities but not enough second chance opportunities. We have to be more gritty in that blue paint area.”
As Boston College was unable to score the greasy goal, every one of Northeastern’s tallies seemed covered in Crisco.
Northeastern opened the scoring on the power play at 9:47 of the first. Sikura was looking to find Stevens in front but his shot instead hit BC’s Casey Fitzgerald and squeaked past Joe Woll (29 saves).
After BC had two power-play chances of its own in the first half of the second and failed to convert, the Huskies delivered a crushing blow when they finally grabbed some offensive zone time. This time Sikura missed the net wide on a grade “A” chance but followed his rebound, curly-Q’d around the zone and fired a shot from the point. Stevens buried the rebound at 15:34 to extend the lead to 2-0.
The third was a near-perfect period for the Huskies, allowing mostly perimeter opportunities. They did get lucky when David Cotton hit the post for BC with 10:30 remaining.
Gaudette delivered the knockout punch on another rebound with 4:39 to play.
Going back to the Northeastern horses, here is the final tally on that top line: three goals and seven points total. Add in two assists from top defenseman Jeremy Davies, and Northeastern rode its horses to a Beanpot finale.
Now the final becomes the biggest step. Everyone in the Northeastern locker room knows it’s been 30 years since the team skated the coveted trophy around the ice.
Monday, though, Northeastern took the first step in giving its fans the chance to party like it’s 1988 one week from now.
