The Beanpot is Back

The Beanpot is back. 

A day after Super Bowl XLVII, the 61st version of the most prestigious in-season tournament of the college hockey season will begin tonight at TD Garden in Boston.

No. 13 Boston University, a 29-time champion, will take on Hockey East rival Northeastern, which last won in 1988, in the opening game at 5 p.m. Just over three hours later, No. 5 Boston College, which has won the last three Beanpots, will face Harvard, which claimed its last ‘Pot in 1993. The consolation and championship games will be held next Monday.

All four schools played Friday night, with only BC winning. The Eagles upended Vermont, while BU fell at UMass, Northeastern lost to UNH, and Harvard was blanked by RPI.

Expect the Green Line branch of the MBTA trolley system to be backed up going into North Station tonight, and student sections to razz one another with clever and sometimes not-so-clever chants. And there should be some pretty good hockey on the ice.

As John “Snooks” Kelley, the late long-time BC coach once said, you can’t be anywhere else the first two Mondays in February. Not in Beantown.