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01/13/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 01/14/2025 10:17

The 2025 Women’s Beanpot Begins Tuesday: Here’s What You Need to Know

The 2025 Women's Beanpot Begins Tuesday: Here's What You Need to Know

Terriers are looking to land their first tournament championship since 2019

Women's ice hockey team players Maeve Carey (COM'26) (left), Julia Shaunessy (CAS'24, GRS'25), and Lola Reid (CAS'28) celebrate Shaunessy's goal during a game against Boston College, November 15. The Terriers will face off against Harvard in the first round of the Beanpot on Tuesday. Photo by Fia McCarty/BU Athletics

Women's Beanpot

The 2025 Women's Beanpot Begins Tuesday: Here's What You Need to Know

Terriers are looking to land their first tournament championship since 2019

January 13, 2025
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The Boston University women's ice hockey team made history last year when they played in the first Women's Beanpot Championship ever to be held at TD Garden. While the team fell 2-1 to Northeastern in overtime, captain Tamara Giaquinto (CAS'25) still calls it one of the best experiences of her career.

"Looking back on my career, that might've been the highlight," Giaquinto says. "The finals didn't go quite how we planned, but [we're] using that as motivation for this year and remembering how that felt to make sure we come up with the win this year in the finals."

Captain and defenseman Tamara Giaquinto (CAS'25) shoots the puck during BU's home game against BC, November 15. Giaquinto says playing last year's Beanpot championship at TD Garden "might have been the highlight" of her career and is using the loss as motivation for the tournament this season. Photo by Fia McCarty/BU Athletics

The 46th annual Dunkin' Women's Beanpot tournament begins on Tuesday at Northeastern's Matthews Arena. .The No. 13 Terriers will face off against Harvard at 4:30 pm. The winner of that game will then take on the winner of the No. 12 Boston College and Northeastern matchup, taking place at 7:30 pm, in the championship game on January 21 at TD Garden.

The Northeastern Huskies, who have won the last two Beanpots, will be competing for bragging rights alongside surging BU and BC teams and a Harvard team looking for an upset.

Here's what to know going into this year's tournament.

Boston University

The Terriers were oh so close to their second-ever Beanpot championship as a varsity program last year, falling in overtime to Northeastern after a shootout win against Boston College in the semifinals. The team's last title came in 2019.

BU has experienced a major turnaround in year two of head coach Tara Watchorn's tenure. Her team is currently 12-5-2-just two wins short of last year's total, with half the season still to play. In addition, they are tied for second in Hockey East and are nationally ranked for the first time since 2021.

"I'm proud of our entire group, of how we've made adjustments and been curious about how we can get better," says Watchorn (Sargent'12). "I knew we had the talent. I just feel really excited about where our team's at, and what better time to put them to the test than this exciting, historic tournament."

A key to BU's success has been the play of goaltender Callie Shanahan (CAS'25), who recovered from an injury last season and started this season strong. Shanahan owns a .924 save percentage and a 1.76 goals-against average, which ranks third in Hockey East.

Assistant captain and goaltender Callie Shanahan (CAS'25) stands in her crease during a game against Maine October 19, 2024. BU shut out Maine 2-0. Head coach Tara Watchorn (Sargent'12) says Shanahan has "left her mark on the program." Photo by Matt Woolverton/BU Athletics

"She's been great, giving us a chance to win every game, and she is someone that has left her mark on this program," Watchorn says. "She shows the group what high performance is, and she lives it every day. To see her feel that confidence in between the pipes day in and day out has been cool."

The Terriers played both Northeastern and Boston College earlier this season, splitting a series with each team. Watchorn calls the 4-0 loss to Northeastern in the first game of that series a "turning point" in the season. Following that loss, BU went on a nine-game unbeaten streak.

"Once we were able to sit down with the team, go through what we didn't like, what we did like, and then bounce back the next game, that was really, really important for us," Giaquinto says. "This year, we just want more for our team and for the program, and we carried that out throughout the rest of the season."

The Terriers will take on the only non-Hockey East school in the Beanpot, facing off against Harvard in the semifinals. The two teams last played each other on November 14, 2023, when the Crimson took a 3-0 victory over BU.

Boston College

The Eagles enter this year's Beanpot as the leader in Hockey East with a 14-6-1 record on the season. This year, Boston College draws host team Northeastern in the opening round. The two teams played each other this season on November 30, with the Eagles walking away with a 3-0 victory.

BC owns an 11-15-1 record against Northeastern in the Beanpot. Last time they played each other in the tournament, the Huskies downed the Eagles 2-1 to win the 2022 championship.

Last year, the Eagles lost the Beanpot semifinal game to BU in a shootout, before losing to Harvard in the consolation game in another shootout. The team's last Beanpot championship came in 2018, marking the longest drought among the four teams.

Earlier this season, BC went on an eight-game win streak, sweeping No. 7 Clarkson and taking down the Terriers 3-2 in overtime along the way.

Forward Sammy Taber is the team's point leader with 9 goals and 14 assists. She is followed by senior Abby Newhook, with the two players leading Hockey East in points.

Northeastern University

The Huskies are back-to-back defending Beanpot champions, defeating BU 2-1 in overtime in last year's championship game. Northeastern owns the most tournament titles with 19.

This season, the Huskies placed fourth in Hockey East with a 13-6-1 record. The team started the season with series splits against No. 11 Penn State, No. 9 Quinnipiac, and No. 13 BU. However, Northeastern enters the tournament on a hot streak, winning eight of their last nine games. The one exception is its loss to Boston College, which the Huskies will play in the opening round on Tuesday.

The Huskies' offense is defined by both seniority and youth. The team is led in points by senior forward Skylar Irving and freshman standout Éloïse Caron, who each have 17 points on the year.

Northeastern is anchored by goaltender Lisa Jönsson, who leads the league in save percentage with .959. The freshman has only allowed 11 goals in her 11 games in net. She splits time in net with senior Paige Taborski, who has a 9.26 save percentage and a 1.79 goals-against average.

Harvard University

Harvard has earned 15 Women's Beanpot championships. The last time the Crimson clinched the championship was 2022 when they downed Boston College 5-4. Last year, they lost to the Huskies in the semifinals en route to a third-place finish over BC in the consolation game.

Harvard enters this year's tournament with a 2-11-2 record. The team hasn't won a game since November 1, when they took down Yale 5-1. The Crimson are outshot by 13 on average per game, while also outscored by a goal and a half.

This year, they will take on Boston University in the semifinals for the first time since 2022. They have a 19-5-1 record against the Terriers in the tournament.

"It's really cool to be able to play someone that's not in our conference first," Giaquinto says. "Not being too worried about our opponent and focusing on our game is [the mentality] we're going into Tuesday with."

The Women's Beanpot semifinal game against Harvard is Tuesday, January 14, at 4:30 pm at Matthews Arena, 238-262 St. Botolph St., Boston. Tickets for the Dunkin' Women's Beanpot are available here. Both the championship and consolation games will be played at TD Garden. The consolation game begins at 4:30 pm on January 21, and the championship thereafter at approximately 7:30 pm. Tickets for the women's tournament's second round can be purchased here. The Women's Beanpot semifinals will be televised live on NESN+ and streamed live on ESPN+. Follow the women's team @TerrierWHockey on X.

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