BOSTON — Once upon a time, snapping a two-decade drought was the goal for the Northeastern Huskies in the Beanpot.
Now, the objective is to maintain success in the tournament with a target on their back.
Winners of the 2019 and 2018 Beanpot, this is the first time since 1984-85 that the Huskies are back-to-back champs in the four-team tournament. They’ve beaten the tournament’s typical contenders, Boston College and Boston University, during their current run, so Northeastern is well aware that teams are gunning for them in 2020.
“Yeah, I think we’ve got a little bit of a bullseye on our back,” Huskies head coach Jim Madigan told NESN.com on Monday at Beanpot Media Day. “But what happened last two years in the Beanpot has no reflection, no relevance to this year’s Beanpot. Teams are different, even though a lot of the players are the same the teams are different. And for us, certainly there’s a bullseye, but maybe if anything hopefully then it gets us to elevate our preparation knowing that, hey, we’re coming in as a two-time defending champ, not a one-time defending champ but two-time and that we’ve got to be at our best in order to beat Harvard on the first Monday.”
Not that it is much of a challenge to keep players motivated after two years of success in the tournament, but Madigan and his staff have thought out a mantra to keep the Huskies from getting complacent.
“It’s important for us to create more firsts,” Madigan said. “So this would be the first opportunity to be able to go for a three-peat, we’ve never had that opportunity. This program wants to create firsts.”
Northeastern begins the 2020 Beanpot against Harvard, with puck drop from TD Garden set for 5 p.m. ET on Monday.
