Northeastern left wing Gunnarwolfe Fontaine has experienced an exceptional Beanpot moment, the signature event of his college hockey career on Huntington Ave.

The senior from East Greenwich, R.I., scored both of NU’s goals in regulation in last year’s 2-2, 1-0 shootout victory over Harvard in the 70th annual Beanpot Tournament that helped secure the Huskies’ fourth victory in five years.

“I got a lot of help on those,” recalled Fontaine. “It is obviously a huge team game and when it comes down to a championship, it is those little plays that can be the difference-makers at the end of the day.

“It is the biggest memory I have and growing up being a New England kid, I always wanted to play in the Beanpot and win the Beanpot. My first year we end ended up losing a heartbreaker and we got another chance and won it the next year so it was a special moment.”

Fontaine was part of a large contingent of NU players that rode the Orange Line to the TD Garden for Monday’s Beanpot luncheon at the Legends Club.

They were soon joined by the coaches and captains from Boston University, Boston College, and Harvard for this traditional gathering. Former BU captain and Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan was the honored guest for his induction into the Beanpot Hall of Fame.

NU and Harvard will open the 71st Beanpot Tournament at the Garden at 5 p.m. in a rematch of last year’s title game while crosstown rivals BU and BC faceoff in the nightcap at 8.

“He (Fontaine) played great and those two goals were huge for us,” said head coach Jerry Keefe. “That is a really good player showing up in the big game and that is what you need your best players to do.”

NU lags behind BU (30), BC (20) and Harvard (11) with eight Beanpot championships and it didn’t win its first until 1980, ending a drought that dated back to 1952. But the Huskies have been victorious in five of the last six and were favorites to repeat in 2021 when the event was cancelled due to the pandemic. The Huskies’ three-tournament win streak was snapped by BU in the 2022 championship game.

The Huskies recent success represents a generational shift in the Beanpot power structure for a program that was most often relegated to the consolation game.

“We take a lot of pride in the Beanpot and our school takes a lot of pride in the Beanpot,” said Fontaine. “We really want to win it for our school and a lot of the alums root and care for us and it means a lot for them too.”

It was the first time in the history of the Beanpot that NU and Harvard met in the title game and it was also the first championship match was determined in a shootout. Beanpot veteran Aidan McDonough of Milton scored the only goal in the shootout.

Harvard coach Ted Donato is fine with the outcome of regular season games determined that way, but the 3-on-3 extra frame and the shootout have no place in a tournament, especially one with a celebrated history of overtime thrillers.

“With zero disrespect for Northeastern and the great team they had,” said Donato. “But as a coach and former (Harvard) player, I just think with something of this magnitude, you should be playing hockey and not a breakaway competition.”

The BC Eagles arrived at the luncheon at the top of the college hockey world after earning a series sweep against BU last weekend. BU was ranked No. 1 and BC No. 2 and it was the first time the two programs met as the top two teams in the nation. BC won the opener 4-1 with two empty-net goals on Friday and prevailed 4-3 at Agganis Arena on Saturday.

BC took over the top spot in the USCHO poll with 47 of the 50 first-place votes while North Dakota moved into second and BU dropped to third. BC second-year coach Greg Brown expects the rubber match to be just competitive and testy as the last two.

“You play to win every game and we were fortunate to get by a very good squad this weekend,” said Brown. “But we know both games were incredibly close and could have gone either way.

“We have to be excited about how they finished but we still have keep improving and get better. When you play a quality team like BU, you learn a lot about your team and the kids learn a lot about themselves and there is a lot of room for improvement.”

BU captain Case McCarthy, a graduate defenseman from Clarence Center, N.Y., was a key part of the Terriers squad that snapped NU’s win streak in 2022.

“Winning it was pretty special, pretty surreal and losing it sucked so you kind of get both sides of the coin,” said McCarthy. “To bring the Beanpot back to BU and seeing what that means to our school and our fans makes us want to win another one.”