Growing up in Milton, Mass., in the figurative shadow of the TD Garden, Aidan McDonough was that rare youth hockey player from New England who didn’t necessarily dream about someday wearing a Bruins jersey.
For McDonough, it was all about the Beanpot.
“I didn’t want to play in the NHL — that’s a far-fetched dream,” said McDonough, who will take the Beanpot ice for the third time on Monday with the Northeastern men’s hockey team. “I wanted to play in the Beanpot. When Northeastern approached me, it was a great opportunity for myself, and it was a dream to play in the Beanpot. I fell in love with it right away.”
As a freshman, not only did McDonough get to realize his dream of playing in the Beanpot, he got to hoist the iconic trophy as the Huskies won their third straight title following a three-decade drought. McDonough scored a goal and two assists in the 5-2 win over Boston University.
“We’d go to The Fours, a restaurant right outside of the Garden — I think it’s closed now,” said McDonough, who currently leads all Hockey East scorers with 12 goals for an overall line of 12-12-24 in conference play. “We’d go there for a nice bite to eat, then we’d go watch a game and a half, and then we had to head home because it was a school night. I had to be in bed for school on Tuesday.”
Whether or not McDonough has an early class on Tuesday is unknown, but if he does he’ll be a little tired. The Huskies will play defending champ and No. 3 Boston University in the late game on Monday, the opening night of the 70th edition of the Beanpot. The first game is scheduled for a 5 p.m. (Eastern) puck drop and will feature Boston College and No. 8 Harvard of ECAC Hockey. The games will be broadcast on NESN.
McDonough is far from the only Massachusetts native involved in this year’s tournament. First-year BU coach Jay Pandolfo, a native of Burlington, said his team, despite winning last year, enters this year’s Beanpot as a hungry group.
“We did win the Beanpot last year, and that was great for these guys, but they want more,” said Pandolfo, who played for the Terriers for four years from 1993-96, a stretch in which BU twice won the Beanpot. “I’ve been really impressed with these guys and how they’ve brought the group together and held each other accountable. It’s been a lot of fun and has made my job easy.”
Northeastern coach Jerry Keefe, who grew up in Billerica, and won a state championship at Matignon High School in Cambridge as a player, said the rivalries are what make the Beanpot special.
“It’s for bragging rights, it’s against your rival, and all four teams have a legit chance of winning this thing. “It’s a lot of fun this time of year, and our guys get really excited for it.”
Harvard coach Ted Donato was born in Boston, which leaves first year BC coach Greg Brown as the odd man out among the four coaches, having been born in Hartford, Conn. Nevertheless, Brown’s connection to the Beanpot goes deep.
While he never won the Beanpot as a player for the Eagles from 1986 to 1990, Brown spent 14 seasons behind the bench for BC from 2004 to 2018 as an assistant on former head coach Jerry York’s staff. During that stretch, the Eagles won the Beanpot eight times, including five straight from 2010 to 2014.
Brown said the rivalries among the four competing schools are fierce but are also fortified by tremendous mutual respect.
“It’s like beating your older brother,” he said. “You still love them, but you want to beat them more than anything else in the world.”
