The nation's fourth-ranked Boston University blanked Harvard, 4-0, on Monday at the semifinals of the 48th annual Beanpot tournament--a hockey competition among Harvard, BU, Boston College and Northeastern University.
The Terriers, 17-6-6 this season, has won the last 12 Beanpot games. BU will go for their sixth-straight Beanpot title next Monday against Boston College, who has defeated Northeastern, 6-0, in the other semifinal game.
Meanwhile, Harvard has struggled lately as they are 1-7-1 in the past nine games under its rookie coach Mark Mazzoleni.
They are now 7-12-2, while ranked fifth behind Dartmouth with a .467 winning percentage (6-7-2) in the ECAC. The Crimson is also 1-11 in the last 12 Beanpot games.
Harvard will take on the Northeastern Huskies next Monday for the consolation game, which is scheduled right before the BU-BC match-up.
In Monday's semifinals held at the FleetCenter, Harvard netminder J.R. Prestifilippo's stellar performance surprisingly kept the game close as the Terriers had only a 1-0 lead until the middle of the third period.
But at the 9:46 mark, BU's sophomore left winger Jack Baker netted one of his three goals of the night past Prestifilippo. Seven minutes later, Chris Heron added a power-play goal.
Baker exploded offensively as he recorded a hat trick -- one even-strength, one power-play and one empty-netter goals.
In the net, the Terrier's freshman goaltender Ricky DiPietro earned a shutout as he turned aside all 21 shots by Harvard. He has a 13-2-4 season record.
Prestifilippo ended the game with 30 saves and took a loss to drop his record to 4-10-2 this season.
The Terriers outshot the Crimson 34-21, while capitalizing on two of their seven power-play chances. Harvard was 0-5 in their man-advantage situations.
Harvard last won the tournament in 1993, defeating BU 4-2 in the finals. The Crimson has won 10 titles, while BU has dazzling 23 championships.
Boston University leads the Hockey East along with the University of New Hampshire. Both teams have 27 conference points.
This weekend, Dartmouth will host Brown University on Friday during Winter Carnival Weekend.
Earlier in the season,Dartmouth took a decisive 4-1 victory over Brown in Providence, R.I. The game was Big Green's sensational rookie goaltender Nick Boucher's collegiate debut. He made 35 saves in the game, which was held on Nov. 6.
Since then, Boucher has been the backbone of Dartmouth defense, posting a 6-3-2 conference record.
Elsewhere in the ECAC, St. Lawrence will defend its first place at home against second-placed Colgate.
Sixth-place Yale plays at third-ranked Rensselaer. Princeton will visit Union, while Cornell will play at Clarkson.
