The Boston College men’s hockey team moved past Boston University in a 3-1 win last Monday to advance to its fifth straight Beanpot final. The No. 2 Eagles were the clear favorites heading into the matchup, but there was one element of the game where it wasn’t as clear that BC would come out on top-the student section.
Any doubts were dispelled before the puck even dropped, however, with a giant crowd cheering the Eagles on from the upper bowl as they took the ice against the Terriers. The student body maintained this electric atmosphere throughout the game, not letting up until the final buzzer sounded.
The volume of the BC fans-both in terms of number of students present and the noise that they made-was at least twice that of the BU students, as evidenced by the frequent “We can’t hear you” chants echoing across the ice from BC’s side of the TD Garden toward the BU side. In fact, the BC students spanned six sections in the upper bowl, while the BU students struggled to fill two, even with the band sitting amongst them.
The cheers were also strong—the three “sieve” chants following each BC goal were some of the loudest and most unified in recent memory, partially due to the sheer size of the student section.
After Monday’s game, BC students should be proud of their school spirit and should be excited to show it again next Monday at the championship game against Northeastern. It is easy for most students on campus to take Beanpot championships for granted, with BC’s appearance in the finals a near certainty recently, but successful runs like these don’t last forever. The student body should make sure not to get complacent, just like the student-athletes on the ice.
