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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
Every kid who grows up in the greater-Boston area and plays ice hockey has a dream.
The dream begins with taking to the famous TD Garden ice for one of the four local powerhouse Division I programs (Boston College, Boston University, Harvard, Northeastern), and it ends with raising the Beanpot trophy.
On Monday night, Wellesley native John Picking and Walpole native Lincoln Griffin lived that dream, all while making a little history, as the local pair helped lift the No. 12 Northeastern Huskies (17-8-5) to their first Beanpot championship in 30 years with a 5-2 win over the Boston University Terriers.
“Just a dream come true,” said Picking following the win. “These guys, they come in and they work hard every single day to achieve goals like this, I’m just so blessed to be apart of it all. It’s great to finally bring this sucker back to where it belongs on Huntington [Ave].”
Griffin agreed with Picking’s assessment of the milestone win for the Huskies.
“I’ll never forget this experience,” said Griffin. “These fans, these guys, everybody who’s ever won an NU sweater and comes out and supports us deserves this. This is all surreal.”
BU had a goal waved off thanks to a goaltender interference review just 2:36 into the game. However, the Terriers (15-12-3) would respond by netting a goal off of a rebound at 12:35 to take a 1-0 lead. From there, the game belonged to the Huntington Hounds, much thanks to special teams. Just 2:03 after Hank Crone’s game-opening goal for BU, Nolan Stevens tied the game at one on the power play with a nifty little toe-drag and cut to the net before depositing the puck past the outstretched right pad of all-world Terrier goaltender Jake Oettinger.
At 17:32, Vancouver Canucks draft pick and Thayer Academy product Adam Gaudette fired home a goal on the power play off of a feed from Dylan Sikura to give NU a 2-1 lead at the first intermission. At 14:32 of the second period, Picking made a clearing pass up the boards to Austin Goldstein, who fed a pass to Patrick Schule before Schule broke into the corner on a cycle and delivered a pass to defenseman Trevor Owens sneaking in at the far point. Owens carried the puck in and sniped home the would-be game-winning goal top shelf to double the Husky lead to 3-1. With just four seconds remaining in the period, Adam Gaudette scored his second power play tally of the game to give NU a commanding 4-1 lead at the second intermission.
An abundance of big-time saves by Northeastern goaltender Cayden Primeau (38 saves) allowed NU to maintain their three-goal edge for the majority of the third period. Logan Cockerill finally solved Primeau and cut the deficit to 4-2 for BU with 2:40 to play by banging home a rebound. At 19:29, however, with BU having yanked the goaltender for the extra attacker, Gaudette delivered the dagger with an empty-netter to extend NU’s lead to 5-2 and seal the Beanpot title for the Huskies.
For funny and incisive sports analysis, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter at @fLAno0, or read his blog at www.flannylive.wordpress.com.
