Belpot 2: For the Beans (Women's Beanpot Championship Preview)
For the first time since 2019, BU and Harvard face off with the Beanpot on the line, this time at TD Garden at the 2026 Women's Beanpot Championship Game
The 2026 Women’s Beanpot Championship will see the Boston University Terriers and Harvard Crimson face off for the first time at TD Garden, with both teams winning their respective semifinals.
Walter Brown Wrap-Up
Before we dive into the Garden games, we’ll take a look at how the teams got there.
Semifinal 1: Harvard 2 Boston College 1
Game 1 was a back and forth game between the Eagles and Crimson. Harvard opened the scoring at 17:50 in the first period when Morgan McGathey scored her 6th of the season and first since December 5th vs. Union. BC tied things up at 6:58 of the 2nd when team scoring leader Ava Thomas, her 15th goal of the season and 2nd in as many games. At 8:23 in the third Kaley MacDonald scored her first of the season, 6th of her career and first since November 22nd 2024 vs. Providence.
Ainsley Tuffy was exceptional in net, stopping 40 of 41 shots that she faced. She has made 35+ saves in 3 of her last 4 games, including a 55 save effort in the Friendship Series semifinal vs. Minnesota-Duluth.
Harvard was dominant at the face-off dot, winning 41 of 67 face-offs. Morgan McGathey herself won 21 of 27.
The win was Harvard’s 13 semifinal win over BC and first since 2019. The Crimson head to their first Women’s Beanpot final since 2022 when they defeated BC 5-4 at Matthews Arena.
Semifinal 2: Boston University 2 Northeastern 1 (OT)
In the night cap, a Dog Fight in a rematch of the last two Women’s Beanpot Finals as the Huskies and Terriers faced off at Walter Brown Arena. Lexie Bertelsen opened the scoring with her second of the season, first at Walter Brown Arena, and first since October 10th vs. Colgate at 4:29 in the first. Hockey East’s leading goalscorer Lily Shannon tied things up with her 15th of the season at 10:32 in the first.
The teams skated to scoreless second and third periods in a back and forth game in which both teams took just 2 penalties each in regulations and none in the third. Both goaltenders were elite with BU’s Mari Pietersen saving 35 of 36 in the game and NU’s Lisa Jönsson saving 30 of 32.
In overtime, NU’s Jaden Bogden took a slashing penalty at 1:54 in the period. On the ensuing power play Terrier captain Maeve Carey recorded her first goal of the season to send the Terriers to the Beanpot Championship game for the third straight season. Making BU the first team to play in all three Women’s Beanpot Championship games at TD Garden.
The Terriers have won 5 of the 6 Beanpot Semifinals held at Walter Brown Arena, this was their first over Northeastern. It was also just their fourth time advancing past NU in the Beanpot semifinal following 1981, 2007, and 2019.
Sister City Sequel
For the second time this season, BU will play Harvard with a trophy on the line following the Friendship Series in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Consolation Game (4:30 pm): BC vs. NU
The Eagles and the Huskies face off in the Beanpot Consolation Game for just the fourth time following 1982, 2008, and 2019.
BC (10-12-1, HEA (4th): 8-5-1) enter after smashing Providence 8-2. Ava Thomas recorded a 6 point game (2g 4a), with Sammy Taber (1g-3a) and Madelyn Murphy (1g-3a) both recording 4 point games. It was Thomas’ most since October 4th vs. Saint Anselm when she recorded 4. She now leads Hockey East with 32 points.
NU (17-6-0, HEA (1st): 13-1-0) enter after beating UNH 2-1. Eloise Caron scored both of the Huskies goals in the win for her 9th and 10th of the season. It was Caron’s first multi-goal game since February 14th, 2025 vs. BC.
This will be BC’s third straight consolation game and Northeastern’s first since 2022, the Eagles won last year over Harvard 4-1 after losing in a shootout to the Crimson the previous year. NU is 7-7-1 in Beanpot consolation games but 1-2 vs. BC in such games. BC is 15-5-2.
Championship Game (7:30 pm): BU vs. Harvard
The Grandmommy of Them All, the oldest active women’s collegiate hockey tournament, the Women’s Beanpot will crown its 47th Champion on Tuesday night at TD Garden. Harvard is looking for its 16th and first since 2022, Boston University is look for its 3rd and first since 2019. The Terriers have made the final at each of the last two Beanpots hosted at TD Garden but failed to lift the trophy both times.
BU (7-12-3, HEA (5th): 5-7-2) enter on a loss to Holy Cross (2-4). Neely Nicholson and Luisa Welcke each scored in the losing effort, Welcke recording her 1st multipoint game of the season after assisting on Nicholson’s goal.
Harvard (10-10-1, ECAC (9th): 5-8-1) also enters on a two game losing streak (1-3, 1-4) losing to Princeton and Quinnipiac on the road. Crimson leading goalscorer Carla McSweeney scored her 7th of season against Princeton.
Pulling a note from last year’s Championship Game preview:
It’s an oddity for both teams to come into the Women’s Beanpot Championship game on a loss, since all four teams went varsity (i.e., BU became the last of the four to go full DI) in 2005, it has never happened. In that span, there have been four instances—2007, 2011, 2014, 2018—when the eventual Beanpot Champion came into the game on a loss, all four were Boston College. The last time two teams came into the Women’s Beanpot on a loss was 2001, where Harvard prevailed over Northeastern 4-3 in overtime at Conte Forum.
Well, it happened again, the finalists both come in on losses for the second straight year, after 20 years previously with at least one team coming in with a win.
BU Head Coach Tara Watchorn and Harvard Head Coach Laura Bellamy faced off in 1 Beanpot game against each other as players with Watchorn’s Terriers beating Bellamy’s Crimson 5-2 in the 2012 semifinal at Walter Brown Arena. Watchorn recorded an assist on the Terriers’ first goal while made 36 saves in a losing effort. Bellamy joins Watchorn as the only coaches to play in and coach their alma mater in the Women’s Beanpot Final, Bellamy won the 2010 title as a player at Harvard.
Just over two weeks ago, the two teams faced off for the Belpot in Northern Ireland with the Terriers ringing the bell after a 3-2 win. It was the Terriers first mid-season tournament title outside the Beanpot.
Harvard is the only team that BU has beaten in a Beanpot Championship Game as a varsity program.