BOSTON - The rivalry turned 250, and it’s hardly ever looked so young and energetic. Boston College outlasted Boston University 4-3 in a thrilling Beanpot championship Monday night at the Garden, and the teams’ 250th meeting was every bit as good as most of the rest.

John Muse was the tournament MVP and had the highest save percentage among goalies who played both Mondays. (File Photo)

The Eagles built a 4-1 lead with 15:38 remaining in the third period, but with the amount of scoring chances being generated by the Terriers, it still seemed far too early to declare a champion. BU rallied for a pair of goals in the final 11 minutes - cutting it to 4-3 with a six-on-four power play - and had the puck on the doorstep a couple of times in the final 60 seconds.

When the buzzer sounded and the puck dangled harmlessly in the neutral zone, the BC bench was finally granted a long-winded sigh of relief.

“If there was a classic Beanpot, that would be one of them,” said Jerry York, who won his fourth Beanpot as the BC coach. “I’ve been involved in a lot of good matchups here, but this particular one was quick. It was fast. Even at 4-1, none of us thought the game was finished yet. BU put a terrific surge on there at the end.”

Boston College claimed its 15th Beanpot in the tournament’s 58-year history, which still pales in comparison to the Terriers’ 29 titles. But the Eagles have won two of the last three ‘Pots to put a dent in BU’s Garden armor.

“It was a great game to watch,” BU coach Jack Parker said. “I thought it was a fabulous game to watch as a college hockey game. It’s the 250th time we’ve played each other. Where better to play each other than the Beanpot final? Other than the outcome, I thought it was a fabulous game.”

BU leads the all-time series, 125-108-17, and also remains ahead of BC in Beanpot games, 27-12. BU dropped to 13-7 in Beanpot championships. The teams have also split their four meetings this season, and each has added a feather to its cap. Boston University took a 3-2 victory at Fenway Park last month, and now the Eagles have the Beanpot banner hanging from the Garden rafters. Even sweeter, they got to take down BU’s 2009 banner.

“It’s what we all strive to do, put a really good college hockey team on the ice,” York said. “I think BC and BU have done that for years and years, but particularly this year, we’ve got two very good hockey teams.”

York believed there was even more significance in this win for his young club - only nine of BC’s 26 current players were on the team during their 2008 title run - because they got to experience the feeling of winning a championship, and that will pay important dividends in March and maybe April. After all, the last two Beanpot winners have gone on to win the national championship.

And the Eagles won the Beanpot in exciting fashion. Freshman Chris Kreider and sophomore Barry Almeida scored highlight-reel goals to bump BC’s lead from 2-1 to 4-1. BU answered with a pair of big-money strikes of their own, as sophomore David Warsofsky’s driving backhander cut the margin in half and Colby Cohen’s six-on-four conversion at 17:14 validated Parker’s aggressive move.

Even the goalies - BC’s John Muse (31 saves) and BU’s Kieran Millan (28) - were fantastic in net. The box score will never indicate their brilliance, but this thing could have wound up with a football score if either netminder was off his game.

With Hockey East getting ready to begin its final four weekends, the Eagles have placed themselves in strong position for the national tournament, while the Terriers will need a Terrier-like second-half surge if they want to defend their national hardware. Eventually, it’s only natural to think BC and BU will meet for a fifth time. Since three of their four meetings this season have been decided by one goal, there’s no reason to believe an encore wouldn’t be just as tremendous.

“We’ve played BU four times this year, and they’ve all been really outstanding college hockey games, two of which have been on big, big stages, and we’re split 2-2,” York said. “There’s not a heck of a lot of difference between these two clubs.

“Maybe we’ll play them again at some point.”

MONDAY NIGHT WAKEUP CALL

It’s not always easy getting up for a game like the Beanpot consolation affair, since the cobwebs outnumber the fans in the Garden for the matinee matchup. Suffice to say, Northeastern handled the letdown and quiet barn better than Harvard on its way to a 4-1 victory.

“It’s an interesting dynamic, the consolation game,” Northeastern coach Greg Cronin said. “You go after the afterglow of the Monday night [semifinal] game with a big crowd, a lot of energy and the enthusiasm is sky high. It’s tough for both teams to go out in a big arena like this when there’s nobody in it. We tried to refocus after the BU game, keep our eyes focused on making progress as a group.”

The Huskies used the win to continue their 2010 momentum and build their confidence before their vitally important Hockey East stretch run. Northeastern is 5-2-0 in its last seven games and closes the regular season with home-and-homes against UMass, Boston College, New Hampshire and Boston University. NU sits in eighth place in the conference standings, but they’re a mere point behind BU, Lowell and Vermont.

At this point in the season, any win is truly an important win, despite how many people are in the building to witness it.

“We went into this game not really worrying about the fans or anything else like that,” said Northeastern junior forward Tyler McNeely, who scored the first goal of the game. “It was just that we needed to win, and we pulled that out.”

SEEN AND HEARD AT THE TD GARDEN

• Greg Cronin spent some time praising freshman goalie Chris Rawlings, who stopped 60 of the 63 shots (.952 save percentage) he faced in the Beanpot. “Brad Thiessen will go down as one of the best goalies in Northeastern history,” Cronin said. “Brad’s been known as a poised goalie and level-headed. I’ve really felt that Chris has made some incredible strides, particularly after the Vermont game when he had his worst outing of the year. Going into the Beanpot, that first game for a freshman, particularly against BU in the 8 o’clock game when there’s 17,000 people here is probably one of the most pressure-packed games a goalie in college hockey can face outside of a national championship game. I thought his poise and his consistency, his aggressiveness in that BU game was outstanding. He backed it up with a great game in Merrimack and then again tonight. I think the one common thread that’s visible when he’s on his game is how aggressive he is, how square to the puck he is. If you notice tonight, there were very few second shots because he was really controlling the rebounds well. … His future looks extremely bright. I always tell the goalies I have a very short-term memory, so he puts this one in the bag and then moves forward to the UMass series.”

• Harvard lost its legs in the third period, which was a byproduct of an ill-timed schedule. The Crimson played their third game in the last four nights, which is an extremely rare occurrence for the Beanpot schools. “In the third period, it was a combination of Northeastern wearing us down and us running out of gas,” Harvard coach Ted Donato said. “I give Northeastern a lot of credit, but for us, the bench got too short too soon. Playing a lot of hockey over the last four or five days kind of caught up to us.”

• Cronin echoed the sentiment. “I thought Harvard battled hard. One of the backdrops of the game is Harvard played three games in four nights,” Cronin said. “I think we were fortunate that we had a lot of energy in the third period.”

• The BC student section went to the well with their “BU football” chant in the first period, to which the BU students - each fan base was located directly behind the nets - replied with an “undefeated” chant. Isn’t that just admitting defeat?

• The BC student section’s best chant of the night was “Jesus loves us.” The majority of the rest were, well, curious. In the spirit of equal reporting, the BU student section was off its game, too, but there weren’t many things for them to cheer about anyway.

• Jack Parker concluded his opening comment in the postgame news conference with a stern demand. “I have instructed my players not to make any comments whatsoever about the refereeing. Don’t ask any questions about the refereeing. They will not answer any questions regarding the refereeing.”

• BC goalie John Muse was the Beanpot MVP and Eberly Award winner, which is given to the goalie who had the highest save percentage over two games. Muse stopped 64 of the 67 shots (.955) he faced and became the first player to double up on the awards since BU’s John Curry in 2007.

• BC captain Matt Price praised Muse’s offseason work ethic to recover from a torn labrum and get himself back to form from his stellar freshman season. “Some guys use it as an offseason,” Price said. “John didn’t. He was working as hard as ever, and it’s showed. He’s been playing unbelievable.”

• Price was eventually asked if the win was any more special because the Eagles had to hang on to get it. “From my standpoint, a win’s a win,” he said. “A championship’s a championship. You never go into a championship game expecting it to be a cakewalk. Tonight was case in point. You know it’s always going to be a battle.”

In theory, Hockey East gets one automatic qualifier for the NCAA tournament, just like the nation’s other five conferences. But in reality, Hockey East can virtually guarantee four of its teams will earn a spot in the national tournament if they make the right moves along the way. Consider it the longest playoff format in sports.

Since 1990, when Hockey East added Merrimack as its eighth team, the conference has used a standard playoff bracket with eight teams playing in the quarterfinals. And since 1990, 62 Hockey East teams have finished in the top four of the regular-season standings and then gone on to win in the quarterfinals. Fifty-five of those teams (88.7 percent) have earned a spot in the NCAA tournament.

Blake Kessel and New Hampshire are likely headed to the NCAA tournament; how many Hockey East teams will join the Wildcats in this year's field?

Surely, it’s easier said than done, but there is very little ambiguity for these teams in October when they begin their season-long journey. If they take care of business, they know they’ve got a great chance to skate for the national championship, whereas teams in other conferences have to play well and hope things fall into place for them.

“Our record speaks for itself on a national level,” Boston College coach Jerry York said. “Maine has won titles. BU has won titles. BC has won them, and that bodes well for us with at-large teams. All the coaches feel that a minimum of three teams [in Hockey East] should be almost guaranteed to go to the nationals and in particular strong years, a fourth and maybe a fifth team.”

Only seven teams have finished with a top-four seed, won their Hockey East quarterfinal series, and then been left out of the national tournament—Boston University (1992, 2008), Maine (1996), UMass (2004), UMass Lowell (2002), Providence (1999) and Vermont (2008).

The numbers are similarly favorable since 2003, when the NCAA tournament expanded from 12 to 16 teams. Since 2003, 20 of the 23 teams (87 percent) that have earned and won a home-ice playoff series have advanced to the national tournament.

Hockey East has sent 26 teams to the NCAA’s in that span, which means six teams—Boston College (2004), BU (2003), Maine (2007, 2003), UNH (2009), and Vermont (2009)—bypassed the two requisites of earning a top-four seed and winning a quarterfinal series. Interestingly enough, the 2007 Maine squad is the only Hockey East team since 1990 to advance to the NCAA tournament without finishing in the top four of the regular-season standings or winning a quarterfinal playoff series. And that 2003 BU team is the only other Hockey East team since 1990 to finish outside of the top four of the regular-season standings and still earn a national tourney bid (the Terriers did advance to the Hockey East championship game, though).

Since 1990, 64 of the 80 Hockey East teams (80 percent) that have finished in the top four of the regular-season standings have earned an NCAA bid. However, since 1990, winning a quarterfinal series increases a team’s chance to make the NCAA tournament by 8.7 percent.

Those numbers haven’t increased as much since 2003, though. In the seven years since the tournament has expanded to 16 teams, 24 of the 28 Hockey East teams (85.7 percent) that have finished in the top four of the regular-season standings have earned an NCAA bid. Teams that finish in the top four only improve their chances by 1.3 percent by proceeding to win a quarterfinal series.

“There’s very good balance in our league, and there’s been a shift of balance a little bit sometimes,” York said. “All of a sudden now, UMass is coming on very strong and Lowell has got a very good club. BC, BU, Maine, and New Hampshire are always trying to stay with it, and now teams like Vermont go to the Frozen Four last year. It’s been a remarkably competitive league over the years.”

UNH is the only team that has really cemented itself in the top four this seasons, so teams like Boston College, UMass, Maine, Lowell, BU, Vermont, and Northeastern understand how important it will be to finish in the top four and earn a playoff series on home ice. After all, those “automatic qualifiers” are still up for grabs, and Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna can’t help but feel the pride of his conference’s position on a national scale.

“The WCHA has all of those championships going way back, like the Yankees with [36 national championships since 1951] or whatever it is,” Bertagna said. “But in the last decade, we had [nine] years with a team in the final, so there’s some consistency there.”

BOSTON - Northeastern fans regretfully do this to themselves every year. They build up the Beanpot, hoping like hell this will be the one that ends the dry spell. In the back of their minds, they feel like they already know the outcome, but they can’t stomach the thought enough to admit it.

This year was no different. Boston University scraped past NU 2-1 in the Beanpot semifinals, and the Huskies’ title drought now stands at 23. It was, unquestionably, a phenomenal game that featured a number of twists, turns and loops. In the end, despite the dramatics, BU claimed another victory and will play - who else? - Boston College in next Monday’s final.

Northeastern’s Kyle Kraemer tied the game 1-1 with a slap shot from above the left point, capping off a long power play to justify the Huskies’ momentum seizure at 9:34 of the third period.

“When we scored that goal, I thought we were going to win the game. We had the momentum going,” Kraemer said. “The bench was as good as it had been all game, probably all year. We all thought we were going to win. It’s a shame.”

But less than five minutes later, BU freshman Alex Chiasson netted the game-winner, as his wrister from the right point barely trickled past goalie Chris Rawlings and over the goal line. It was Chiasson’s first career Beanpot affair, but he doomed the Huskies like he had been at BU forever. The Terriers, after all, have beaten NU 15 consecutive times since falling in the 1988 Beanpot final.

“It was a great game, obviously, to go down to the wire like that. There was a lot of drama in the game,” Northeastern coach Greg Cronin said. “I like the way our team played. I told them after the game I don’t like the outcome, but I like the way we played.”

The redeeming factors don’t count for a thing on the stat sheet, but Cronin was right. His Huskies fought like rabid, starving dogs scraping to find a piece of meat in a junkyard. The effort was ferocious. The result will be as bland as any statistic, fading into a black-and-white etching for eternity.

Kraemer and his teammates played for themselves as much as they played for the packed student section that lifted their bench for 60 minutes of passionate hometown hockey. In the end, the result was all too familiar. The Huskies hoped to write a storybook, but the reality bit with cruelty.

“Seeing the fans up there going at it is unbelievable,” Kraemer said. “Playing college hockey in Boston is probably the best thing for a college kid. It’s like playing college football in Texas. It’s the same thing with hockey here.”

Meanwhile, the Terriers have a chance to win their 30th Beanpot in the tournament’s 58-year history. He understands Northeastern’s pain - heck, he’s caused the majority of it - but Parker can’t really relate to the disappointment on that opposing bench.

“I truly believe that there’s more pressure on the teams that haven’t won it in awhile,” Parker said. “We’ve got guys in the dressing room who have won the Beanpot. I think there’s a lot more pressure on the teams that haven’t won in awhile to win. Let’s get this done, and the longer it goes, the worse it gets.

“In the end, it’s hard to take. It’s hard to take if you’ve played four years at X school and have never won a Beanpot.”

BOX SCORE: Boston University 2, Northeastern 1

MUSE RISES UP

John Muse earned his reputation as one of the nation’s elite goalies by playing his best brand of hockey on the brightest stages. His image suffered a bit during the last year, as he showed a human side that resulted from a torn labrum.

Now, as of Monday night, consider Muse back on top. The Boston College junior made 33 saves to lift the Eagles to a 6-0 win against Harvard in the first game of the Beanpot semifinals.

“John Muse was very good in goal,” said Jerry York, who will be coaching in his 11th Beanpot final. “He made some good saves down around the net in loose-puck situations. It’s an area he’s trying to get better at. He battled a lot better tonight for loose-puck situations.”

Muse didn’t need to be great in this game. Quite frankly, he barely needed to be average, at the Eagles scored six goals. But Muse was in lockdown mode prior to the conclusion of the first period, swatting aside a pair of shots from the point to keep BC ahead, 1-0. Boston College senior Matt Price rewarded Muse’s efforts by doubling the Eagles’ lead 18 seconds into the second period, and BC kept going from there.

“It always builds confidence when you make saves in the last minute of a period, especially in a 1-0 game like that,” Muse said. “It was real helpful that we went out with a 1-0 lead after the first, and we built off that.”

York pulled Muse in favor of third-stringer Chris Venti with 2:34 remaining in the third period, so Muse wasn’t credited with a shutout. Still, it was the team’s first shutout of the 2009-10 season, and it was BC’s first shutout in the Beanpot since 2002.

The performance was the epitome of Muse’s turnaround from last season when he gave up six goals on 24 shots in a 6-1 loss to Northeastern on the first night of the Beanpot. All in the past, Muse said, and for good reason. With the hip healthy and another great showing on national television, Muse appears to be ready to lock down the net for another long run.

“Last year’s game was last year’s game,” Muse said. “I think I had plenty of confidence coming in. I think I’ve been playing pretty well lately. I wasn’t looking for a shutout. I was looking for a win. Luckily, we scored a bunch of goals. That always help, and we play next week in the late game.”

BOX SCORE: Boston College 6, Harvard 0

SEEN AND HEARD AT THE TD GARDEN

• If there are two Fighting Sioux fans on any milk cartons in North Dakota, we’ve found them. They somehow found their way to the Garden for the first night of the Beanpot, and they were proudly wearing their Sioux sweaters. As far from home as they were, the fans did find a familiar sight - a Boston College victory.

• A Northeastern fan wearing a Hartford Whalers sweater was featured on the arena’s video board and the NU student section honored the classic display by singing “Brass Bonanza.”

• Harvard defenseman Alex Biega must have mistaken Boston College goalie John Muse for Bruins netminder Tim Thomas in the second period, when Biega launched a shot from center ice. Unlike Thomas, Muse had no problem keeping the puck out of the net.

• The Boston College student section was overheard cheering, “Safety school,” at the Harvard faithful in the second period of their game.

• As the first game was wrapping up, the Northeastern student section looked toward the BU students and chanted, “Sasquatch, Sasquatch, you suck!”

• The BU fans erupted when the video boards showed two young kids - one BU supported and one BC denizen - clamoring for attention. Eventually, the BU kid shoved the BC fan out of the way, and the Terrier faithful loved every second of it.

• Northeastern fans were chanting, “Yes you can!” in the first period of the NU-BU game, which was a play on President Barack Obama’s campaign slogan. However, Obama held a rally for Martha Coakley at Northeastern prior to this month’s Massachusetts Senatorial election, and things didn’t turn out too favorable for the Democratic party in that debacle.

• The second game was great for a number of reasons, but the atmosphere was made that much more special because the BU and Northeastern student sections were adjacent to one another.

• The BU students wrapped up an entertaining battle with the NU section by chanting “1988″ after the Terriers wrapped up their victory.

• Jack Parker was asked how much he enjoys playing Boston College in a Beanpot final, and the BU coach replied, “We like to play anybody in the Beanpot final.” Parker then lamented it isn’t good for the tournament when BU and BC keep winning the thing, and though he didn’t say it, that might have had something to do with the light crowd on hand. “People are tired of [BU and BC always winning] in some way,” Parker said.

• The Huskies had a number of odd-man rushes and good looks at the net, and they didn’t always take the shot, which displeased Northeastern coach Greg Cronin, who said, “My biggest problem with the odd-man rush or the even-man rush is we wouldn’t shoot the damn puck.” Cronin “conservatively” estimated there were six times when the Huskies held onto the puck when they should have shot it.

It’s the same old story around Northeastern. Although, this time, there’s a bit of a different twist.

With the Beanpot just days away, and the Huskies’ tourney title drought just that much older, the questions have again surfaced around Huntington Avenue. Will this finally, quite possibly, just maybe be the year Northeastern wins its first Beanpot since 1988?

There was some genuine optimism at Northeastern in 2008 and 2009, when the Huskies had two of their best teams of the last two decades, but those high hopes have again faded. To some extent, it’s just another year when the Hounds are underdogs, and the Huskies might be able to use that to their advantage in Monday night’s tournament opener against Boston University.

Northeastern captain Tyler McNeely ranks third on the team in goals (7) and points (15).

“Hopefully, BU thinks that way, but I think BU knows who we are and we know who they are,” Northeastern junior captain Tyler McNeely said. “Either way, you’re going to get an unbelievable game. It doesn’t really matter what you’ve done prior to this game. Anything can happen. We’ve been playing well of late, and we hope that teams take us for granted a little bit, but I don’t think that will be the case.”

The Huskies are 5-4-0 since their 5-7-1 start, and they’ve been the poster children of an up-and-down team - they haven’t won or lost more than two consecutive games all season. Northeastern is 6-10-1 in Hockey East and sits in eighth place in the conference, although it is just two points shy from being all alone in sixth place.

It’s a far cry from where NU stood prior to the last two Beanpots. Northeastern had a 12-8-3 record heading into the 2008 tournament, when it was the people’s choice to win the ‘Pot. However, the Huskies surrendered three goals in the first 7:02 of their first-round game against Harvard before falling, 3-1. Coach Greg Cronin said his team was overly excited before the game, perhaps too wrapped up in its own potential. Then, in the consolation game, BU rallied from a 4-2 deficit to claim a 5-4 victory against Northeastern.

Last year, the Huskies smoked Boston College, 6-1, in the first round and carried a 19-6-2 record into the title game against the Terriers. McNeely’s second-period goal tied the game, 2-2, but BU skated away with a 5-2 victory. McNeely said they were much more composed during last year’s tournament, but they got burnt by a bad bounce and it snowballed from there.

“We had a little bit of pressure [in 2008] with having a better team and a chance to win,” McNeely said. “Last year, we just had a good team, and we went through it game by game. Guys knew we had a good team last year. We went in there prepared and knowing that we had a chance to win. There was a lot of excitement.”

The excitement hasn’t tempered around campus, but the Huskies are still fighting a serious battle to end that dry spell. Northeastern is 12-30 in Beanpot games since winning the 1988 title - 5-16 in the first round, 0-5 in championship games and 7-9 in consolation games - and every team in the tournament has won the championship at least twice (BU has 15 in that span, but who’s counting?).

Since Northeastern beat BU in the 1988 championship game, the Huskies are 0-14 against the Terriers in the Beanpot. Ten of NU’s 12 victories in that span have come against Harvard.

So, the Huskies enter Monday night in a familiar position as the tournament’s underdogs, which might make things a little less nerve-wracking along Huntington. But that’s not to say the Huskies aren’t ready to head to the Garden and give the school something it’s been desperately missing for 22 years.

“Oh, absolutely, you feel [the excitement] around campus,” McNeely said. “Around this time, everyone is looking at the Beanpot. You hear about it all over the place, so it’s surrounding you and you know it’s a huge part of the Boston culture. To bring a Beanpot home to this school would mean the world to us.”

It’s looking like a frigid weekend for much of college hockey country, but it likely won’t keep people away from the rink … at least not with series like the ones we chose to feature in this week’s INCH Friday Four-cast on tap.

Denver at North Dakota (Friday-Saturday): If nothing else, this weekend’s series in Grand Forks will provide a look at the resiliency of these two teams. The Fighting Sioux—in the midst of grueling seven-week stretch during which they’ve faced or will face Minnesota, Cornell, Denver, St. Cloud State, Minnesota Duluth, and Colorado College—are trying to get back into the top half of the WCHA standings. The Pioneers were clipped by Wisconsin in Madison, getting just one point from the Badgers.

Denver’s healthier and has the edge in goal with Marc Cheverie (pictured), but consecutive high-stakes series at unfriendly venues like Wisconsin and North Dakota can be mentally draining. And you can bet that the Engelstad Arena crowd, which hasn’t seen the Sioux play at home in three weeks, will be at a fever pitch for this series.

St. Lawrence at Cornell (Friday); Union at Yale (Friday): The top four teams in ECAC Hockey line up against each other Friday night and have an opportunity to shake up the top of the league standings. First-place Union leads by a single point over three second-place teams in Yale, St. Lawrence, and Cornell.

Yale hosts Union at Ingalls Rink. These teams tied in the first meeting of the year back in early November in Schenectady, but the Bulldogs have a chance to hold serve in their barn this weekend. Yale is just 2-2-0 in its last four league games and Union suffered its first two conference defeats last weekend on home ice.

Cornell and St. Lawrence played to a 1-1 tie two weeks ago and will meet again at raucous Lynah Rink. The Saints have surged into second place and are among the title contenders after going 4-0-2 in their last six conference games. The Big Red are also 4-0-2 in their last six ECAC Hockey games and earned a difficult split at home last weekend against North Dakota.

Michigan vs. Michigan State (Friday at East Lansing, Saturday at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit): Interesting that word of a Cold War redux in Ann Arbor in December broke Thursday; while the granddaddy of outdoor hockey games was all about spectacle and rivalry, the Spartans and Wolverines head into this weekend’s games focused inward.

Michigan State is on track to earn a CCHA first-round playoff, but the Spartans are just 1-2-2 in their last five games. Defense has become a bit of an issue; the Spartans have allowed 18 goals in their last five matches after giving up a total of 10 goals in seven games from Dec. 4-Jan. 8. Michigan, meanwhile, is in seventh place in the conference standings but just four points out of fourth place and the final opening-round bye. The Wolverines, who are 4-1-1 this month with the lone loss coming last weekend at Ferris State, are searching for offensive consistency.

BEANPOT SEMIFINALS, Harvard vs. Boston College, 5 p.m.; Northeastern vs. Boston University, 8 p.m. (Monday): The first Monday in February means the return of college hockey to Boston’s downtown arena. This year’s semifinal games match last year’s second day schedule when BC and Harvard played in the third-place tilt and BU defeated Northeastern in the tournament final—BU’s 29th Beanpot title.

This season hasn’t gone according to plan for the defending national champion Terriers, currently in sixth place in Hockey East, can use what has been unofficially dubbed the “Terrier Invitational” as a second-half spark plug. BC has won just twice in seven games since the calendar turned to 2010 and has lost twice to BU in that span. Harvard comes into the Beanpot as the hottest team among the four, with a 3-0-1 record in their last four, including wins over nationally-ranked Yale and Union. Northeastern is the only team of the four Beanpot participants that has a tournament title to its credit this year. The Huskies started 2010 by capturing the Ledyard Bank Classic at Dartmouth.

Also: Huge weekend in the WCHA—in addition to Denver at North Dakota, St. Cloud State travels to Colorado College and Wisconsin is at Minnesota Duluth. … Robert Morris travels to Bemidji State in a College Hockey America showdown featuring teams responsible for 75 percent of Miami’s losses this season. … Ferris State scored 14 goals in two games against Ohio State in Big Rapids in November. The two teams meet again this weekend in Columbus. … Scott Darling should be back in goal this weekend for Maine as the Black Bears take on Vermont in a key Hockey East series.

TV Schedule | INCH Pick ‘Em

Travis Vermeulen has set career-highs for goals and points as a senior.

TRAVIS VERMEULEN
St. Lawrence
Sr. | F | Centerville, Minn.

His Statistics: 2 GP, 2-4-6, GWG, +3 rating

His Impact: Vermeulen recorded a point on six of St. Lawrence’s nine goals over the weekend and helped lead the Saints into a three-way tie for second place in ECAC Hockey. He had two assists in the Saints’ 5-2 win over Brown on Friday and then came back with two goals and two assists in an important 4-2 win over Yale on Saturday at Appleton Arena.

Vermeulen’s huge night against defending league-champion Yale included a strong start in the first period. He assisted SLU’s opener and then scored less than three minutes later as the Saints held a 2-0 lead. Yale rallied back to tie it in the first minute of the third period, but Vermeulen scored the eventual game-winning goal at 11:00 of the period. He then assisted on an insurance tally with 1:52 remaining.

The senior forward leads St. Lawrence in scoring with 11 goals and 24 points but hasn’t been counted on for offensive production throughout his collegiate career. He started the year with just 42 career points. That’s not to discount his contributions over the last three and a half seasons. Saints coach Joe Marsh told the Watertown Daily Times, “He’s the best defensive forward I’ve ever coached. He brings it every single night.”

His Runners Up: Michael Davies, Wisconsin; Brian Foster, New Hampshire; Dave Jarman, Sacred Heart; Ian Lowe, Bemidji State; Brandon Richardson, Nebraska-Omaha

The INCH Player of the Week is brought to you by The INCH Shop.

This weekend’s Denver-Wisconsin series lived up to its advance billing; it was a well-played, intense, highly entertaining affair between two legitimate national championship contenders in a playoff atmosphere. If the two games at the Kohl Center are an indicator, put our names on the list of those who’d like to see a rematch in March or April.

Generally speaking, last weekend wasn’t a great one for teams in the INCH Power Rankings. Of the 20 teams currently ranked, only St. Cloud State, Bemidji State, New Hampshire, UMass Lowell and newcomer St. Lawrence managed two wins. Five ranked teams, meanwhile, were winless-Boston College, Minnesota Duluth, and Union were swept outright, while Denver and Lake Superior State salvaged only ties against Wisconsin and Notre Dame, respectively.

“This guy has never had any coaching (at the University of Michigan). … Michigan is the worst. For hockey people, if you’ve got a choice between a kid-all things being equal-one’s going to Michigan and one’s going to Boston University, you all want your player (going to Boston University). … Red (Berenson) doesn’t coach. It’s ‘do what you want.’”

Asked about the maturation of defenseman Jack Johnson, Los Angeles Kings general manager Dean Lombardi blasted Johnson, Berenson, and the Michigan program during a wide-ranging Q&A with Hockeytalk.biz blogger Gann Matsuda. The comments set the hockey world abuzz, and compelled Johnson to defend Berenson and the Michigan program. When asked about the comments a few days after they became public, Lombardi blamed Matsuda for taking his quotes out of context.

Maybe Lombardi is right-there exists anecdotal evidence that a fair share of high-profile ex-Wolverines (Andrew Cogliano, Al Montoya, and Jeff Tambellini, for example) haven’t panned out, but the flip side is that a number of lesser-heralded Michigan prospects have far exceeded expectations (think Matt Hunwick, David Moss, and Jed Ortmayer)-and he’s entitled to his opinion. But to make such statements and claiming his words were taken out of context is bush league.

An oddity in this week’s voter-driven rankings regarding Cornell and North Dakota, who split a series at Lynah Rink last weekend. In the USCHO.com poll, both the Fighting Sioux and Big Red edged up one spot to fourth and eighth, respectively. In the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll, however-a poll in which INCH casts a ballot weekly-the Fighting Sioux moved up one spot to fourth while the Big Red fell one rung from seventh to eighth. It’s nothing to get mad about (unless you’re a Cornell fan, perhaps) but it’s fascinating how two different groups of voters interpret the same results.

@SchlossmanGF - In Lynah Rink. It’s freezing in here.

@undsid - In Lynah Rink. It’s freezing in here. @SchlossmanGF: Stop whining!

@SchlossmanGF - @INCH_Gladdy Strange that two guys from North Dakota are complaining about the cold?

The Tweets of the Week share some levity from Grand Forks Herald beat writer Brad Schlossman and North Dakota media relations director Jayson Hajdu. Here are a couple of guys who wake up to sub-zero Fahrenheit temperatures throughout the winter and got the chills in a 40-50 degree hockey rink.

The bigger picture is that one of the ideas for this week’s Stick Salute was to raise the branches to North Dakota’s willingness to travel east and set up a very good series between two very good teams. We understand that several high-profile Western teams have big rinks and big financial responsibilities to their athletic departments. That being said, North Dakota has made a commitment to get on the plane and play non-league games against prominent Eastern-based teams. Last year, it was the IceBreaker Tournament at BU with another game against UMass. This year, a trip to Cornell; and next year the Sioux embark on a two-game series at Maine.

No one on the Boston College roster experienced an offseason like the last one. Just a year removed from a national championship that included citywide appearances and an on-field celebration at Fenway Park, the Eagles faced the realization of a hockey humbling.

Their title defense came to a crushing halt, as they missed the NCAA tournament for just the second time since 1998. For a program that had more national championships than early summers during a decade-long span, it was an unacceptable way to end the season. What’s more, BC’s final blow came in the form of a 3-2 loss to bitter rival Boston University in the Hockey East semifinals at the Garden.

It was time to break it down and build it back up, and Boston College strength and conditioning coach Russ DeRosa led a string of punishing offseason workouts. He reminded the team of its most prominent alums who gave it their all on and off the ice - guys like Brian Gionta, Mike Mottau and Nathan Gerbe - and it was up to the current crop of Eagles to hold themselves to a higher standard.

Brian Gibbons is a veteran player for a Boston College team that bought in to off-season challenges.

“When you have a down year, you have extra motivation in the offseason to work harder and do the extra things because you know you need to improve because last year wasn’t good enough,” BC junior forward Brian Gibbons said. “In the back of your head, you’re thinking, ‘What do I need to do better than I did last year to have more success, both individually and to help the team?’

“We had a good group of guys that stuck around school last summer, and our strength coach, Russ DeRosa, did a great job keeping us motivated throughout the summer to keep working hard. He would give us little reminders of how last year didn’t go our way and to keep reminding us that we needed to work hard if we wanted to right the ship.”

The Eagles went 18-14-5 last season, and their 11-11-5 conference record gave them the sixth seed in the Hockey East playoffs. While coach Jerry York often pointed out that the loss of Gerbe was too much for his team to overcome, Gibbons couldn’t necessarily narrow it down to one thing. He pointed out that they lost late leads and had some unfriendly bounces, and he said the national championship effect added an extra degree of difficulty.

“I can’t really put a finger on what the reason is, but you’ve seen it with BU this year,” Gibbons said in regard to defending a national title. “They kind of struggled out of the gate there. It’s tough when you win a national championship. The next year is always tough for whatever reason. It’s hard to tell why. It could be that other teams, it’s the biggest game on their schedule. They’re circling it at the beginning of the year, a chance to beat the defending national champion. It’s tough to put a finger on why, but for whatever reason, it’s different when you win a national championship.”

The combination of the Eagles’ down year, goalie John Muse’s hip surgery and a young roster - they’ve got four seniors, three juniors, nine sophomores and 10 freshmen - created somewhat of a bleak outlook for their 2009-10 season. It was tough to forecast what type of success they could experience when there were so many unknowns heading into the season.

“I think it’s fair from the outside perspective to maybe have their doubts about BC because we had a subpar season last year, and we have such a young team this year,” Gibbons said. “But inside the locker room, there were no doubts. We knew that we had an off-year, but we knew we still had the talent and the work ethic. We knew we were going to fix things, and we knew we were going to have a better year than last year.”

That confidence and the intense summer preparations have paid immediate dividends, as Boston College is 12-6-2 and 9-4-2 in Hockey East, which is good for second place. Gibbons credits the leadership at the top for keeping the team focused, but more so, the success is a result of every player on the roster buying into the system.

With the Eagles’ youth, they obviously needed significant contributions from the younger players, Gibbons believes the sophomores deserve a hefty amount of praise for being able to adapt to their roles and taking charge on the ice. Sophomore Cam Atkinson leads the team with 13 goals and is second with 22 points, and the rest of his class has combined for 30 goals, 36 assists and 66 points. The sophomores are also a combined plus-13, while the rest of the team is a combined minus-3.

“[The sophomores] all kind of improved on what they needed to improve,” said Gibbons, who leads the Eagles with 15 assists and 24 points. “They all got more confident, and it’s shown with their performance.”

It’s had a positive effect on the rest of the team, and with the good vibes flowing since last summer, Boston College has reclaimed its perch in the top portion of the league standings. Last year’s campaign is out of the picture, though to forget it would neglect the reason for this season’s hard work.

“We just didn’t have the year we wanted for whatever reason,” Gibbons said. “Everyone knows how lucky they are to be here at BC, and everyone wants to prove that they belong here. Everyone wants to win.”

Several key conference games make this mid-January weekend particularly relevant in terms of league standings. We also highlight a cross-regional matchup between teams heading in opposite directions.

Miami at Ferris State (Friday-Saturday)

Blair Riley scored two of Ferris State's three goals in a November series against Miami.

The odds-on CCHA preseason favorites meet up with this year’s surprise story this weekend with plenty to decide in the standings. The RedHawks and Bulldogs enter the weekend tied for first place with 34 points in 14 conference games. Momentum will be the story in Friday’s series opener as the RedHawks enter the game on the heels of dropping two games to lightly-regarded Robert Morris while Ferris State dominated the third period in each of its two wins last weekend over Notre Dame.

These teams met two months ago in Oxford, Ohio and couldn’t settle things after 65 minutes of hockey each night. The visiting Bulldogs earned bonus standings points through the shootout after each tie and some Ferris State fans described the weekend as a sweep. This weekend on home ice they’ll get the opportunity to pursue such an achievement in a more traditional manner.

Wisconsin at Colorado College (Friday-Saturday)

It’s a chance for the homestanding Tigers to get back on track after last week’s sweep at the hands of Minnesota Duluth, and for the Badgers to solidify their chase of the MacNaughton Cup. CC won six straight games in November, but is just 2-5-2 since then.

Wisconsin is five points behind first-place Denver with two games in hand, and is just a point behind fourth-place CC despite having played two fewer games. This will be the first meaningful hockey for the boys from Madison since winning the Badger Showdown title two weeks ago. Last week’s slate included an exhibition against the US NTDP Under-18s and several key Badgers rested for that one. They will get a boost in the lineup as Derek Stepan, John Ramage and Jake Gardiner return to the lineup after winning gold for the United State at the World Junior Championship.

Massachusetts vs. UMass Lowell (Fri. at UMass; Sat. at Lowell)

This in-state rivalry doesn’t get the notoriety of BC-BU or UNH-Maine within Hockey East circles but it means plenty to the fans, students, alumni and teams that are involved. This weekend it also means a great deal in the Hockey East standings. Since almost nothing was determined in the first half of the Hockey East season, this is a big chance for one of these teams to make a big jump in the standings and get some quality wins in terms of NCAA Tournament criteria.

These teams are currently tied for fourth place in Hockey East with 14 points, though UMass Lowell has played one fewer game. They met once earlier this year, a 5-3 win for Lowell on home ice that saw the River Hawks rally from a two-goal deficit.

St. Cloud State at Quinnipiac (Friday-Saturday)

This is a classic meeting of teams headed in different directions. The St. Cloud State Huskies have put together a solid run of four straight victories and are 7-1-1 in their last nine contests. They’ve vaulted to third place in the WCHA and have outscored their opponents 19-7 in their four-game win streak. Of course, those four wins came against Brown and Michigan Tech. This week’s tests at Quinnipiac will be tougher, even though the Bobcats are skidding. After starting 12-1-0 and moving into the top 10 of the national polls, Quinnipiac is just 1-6-1 since then and has lost six straight conference outings to lose their grasp on first place. This weekend’s games against St. Cloud State and next week’s tilts against Niagara are a good opportunity for the Bobcats to right the ship before the home stretch in ECAC Hockey play.

Also: One of the WCHA’s best rivalries resumes in Minneapolis when North Dakota visits Minnesota for two … Boston College hosts Maine Friday night in a meeting of top teams in Hockey East … Union, atop ECAC Hockey, hosts travel partner Rensselaer Saturday in a highly-contested rivalry that has already featured three very good games this season … Michigan State and Notre Dame will play a home-and-home in the CCHA and Michigan hosts Alaska for a pair at Yost.

TV Schedule | INCH Pick ‘Em

Ostergard stole the show against Miami.

BROOKS OSTERGARD
Robert Morris
So. | G | Chagrin Falls, Ohio

His Statistics: 2 GP, 2-0-0, 1.00 GAA, .975 save pct.

His Impact: The sophomore goalie for Robert Morris was at his best this weekend in helping the Colonials to a pair of victories over previously top-ranked Miami. In Friday’s game at Mellon Arena, home of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, Ostergard made 39 saves and allowed just a power-play goal in a 3-1 win.

Sunday in Oxford, Ohio, Ostergard stopped 38 Miami shots and again was only beaten by a power-play goal. He made 14 saves in the third period when the Colonials were protecting their 2-1 lead, which held up as the final margin.

Ostergard was named First Star of the game after both wins. For the season he has a 4-9-21 record in 17 games with a .907 save percentage and 3.43 goals-against average.

His Runners-Up: Bobby Butler, New Hampshire; Brandon Coccimiglio, Mercyhurst; Mike Connolly, Minnesota Duluth; Mike Embach, Ferris State; Allan York, Rensselaer

There were a lot of impressive visuals from Fenway Park over the last two weeks when a hockey rink was built on the famous baseball ground and hosted a number of hockey events. When Boston University and Boston College took the ice on Friday night, our initial reaction was being overwhelmingly impressed by the special sweaters worn by the BU Terriers.

The font on front resembled that worn by the Boston Red Sox on their home jerseys, and the hanging skates shoulder-patch tribute to the Red Sox’ alternate logo was a particular fitting touch. The design was almost entirely the idea of head coach Jack Parker, as the Terriers used to wear warm-up jackets with a similar font in the late-1980s and early-1990s. He and equipment manager Mike DiMella worked with some of the team’s equipment providers to make the vision a reality. And if you’re hoping to get your hands on one … too bad. The idea behind the special design was so that the team members would always have something to hold on to and remember the experience.

We understand that people tend to think their own little corner of the world is the best there is, but sometimes that provincialism can be a bit misguided. Take Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo, for example, who, in the afterglow of the NHL Winter Classic at Fenway Park earlier this month, was prepared to lobby the league to have the event in Beantown every year. The notion was quickly shot down by NHL brass.

Fenway is one-of-a-kind setting and the Winter Classic certainly benefited from the aura surrounding the venerable ballpark, but suggesting the event should be permanently housed in Boston is a disservice to the cities that have hosted the Winter Classic in the past as well as those poised to host it in the future.

“I was a little smarter than he was. I gave my gold to my mom.”

Wisconsin sophomore defenseman Jake Gardiner, a member of the U.S. team that won first place at last week’s IIHF World Junior Championship, wisely sent his hardware home to suburban Minneapolis with his family following the tournament’s conclusion.

The U.S. team captain and Gardiner’s Badger teammate, forward Derek Stepan, planned on toting his medal back to Madison. The bauble went AWOL, however, when the airline lost his luggage. Fortunately, the bag and the medal showed up a couple days later unharmed.

Miami must have fostered a heaping helping of goodwill with poll voters somewhere, because the RedHawks managed to drop just one spot to second place in both the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today and USCHO.com polls despite managing a total of two goals in a pair of losses to Robert Morris, a team that entered the weekend series in the throes of a nine-game winless streak and hadn’t won consecutive games all season.

That the RedHawks only managed to score twice in 120 minutes against the Colonials is even more troubling (or impressive, depending on your perspective) given the fact that RMU ranks 54th among the 58 Division I teams in scoring defense, allowing an average of 3.75 goals per game, and ranks 52nd in penalty killing success rate.

@evalois What we learned yesterday? Defense, not defence, wins games. #wjc

http://twitter.com/evalois/status/7445063437

Similarities outnumber differences between Canada and the United States, but last Tuesday they seemed a world away, something a Toronto-based newspaper editor captured with this tweet. The World Junior Championship gold medal game was the most watched show in the history of TSN, Canada’s ESPN, while ESPN itself could barely mention it. Don Cherry later dismissed the result as USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program manufacturing a triumph over Canada’s natural superiority in the sport.

Whatever the rest of the United States’ interest was, the college hockey world watched with great interest as the Americans - including 11 current college players - upset the five-time defending champions. Team USA’s win was a source of great pride - and bragging rights throughout campus locker rooms populated by both American and Canadian players.

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It was sometime around David Warsofsky’s sophomore year of high school when he basically let go of his dream to play baseball at Fenway Park.

Growing up in the shadows of the Green Monster in nearby Marshfield, Mass., Warsofsky was just like every red-blooded boy in the Commonwealth, showing up to a cookie-cutter Little League diamond and replacing the swing sets in the outfield with visions of the Pesky Pole. Eventually, though, Warsofsky knew hockey could someday pay the bills, while baseball was just a fun activity.

On Friday night, Warsofsky’s dream came true in the most roundabout of ways, as his Boston University Terriers outlasted Boston College, 3-2, at Fenway. The sophomore defenseman played a large role in the outcome by scoring the first goal of the game, which led to him swinging his hockey stick like a baseball bat in celebration.

“I think playing hockey here is a lot better,” Warsofsky said. “I don’t think I could hit a home run here. There’s no chance I would, actually, but scoring here is the next best thing.”

Warsofsky swung for the fences, driving a hard slap shot from high above the left point and finding the back of the net to give the Terriers a 1-0 lead in the first period. In ironic fashion, Warsofsky grew up as a leadoff hitter, and his ability to set the pace Friday helped propel Boston University to a 3-0 advantage midway through the second period. His shot also came from the deep hole at second base, which was the retired baseball player’s most recent position. Apparently, Warsofsky can be credited with a steal in the box score, as well.

“He stole it from me,” said BU junior forward Nick Bonino, who was referring to Warsofsky’s swinging celebration. “Two weeks ago, I was thinking about that. I thought it’d be an overtime celebration. I wanted to make sure we won. It was a good goal, and he had a lot of space around him to pull it off. I was happy someone did.”

Warsofsky, who has been away from campus for a couple of weeks while helping the United States win the gold medal in the World Juniors, has a differing account on the origin of the celebration.

“I just thought of that today,” Warsofsky said. “I thought it would be nice to go along with the Fenway tradition.”

Warsofsky recorded a pair of assists in the World Juniors and didn’t get back to Boston until early Thursday morning, so he missed Wednesday’s team practice at Fenway and didn’t get to skate on the outdoor rink until Friday morning.

Even on short rest, his ability to come up big in an important game might have been the least surprising event of the night. Warsofsky has registered a point in every major professional sports venue the Terriers have played in during the last season and a half. He scored a goal in BU’s 3-3 tie with Cornell at Madison Square Garden in November, and he had an assist in the national championship victory at the Verizon Center in April. Warsofsky also has a goal and two assists in four career games at the Boston Garden.

“He just has this confidence about his game that a lot of players don’t have,” BU junior defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. “He’s not afraid to make a risky play here or there. At the same time, he makes the simple plays when it comes down to that. You love watching him because he’s always doing something right.”

“He’s just a gamer,” Bonino echoed. “Some guys have it, and he’s one of them. He knows how to get himself ready for big games. He just led a team to a gold medal against Canada, so he knows how to win.”

The local-kid-does-good story gets told around Boston every year, mostly around Beanpot time. But this was a little different, a little more unique, just that much more special. Not too long after the Terriers and Eagles get back to their respective campuses, which rest mere minutes from Fenway, crews will begin to melt the magical pond that rests on the ballpark’s infield.

There’s no telling if or when the rink will return. The weeklong hockey celebration concluded in Boston with another spectacular evening involving one of the great rivalries the sport has known, and Warsofsky has been immortalized at Fenway - not in the way he originally dreamed, but he’s just fine with that.

“It’s definitely awesome,” Warsofsky said. “I think for anyone playing in this game, no matter where you’re from, it’s a special experience. Being from here and playing at Fenway, the stadium that you grew up watching your favorite Red Sox, it’s an awesome experience for me.”

FURTHER COVERAGE FROM ESPN.com

Game Recap | BU Gets a Break | Fenway, Terriers Deliver