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Northeastern pounces on Boston College quickly before a raucous crowd to advance to Women’s Beanpot championship
“In 17 years, I’ve never seen a crowd like that here at Matthews, so credit to all our fans that came out and supported us.”
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It was standing-room only in the “Dog House” at Matthews Arena, as Northeastern students packed the upper deck for what may be the final Beanpot game at the 115-year-old venue.
Shouts and chants rained down on the ice for 60 minutes as the Huskies ran away with a 4-2 win over Boston College in the first round of the Women’s Beanpot Tuesday night.
The announced attendance of 3,298 was the largest crowd at a campus-site game in Women’s Beanpot history and the largest at a home game in Northeastern women’s hockey history.
“In 17 years, I’ve never seen a crowd like that here at Matthews, so credit to all our fans that came out and supported us,” said Northeastern coach Dave Flint.
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Northeastern will face BU in next week’s championship game at TD Garden after the Terriers outlasted Harvard for a 2-1 overtime win earlier in the day. BC will take on the Crimson in the consolation game at 4:30 p.m., and the puck will drop on the championship game at 7:30 p.m.
The Women’s Beanpot final will be a rematch of last year’s title game, when Northeastern beat BU, 2-1, with an overtime goal in front of 10,633 at the Garden.
Spurred on by the roar of the crowd, the Huskies scored three times in the first period — including twice in the span of one minute — to bury the Eagles (14-7-1) at the outset.
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“We didn’t really show up for the first period,” said BC coach Katie Crowley. “It took a little bit to finally get going there, but then we ran out of time.”
Northeastern (14-6-1) controlled the opening period and struck first when Morgan Jackson beat three Eagles on a breakaway and fired a wrist shot past BC goaltender Grace Campbell 10 minutes into the contest.
The Huskies doubled their lead 56 seconds later on a goal from Taze Thompson, who beat Campbell over her left shoulder with a wrister from just in front of the crease to make it 2-0.
Senior defender Tory Mariano fired up the crowd once more when she added a third goal three minutes later with a long-range shot through traffic while BC’s Alanna Devlin was in the box for hooking.
“At least since my freshman year, we’ve never had a crowd like that,” Mariano said. “I know BC hated playing here, and I feel like that was the goal.”
BC got one back with 18 seconds left in the period on a give-and-go between Gaby Roy and Sammy Taber, who scored her 10th of the season to make it 3-1 just before the first intermission.
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The Eagles began to find their offensive footing in the second period, outshooting the Huskies, 12-11, but BC went scoreless in the frame while Northeastern added to its lead on a shorthanded goal.
Jackson went to the box for tripping with 5:32 left to play, and Northeastern made it 4-1 halfway through the penalty kill, when Lily Shannon picked off an errant pass from Jade Arnone and broke away for a one-on-one opportunity against Campbell, beating her over the glove side.
With just over one minute to play in the third and the game out of reach for the Eagles, Roy poked in a loose puck to make it 4-2.
Campbell finished with 27 saves, and Northeastern freshman goaltender Lisa Jonsson made 37 — including 18 in the third period.
“She’s a big-time goalie, and they threw everything and the kitchen sink at us in the third period,” Flint said.
Northeastern will have a shot at winning its third straight Women’s Beanpot title — and 20th overall — having beaten BU (2024) and BC (2023) in the past two championship games.
“One thing that was crystal clear to me when I took the job in 2008 was how important the Beanpot was to this school and to this program,” Flint said. “We never take it lightly. It’s a lot of pressure for the players, but they rise to the occasion when they have to. Case in point tonight.”
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