Women’s Beanpot Preview: What It Will Take For Each Team To Claim Title

The Northeastern Huskies women's hockey team enters the 45th Dunkin' Beanpot as defending champions, looking to seize a second straight title over the rival Boston College, Boston University and Harvard squads.

That road poses its obvious challenges with four hungry teams entering the tournament, each looking to prove themselves.

Will Boston College come out with redemption on its mind, fresh off back-to-back title game losses? Can Harvard put aside its rough overall season and block off its winless run on the road thus far? How will Boston University match up after teeter-tottering with the .500 mark, struggling against teams in its conference?

The festivities kick off at Bright-Landry Hockey Center, home of the Harvard Crimson, on Tuesday night. Boston University and Boston College will square off at 4 p.m. ET, followed by Northeastern and Harvard, which will be played at 7:30 p.m.

Here's what each team will need to finish atop the mountain as champs:

Northeastern (13-9-1)
The Huskies, better than any other team in the tournament, having been rolling this season.

There's an obvious target on the back of Northeastern returning as champions of last year's Beanpot, which adds a pressure element before puck drop. On the road, so far, the Huskies have risen to the occasion, going 8-5-1 while outscoring opponents, 11-5, in their last five away games.

Northeastern head coach Dave Flint believes the team's success this season begins with guarding the net.

"You can’t win games without good goaltending and Gwyn (Phillips) gives us a chance to win every single night," Flint told NESN.com. "And that's what we need, especially when we're not scoring goals. We've had a few games where we've lost 1-0, as I've talked about. When we're trying to figure out who's going to score goals. But I think defense and goaltending are our biggest attributes."

Phillips, who holds a 13-9-1 record, has notched an elite .954 save percentage with four shutouts. She'll be booked to carry a weight as the driving force for Northeastern.

Boston College (12-7-3)
Holding the second-strongest record among all four teams, Boston College will need to put aside its two consecutive championship losses -- both times losing by just a single goal.

"It's tough because we played Harvard in the final, last year we played Northeastern so I mean, we're just gonna take whoever we play the same way and play them hard and just try to take it home," Eagles forward Abby Newhook told NESN.com.

This season, Boston College has dominated, going 11-3-3 in conference play while also defending its home ice with a 6-1-1 run. Forward Gaby Roy leads an Eagles offense, which averages three goals a night, with 10 goals while teammates Sammy Taber and Sammy Smigliani have combined for 29 assists.

Keeping that up will be critical.

Boston College last won the Beanpot while undergoing a three-peat from 2016 to 2018, playing in five consecutive title battles amid the run.

Boston University (9-10-2)
Winners of the Beanpot twice previously, Boston University has a small upper hand ahead of its semifinal matchup versus Boston College, defeating the Eagles in their last matchup, 5-3, on the road.

The Terriers are facing a strong Boston College team, but won't back down.

"I think it's just going to take play in our game. We don't really focus too much on our opponents," Terriers assistant coach Reagan Rust told NESN.com. "We really focus on what we do well, and I think we have a very strong team in terms of how we forecheck how we play defense and then how we do it as a unit. So I think moving forward, we're going to be just fine. We're not too worried about anybody."

Forward Lacey Martin leads Boston University’s offensive unit in goals (9), assists (9) and points (18).

This season, the Terriers have averaged 2.7 goals per contest, and despite falling short in last year's tournament, led all teams with eight goals scored.

They'll need to turn it up a notch.

Harvard (3-14-1)
It's been a rough go so far for Harvard, posting the worst campaign of any team in the Beanpot.

Opponents have scored four goals a game while the Crimson has countered with a 1.4-goal average -- and it hasn't gone well. Harvard has gone winless in away games this season, and has lost six of its last eight played entering the tournament.

Not much momentum, making the Crimson the unofficial underdog, right? Well, not according to Harvard head coach Laura Bellamy.

"I think they're all good teams, but I do think it's gonna be really tight," Bellamy told NESN.com. "I think all teams, all four teams, BU is the only one we've played so far, but that was a close game, beat them 3-0 earlier in the year, but it's a really close game. So I expect tight-checking games. I think if we're viewed as the underdogs, that's fine, but we're gonna go in and expect to win and I think it'll be it'll be good hockey."

It'll take a massive flip of the switch on both ends of the ice for Harvard to successfully make the improbable climb to the mountaintop.

All four teams will get the chance to play at TD Garden, home of the Boston Bruins, which will host the championship and consolation matchups next Tuesday for the first time in tournament history.

Make sure to read all of NESN.com’s Women’s Beanpot coverage leading up to the tournament here. NESN will air both first-round matchups ahead of the consolation and championship games. For more information on Women’s Beanpot Final tickets, click here.