Gaudreau helps BC win 4th straight Beanpot title

It's rare that a group of seniors can stake claim to perfection.

In the case of the Boston College men's ice hockey team, perfection is the only word you can use to describe those fourth-year players when it comes to the Beanpot Tournament.

Five different players had goals, including a pair for sophomore Johnny Gaudreau, as Boston College won its fourth straight Beanpot trophy with a 6-3 victory against Northeastern University in the 61st championship game, played Monday at TD Garden in Boston.

Seniors Bill Arnold, Patrick Mullane and Steven Whitney and junior Patrick Brown also scored for Boston College, which never trailed in the game. Senior goalie Parker Milner made 20 saves and earned the tournament's best goalie award.

Boston University is the only other team to have captured at least four straight Beanpot titles; the Terriers won six straight from 1995-2000, and four straight from 1970-1973.

"I'm so incredibly proud of our club, specifically our senior class and our captains who are in the senior class, and what they've done over their careers," Boston College coach Jerry York told the Boston Globe. "They really are model citizens for Boston College hockey."

Boston College (17-7-2), now 8-0 in Beanpot tournament games since the start of the 2009-10 season, scored four goals in the second period and two more in the third.

"You have to throw out records because sometimes you look at records and say, 'What type of team is that?'" York said. "Northeastern has a darn good team right now."

The Huskies (8-14-3), who were seeking their first Beanpot since 1988, got a pair of goals from freshman forward Kevin Roy, who was named the tournament's most valuable player. Roy, who scored five goals in two games, is the fifth MVP from a losing team in the tournament's history, and first since Sean Fields of Boston University in 2004.

"[Roy's] similar to Johnny Gaudreau on Boston College," Northeastern coach Jim Madigan said. "He's a great player. And great players make great plays at the right time. Obviously, Johnny Gaudreau did also."

Arnold and Gaudreau scored goals 1:15 apart midway through the second period to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead. Roy, drafted in the fourth round (No. 97) by the Anaheim Ducks in 2012, pared the deficit with 4:56 left in the second when he beat Milner with a wrist shot from the left circle.

Milner atoned for the goal less than two minutes later when he denied Roy's backhand attempt down the slot with his glove.

"The save that Parker made [on Roy's breakaway] was unbelievable," York said.

Boston College regained its two-goal margin when Brown deflected a shot home at 18:37, then Whitney closed the period with a goal with just one second left off a rebound for a 4-1 cushion.

Roy scored his second of the game and fifth of the tournament just 11 seconds into the third on a rip from the top of the left circle that beat Milner to the stick side to pull Northeastern within 4-2.

Not since 1973, when Mike Powers of Boston College scored six goals, had a player scored for five or more goals at the Beanpot. Roy had helped lead the Huskies to a 3-2 victory against favored Boston University in their tournament opener when he scored three times, marking the first hat trick at the Beanpot since Northeastern's Mike Ryan in 2002.

Junior Braden Pimm pulled the Huskies within one when his power-play goal at 3:56 of the third made it a 4-3 game.

"For me, the story for our team was how we battled in the third period when that puck dropped," Madigan said. "Our guys, they just went all out. I said to our seniors, I'm proud of the way they played and how hard they worked. I felt sorry for them that they didn't get the opportunity to win a Beanpot championship.’"

Gaudreau, a 2011 fourth-round pick (No. 104) of the Calgary Flames, scored at 14:37 to give his team a little more breathing room, and then Mullane added an empty-net goal with 1:28 left.

It's the second major championship in two months for Gaudreau. He had a team-high seven goals last month to help the United States win the gold medal at the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ufa, Russia.

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