Beanpot Preview

Its February, which means its Beanpot time! In lieu of looking at who the Eagles will play this year, we will handicap the entire field and make predictions. BC comes into the tournament on a high note, notching a dominant 5-2 win over Providence at home Friday night. Lets see if this translates into another Beanpot title come next Monday night.

The Field:

Boston College (13-8-2, 2009 lost in semis)

The BC Eagles enter the tournament as the only team in the field above .500. Sitting at 13-8-2, they are in second place in Hockey East. A young team, BC is lead in scoring by junior Brian Gibbons. In fact, their top line of Gibbons, Cam Atkinson, and Joe Whitney has been responsible for 33 goals on the season. An opposing team would do well to shut down this top line, but other BC scorers are starting to hit their stride, such as freshman phenom Chris Kreider, who lead Team USA to a gold medal in the 2010 World Junior Tournament.

In net, BC’s top goalie is junior John Muse, but coach Jerry York has gone with a rotation of both Muse and freshman Parker Milner this season due to Muse’s off-season hip surgery. Milner has been a breath of fresh air for the Eagles, having lost only one game, a 5-4 setback to arch rival BU on January 22^nd (A game he played very well in).

The key to beating BC this year has been to get under their skin. As a young team (4 seniors) they are prone to get a bit off their game if a team comes in and tries to out-physical them. BU has done this to perfection twice this year, as has Vermont and UMass-Lowell. Putting them a man down exposes their lack of defensive depth, as two of their top D men are out with injury. They are a very talented team, with plenty of big game experience under their belts and should be considered the favorite along with rival BU to hoist the Beanpot this year.

Boston University (9-11-3, defending champions)

The defending national champions have been up and down all year, but mostly down except for games against BC and UMass. The Terriers have struggled mightily this year, and with good reason. They lost quite a few players in the off-season to graduation and the pros, and the young talent brought in by coach Jack Parker has not yet blossomed into what he had hoped. BU is lead by their upperclassmen, namely Brian Bonino, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Colby Cohen. They have played some fantastic games this year, most of them coming after the Christmas break, but for some reason they have not been able to stay consistent. For example, a week after soundly beating BC at Fenway Park, the Terriers went on the road and played terribly in a 3-1 loss to last place Providence. For their efforts this year (or lack thereof) the Terriers sport a 9-11-3 record, good for sixth in Hockey East.

Much of the issues for BU have been between the pipes, where sophomore Kieran Milan has struggled at times. He has had a penchant for giving up long rebounds and leaving loose pucks uncovered. In essence, this means that in order to beat BU, you have to play BU style hockey: crash the net, be physical and be in the right place at the right time.

Last years Terrier team thrived on the big games, getting good bounces and capitalizing on opponents mistakes. For BU, there is no bigger stage than the Garden on the first two Mondays of February, so look for their best effort in both games these next two weeks. BC may be the favorite on paper, but no one counts the Terriers out in the Beanpot.

Harvard University ( 5-11-3, 2009 lost in semis)

The season has been a tale of two halves for the Crimson. In the first half of the year, Harvard struggled to notch just one win before Christmas, dropping games to two Beanpot rivals (BC and BU). Since Christmas they have won 4 of 8. Now this may not seem like a lot, but when you win one game in the span of almost two months, it’s a step in the right direction. The source of most of their fire has come from freshman Louis LeBlanc, who has scored a goal in all but one game since coming back from the holiday break. Senior forward Alex Biega has also been a steady contributor to the Crimson’s resurgence.

Coach Ted Donato also knows a thing or two about playing in the Garden. As a former Bruin and Harvard great, Donato has skated the Garden ice in victory before. He will rely on last years’ goaltender Ryan Carroll to propel the Crimson to the finals for the second time in three years, as Kyle Richter, Harvard’s starter at the beginning of the season, has struggled this year. Their goal will be to keep the shots on the net to a minimum and allow their hot scorers like LeBlanc a chance to steal a few games.

Harvard comes in as arguably one of the hottest teams in the field. Unfortunately for them, their first round opponent happens to be the other hot team, Boston College. Should make for a great opener, one many people may not even see.

Northeastern University (11-11-1, 2009 runners up)

Last season Northeastern caught lightning in a bottle and almost won both the Beanpot and Hockey East, making their first NCAA tournament in a while. That was with phenom goaltender Brad Thiessen in net. Thiessen is gone, leaving head coach Greg Cronin with a newly renovated building and no go-to goalie. Freshman Chris Rawlings has been the stalwart in net this year so far, playing in 20 of the Huskies games this year, posting two shutouts.

Offensively, NU is lead by some of their upperclassmen, namely Kyle Kraemer and Tyler McNeely. Freshman Jake Newton has also been contributing as well. The Huskies are not a high-scoring team, so a team that would want to knock them off need only generate a ton of offense and pepper their young goalies. Defensively, the Huskies are young, so that is not a difficult thing to do. NU will try to work deep in corners and generate second chance goals, something they have been able to do effectively en route to a .500 record. They have not been able to string together more than 2 wins all year, but they are consistently splitting series, which has allowed them to keep pace in Hockey East. Unfortunately for NU, this is one and done, so they will have to bring their A game to the Garden in Round 1. They also draw Beanpot legend BU in the first night, so a good game is going to be needed to dispatch the perennial champs.

Predictions:

Round 1:

BC-Harvard: BC is hot, so is Harvard. Talent should be the difference maker in this one. All depends on which BC team shows up. BC 5 Harvard 3

BU-NU: BU IS the Beanpot. Going with my head on this one and predicting a Terrier win, but a close one. BU 3 NU 2 (OT)

Second round predictions can wait until next week.... enjoy the games!