BC and Northeastern win, head for Beanpot final

Boston, MA -- Quinn Smith tallied twice and Boston College advanced  to its  fourth consecutive  Beanpot final  with a  4-1 victory over Harvard at TD Garden on Monday night.

"It was really neat to score two goals in this game," said the sophomore Smith. "You always want to help your team and we have a lot of kids on this team that can score goals, and tonight was just my night.”

Michael  Matheson and Steven Whitney also lit the lamp for the Eagles, who are the three-time defending champions and face Northeastern one week from now looking for an unprecedented fourth straight championship.

Parker Milner stopped 19-of-20 shots for the win, as BC's seniors improved to 7-0 in Beanpot competition.

"The best of our three periods was the second period," said BC head coach Jerry York. "We feel excited to play for the trophy next week."

Danny  Biega notched the lone score for the Crimson, who were bidding to reach their first Beanpot title game since 2008.

Raphael Girard played well in defeat, making 42 saves.

BC  and Northeastern  battled in  the  final two  years ago,  with the  Eagles winning by a 7-6 count in overtime.

Girard  did his part  to keep Harvard in a one-goal game until the late stages of  the second  period, when Smith and  Matheson scored in a 51-second span to provide a 3-0 edge for BC.

In  the earlier  semifinal, freshman  Kevin Roy  earned his  first career  hat trick,   leading  Northeastern   to  a  surprising  3-2  victory  over  Boston University.

With his outburst, Roy now leads all Division-I rookies in goals (15) and points (30).

“I think it is different every year, so you can’t look back at the history and try and predict what is going to happen that specific year. I think we proved history wrong because we won today," Roy said.

Garrett  Vermeersch  added two  assists for  the Huskies,  who advanced to the second Monday of this tournament for the third time in the last five seasons.

Chris  Rawlings  made 32  saves for  Northeastern, which  hasn't won out since the last of its four titles in 1988.

"It doesn't matter what you did before or what you can do, it's about now..it's all about who wants it more on Monday night," said Rawlings about the potential for ending a 25-year drought.

Danny  O'Regan and  Sahir Gill tallied for the Terriers, who haven't triumphed in  the tourney  since 2009, and were coming  off a 3-2 overtime loss to BC in last year's championship.

Matt O'Connor allowed three goals on 26 shots in defeat.