Skylar Irving, Lily Shannon, Jade Bogden and Lily Yovetich scored, and tournament MVP and Bertagna Award winner Lisa Jönsson made 30 saves in Northeastern’s 4-0 victory over Boston University in front of 13,279 fans.
The only thing more certain than a cold and snowy winter in New England is Northeastern University winning the Beanpot.
The Huskies won the women’s championship for the third straight year and 20th time overall Tuesday night, shutting out Boston University, 4-0, before 13,279 fans at TD Garden.
The crowd was the largest to ever watch a women’s hockey game in New England — breaking last year’s Women’s Beanpot record of 10,633 — and the fifth largest in women’s college hockey history.
Lisa Jönsson, a freshman from Stockholm, Sweden, made 30 saves for the Huskies (15-8-1). Including Northeastern’s 4-2 semifinal win over Boston College, she stopped 65 of 67 shots to earn tournament MVP honors and the Bertagna Award as the best goalie.
“I’m out of words, it was just so amazing,” Jönsson said. “I was nervous before the game, but I got really encouraged by the crowd instead of getting nervous. I felt like they had our backs the whole way and the team was just awesome. … It was really a team effort tonight.”
Skylar Irving, Lily Shannon, Jade Bogden and Lily Yovetich scored the goals, while Bogden and Tory Mariano both had two assists. Kristina Allard, Jules Constantinople and Irving — celebrating her 22nd birthday — also had assists.
Emily McDonald made 27 stops for BU (14-8-1).
“I feel like with any crowd this big, there’s gonna be nerves, but you have to channel them in a way that you use ’em,” Mariano said. “It’s like an adrenaline rush and you do smart things out there.
“You kind of use the crowd and it gives you momentum,” she said. “And just to play in front of all of these people — 13,000, that’s insane, especially for a women’s college game. I couldn’t be prouder for everyone that came out. Unbelievable.”
The Northeastern men’s team will also look to win its third straight Beanpot, and sixth and seven years, next month.
Jönsson had heard about the Beanpot — the chance to play at TD Garden — during her recruiting visits, but nothing could have prepared her for what she experienced on Tuesday night.
“I knew it was a big tournament, but I didn’t know there was this much attention around it,” she said. “It’s just been such an awesome experience.”
The shutout was Jönsson’s sixth of the season and helped the Huskies rise to 10th in the national PairWise rankings with 10 games left in the regular season.
“Getting a shutout is an amazing confidence boost,” she said. “I feel like if we’re just able to bring the feeling we have today to the games coming up, I feel like we can come a long way this year.”
The Beanpot title was the sixth in 16 seasons for Northeastern coach David Flint.
“I’m so incredibly proud of this group,” Flint said. “I mean that was a hard-fought win and they stepped up on the biggest stage tonight and it’s great to see from the goal line out. Everybody was going, everybody was working hard and we beat a good BU team that gave us everything we can handle.”
Yovetich’s goal 8:31 into the game was her first of the season and second of her career. Her shot from just inside the blue line was deflected by a BU defender past McDonald. That came after an end-to-end rush by Allard.
“Lily is a stay-at-home (defenseman), so for her to score the first goal is incredible,” Mariano said.
Shannon and Bogden broke the game open with goals 40 seconds apart late in the second period. Shannon scored on the rebound of a Bogden shot with 2:21 left, while Bogden redirected a blue line shot by Constantinople past McDonald at 1:41.
Irving added an empty-netter with 2:44 left in the game.
No surprise, Northeastern fans loud and proud
All three goals — and Irving’s empty-netter with 2:44 left — brought Northeastern fans to their feet. Once again, they packed TD Garden, bringing the rowdy enthusiasm of the DogHouse from Matthews Arena.
But that was no surprise. After all, Northeastern fans always show up in force, according to Taylor Kmiec, a third-year criminal justice and journalism student who was donning a black Huskies jersey.
“We like to show up for our teams. We like to pack the house and cheer our hearts out,” she said.
Northeastern supporters included faculty, staff, alumni and students — President Joseph E. Aoun was in the middle of them, cheering on his Huskies — as well as fans of all ages.
Wearing a red Northeastern hockey jersey, Eleanor Chisholm of Hingham, cheered for the Huskies with her Hingham U10 hockey team defensive partner Ruby Keane.
Chisholm’s dad, Denis Chisholm, played for Northeastern’s men’s hockey team from 2005 to 2009, and Eleanor said she was excited to watch the championship game at TD Garden.
“I feel so connected to the team,” said Eleanor, who hopes to earn a spot on the Huskies squad in the years to come.
Meanwhile, students on Northeastern’s Oakland campus lined up outside the Rothwell Student Union to watch the game on a jumbo screen and enjoy wings and fries.
At the stroke of 4:30 p.m. Pacific time, the doors opened and students streamed into the room. Joseph Flores and Alina Asatourian were at the head of the line.
“I heard about the Beanpot being in the finals so I decided to come out and watch. I play tennis and soccer, but because Boston is so hot in hockey I thought I’d give it a shot,” Flores said.
“I got out of class and came straight over here,” Asatourian said. “There’s food and we’ll watch the game. It’s a win-win. I love sports.”
Northeastern’s Taze Thompson didn’t record a point, but she won her fourth straight Women’s Beanpot title.
The senior captain won a title in 2022 while playing for Harvard (5-4 over BC). She then transferred to Northeastern, helping the Huskies beat Boston College in 2023, BU in 2024 and the Terriers again on Tuesday.
As the TD Garden clock struck zero and the Northeastern players flooded from the bench onto the ice — and BU fans headed for the exits — the Huskies’ pep band began the celebration by playing “Stacy’s Mom,” the team’s unofficial theme song.
And the Northeastern fans sang along — each chorus louder than the previous.
“When they play ‘Stacy’s Mom,’ I’m singing along to all the verses,” said Jess Thompson, a second-year environmental studies and international studies student.
She attended the game with her twin sister Katie, a second-year business and design student, and Sofia Lebowitz, a second-year communications student.
“Everybody knows Stacy’s Mom,” Lebowitz said. ”It’s so much fun.”
So is winning the Beanpot, which has become more than a tradition at Northeastern — it’s an expectation.
“The players that have been here before — that have played in these pressure situations — have laid the groundwork,” Flint said. “But they also develop our younger players. So our freshmen now see how our upperclassmen handle themselves in this situation and it just carries on year to year.”