Northeastern Slips by Boston College, 4-2; Huskies Avenge Earlier Shellacking by Eagles

Northeastern stunned third-ranked Boston College, 4-2, in the second game of the Beanpot tournament last night at the Boston, Garden before a capacity crowd of 14,451.

The Huskies will advance to next Monday's final against Boston University for a creak at a second consecutive Beanpot.

More important, perhaps, the Hounds avenged a 10-3 home-ice humiliation the Eagles dealt them two weeks ago.

Last night, Northeastern played a conservative, night checking game to neutralize the explosive Eagles.

"We thought we'd be lucky if we kept them down to five-goals," Northeastern Coach Fern Flaman said.

"We changed a few things for tonight's game, by, the kids really played well. They wouldn't be denied."

The Huskies adopted a new forechecking plan, sending two forwards deep into the Eagle zone and holding the third back to help defend against a B.C. rush.

"We need the new forecheck because we wanted to keep the three on-two away from them, which we did," Northeastern Captain Jim Averill said.

"B.C. beat us badly a couple weeks ago, and that was a real incentive for us to go out and take them tonight."

Northeastern started off the scoring at 6:50 of the first period when left wing Roman Kinal scooped the rebound of one of his own shots past Eagle goaltender Scott Gordon (28 saves).

The Huskies held off B.C. the rest of the first period, outshooting the favorites, 12-10. N.U. added to its lead early in the second period when right wing Stewart Emerson swept around the Eagle net and tucked the puck past Gordon's right pad.

Boston College came alive when Northeastern went into a defensive shell. Yet despite several good scoring chances, the Eagles were unable to get on the board during the next 13 minutes, a span in which they enjoyed three power plays, including a two-man advantage over 1:19.

The Huskies did an excellent job of clearing rebounds from in front of goalie Bruce Racine (31 saves) and keeping the slot free of screening is B.C. forwards.

The Eagles finally popped Northeastern's bubble at 14:00 of the second period, when center Ken Hodge got a two-on-one break with wing Doug Brown against N.U. defenseman Brian Dowd. Using Brown as a decoy, Hodge beat Racine high to the short side from the right face-off circle.

Just three minutes later, Eagle center Bob Sweeney was given a five-minute major penalty for kicking Emerson while B.C. had a man advantage.

B.C. tried desperately to score in the 1:08 span during which the teams were even at four men apiece. They couldn't however, and the third period began with the Huskies enjoying a man advantage for the first 2:15.

The Eagles then turned potential disaster into success, tying the game at two right after the opening face-off. Brown stole the puck from Jay Heinbuck and came in alone on Racine, beating him high to the right.

Brown's goal came just six seconds into the third stanza, setting a Beanpot record for the fastest goal scored at the start of a period.

The game became more and more tense as the period wore on. Northeastern held back, waiting for a B.C. mistake which could lead to a scoring opportunity, while the Eagles frantically assaulted Racine and the Husky defense.

The Eagles then blew two scoring chances, Hodge fanned on a Brown feed from 20 feet out, and right wing Neil Shea couldn't stuff home a Sweeney rebound a minute later.

The Huskies' big break finally came at 14:58, Kinal hit linemate Joe MacGinnis along the left wing boards inside the neutral zone. MacGinnis skated across the Eagle blueline and whistled a 40-footer past Gordon's left pad.

"It's a great thrill," said MacGinnis, who hails from Watertown, Mass. "I've wanted to score a goal in the Beanpot since I was a little kid."

B.C. pulled Gordon with 1:13 remaining in the game in favor of an extra skater. The Eagles were unable to set up in the Husky zone during that span, however, because Sweeney lost two key faceoffs to Northeastern center Rod lsbister.

Averill added an insurance goal at 19:53, into the empty B.C. net.