Somewhat lost in the Patriots' hoopla was that yesterday was the first Monday in February. Which, to many of us in the Boston area, is better known as the first round of the Beanpot.

This year, the games had two clear "favorites," if you went by the polls. Nationally-ranked Harvard opened with under .500 Northeastern, while the nightcap pitted top-ranked BC against lower-ranked BU. If you went by the numbers, a Harvard-BC final was in the offing.

It should come as no surprise, then, that BU and Northeastern will square off for the Beanpot title, a pair of red-hued teams on Valentine's Day.

How did this happen?

Harvard-Northeastern started in front of a crowd of dozens with a 5 pm face-off. The early game is always quiet, but is even moreso when the two least-followed teams take the ice first. NU has a vocal but small fan base, but it was more than enough to best the scattering of Harvard supporters.

Even so, the Crimson put up the first goal of the game with less than a minute off the clock. They then proceeded to doze through the next 80-some-odd minutes of hockey, allowing NU to tie it up and then take the win in double OT.

It was not a thing of beauty. Much of the third period looked like it was being played at three-quarter speed. The extra frames pushed back the start of BU-BC by an hour, though it felt like much, much more.

Harvard has played pretty well this year - they've beaten BC and BU in earlier games - but they had no spark last night.

Reasonably pointless statistical note: Harvard hasn't made a Beanpot final since 1998.

Almost pointless statistical note: Harvard hasn't won a Beanpot in a year where there was no change in the US Presidency since 1974. Since then, they've won the title in 1977, 1981, 1989, and 1993. Spooky.

BU-BC had a late start, but the delay didn't diminish anyone's energy. BU came out looking like the Philadelphia Eagles - carrying play but not scoring. BC got their first goal just after they went off a power play, on a knuckling screen shot. BU managed to dampen momentum by tying the score on a goal with less than a minute to go in the period.

BU went ahead on a nice goal in the second period (both goals scored by John Laliberte), and hung on to win despite being outshot by something approaching a 2:1 margin. BC's coach noted that very few of their shots were good scoring opportunities, but I think he's trying to downplay things a little. After all, his team couldn't solve BU's backup goaltender (as our walk-on turned starter is still out with a separated shoulder).

Reasonably pointless statistical note: BC hasn't beaten BU in an opening round of the Beanpot since 1981 - a year before BU goalie Stephan Siewec was born.

Somewhat less pointless statistical note: BC hasn't won back to back Beanpots in 40 years.

So the good news, depending on how you look at it, is that the missus and I will be spending a romantic Valentine's Day at the Fleet Center. That's better than the alternative if we'd lost, which was scalping my finals tickets to buy flowers.