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Boston University holds off Harvard rally in men’s Beanpot semifinals, Northeastern tops Boston College
Boston University jumped out to a 4-1 lead on goals from four players, then held off a furious comeback by Harvard to defeat the Crimson, 4-3, in the first round of the Beanpot on Monday.
With the win, BU improved to 15-10-3 and is now 11-1-1 in its last 13 games. The Terriers will be looking for their first Beanpot title since 2015 when they face the winner of Northeastern-Boston College next Monday. They have now advanced to the championship 55 times, including six of the last seven tournaments. Sophomore Vinny Duplessis, getting the nod in goal with Drew Commesso on loan to USA Hockey in Beijing, recorded 22 saves to get the win.
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Harvard dropped to 12-8-2 and will play in the consolation game for the fourth straight tournament.
Senior captain Logan Cockerill scored the first goal of the game for at 13:52 for BU when he carried the puck down the left side, then cut right across the goal and flipped a backhander past Harvard goaltender Mitchell Gibson.
It took just 35 seconds for Harvard to respond, pulling even when freshman Matthew Coronato connected with senior Casey Dornbach at 14:29 of the first period. The goal was set up when BU tried to skate the puck out, but Dornbach kept it inside the blue line and dished it over to Coronato, who fed it back to Dornbach to beat goalie Vinny Duplessis short side.
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The Terriers took a 2-1 lead on a power-play goal from Jay O’Brien at 16:31. With Wilmer Skoog screening Gibson, O’Brien fired a shot from the right circle that beat the Harvard netminder to his left to give BU the lead after 20 minutes, having outshot Harvard 14-8.
The lead grew to 3-1 when Matt Brown’s wrister with the man advantage beat Gibson top shelf at 4:10 of the second period.
After Harvard failed to generate any scoring chances on its first power play of the game, BU struck again when junior Ethan Phillips redirected a shot from freshman Ty Gallagher past Gibson at 10:58 for a 4-1 lead.
The Crimson struck for a pair of goals 21 seconds apart late in the second period to pull within 4-3. The first came when Zakary Karpa put back a rebound on Henry Thrun’s wrister on the power play at 18:16.
A familiar name cut the lead to 4-3 when Jack Donato, son of Harvard coach Ted, scooped up a loose puck and backhanded it past Duplessis at 18:37 to pull the Crimson within a goal through two periods.
Northeastern 3, Boston College 1
Northeastern will be going for a fourth straight Beanpot title after knocking off Boston College, 3-1, in the late game of Monday night’s semifinals.
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Freshman T.J. Semptimphelter, getting the start in net with Devon Levi suiting up for Canada in the Beijing Olympics, made 41 saves in just his third collegiate start for the Huskies, who got goals from Gunnarwolfe Fontaine, Sam Colangelo, and Justin Hryckowian.
Northeastern (18-8-1) will face Boston University in next week’s championship game.
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