BC Bulletin

No. 14 Boston College Men's Hockey Cruises Past BU to Earn 21st Beanpot Trophy

The Eagles entered this year's Beanpot with the longest title drought of the four schools.
Graham Dietz|
John Sexton / Boston College Eagles On SI

BOSTON, Mass. — An early 1-0 deficit in the first period of the 2026 Beanpot Championship put Boston College men’s hockey in an uncomfortable position.

With a piece of silver on the line that had not belonged to the program since 2016, the Eagles needed to regroup with haste.

And that's exactly what occurred on Monday night at TD Garden, as BC's immediate disadvantage against Boston University in the 300th edition of the Battle of Comm. Ave. only seemed to enhance the players' hunger for the trophy.

With four unanswered goals, three of which came on the power play, and a pair of insurance goals, the No. 14 Eagles pummeled the Terriers, 6-2, to capture the program's 21st Beanpot title, and the first under head coach Greg Brown.

"The kids were really after it tonight," said Brown. "They wanted to have success for the older guys on the team, but also for our student body and for the alums. So it's great to see them succeed."

Will Vote and Andre Gasseau led BC (16-9-1, 10-6-0 Hockey East) in scoring with two goals apiece, senior captain Lukas Gustafsson contributed one goal and two assists, Ryan Conmy added four assists, and freshman goalie Louka Cloutier made 27 saves to earn the win.

Sophomore James Hagens, who totaled two assists in the game, was named the 2026 Beanpot Most Valuable Player.

"It's all about the win," Hagens said. "To be able to get the trophy, the Beanpot, with the group of guys we have, it was something that was really special. Like Andre [Gasseau] said, this is a moment that none of us will ever forget."

The Terriers’ first goal came just 2:15 into the game, as sophomore Brandon Svoboda jammed in a juicy rebound that emerged from the crease.

The goal for BU (13-14-2, 9-10-0) marked Svoboda’s fifth of the season and 12th point of the year, and his first since Dec. 13, 2025.

Only a few minutes later, Hagens was sent to the penalty box for high sticking, but the Eagles killed off the penalty convincingly with three blocked shots. Then, at the 10:36 mark of the frame, Jake Sondreal received a penalty for hooking.

BC remained unscathed, however, keeping the deficit at one.

Penalties continued to be a theme of the period, as Cole Hutson received two minutes in the box for holding with 5:36 left. This time, the Eagles wasted no time capitalizing on the man advantage.

38 seconds into the power play, Conmy entered the offensive zone with speed and fed the puck from below the circle to Gasseau in the slot. The senior captain tapped the puck right through Mikhail Yegorov’s five-hole with authority, knotting the score at one apiece.

"If you picture Ryan, you think of a shooter," Brown said. "But he can also make plays. We want him to shoot because he's got a dynamic release and can score goals, but he sees people sometimes. When he's looking at the net, he can see people off to the side."

A third penalty was assessed on the Eagles with a minute left in the frame, but it ended before BU could set up a quality scoring chance.

While the Terriers still had 49 seconds on the power play at the start of the second, they were practically locked out of BC’s defensive zone and did not send a single puck on net.

Following a pair of close scoring chances for BC, including a shot off the crossbar by freshman Oscar Hemming around the 10-minute mark, the Eagles finally broke through the second-period scoring dam with 5:06 left in the frame.

Dean Letourneau raced into BU’s defensive zone to waive off what would have been icing, and the puck maneuvered to Gustafsson at the point. Gustafsson fired the puck through a barrage of screens, and it redirected off Vote’s stick before tucking into the left corner of the goal, increasing the Eagles lead to 2-1.

Before BU could even regroup, it found itself down by a two-goal deficit.

BC swiftly set up shop on the power play from Ryder Ritchie's tripping, and Gustafsson rifled a shot from the point right through Yegorov for his second point of the game to make it 3-1 with 3:08 remaining in the period.

"You need leadership from your team [in this tournament]," Brown said, referring to Gustafsson, Gasseau, and Brady Berard. "It's got to be more than just what the coaches are saying, and those guys took control."

The Terriers entered the third frame on a power play, but it was short-lived from Ben Merril’s hooking penalty just 57 seconds in.

Gasseau extended BC’s advantage to 4-1 with a slam-dunk goal in front of the net at the 14:23 mark of the third, but Cole Eiserman gave BU one last breath with a power-play goal with 4:54 to go in regulation.

Letourneau then chipped in an insurance goal less than a minute later, which served as the ultimate blow to send the Terriers home for good. Vote added the final goal on an empty net, which capped off the Eagles' dominant 6-2 triumph. 

"You need so many things to go right, so many guys to play well," Brown said. "And tonight, we were able to do that."

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Graham Dietz
GRAHAM DIETZ

Graham Dietz is a 2025 graduate of Boston College and subsequently joined Boston College On SI. He previously served as an editor for The Heights, the independent student newspaper, from fall 2021, including as Sports Editor from 2022-23. Graham works for The Boston Globe as a sports correspondent, covering high school football, girls' basketball, and baseball. He was also a beat writer for the Chatham Anglers of the Cape Cod Baseball League in the summer of 2023.

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