Expect the Unexpected

Mike O'Neil was there at the beginning, and at the end, of perhaps the most amazing certainly the most surprising--four years in Beanpot history.

February 12, 1980. An unforgettable photograph: about a second earlier, Wayne Turner has given the Northeastern hockey team its first Beanpot in 28 tries. The film captures Turner behind the net, up on his toes, arms raised, waiting for his teammates to mob him. The losing Boston College goalie, Bob O'Connor, having flopped to the ice, looks behind him, where the puck and teammate Paul Hammer are both in the net. And O'Neil, a freshman winger, skating past the goal a little too late, is about to smash his stick in frustration across the goalpost. The picture ran on the cover of the Beanpot program the next year.

February 14, 1983. This time not so many people are on hand to watch O'Neil. B.C., no longer the bad guy pitted against a Northeastern Cinderella team, is blowing the Huskies out of the building. The Garden is already emptying out, only the quarter of the first balcony where the Eagle fans are sitting is still filled. Len Ceglarski's skaters have already pumped seven pucks past a shell-shocked Northeastern sieve, three in the last five minutes. Now the Eagles are pressuring again; O'Neil breaks for the net, takes the perfect centering pass and knocks it home for the last goal of the '83 tourney. The 8-2 avalanche sends the 'Pot to Chestnut Hill.

The Beanpot has been the battle for local bragging rights in Boston college hockey since 1952. But the last four tournaments have marked a sort of crescendo in the early-February excitement on Causeway St.

Never before had all four teams won in successive years as Northeastern had in 1980, Harvard in 1981, Boston University in 1982 and B.C. in 1983. And it wasn't really until the last four years that the Beanpot became a tournament of upsets. Of course there were upsets in years past, but generally the team that was preeminent in Eastern hockey dominated the Beanpot--B.C., winning eight of the 13 titles from 1952 to 1965, and B.U., winning 10 of the 14 'Pots from 1966 to 1979.

By contrast, betting on the Beanpot has become a hazardous hobby in the '80s. Northeastern came out of nowhere in 1980, with a 3-11 pre-tournament record; first-round opponent B.U. had won 16 straight semifinals. N.U. stunned the Terriers in sudden death, 6-5. The following week's victims from the Heights were top-rated in the ECAC.

That miracle at the Garden put the Huntington Ave Hounds on a roll A year later, they won 13 in a row, soared to the top of the national polls and were written up in Sports Illustrated before a couple of close losses the week before the Beanpot. Sure enough, a Harvard team with an anemic offense perpetrated a stupendous upset in the first round. As the Crimson fans would say, the Northeastern net was a funnel--no, a vacuum--no, a black hole--as it sucked in 10 Crimson goals. A week later, the Harvard defense shined in an outrageously exciting, unbelievably fast-moving 2-0 triumph over heavily favored B.C.

In 1982, it was B.U.'s turn to shock a highly ranked Eagle squad. The Terriers, 5-7-3 going into the tournament, rode a fantastic goaltending performance by then sophomore Cleon Daskalakis to a 3-1 win over an 11-4 B.C. club in the final.

And last year, with some observers proclaiming that B.C. would always choke in the big games and never get that first 'Pot since 1976 (and second since 1965), the Eagles fooled their critics. Against a powerful Harvard squad (the eventual ECAC champs) in the semifinal, unheralded freshman Bob Sweeney set up the trying goal with four minutes left in the regulation and, after his team survived a Crimson power play in overtime, stole the puck in the Harvard zone to set up Ed Rauseo for the game-winner--all to set the stage for the rout of N.U. a week later.

The Eagle fans had special reasons to savor the win, as their team had finally escaped the can't win rap that had plagued it through three championship game losses to underdog opponents. But it certainly fit the pattern of the last few years B.C. could only win when least expected to.

So long as the Beanpot is perceived as a tournament of constant upsets, the underdogs will have that extra edge and the favorites will continue to be a little nervous. It the trend keeps up, it should be a long time before any team gets a lock on the Beanpot once again as B.C. and B.C. did. And it your trying to pick up a little extra money on the first two Mondays in February, you'd be better off scalping extra tickets than betting on the outcome inside.