http://www.nunews.neu.edu/nu-news/Issues/020701/s1.html
Same old song...
Terriers knock off Huskies, head to Beanpot final
By Mike Trocchi
News Staff
When the going got tough, the 23-time Beanpot champion Boston University
Terriers showed Northeastern what it means to be a champion.
And with a 6-4 loss by the Huskies on Monday night in the Beanpot, fans are left
to continue counting on their toes how many years (13) it's been since
Northeastern last one a Beanpot.
"Tip of the hat to them," Northeastern coach Bruce Crowder said. "They found a
way to win. It's very disappointing because our kids play hard."
It was a classic back-and-forth game that saw the Terriers go up 4-1 before NU
clawed back to trail 5-4 until the last 20 seconds of play when BU captain Carl
Corazzini beat Mike Ryan to a loose puck and notched the empty netter.
Senior Graig Mischler was left to ponder an NU career without a Beanpot. "It's a
tough pill to swallow," he said. "I don't care where you're from. I'm from New
York, but you can't help but get revved up for this."
The Huskies came out charged to begin their first foray into the 8 p.m. game
since 1990. But the defending champs scored on their first power play as Brian
Collins took a Pat Aufiero pass through NU's defensive confusion for the 1-0
lead.
Northeastern would stay on serve as Willie Levesque punched home his ninth goal
of the season at 13:09 off Mischler's rebound, which was created by a great Mike
Ryan rush to the net.
Corazzini showed his leadership mettle a few minutes later as he scored with
only 50 seconds left to the first period to put BU up 2-1 after the first 20
minutes.
It was all BU to start the second.
Collins added his second goal at 1:10 and his third for the hat trick at 8:24
and it looked like NU had mailed home another embarrassing Beanpot appearance.
But the attendance of 1980 NU Beanpot hero Wayne Turner might have rubbed off on
the Huskies as they started to play like there was no tomorrow.
Jim Fahey took a slap shot from the point at 10:07 to make it 4-2. Then Mischler
punched home Levesque's deft feed through the crease and it was 4-3 BU.
But defensive miscues plagued the Huskies as sophomore goalie Mike Gilhooly was
left out to dry as BU's Nick Gillis put home a Collins rebound to make it 5-3 at
18:38 of the second.
Freshman Scott Selig had a great shot at a breakaway but was denied by BU goalie
Jason Tapp at 19:34 of the second.
The third period flew by before Mike Jozefowicz got in on the action with his
first goal of the season on a 5-on-3 to make it 5-4 with 9:13 left to go in the
contest.
Northeastern pushed, prodded, scrimped and scrapped to tie the game, but great
chances passed them by, including a Joe Mastronardi breakaway at 13:27.
When Corazzini made it 6-4, it was back to the consolation game for the reeling
Huskies. Not only will there be no Beanpot, but NU has started the
historically-dreadful month of February 0-2 coupled with a 4-3 loss to
Providence last Friday. The loss puts NU at 5-10-3 since a 5-2-1 start to the
season.
"We were a little tentative defensively," Crowder admitted. "We weren't in their
face as much as we should have been. Every time we got ourselves a little
closer, we found ourselves giving up a bad goal. You just can't give up goals of
that magnitude."
BU coach Jack Parker thought his team outlasted NU as both teams put on mediocre
performances. "That wasn't Northeastern's best game," he said. "And that wasn't
our best game."
Matt Keating, another of the seven hardest-working seniors to play at NU in a
long time, credited BU with simply outlasting the Huskies.
"They know how to win," he said. "They played with a lot more confidence."
Northeastern heads to New Hampshire to face the Wildcats on Friday as the
Huskies try to clinch one of the eight Hockey East playoff spots. It'll be tough
as NU is now 3-16 in the month of February the past three years.
Mischler said the Huskies will salvage the rest of the season. As for the
Beanpot, he summed up four years of Beanpot frustration.
"We just shot ourselves in the foot in this one," he said.
