BC is Beanpot champ for 3rd time in 4 years

BOSTON – Jimmy Hayes scored 6 minutes into overtime and Boston College beat Northeastern 7-6 on Monday night to win the Beanpot championship for the third time in four years.

Tournament MVP Chris Kreider scored twice and assisted on the winner for the defending Beanpot and NCAA champions. BC (22-6-0) had not won back-to-back Beanpots since taking the tournament three straight times from 1963-65.

Tommy Cross had a goal and two assists, and John Muse stopped 21 shots for the Eagles, who have won two of the last three national championships and are the top-ranked team in the nation.

Chris Rawlings made 39 saves for Northeastern (10-12-6), which has not won the tournament since 1988 — the longest drought of any of the four Beanpot schools.

Harvard beat Boston University 5-4 in the consolation game to claim third place in the tournament that matches the area's four college hockey powers on the first two Mondays in February.

Northeastern led 2-1 after one period, and it was tied 4-all after two. BC scored twice in a 92-second span midway through the third period to take a 6-5 lead, but the Huskies sent the game into overtime on Wade McLeod's goal with 1:46 left in regulation.

BC, which also needed OT against BU in the semifinal, outshot the Huskies 6-0 in the extra period and finished it off when defenseman Brian Dumoulin sent a crossing pass to Kreider, who fed it into Hayes for the one-timer. BC players poured over the boards to celebrate, and they remained on the ice kissing the silver Beanpot trophy long after the sold-out crowd of students had returned to their respective campuses.

It was the 16th Beanpot title in 59 years for the Eagles.

So it wasn't an upset that they won.

The biggest surprise was the performance of BU, which has dominated the event with 29 championships — half — in the first 58 years. The Terriers had reached the finals in 25 of the previous 27 tournaments before losing to BC on Cross' overtime goal in the opening round last week.

In fact, their appearance in the consolation game was so unusual that it even threw off the public address announcer, who mistakenly called BC's first goal in the championship a "Boston University goal." The BC fans booed the mix-up, but there were plenty more goals to come.

Northeastern led 2-1 after the first period, and it was tied 4-4 after a five-goal second period. The Huskies took the lead on Brodie Reid's goal 8:44 into the third, but BC took a 6-5 lead midway through the period with goals by Bill Arnold and Kreider 92 seconds apart.

That lead wasn't safe, either.