Things might be a little quiet in the professional realm of the hockey world, but there’s been no shortage of action unfolding across many of the lower level leagues.
This week brought the conclusion of one of the more major in-season tournaments in the college game, with the championship game of the Beanpot taking place last night. It’s always a great game to tune in for, but this year’s matchup was especially heated — after defeating Harvard and Northeastern, respectively, in last week’s semifinals, Boston College and Boston University were set to square off in the title game, the next installment in meetings of the storied rivalry, and a matchup, too, in which the Flyers found themselves well represented by a couple of members of their prospect pool.
Coming up short
For the viewers rooting for Boston University and these Flyers prospects, this was a bit of a rough one. But it didn’t start out that way. The Terriers came out with some good jump and got on the attack early, and were able to get on the board just past the two-minute mark care of a goal from Brandon Svoboda. And the Terriers did have a chance to pull away in the first period, but between the momentum gained from two big penalty kills for the Eagles, and the boost from pretty immediately scoring on their first power play of the night after killing that second power play (Bruins prospect Andre Gasseau picked up that goal, what would be his first of the night), the Eagles were slowly pulling the edge in play back in their favor.
The tied score held through most of the second period, but once the Eagles were able to break the seal, as it were, the floodgates were opened — Will Vote pulled them into the lead inside the final six minutes of the second period, and Lukas Gustafsson doubled up their lead with a power play goal late in that frame, and then Gasseau added another on the power play and grabbed his second of the night on the other side of the intermission. And while Cole Eiserman was able to tally one on the power play late in the third to give the Terriers a bit of life, it was too little, too late. The Eagles would get that one right back, with Dean Letourneau scoring just 1:12 later, before Vote hit the empty net with 1:11 remaining to make it a 6-2 score, and well and truly put the game away.
The win was certainly a meaningful one for Boston College, as it marked their first in the tournament in 10 years — a bit jarring of a fact considering how loaded that team has been over the last few seasons, but that’s part of the fun of a single elimination tournament like this — but on the flip side, it will also have been an especially deflating loss for the Terriers. With this making, officially, five losses and one tie over their last eight games against in-conference opponents, and only five games remaining in their regular season, Boston University is running out of runway, and an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament is looking more and more out of reach. And what a far fall indeed for last year’s NCAA championship runner up.
Prospects in focus
While they were used somewhat sparingly, it was nice to see a pair of Flyers prospects in the mix in a game as big as this one was — especially considering how unstable the outlook on a run through the NCAA tournament is looking for them. Freshman forward Jack Murtagh started this game on the fourth line, and despite not getting a ton of minutes to work with in this one, he still did well to deliver some nice flashes when his number was called. He was pretty immediately noticeable in the first period, coming out with some good jump, and not long after Svoboda got the Terriers on the board in the first place, Murtagh was able to set him up for a great next chance, with a slick little cross-ice setup to a prime scoring location (which was still impressive even though Svoboda ultimately missed the net on the shot). Murtagh was also able to come up with a good individual chance of his own late in the second period, when he was able to set up something of a one-man cycle, carrying the puck through traffic up by the blue line and then weaving down lower inside the left circle for a shot. This would be his lone shot on goal of the game.
As for senior Owen McLaughlin, his impacts were even more limited. He’s been bounced all around the lineup for the Terriers throughout this season, having spent some time as their second line center, or shuffled over to one of the third line wings, but since the last weekend of January, McLaughlin has been used as the team’s extra forward and seen his usage drop even more dramatically. We didn’t see too much of him at all in this game, and while he was able to bring some good pace in the shifts he did get, he was held without so much as a shot attempt on the night.
For McLaughlin, this will be a bit of a particular disappointment, falling short in this tournament, in what will be his final season of college hockey, but for Murtagh, whose college career is only just beginning, this will be a useful bit of experience that he can carry with him. Despite the struggles this Terriers team has faced this season, broadly, their outlook for next season should be more positive, and Murtagh can go into it with a bit of knowledge in the back pocket about how one must play when the moments are the biggest, and the lights are the brightest.
