On Monday evening, the BC men’s hockey team faced off against Harvard at TD Garden for the first round of the 2026 Beanpot. Not only are the two teams fighting for important bragging rights, they also
are near the bubble of the NCAA tournament, so it was a very important game for both squads.
Harvard controlled most of the game in its opening minutes, but when Drew Fortescue slotted in a goal just 3 minutes in, things were already leaning BC’s way. The Eagles started to take over more of the possession time as the first period progressed, and quickly culminating with two goals by James Hagens to extend BC’s lead to 3-0 only 15 minutes of game time after the opening faceoff.
In the second period, it was Harvard that made quick work of things. They scored in under 30 seconds to start the second period to steal back some momentum. But the Crimson train did not keep rolling, and the rest of the second period was dominated by the Eagles, who outshot their opponent 20-1 for the remainder of that period. Dean Letourneau tipped in a laser shot by James Hagens to bring BC’s lead back out to 4-1 with just 20 seconds remaining, which once again gave BC all of the momentum heading into the intermission.
The third period was mostly a formality, even as Harvard pressured with an empty net. They couldn’t get more than just a few shots on net, and eventually Lukas Gustafsson completely ended their night with a corner snipe in the final minutes. Boston College came away with the 5-1 victory to advance to the Beanpot’s final round against either Boston University or Northeastern on Monday February 9th
