By Laura Everett, edited by Abbi Holt
Boston, Mass. – This is what we deserve.
The 4k video screens at the center of TD Garden are 18 feet x 32.5 feet, nearly double the previous size before their 2021 rehabilitation. These screens are dubbed “Hub Vision,” self-proclaimed for both their centrality above center ice and 2.5-millimeter pixel spacing.
On Tuesday night January 23, 2024, for the first time in 45 years, women took the ice at the Garden for the Boston Beanpot. Their images were projected on those giant, central screens out to a record-setting 10,633 fans.
On those giant screens, fans watched professionally produced pregame hype videos. They saw crisp replays of delicious drop passes and near misses. Filling the entire lower bowl of the arena, they saw the big projection of the Boston College goal that sent the consolation game into overtime.
Fans at home could watch the game on NESN, ESPN+ or TSN+. Women’s sports fans have endured poor quality for so long, hunting the edges of the internet and cable tv to track down their teams. In so many places, athletes in women’s sports have lived the legacy of garbage ice time, crap fields, and poor quality video, if there’s any video at all.
“We have a meeting in Naples every year with coaches. All the coaches from all the leagues get together and we talk about our issues. We were fighting, not that long ago, just to find a way to get our national championship on tv. There was paintball on ESPN, but they wouldn’t carry a women’s hockey game,” Northeastern Head Coach Dave Flint reflected after the game.
And while ESPN still does not have the Professional Women’s Hockey League listed as a league to follow, we are building something powerful anyway.
A full house on a Tuesday night at Boston Garden is what we deserve.
This is where we deserve to be, on center ice.
As with most every advancement for progress in Boston, it came belatedly.
But when we got here, it was good.
The first Asian American and first female elected mayor Michelle Wu dropped the ceremonial puck and the first queer female governor Maura Healey congratulated Taylor Wasylk, Shelley Looney, Corrine Schroeder, and Sandra Whyte-Sweeney as the 2024 Women’s Beanpot Hall of Fame inductees.
We should be done with firsts by now, but if we are not, they should be big and brash and free and loud.
Loud like the Boston University Marching Band tubas.
Loud like the Northeastern Cheerleaders who came to cheer on the Northeastern Women’s Hockey team.
Loud like the chat that rang out immediately after Harvard scored their shootout goal. What was their victory cry? “BC Sucks.” Apparently, the Yankees were unavailable.
Boston may run on Dunkin, but it also runs on petty.
Petty rivalries between blocks and bygone beefs. Petty rivalries of friendships and feudal family feuds. It’s the Northeastern fan wearing a “BEAT BU” tee shirt in 34 degrees. It’s the person wearing the hunter green PWHL Boston shirt even though the league started less than a month ago, and we’re already sure we hate PWHL NY. It’s arbitrary and delicious and glorious. It’s the younger sibling, chip-on-the-shoulder attitude that every Bostonian is entitled to, however short your time is here- you get to claim your Bostonness for the rest of your life.
Boston University Head Coach Tara Watchorn said after the game, “We showed that we can compete on any stage.” As first a player at Boston University who graduated in 2012, then an assistant coach at BU before coaching at Stonehill College, and then the head coach since April 2023, Watchorn continued, “If you make an environment like this, fans will come.”
They did come. Official reports from the TD Garden counted 10,633 fans who came on a Tuesday night in January, while the Green Line from North Station is suspended (again).
And when they got to the Garden that had previously hosted men’s only hockey tournaments, the women played excellent hockey. The “consolation game” was not that, with Harvard and No 13. Boston College putting on a show. Regulation time ended with the rivals tied at two goals each, and overtime was not enough to conclude the game. Forced into a shootout, Harvard’s Gabi Davidson Adams scored the game-winning goal.
Harvard’s Head Coach Laura Bellamy said, “We’re happy to be the winners, really, the winner here is women’s hockey… (it was) such a great event. The Championship game is going to be no different.”
The Championship Game, which followed at 8pm, was no different. Expectations were high on Northeastern with eighteen Beanpot prior wins heading into 2024, alongside 12 head-to-head meetings in the finals between the BU Terriers and the Northeastern Huskies since BU became a varsity program. Northeastern hosted the very first Beanpot back in 1979. Women’s hockey has only been recognized by the NCAA as an official sport since 2000.
During the first two periods of play, fans saw two evenly matched teams working out how to break down the other side. BU killed one powerplay in the first period and Northeastern killed two. With just 35.2 seconds left in the second period, Northeastern’s junior Skylar Irving received a pass from Abbey Marohn. Irving charged to center, looked up and shot upper right, and with the audacity of a pro, dropped to one knee and slid towards the camera in a made-for-tv celly, taking Northeastern up 1-0 heading into the third period.
Not to be outdone for dramatics, Boston University decided to battle through the third period until the bitter end, waiting to pull the excellent goalkeeper Callie Shanahan with 2:08 minutes left. With an extra player on the ice, BU’s Catherine Foulem equalized with 58 seconds left in regulation. Forward Sydney Healey served up the pass on a platter, and Foulem struck with confidence for her tenth goal of the season. Regulation time ended and the second game of the night went into overtime.
The TD Garden DJ exercised a profound constraint to wait through the night, holding back to playing “Shipping up to Boston” until the game was forced into overtime.
This 5 minute overtime of three-on-three did not take as long. Northeastern sent out Skylar Irving, Katy Knoll, and Megan Carter with goaltender Gwyneth Phillips, and Boston University fielded Nadia Mattivi, Clara Yuhn, and Lacey Martin in front of goalie Callie Shanahan.
Barely had Dropkick Murpheys finished kicking before overtime was over. Originating at the Northeastern end of the ice, Captain Megan Carter began the game-winning play. Skylar Irving got herself alone behind the defense and took a textbook pass from Knoll. Irving scored, taking Shanahan straight on. There wasn’t much BU’s defense could do but watch.
Ten thousand, six hundred and thirty-three fans watched from their seats. Thousands more on television, radio, and online from home. Watched on giant screens in the arena. Finally watched women at the center of the ice.
Now, do it again next year.
Boston Women's Sports 
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