Five Things To Watch As Women’s Beanpot Shifts To TD Garden For Final

The stage is set for the final act of the Dunkin’ Women’s Beanpot.

Northeastern and Boston University will square off on the ice Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. ET from TD Garden with the Beanpot title at stake. Boston College and Harvard will collide in the third-place game at 4:30 p.m. Both games will be aired on NESN.

Both matchups feature plenty of storylines after a thrilling semifinal round. Will Northeastern complete its three-peat? Will BU get just its third Beanpot title in program history? Can Harvard pull off a monumental upset and hold BC without a win for a second straight Beanpot?

All that will be answered soon enough. In the meantime, here are five things to watch from the final round of the women’s Beanpot:

Revengeful BU Eager To Stop Northeastern’s Reign
BU defenseman and alternate captain Juila Shaunessy didn’t mince words before the Beanpot started about possibly matching up with Northeastern in the title bout.

“There’s always revenge when we’re playing Northeastern,” Shaunessy said. “Northeastern has always been a hard game. It’s so much fun playing them. It’s great hockey. So yeah, revenge would be the right word.”

So getting payback on the Huskies certainly will be on the minds of the Terriers after Northeastern defeated BU in overtime for the Beanpot crown a year ago. Skylar Irving potted that game-winner and spearheads a well-balanced Huskies team on the precipice of history.

It would be Northeastern’s first Beanpot three-peat since the Huskies accomplished the feat in 1998. It would also give Northeastern its 20th Beanpot championship, the most of any of the four schools. BU will look to write a different story, though.

Will The Cape Fit Again For BU Forward
Lindsay Bochna played the role of the hero for the Terriers in her first career Beanpot game. The Providence transfer scored the game-winning goal in overtime to help the Terriers escape the Beanpot semifinals with a pulse-pounding, come-from-behind victory over Harvard. If Bochna has more up her sleeve and delivers a title to BU, she can easily write her name in Beanpot lore.

Bertagna Award Up For Grabs
It’s a two-player race at the moment for the Bertagna Award — given to the tournament’s top goalie — and both netminders are freshmen. Harvard’s Ainsley Tuffy and Northeastern’s Lisa Jonsson are neck-and-neck after sensational performances in the semifinals. Tuffy, a Duxbury, Mass. native, stopped 39 shots against BU to almost steal a victory for the Crimson while Jonsson turned aside a career-high 37 shots against BC. Jonsson will have the edge playing for a championship but Tuffy surely can’t be counted out.

BC Trying To Fend Off Upset-Minded Harvard
BC is looking to avoid going winless for a second straight year at the Beanpot, something which hasn’t occurred for the Eagles since they failed to pick up a Beanpot win in three consecutive tournaments from 1988-90 — there were no third-place games for those tournaments.

The Eagles arguably are the second-best team among the four schools, but that doesn’t mean they will have an easy time dispatching Harvard. The Crimson surely will play with desperation and a nothing-to-lose attitude as they haven’t won a game since Nov. 1.

History Once Again?
The women’s Beanpot will conclude for a second straight year at TD Garden. Having the event there last season brought out a record attendance of 10,633.

Will that number be topped on Tuesday? If the semifinals were any indication, there is a chance a new record is set. A crowd of 3,298 came out to watch Northeastern and BC, which was the largest Beanpot crowd at a campus site in the history of the tournament and it was also the biggest crowd to ever attend a Northeastern women’s hockey game at Matthews Arena.

NESN Dunkin’ Beanpot coverage is presented by Dunkin’