One Last Pot of Beans at the Arena (Women's Beanpot Preview)
The Women's Beanpot will be played one last time at its ancestral home at Matthews (formerly Boston) Arena
Beanpot season begins with the Women’s Beanpot at Matthews Arena, in what is sure to be the final Beanpot (men’s or women’s) in the birthplace of the tournament, which will be closed by the time the hosting rotation returns to Northeastern.
The Venues
Matthews Arena, the ancestral home of both the Men’s and Women’s Beanpot, will host its 16th Women’s Beanpot (17th overall) Semifinal. It has hosted more Women’s Beanpots than any other venue in the city and hosted the first one back in 1979 (the one and only year it was held in March).
Northeastern has won 8 of their Beanpots at Matthews, Harvard has 4 titles at Matthews, BC 2, and BU 1 (i.e., half of them). In terms of runners-up, BC leads the quartet with 8, Harvard has 6, Northeastern has 1, and BU has never been the runner-up at a Matthews hosted Women's Beanpot.
In total, Harvard and BC has won their semifinal at Matthews 10 times each, Northeastern has reach the final 9 times, and BU only has one semifinal win in the Beanpot at Matthews but ended up winning that Beanpot.
TD Garden, the home of the Bruins and the Men’s Beanpot, will host its 2nd consecutive Women’s Beanpot Consolation and Championship games on January 21st at 4:30 and 7:30 pm, respectively. Last time out, Northeastern defeated BU in overtime 2-1 to become the first team to lift the Women’s Beanpot at TD Garden. Harvard finished 3rd, topping BC in the consolation game shootout after skating to a 2-2.
The Matchups
Semifinal 1 (4:30 pm): Harvard vs. BU
Harvard and BU will face off in the early game of the Women’s Beanpot semifinal at 4:30 pm on January 14th. BU is 2-12 in Beanpot semifinals vs. Harvard, with their last win (3-2) coming in 2018 at Conte Forum. The other win (5-2) came in 2012 at Walter Brown Arena. The Terriers have just 1 win against the Crimson at Matthews, coming all the way back in the Terriers’ club days in the first Beanpot Consolation game in 1979. Harvard has 8 wins over BU at Matthews, with their last one coming in 2022 en route to the Crimson’s last Beanpot title.
Semifinal 2 (7:30 pm): BC vs. Northeastern
BC and Northeastern will face off in the late game of the Women’s Beanpot semifinal at 7:30 pm (or whenever early semifinal ends) on January 14th. Northeastern is 10-6 vs. BC in Beanpot semifinals, however, their last win came in 2012 at Walter Brown Arena. BC has won their last three Beanpot semifinals against Northeastern and 5 of their last 6 dating back to 2003.
In their only matchup this season, BC shut out Northeastern 3-0 at Matthews with goals coming from Olivia Maffeo, Abby Newhook, and Sammy Taber. After the Beanpot, they will have two more games against each other on February 14th and 16th.
The Teams
Northeastern
The Huskies (13-6-1, HEA (4th): 10-4-1) come into the 2025 Women’s Beanpot as the two-time defending champions, having beat BU in overtime 2-1 at TD Garden in 2024 and BC 2-1 at Conte Forum in 2023. Senior Skylar Irving scored both of the Huskies goals in last season’s championship game. Irving remains the team’s leading scorer with 8 goals and 9 assists through 20 games this season.
Northeastern began the season unable to string wins together, splitting series with Penn State, Quinnipiac, BU, and New Hampshire. Since losing to UNH on November 2nd, the Huskies have won four in a row and eight of their last nine. Their only loss in that span was a 0-3 shutout by Boston College on November 30th. Northeastern has been carried by stellar goaltending from freshman Lisa Jönsson, who started just two games in October (Oct 12th (0-4 L vs. BU) and Oct 19th (4-2 W vs. Holy Cross)), won the net in early November over senior Paige Taborski, and recorded 5 shutouts in 10 games in net.
Players to Watch
Skylar Irving (F, SR), the reigning Beanpot MVP, leads the Huskies in goals (8) and points (17) and tied for 8th in Hockey East in goals and 6th in points.
Lisa Jönsson (G, FR), the national leader in GAA (1.00) and SV% (.959), has allowed just 11 goals in her 11 starts and is two off the national lead (7) in shutouts with 5.
Taze Thompson (F, SR), captain of the Huskies, is fourth in points with 11 for NU and tied for first in PPGs with Irving and Jules Constantinople (D, JR) with 2. Thompson has played in the Beanpot with both Harvard and Northeastern and has 4 Beanpot goals—2 with each team—the most among active players.
Éloïse Caron (F, FR) began the season with both a 3 game and 4 game point streaks (a team best), recording 12 points in her first 12 games. Prior to her 3 point effort vs. Yale on January 7th, she had only recorded 2 points in her previous 7 games dating back to November 9th. Her 17 points are tied for the team lead with Irving.
Boston University
The Terriers (13-6-1, HEA (1st): 11-3-1) have shocked many after being picked to finish 6th in Hockey East stand atop Hockey East with 36 points, equaling their total from all of last season. In the 2024 Women’s Beanpot, the Terriers equally shocked many as a then 9-10-2 BU team knocked off a then 12-7-3 BC team in a shootout in the semifinal. In the final, they held the eventual champion Northeastern to just 1 goal in regulation and took them to overtime with an extra attacker goal with less than a minute to play.
BU began the season with a big 7-1 win over Merrimack in their home opener before losing three straight to Minnesota and Northeastern on the road, including 2 shutouts. After getting shutout at Matthews, the Terriers returned the favor, shutting out Northeastern by the same scoreline 4-0. The win propelled the team to an 8 game winning streak, their longest since 2013. Since their three game losing streak at the start of the season, the Terriers have lost just 3 games, November 15th vs. BC (2-3 OT)—which ended their unbeaten streak at 9 games—November 27th vs. Princeton (1-8), and January 11th vs. Vermont (2-3).
Players to Watch
Callie Shanahan (G, SR) has shined in net for the Terriers, recording 3 shutouts and holding opponents to 1 or fewer goals in 11 of 16 games she has started and is third in Hockey East in GAA (1.71), T-7th in SV% (.925).
Christina Vote (F, SR), sister of BC men’s player, Will Vote, leads the Terriers with 12 assists and is tied for the team lead in points (13) with Lola Reid (F, FR).
Clara Yuhn (F, JR), tied for second for the team in goals (7) with Lola Reid, behind Sydney Healey (F, JR) with 8, had a slow start to the season with just 3 points in October. Since the start of November, she has put up 8 points—including a point in 7 of an 8 game span prior to the weekend series with Vermont and 6 game point streak.
Lola Reid (F, FR) like her Husky counterpart Caron began the season hot, scoring 13 points in her first 10 games also like Caron she has struggled in her last 10 games, going pointless in that stretch.
Harvard
The Crimson (2-12-2, ECAC (11th): 1-10-1) finished 3rd in last year’s Beanpot after winning the shootout in the Consolation game over Boston College. Harvard opened the season with a 1-0 shutout win over the then #8 UConn Huskies, the defending Hockey East Tournament Champions. The Crimson followed that up with two back to back 0-3 shutout losses to the Capital District duo of Union and RPI. After a win over then #14 rival Yale (5-1) on November 1st, the Crimson are winless in their last 12 games with a 0-10-2 record.
Players to Watch
Kaley MacDonald (D, SO) leads the Crimson in assists (7) and points (9), with half her points coming in back to back weekends Nov. 15/16 and Nov. 22/23
Ella Lucia (F, FR) started the season with just 1 point in her first 10 games, but went on a five game point streak from Nov. 23rd through Jan. 4th to put her in 2nd among the team in points and is tied for the team lead with 3 goals
Ainsley Tuffy (G, FR) has split games with Emily Davidson (SO) and despite not recording a win, has a 2.26 GAA and .930 SV% which is 4th best among ECAC goalies. She has allowed 1 goal or fewer in 4 appearances (2 starts, 2 cleanup appearance in which she made 15 in ~30 mins of play in each)
Mia Biotti (D, SR) has a team high 35 blocks and is Harvard’s active leader in Beanpot points with 4
Boston College
The Eagles (14-6-1, HEA (2nd) 11-4-1) finished last in the 2024 Beanpot falling in shootouts in both rounds to BU and Harvard, respectively. The Eagles entered the tourney last year as one of the favorites, being of the two ranked teams with Northeastern. However, mistakes in both games cost them, with the Eagles requiring an extra attacker goal with less than 2 minutes to play in both rounds to force overtime.
Like BU, BC started their season followed by 3 losses in a row, in BC’s case it was getting blown out by Wisconsin at home (1-7, 0-7) and losing to Holy Cross (1-4). Also like the Terriers, the Eagles went on an 8 game winning streak which was also ended by their rivals, since then, BC has won 5 of their last 8 with a 5-2-1 record in those games.
Players to Watch
Sammy Taber (F, SO) leads all of Hockey East in assists (14) and points (23) and is tied for fourth in goals (9), two off the lead among Hockey East players. She recorded a 6 game points streak from November 23rd through January 5th, recording 9 points during that span.
Julia Pellerin (F, SO), is first among Eagles in goals (11)—first in Hockey East—and third in points (17) and recorded the only Eagle Hat Trick this season on January 5th vs. Maine, a game in which she also recorded a team high 5 points.
Gaby Roy (F, GR) is tied for fifth on the team with 13 pts. She is the current active leader in Beanpot points with 5.
Grace Campbell (G, JR) has started 18 of BC’s games and holds a 1.94 GAA and .933 SV%, and has recorded 3 shutouts this season—including one over Northeastern on November 30th and back to back shutouts over Maine and UNH in her last two games.
More on the Women’s Beanpot
If you’re looking for more on the Women’s Beanpot, BU alumna and former BU Men’s and Women’s Hockey (current Hockey East on NESN) Rinkside Reporter Laura Stickells interviewed Terrier assistant captains Julia Shaunessy and Maggie Hanzel about their Beanpot experience, along with Northeastern’s Skylar Irving, BC’s Abby Newhook and Gabby Roy, and Harvard’s Ainsley Tuffy and Ellie Bayard, on the NESN Respect Her Game podcast she hosts with BC lacrosse alumna Annabelle Hasselbeck.