Beanpot

The Beanpot refers to a men's ice hockey tournament among the four major college hockey schools of the Boston, Massachusetts area, held annually since the 1952-53 season. The tournament gives the winner bragging rights over its cross-town rivals, and the quest for this highly sought after trophy is contested in front of frantic crowds from all four schools in annual sellouts.

Format
The competitors are:
 * Boston College Eagles (20-time winners; last championship in 2016)
 * Boston University Terriers (30-time winners; last championship in 2015)
 * Harvard University Crimson (11-time winners; last championship in 2017)
 * Northeastern University Huskies (6-time winners; last championship in 2019)

The tournament lasts two rounds, with first-round opponents being rotated from year to year. The second round features the consolation game between the two teams that lose in the first round, and the championship game between the victors. In recent years the existence of the consolation game has been criticized as meaningless, with some looking to turn the final round into a doubleheader with the Women's Beanpot Championship game. The tradition of the tournament has won out each time, allowing all four teams to know exactly how they match up with each other every year.

In addition to the tournament trophy, two individual awards are given out each year. The Eberly Trophy goes to the goaltender with the highest save percentage who plays in both of his team's games, while the Beanpot MVP is awarded to tournament's most valuable player.



History
The first Beanpot was contested at Boston Arena in December 1952. No tournament was played during the 1953 calendar year. The next two tournaments were held in January (1954 and 1955). All subsequent Beanpot games have been played in February (except 1978; see below).

The second through 43rd Beanpots (1954 through 1995) were held at the old Boston Garden. Since 1996, the Beanpot has been held at the Garden's replacement, currently called the TD Garden. The competition generally takes place on the first and second Mondays in February, and often draws the largest crowds of the college hockey season outside of the Frozen Four.

The 1978 Beanpot has taken a mythic place in Boston sports lore, as several hundred fans were stuck in the Garden for several days after the Blizzard of 1978 dumped more than two feet of snow during the night of the first round games. The championship and consolation games were moved to Wednesday, March 1.

Every championship game to date has featured either Boston College or Boston University, or both — Harvard and Northeastern have never met in the Beanpot final. (Ironically, Harvard and Northeastern have historically dominated the Women's Beanpot.)

Boston College dominated the early days of the Beanpot, winning 8 titles in the first 13 years, while Harvard took four and BU just one. But since 1966, the Boston University Terriers have won 28 Beanpots in 43 years, including 12 of the past 15.

The beginning of BU's Beanpot dominance was also the first year on the ice for Jack Parker. Parker won titles in each of the three years he played for the Terriers, and since taking over as head coach in 1973-74 Parker has won 21 more championships.

Northeastern, the only Beanpot team that has never won an NCAA hockey title, failed to win a Beanpot until 1980, when an overtime goal by Wayne Turner against Boston College gave the Huskies a win. Northeastern won three more titles in the 1980s, but has failed to capture the Beanpot since 1988. The Huskies came close to winning their fifth title in 2005 when they rallied from a 2-0 goal deficit to tie BU, but fell in overtime when Chris Bourque - son of former Boston Bruin Ray Bourque - scored the winning goal.

The 2007 Beanpot took place February 5 and February 12. On February 5, Boston University beat Northeastern 4-0 while Boston College beat Harvard 3-1. On February 12, Northeastern defeated Harvard 3-1 in the Consolation Game and Boston University defeated Boston College 2-1 in OT of the Championship Game. This win gave BU its 28th Beanpot title, more than the other three schools combined.

The 2008 tournament took place February 4 and February 11. On February 4, Harvard beat Northeastern and Boston College beat Boston University in overtime. On February 11, Boston College beat Harvard in overtime, 6-5.

The opening round of the 2009 tournament took place February 2. BU beat Harvard 4-3 after Harvard went up 2-0. Harvard scored what would have been the game-tying goal after regulation had expired, resulting in a BU victory. In the second game, Northeastern crushed BC 6-1. BU and Northeastern entered the Beanpot Championship on February 9th as the #1 and #2 ranked teams in the country in the USA Today Men's Hockey Poll, making the 2009 Championship arguably one of the most anticipated Beanpot games ever played. BU won the game 5-2 thanks to 3 shorthanded goals.

Boston College domintated the tournament from 2010 to 2014 winning an unprecidented 5 straigt tournaments.

The 2015 tournament was ravaged by the winter weather. While Boston was going through it's worst winter ever with snow (over 7 feet in 3 weeks) and public transportation problems (the MBTA was not operating for several days at after a couple of storms) the first round was delayed by one day from February 2 to 3rd and the final was delayed two weeks from February 9th to the 23rd. The games themselves were dragged out as well with three of the four games going into overtime (and one of those into double overtime).

In 2014 there was some effort to have the 2016 tournament held in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Boston and Belfast have a sister city relationship. The effort had the support of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. The tournament will be held at the TD Garden in Boston.

The 2016 Tournament final featured the first ever 1-0 final in tournament history as BC defeated BU 1-0 in overtime. The game was also delayed by a power failure in the building for about a half hour mid-way through the first period.

All-time results
Four games are listed for each Beanpot, in the order they were played. There are two opening round games, a consolation game featuring the losers of the first two games, and a championship game featuring the winners of the first two games. The teams rotate opening round opponents on a 3-year cycle, so over history every team faces the others an equal number of times during the opening round. Each row represents one Beanpot. Champions are listed in bold. Games requiring one overtime are in pink, while games requiring two or three overtimes are in chartreuse and cyan, respectively.

Source: Game information obtained from Beanpot official site.

Note: During the 2004–05 season, following Fleet's acquisition by Bank of America and the bank's decision to terminate the naming rights to the arena, there was no permanent naming rights sponsor for that season. It was known as "YourGarden" that year.

Team statistics
Through the 2019 Beanpot, the four teams have amassed the following statistics:

Source:

Individual awards
Two awards are presented annually: the Most Valuable Player award and the Eberly Award. The Eberly Award, first presented in 1974, is given annually to the goalie with the best save percentage. The winning goalie must participate in two games to qualify. The award is named after Glen and Dan Eberly, former Beanpot goaltenders at Boston University and Northeastern University, respectively.

Source: Game information obtained from Beanpot official site.

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