The 61st annual Beanpot tournament began on Monday afternoon where the Northeastern Huskies defeated the Harvard Crimson 5-1 behind a two goal effort from Adam Gaudette and a stellar performance in net from Ryan Ruck. The Huskies take third place in the tournament following the victory.
Facing off in the consolation game were the two teams who lost in the games last week, Harvard and Northeastern. The Crimson fell to Boston College in the first game last week, being shut out in the last two periods, while Northeastern was defeated handily by Boston University.
The first goal of the game came early for Northeastern as Mike McMurty buried the tally to make it an early 1-0 advantage. Not long after, the Huskies got on the board again with a goal from Adam Gaudette, who was open from the slot as he received a pass from McMurty right underneath the left faceoff dot.
It would be a 3-0 lead for the Huskies going into the first intermission as Dylan Sikura scored with 46 seconds left to play in the opening frame.
A little more than midway into the second period, Harvard had a draw to the left of Northeastern goaltender Ryan Ruck. After winning the faceoff the puck went right to Ryan Donato, a Boston Bruins prospect, who was ready in the slot and he fired it past Ruck to cut the lead to 3-1 Northeastern.
It became 4-1 early on in the third period when Zach Anton-Reese was the recipient of a cross ice pass between the faceoff dots in the Northeastern offensive zone and he was able to fire the puck past Harvard’s backup goalie Michael Lackey, who was playing after Merrick Madsen started two games this weekend for the Crimson. Lackey ended up with 23 saves on 28 shots from Northeastern.
The score was elevated to a 5-1 lead for Northeastern with a little less than ten minutes gone in the third period when Gaudette scored his second of the game.
The Huskies played more like they had before their first Beanpot game last week, a loss to Boston University. After tying with the top ten ranked UMass Lowell Riverhawks on Friday night, Northeastern is back on track with how they had been playing with momentum.
