The Pot of Beans at the End of the Rainbow

One of the major drawbacks personally and career-wise of returning to Philadelphia is that college hockey is a virtual non-entity.

Sure, all the local colleges have programs, but they are on Division III to club level and the competition just isn't there like it is in the Boston area.

Some of my best (and worst) sporting memories from my time at BC go back to those first two Mondays in February when the four major programs in the city play for bragging rights.

By the time I got to the Heights in 1996, the Beanpot had become the exclusive property of the BU Terriers, and about that time the superior attitude of their fans started seeping out into the public. In my four years up there, the Eagles lost in the Finals twice (both to BU); twice in the opening round (to Harvard in 1998 and BU in 1999) and both OT losses coming in games which BC could have and should have won.

I remember screaming at the TV as BC blew leads of 3-0 and 4-2 and lost to the Crimson, 5-4, in overtime in '98, then doing the same as Jerry York's boys tried unsuccessfully to sit on a 2-1 lead against the Terriers the next year and fell in OT.

I remember thinking that the BU goaltender in the 2000 game wasn't really anything special even though BC outshot his club in a 4-1 Terries win. He'd go on to be the Number 1 draft pick later that year after leaving school as a freshman, and, well...how does Rick DiPietro and his ultra-million-dollar contract with gimpy knees and hips look now, Islanders fans??

The one bizarre thing to spring from all that early February frustration from an Eagles fan standpoint, was the amazing runs the team made in the national brackets after faltering in the local tournament.

In 1998, BC did not lose another game from the Harvard loss until the crushing national finals defeat in early April in Boston against Michigan. The next year, there were two road losses before another playoff run got them as far as the national semifinals where they lost to eventual champion and conference rival, Maine.

After losing in the 2000 Beanpot final, there was an inexplicably bad home loss to UMass-Amherst and a shocking late-second setback to Maine in the Hockey East title game before another winning burst got them to a heartbreaking defeat to North Dakota in the national final.

The Eagles went on to become Boston's best hockey team in 2001, 2004, and 2008 - and in both bookend years the Beanpot victory proved to be just another step along the way to mowing down the competition towards a national championship.

Meanwhile, BU has been consistently left in the dust no matter how many times the Beanpot banner hangs in Walter Brown or Agganis Arena. And I can't hide the fact that I love it. Let the provincial BU fans have allll the local bragging rights, as long as BC gets the national attention.

Since the Terriers last went to an NCAA final in 1997 (which they lost to North Dakota), BC has been to the NCAA title contest six times and won the whole thing twice.

This year, I was shocked to see that not only had Northeastern beat BC in the opening round last Monday, but that it was by a 6-1 count. This year must be one of the rare seasons that the Huskies decided not to be doormats, and their #3 national ranking bears that out. I just don't like to see these things at the expense of my alma mater.

Nonetheless, Jerry York does an excellent job of teaching what it means to recover from these losses right before the important stretch run. It's a lock that they won't be too thrilled to play the 5 pm game at TD Banknorth Garden tonight, but it's a guarantee they'll take it as seriously as any other game on their slate.

As for the two combatants in the marquee matchup, BU has won a whopping 28 Beanpot titles including the one two years ago and the three before that. Northeastern can claim just four titles, hasn't been to the final game since 2005, and hasn't won the thing since a 6-3 decision against BU back in 1988.

In fact, all four Huskies wins came in the 1980's (1980, 84-85, 88), not coincidentally the best single stretch in program history.

Sad as it is to say, despite the hot streak Northeastern is on during the rest of the season, the city still belongs to the Terriers: BU 5, Northeastern 3