Harvard’s Outfit set to battle Northeastern for Beanpot title
First finals meeting in tournament history
The Harvard hockey team wants to put its signature on a hallowed Boston tradition through its Chicago connection.
The No. 10 ranked Crimson (17-6-1, 14-4-0) will engage No. 20 Northeastern (14-10-4, 11-5-3) in the title game of the 70th Dunkin Beanpot hockey tournament at 7:30 p.m. Monday at TD Garden.
Harvard is facing Northeastern in the championship game for the first time in the tournament’s colorful history. Hockey East leader and No. 3 ranked Boston University (20-70, 14-4-0) will encounter crosstown rival Boston College (9-12-6, 5-8-5) in the consolation game (4:30), which is also a Beanpot first. Harvard has won the title 11 times with its last in 2017. NU has won the Beanpot seven times that includes three straight from 2018 to 2020.
Harvard’s first-year left wing Marek Hejduk scored his second goal with 1.5 seconds remaining in overtime to outlast BC, 4-3, in the opener on Feb. 6. Northeastern knocked off the reigning champion Terriers in a 3-1 slugfest. Harvard competes in the ECAC while BU, BC and NU are with Hockey East.
“I’m not from Boston, but since it’s the first time that Northeastern and Harvard have met it is going to be a really good atmosphere,” said Joe Miller, a first-year right wing from Minneapolis, Minn. “It was pretty cool playing at the Garden. It was an awesome experience and I told myself to take it all in. It was a great atmosphere and I’m even more excited for Monday.”
Harvard coach Ted Donato cornered the market on USA Juniors players from the USHL who enjoyed successful runs with the Chicago Steel. The Crimson’s first line, which accounted for two goals against BC, has three Steel alumni: Miller, junior leftwing Sean Farrell of Hopkinton and sophomore center Matthew Coronato of Greenlawn, N.Y.
The other members of Harvard’s Chicago Outfit are sophomore defensemen Ian Moore from Concord and Jack Bar of Newmarket, Ontario. Senior center and co-captain Baker Shore of Englewood, Colo., is the elder member of the Outfit. Farrell and Coronato have been nominated for the Hobey Baker Award.
“I think playing in Chicago was really special and it is a place where there are a bunch of good players,” said Farrell. “It’s been awesome because we all kind of learned to play the same way in Chicago. We have all been able to mesh pretty well and kind of read of each other.”
Farrell, Coronato and Miller enjoyed one crossover year in Chicago due to the global pandemic and the Ivy League’s unilateral edict to shut down all its athletic programs for the 2020-21 sports calendar.
Many of the Crimson’s upper classmen went into a self-imposed warm weather exile in Tampa, Fla., while Donato urged his younger players like Farrell to return to their Juniors’ programs in the U.S. and Canada. Farrell spent his freshman year at Harvard taking classes remotely from Chicago while lacing them up with the Steel.
“I would have been a freshman and I was obviously pretty excited to be coming to Harvard for my freshman year,” said Farrell. “We were actually on campus, a bunch of freshmen just kind of working out here for a few weeks and then we got the news we weren’t going to have a season.
“I talked to (Steel GM) Ryan Hardy in Chicago and ended up back there three days later. I was really fortunate to have that as a back-up plan. That year was amazing for me as a player, we got to win a championship.”
Farrell played in 44 games his final year with Chicago and really honed his skills as a playmaker. He scored 15 goals with an astonishing 41 assists. Farrell was selected in the fourth round (124th) overall by the Montreal Canadians in the 2020 NHL Draft.
Miller enjoyed a great run with Chicago, scoring 22 goals with 45 assists in 62 games. He was selected in the sixth round (180th overall) by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2020 draft.
Coronato is a bona fide sniper and the pair he scored against BC were one-timed beauties set up by Farrell. Coronato put those skills on display with the Steel, leading the USHL with 48 goals in 51 games along with 37 assists, a plus 37 and a .94 goals per game average. Coronato was a first round pick (13th overall) of the Calgary Flames in 2021. Moore (Anaheim) and Bar (Dallas) were also NHL draft picks.
“We had a ton of good players on that team and when you are playing with guys like that it helps everyone individually,” said Coronato. “At the same time, the job the Steel do with developing their players and working on skills was a big part of it as well. All the guys that played there are really grateful they had the chance to be there.”
The Huskies are on a serious upswing since losing to Harvard, 8-4, on New Year’s Day. The turnaround began with a 4-1 win over UConn in the Frozen Fenway tournament at Fenway Park on Jan. 7. The Huskies are 6-1-1 since and are much improved since their loss to the Crimson.