2026 BEANPOT CHAMPS! Boston College defeats Boston University, 6-2

On Monday night, the Boston College and Boston University men’s hockey teams met for the 300th time in their history. The Eagles and Terriers squared off at TD Garden in the Beanpot final, a local tournament that BC hasn’t won since 2016. The Eagles finally exorcised those demons on Monday night, defeating their archrival to claim the school’s first Beanpot title in 10 years.

The game got off to a disastrous start for Boston College when goalie Louka Cloutier fumbled a rebound and BU’s Brandon Svoboda stuck it in the five-hole. The Terriers led the game 1-0 just over two minutes into the game and were dominating the flow of the game. BC committed two penalties in the ensuing minutes and spent much of the first period on the penalty kill. But when they finally got a powerplay of their own, BC’s Ryan Conmy skated into the heart of the Terrier defense to pass to Andre Gasseau, who scored the equalizer. The goal came right after a big chant of ““EPSTEIN FILES!” from the BC student section. The game was tied 1-1 after the first period, but the Eagles went on another penalty kill after Aram Minnetian got too physical with a BU player.

Boston College took that momentum into the second period and played with a lot more urgency. They were physical with the Terriers and did a much better job of fighting for pucks in dirty areas and avoiding turnovers. BU still did get a few scoring chances, but Louka Cloutier made some key saves to keep the score tied. There were a few key opportunities to score, including a wide open Brady Berard breakaway and an open goal for Oscar Hemming, but BC didn’t convert until Will Vote finally tapped a pass in from Lukas Gustafsson to take the lead. The 2nd BC goal also came right after the students were chanting ““EPSTEIN FILES!” Not long after, Gustafsson scored a goal of his own with a snipe from near the blue line, giving the Eagles a 3-1 lead heading into the second intermission. But they’d once again be killing a penalty to start the period.

After killing the opening two minutes of the third period, BC came back on a powerplay of their own and Andre Gasseau tapped in his second goal of the night. A chant of “WHO’S YOUR DADDY?” rained in from the BC student section as their team went up 4-1 with under 15 minutes to play.

BC hunkered down for a long stretch of play after that, playing conservatively and avoiding giving up too many opportunities to their opponent. But another boneheaded penalty by Aram Minnetian gave BU a late powerplay that allowed the Terriers to cut the lead to 4-2 with just over five minutes in regulation. Not to worry, though, because Dean Letourneau fulfilled his #Deanpot destiny shortly after, deking out Yegorov to score for BC and bring their lead back to 3 goals. Will Vote put an exclamation mark on the night with an empty net goal, and the Eagles won their first Beanpot in 10 years by a score of 6-2.