SEMIFINAL #1: Boston College 5, Northeastern 2

• Box score • Boston College game story • Northeastern game story Boston College got out to a 3-0 lead after the first period and cruised to a 5-2 victory over Northeastern in the first game of the 2006 Beanpot Tournament at the TD Banknorth Garden on Feb. 6, 2006. BC's Chris Collins scored two goals, Peter Harrold registered a goal and two assists and Stephen Gionta tallied a goal and an assist to lead the Eagles, while the Huskies got goals from Bryan Esner and Dennis McCauley before the sold-out crowd of 17,565. No. 5 Boston College will make its seventh appearance in the Beanpot Championship under head coach Jerry York and will play for its third Beanpot title in the last five years. The Eagles will face off against sixth-ranked Boston University in the championship on Monday, Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. BU defeated Harvard, 5-3, to advance. NU faces Harvard in the consolation game at 5 p.m. ''What I like is, I thought we passed pucks well. We made plays," said Boston College head coach Jerry York. ''We've been struggling to get goals if it's not No. 12 [Collins] or No. 10 [Brian Boyle]." The Eagles (18-6-2, 15-4-1 Hockey East) scored three times in the first period of play. Freshman Brock Bradford got BC on the scoreboard at 8:36. Harrold extended BC's lead to two goals at 11:48 and Collins gave the Eagles a three-goal edge - forcing a change in the Northeastern net - on a power-play tally with just more than two minutes to play in the opening frame. ''Obviously, getting down, 3-0, is not a very good way to start," said Northeastern head coach Greg Cronin. ''Sometimes, you're down 3-0, and you're playing terrible and you can't wait for it to get over. But I kept telling them, 'It's not a 3-0 game.'" Northeastern (1-19-6, 1-13-6 Hockey East), which was penalized eight times resulting in four BC power plays in the first period, narrowed the deficit to two goals with its first of the game, a power-play goal from Bryan Esner, at 13:45 of period two. The Huskies outshot the Eagles, 10-8, in the middle period. ''I felt if we could get it to a one-goal game, it would break open one way or another," said Cronin. Gionta extended the Eagles' lead back to three goals and extended his point-scoring streak to a season-long seven games, redirecting freshman Brett Motherwell's (two assists) shot past Adam Geragosian (20 saves) for his fifth goal of year at 2:36 of the third. Northeastern got a highlight-reel goal from McCauley at 4:48 of the third to get the score back within two goals. Josh Robertson flipped a shot toward Schneider with McCauley in front of the net. The freshman knocked the shoulder-high shot down with his glove and quickly worked the puck to his forehand, burying it to BC goalie Cory Schneider's right. Schneider made 28 saves in the game. Collins capped the game off with a short-handed, breakaway goal at 9:51, marking his national-best fifth short-handed goal of the season. Schneider tallied 28 saves and improves to 16-6-1 this season. Northeastern's starting goalie, Doug Jewer, who collected 10 saves in the first 17:50 of the game, took the loss.