Back to Class: Let’s talk about the Beanpot Tournament

We’re taking you “Back To Class” for our roundup of the weekend’s action in college hockey. Look for more college hockey on NBCSN this Friday night as Boston University takes on Maine at 7:30 p.m. ET.

This year’s Beanpot Tournament final features one usual fixture in Boston College and another not-so usual team in Northeastern. BC has won the last three tournaments and four of the last five while Northeastern has won it four times in the now 61-year history of the event.

Not seeing BC facing off against Boston University makes this year’s final a bit of an oddity as those two schools have traded off winning the tournament in each of the past 18 years. Not since Harvard won it in 1993 has a team other than BC or BU taken home the trophy.

That in itself takes a bit away from the whole event, but it changes the rooting interest for fans in a year like this where one of the usual also-rans get a shot to take it home.

A Northeastern win tonight would put a charge back into the annual tournament. BC haters would get a chance to pile on them for breaking the string and the school with the fewest Beanpot titles would get something to hang their hat on. After all, it’s been 25 years since Northeastern last won it.

The odds are stacked against them to do that as this is the time of year when BC kicks their game into gear and starts really warming up for the NCAA tournament.

Funny things can happen at the Beanpot though. It was just two years ago when these two teams faced off for the title and saw the Eagles take home a wild 7-6 overtime victory. Maybe Northeastern can capture some Cinderella spirit and pull off an upset.

***

The Final Five is done: The WCHA decided against continuing with their Final Five format next season with their newly array of schools. The event has always been a tremendous one to take in in St. Paul, Minnesota but this year’s iteration of it will be the last one thanks to conference rejiggering. Now they’ll be doing just a boring old regular tournament. Boo, hiss.

Outdoor game troubles: North Dakota and Nebraska-Omaha’s second game of the weekend was played outdoors at the home of the College Baseball World Series. It was, uh, a bit of a disaster as the game was delayed for two-and-a-half hours and saw other issues crop up. Yikes. By the way, UND swept the weekend over UNO.

Please, keep ignoring Quinnipiac: Ho-hum, just another victorious weekend for the Pairwise Rankings No. 1 team. The Bobcats stomped Cornell 4-1 on Friday and edged out Colgate 3-2 on Saturday. They’re 21-3-4 on the season and are unbeaten in 20 straight games. After Minnesota’s loss to St. Cloud on Saturday night, perhaps this week is the one where the pollsters finally plug them in at No. 1 in their polls that don’t mean anything.