Gaudette's Hat-trick Powers NU to First Beanpot Title Since 1988

Propelled by three power-play goals, including two from tournament MVP Adam Gaudette, who notched a hat-trick on the evening, Northeastern claimed the Beanpot title for the first time in 30 years with a 5-2 win over BU at TD Garden Monday night.

Northeastern spills over their bench to celebrate after the final
buzzer. FULL ALBUM
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

Gaudette, a Braintree, Mass native scored two monumental goals at critical times for the Huskies. First, with the game tied 1-1 late in the opening period, he ripped home his 22nd goal of the year from the left-wing circle. Dylan Sikura set the play up with a shot from the far side that caromed off of BU goalie Jake Oettinger right to Gaudette's stick. From there, Gaudette made no mistake.

That put the Huskies up 2-1 after one. The most devastating goal came with just 4.5 seconds remaining in the second stanza. While on the power play, Gaudette finished off a slick passing sequence that started with Jeremy Davies, who worked it down to Sikura in the circle. Sikura wasted little time rifling a pass through the slot, backdoor to Gaudette. He banked it off Oettinger's right skate and in from below the goal line to give NU a commanding 4-1 lead heading to the final stanza.

"The backbreaker was the fourth goal," said BU coach David Quinn. "It’s towards the end of the period. I don't know if we thought the period was going to end and that really sucked the life out of us, really."

"We've had that power play for three years now and it's just clicked," mentioned Gaudette. "We are so confident and so comfortable out there we just know where each other's going to be. We are in the right spots and we are rewarded for that. It was just all five guys out there working as a unit."

Coming into this game, the whole contest was dependent on special teams. BU's penalty kill, that is now 54th in the nation, had to find some way to slow down the potent NU power play. They flat out did not do that. NU went 3 for 3 on the man advantage, while BU went 0 for 2 on their pair of power-play opportunities.

"It’s disappointing from our end," said Quinn. "Two offensive zone penalties, which we just can't have against that team. You can't take penalties like that. You can take a penalty to prevent a goal, that's one thing, but you can't take penalties of that nature and expect to give yourself a great chance."  

BU opened the scoring back in the first period and got on the board first on Logan Cockerill’s fifth goal of the year from Hank Crone and Chad Krys midway through the frame.

NU would score the game’s next four goals. First, Nolan Stevens struck on the power play before Gaudette scored his first of the night to give the Huskies  2-1 lead after one.

The Terriers controlled a lot of the play in the second frame, outshooting NU 14-6, but the Huskies scored the only two goals of the stanza. First, Trevor Owens beat Oettinger high blocker side on a shot that clamored off the crossbar and in. Then, Gaudette scored with 4.5 seconds left in the period.

Shane Bowers scored for BU with less than three minutes to play in the third with Oettinger pulled for the extra attacker. It momentarily cut the deficit to 4-2 before Gaudette potted an empty-netter to register a hat trick and round out the scoring.

For Northeastern Head Coach Jim Madigan and the rest of the NU hockey community, this win was a long time coming.

"When you haven't won a tournament in 30 years and they keep asking you ‘yo, it's your turn’ and ‘how about the Beanpot?’" mentioned Madigan. "It starts playing on you mentally. These young men just stayed focused on the task at hand and blocked out the noise as much as you can and were just so driven to make sure that this came back to our university."

The NU win ends the longest drought in Beanpot history and now BU has the longest active stretch without a tournament victory. The Terriers last title was in 2015 and since then Boston College, Harvard and now Northeastern have all won the tournament in successive years.

This makes the first time since 1981-1984 that has happened. Also, Harvard beat Boston College 4-3 in overtime of the consolation game. This is the first time since 1974 and 1975 BC has finished last in consecutive Beanpots. BC has still yet to win a non conference game since November of 2016.

Up next for BU, the Terriers with travel to UConn on Friday night, before heading to Merrimack on Saturday.