After going up 2-0 on goals by Tyler McNeely and Greg Costa, Harvard charged back with a strong second period, heading into the final intermission down just one thanks to a Conor Morrison tally halfway through the second period.
But whatever Harvard had going in the second frame, it lost it in the third, allowing the Huskies to get into an offensive rhythm and put this one out of reach with a Garrett Vermeersch power-play tally midway through.
Be sure to check back just after 8 p.m. for the championship live blog featuring BC and BU.
Third period, 1:24, NU 4-1: And Northeastern puts this one out of reach, as Wade MacLeod scores on an empty net to put the Huskies up 4-1.
Third period, 2:51, NU 3-1: Alex Killorn takes it all the way up the ice on the left side and, in a 1-on-1, Chris Rawlings makes the stop with his pad.
The Crimson seem to be turning it up a notch for the last three minutes but it may be safe to say it's too little too late.
Third period, 4:47, NU 3-1: NU fires two quick shots on net in about 10 seconds but Carroll is all over the place, and in the midst of it, someone's stick goes spiraling out toward center ice.
This is by far the most pressure the Huskies have put on net the whole night.
Third period, 6:13, NU 3-1: Northeastern gets a short-handed opportunity with 41 seconds left in the power play and Ryan Carroll makes his best save of the night to maintain the two-goal deficit.
Northeastern has regained the upper hand offensively with a 28-27 shot advantage.
Third period, 8:13, NU 3-1: The Huskies return the favor, giving the Crimson a turn on the man advantage. Chris Donovan is in the box for slashing.
Third period, 8:52, NU 3-1: J.P. Maley get two good shots off with less than 15 seconds left in the power play, but the first one — a wrist shot from the blue line — gets caught up in traffic in front of the net before finally deflecting off Ryan Carroll.
Also worth mentioning: I appear to have mixed up the bands. Harvard's is the good one. My apologies, Crimson.
Third period, 11:20, NU 3-1: And the Huskies will promptly get another power play opportunity as Alex Fallstrom gets two minutes for contact to the head.
Third period, 12:44, NU 3-1: Power-play goal for the Huskies. Garrett Vermeersch tees one up from just inside the right circle. Big momentum swing back in the Huskies' favor.
Third period, 16:14, NU 2-1: David Valek is in the box for hitting from behind.
Harvard now holds the overall shooting advantage, 37-32.
NU goaltender Ryan Carroll has 18 saves while Chris Rawlings has 22.
End of second period, NU 2-1: After dominating for the first 30 minutes, the Huskies' intensity waned significantly over the final 10 minutes of the second period, and it showed. The Crimson tallied 12 shots in about eight minutes to finish the frame and finally managed to get on the board.
The Huskies are still ahead but there's no question that the Crimson are in rhythm right now. Just as NU's 1-0 advantage at the end of the first period seemed bigger than it was at the time, the 2-1 advantage now seems very much in danger, given the way Harvard has played.
(Kelly Clarkson from the NU band! Now that they're factoring in Idols, they have officially won my heart.)
Second period, 2:50, NU 2-1: Harvard now holds a 21-19 shot advantage. The Crimson have outshot NU 10-1 over the past eight minutes or so.
Second period, 5:54, NU 2-1: In the waning seconds of the power play, Alex Biega rockets a one-timer just wide left of the net.
NU is now outshooting the Crimson 19-17. Right before the onslaught of penalties, it held a 19-11 advantage, so Harvard has really dominated for the past five minutes or so.
(NU band just added some Katy Perry to the arsenal. They're really winning me over.)
Second period, 7:09, NU 2-1: Now we're back to a plain old power play for the Crimson. There are 52 seconds left on the Daniels penalty.
Second period, 8:01, NU 2-1: Harvard is right back in this one. Ryan Grimshaw drives one in from the blue line, and Conor Morrison is waiting on the left side of the net to tap it in past Chris Rawlings.
Right after the goal, Justin Daniels heads into the box for interference. It's a 4-on-3 for Harvard.
Second period, 8:51, NU 2-0: NU's Greg Costa is in the box for hooking.
Harvard's Alex Killorn promptly joins him in the box for contact to the head. He's about 25 seconds behind Costa.
The NU band just played "Fire Burning," which means they already have my vote for band of the night. Never heard that one attempted before.
Second period, 10:45, NU 2-0: Garrett Vermeersch drops a one-timer from the right circle that deflects off Ryan Carroll's pad. Would've been a perfect opportunity if there had been a white jersey in there to snag the rebound.
Harvard still has yet to pose any offensive pressure this period.
Second period, 14:25, NU 2-0: Power play killed. NU didn't get a lot of opportunities, there, as Harvard did a nice job putting bodies in front of the net.
Still, after the PP ends, Northeastern maintains control of the puck and it's pretty much lived in the Huskies' zone for the early part of this period.
Second period, 16:16, NU 2-0: The Huskies go right back on the power play, as Rence Coassin lays a nasty crosscheck on the NU defender in front of the NU goal.
NU is 0-for-1 on the PP tonight.
Second period, 17:36, NU 2-0: That didn't take long. As Ian Tallett comes out of the box, Northeastern gets a 3-on-2 in front of the net, and Greg Costa takes a feed from Drew Daniels and dumps it in past Ryan Carroll to make it 2-0.
Mike McLaughlin also assisted on the play.
Second period, 18:49, NU 1-0: Power play successfully killed off by the Crimson.
NU is now 0-for-1 on the man advantage.
Second period, 19:55, NU 1-0: The Huskies begin the period with about a minute left on the power play.
Both teams were pretty even in the first period, as Northeastern outshot Harvard by a slim 11-8 margin.
Chris Rawlings made eight saves while Ryan Carroll made 10.
Also, update: That McNeely goal was not, in fact, unassisted. It was assisted by Jake Newton.
End of first period, NU 1-0: It took a while there for either team to establish any kind of offensive rhythm, but against all odds, NU struck first just after a 5-on-3 penalty-killing situation ended. Tyler McNeely registered the shorthanded goal, and in a game where Harvard has shown very little efficiency on offense, it seems like a bigger goal than it is — especially considering the situation. It had to have been a big confidence booster for the Huskies, who sent three players to the box in the period.
Of course, seeing as there are 40 minutes left, there's always time for a rebound.
First period, 55 seconds, NU 1-0: With about 50 seconds to play in the first, Northeastern gets its first man advantage. Harvard's Ian Tallett is in the box for interference.
The Huskies will have a little over a minute left on the PP when the second period begins.
First period, 1:20, NU 1-0: And the 14 Husky fans in the house are letting Ryan Carroll hear it.
First period, 1:46, NU 1-0: Michael Biega tries a one-timer from the left circle and Chris Rawlings gloves it. The Huskies clear to buy themselves some time before the first power play runs out.
And just before Hewkin comes out of the box, NU strikes with an unassisted short-handed goal, as Tyler McNeely snags a turnover and takes it all the way to the net, eluding Ryan Carroll on the stick side.
Harvard is now 0-for-3 on the power play.
First period, 3:35: That quickly becomes a 5-on-3 for Harvard. Mike Hewkin goes into the box for a hit from behind less than a minute later.
First period, 3:54: Harvard gets power-play opportunity No. 2, as Chris Donovan is whistled for tripping.
First period, 6:05: Northeastern is doing a good job of putting bodies in front of the net. Harvard just got off a couple of shots — one from the blue line that went across the crease and missed the corner of the net by about a foot — but Harvard isn't getting any of the rebounds.
First period, 7:18: Alex Killorn winds up and sends one in from just inside the blue line but Chris Rawlings deflects it off the pads.
Still not really any dominant offense here. Lots of hard checks, though, but puck control? Not so much.
First period, 11:00: Tyler McNeely forces a turnover on the blue line but there's an offsides whistle after clears it.
And that's it for the power play. Harvard is 0-for-1 and didn't get a shot off during that one.
First period, 13:11: Alex Killorn grabs a loose puck and skates it all the way up the left side then shoots it across the crease and misses — but he gets hooked by NU's Kyle Kraemer as he finishes, which gets Harvard the first power-play opportunity of the night.
First period, 16:32: Luke Greiner gets a shot off on Chris Rawlings but he deflects it off his leg. On the opposite end, Ryan Carroll had a little bit of work to do early but both goaltenders are holding strong.
Harvard gets another good opportunity coming out of a line change but can't finish.
First period, 19:35: It's so quiet that you can hear exactly what the band is chanting. How do you get up for a game like this if you're Harvard and NU?
Lots of end-to-end action to start things off here and lots of offsides whistles already.
4:33 p.m.: The Crimson and the Huskies have taken the ice for warmups at the Garden, and it is literally an empty house 27 minutes prior to faceoff. (Except for a band — unsure of whether it belongs to Northeastern or Harvard — which has also begun pregame warmups.)
Both teams were in action this weekend, as Harvard was able to temporarily rebound from the beating it took on Monday with a 5-2 win on Friday at Brown. Unfortunately, the momentum didn't last long, as the Crimson fell to Yale 6-3 24 hours later.
Northeastern rebounded as well with a 5-1 win at Merrimack on Friday night.
11:46 a.m.: The Huskies and Crimson are set to duke it out in the consolation match Monday evening at 5 p.m. in the 58th annual Beanpot Tournament.
Neither team could take down BC or BU in the opening round last Monday, as the Eagles and Terriers will battle it out for the title later this evening. This is a very familiar scene, as it's been either BC or BU hoisting the trophy each year since 1993, when Harvard topped the Terriers 4-2 in the finals.
Harvard will attempt to bounce back from a very rough 6-0 defeat to the Eagles a week ago. Ted Donato's group couldn't stay out of the penalty box and BC took advantage of the Crimson's undisciplined play by having six different skaters light the lamp.
Northeastern gave the defending NCAA champ Terriers quite the scare in last week's nightcap but were unable to take down 29-time Beanpot champs as BU won it 2-1.
Be sure to check back with NESN.com for all your Beanpot updates.
