Tonight was the first night of the Women’s Beanpot here at Historic Matthews Arena and the Huskies took on the Chestnut Hill Boston Eagles. The Eagles came into this one 2-1-0 on this young year, while the Huskies put their perfect 3-0-0 record on the line. I’d say that the records were indicative of how the squads are going, but if you’ve ever been to a Beanpot game (women or men’s edition), you know that when it comes to this tourney, records don’t mean squat.
The Beanpot is something special.
The only adjustment for the Huskies was Taylor Guarino slotted in on the back end, but otherwise It was the same lineup for the Huskies as has been the case since the calendar flipped. That included the nation’s leader for GAA and Save Percentage: Lisa Jönsson. At the other end of the sheet, it was junior Grace Campbell in the net for the Eagles.
The Huskies opened up the scoring when Morgan Jackson finished off a sweet feed from Éloïse Caron just past midway of the first. Caron put just the right amount of air under the puck as she laid it right onto Jackson’s tape from the left wall in the neutral zone. Jackson carried into the BC zone and used the defender as a screen as she beat Campbell on the glove side with a silky drag snap. Welcome to the Beanpot record books Ms. Jackson.
The Doghouse didn’t have a chance to catch their breath after Jackson’s goal before El Capitan got her cookie. I mean if you know Taze Thompson‘s history – Then you know, the Beanpot is her jam. Thompson possessed the puck around the BC zone and found Jules Constantinople at the left point. Constantinople’s shot on net was blocked in the high slot, but Skylar Irving corralled the loose puck and found Thompson gliding down Main Street. Thompson’s wrister beat Campbell over the glove and the Huskies were off and running. For those keeping score at home, that’s 2G in 56 seconds capped off with an elite celly by Thompson.
You know things are clicking when the Huskies are scoring and controlling the game 5v5, that’s not to say that they won’t take a power play if you’re offering, and BC offered. With just over 7mins to play in the first, the PP cashed in. Lily Shannon fed the puck to Tory Mariano at the top of the umbrella and Mariano went top shelf over the blocker for the 3 goal lead. Now that’s what you call a heavy wrister.
The roof was bouncing, the old barn was shaking and it looked like this was going to be a laugher. Until BC got a lifeline. A turnover in the neutral zone sent Sammy Taber and Gaby Roy in alone on Kristina Allard. Taber finished off the sequence with a near-side elevated backhand and the Eagles had some life.
The sides retired for the first intermission with the 2 goal margin and I thought for sure that Campbell wasn’t coming back out for the 2nd, but that goal must have made the BC coaching staff believe and they rode with Campbell for the second.
The middle frame opened with the first sustained pressure from BC in the game. Unfortunately for the Eagles, Jönsson is HER and she cooly and calmly kept the Eagles at bay? Off their perch? I don’t know, birds aren’t real. The zone time evened out in the second as the teams picked up the pace and there were long stretches of uninterrupted play. Just past the midway point, Jönsson had an unbelievable sequence where she made multiple saves in tight to keep BC from fully climbing back into this one. See below for yourselves.
At this point, Stripes just had to get involved as they started to ref the scoreboard as opposed to the game on the ice. A 10-ply call on NU put BC on the power play, but Shannon had other plans. The Mayor of Kingston was hunting the puck all over the sheet on the PK and her pressure at the top of the BC zone let Shannon swipe the puck and break in going 1:2 on the BC defense. Shannon used her body to shield the puck on her backhand while she dragged the puck across the goalmouth before tossing it home on her forehand. 4-1 and the Huskies have officially slipped the chain. Yet another elite celly.
The third opened up with a bit more pace (if you can believe it) and with Campbell still in net (if you can believe that!). Whatever pressure BC had on Jönsson was all long-range and on the perimeter. The Huskies were stretching out the Eagles in their defensive zone and were content to counter punch.
And then the on-ice officials took a collective dump in their pants. First they continued to ref the scoreboard and called Jaden Bogden for an imaginary slash. I mean can you call it a slash if you don’t make contact? Is it an attempted slash?
During the ensuing BC power play, Constantinople took a huge shot to the body and broke it out of the zone looking for the empty net gimme. She missed wide, but Stripes blew it as an icing??!!?? Seriously? And then to prove to the crowd that they had completely lost control, during a goal mouth scramble WHERE THE PUCK WAS COVERED MULTIPLE TIMES, Stripes let the BC players chop and hack and whack until the puck trickled over the line to make the score 4-2 with about a minute left. An absolute clown-show.
That score held until the final horn and the last ever Beanpot game at Historic Matthews Arena goes to the Huskies with a 4-2 dominant performance. Up next is a home and home with PC this coming weekend before taking on BU at the TD Garden next week as NU goes for their 20th Beanpot championship.
Some observations from around the rink:
- The Munchkin Line – The Lollipop Guild : whatever you want to call them, the line of Ellie Mabardy, Holly Abela and Katie Davis are rapidly becoming my new favorite line. Just all hustle and high hockey IQ from the trio.
- In my humble opinion, tonight was Bogden’s best game as a Husky.
- And while I’m sharing my opinions, Allard’s game has elevated the last few weeks, and she had a pretty high starting bar to begin with.
- I’m calling Caron to go off next week at the Beanpot Championship. I know there’s a few games before that, but she had so many looks tonight and you know how sometimes the spotlight brings out the best in some players?
- Tonight’s crowd was recorded at 3298 which makes it a record crowd for NU women’s hockey and it is also the largest on-campus crowd for a Beanpot game at any location.
- Speaking of the crowd, when Coach Flint was in the pressroom (yes they let me in sometimes) the first thing he said about the game was how the team fed off the crowd’s energy.
- So I guess Mariano picked the best time to have her first goal of the year.
- Shoutout to Paige Taborski showing off the dance moves in the first on the bench. Ta-Brick-Ski should be in the running for best dancer on the squad.
- Jönsson had 37 saves on the night and 18 in the 3rd alone. The Big Cat is dominant.
- Shout out to the Harvard goalie Ainsley Tuffy who faced 41 shots in the early game and almost got it done for the Crimson even though Harvard only landed 10 shots on net in almost 65 minutes of hockey
- Can we just call those red sweaters Championship Tarps from now on? So sick.
