BOSTON — Beanpot rookies are generally 19-, 20- or 21-year-old kids, hailing from places like Somerville and South Boston, Sherwood Park, Alberta and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

What they aren't, usually, are 39-year-olds from Beverly.

John Carratu didn't mind that he was almost twice the age of the other first-time Beanpotters last night, however. Northeastern's goalie coach was simply happy he was a small piece of a team that is now one step away from its first tournament championship in 21 years.

Thanks in large part to junior goaltender Brad Thiessen, who turned aside a season-high 45 shots, the Huskies rolled into next Monday's Beanpot final with a 6-1 thrashing of Boston College in the second game of last night's doubleheader.

"I always wanted to be a part of this," said Carratu, a former Beverly High goaltender (Class of 1987) who still calls the Garden City home. "As you get older, you realize what a truly premier event this is. To be part of it is truly humbling."

Humble would be a good way to describe Carratu and what he does for the Huskies (18-6-2), who are ranked No. 3 in the county. As a volunteer coach on staff, he attends 2-3 practices a week, all of the home games and the road contests that are within reasonable driving distance from Boston. He watches games from the press box, offering input as an eye in the sky to his fellow coaches on the bench.

And of course, he works with the Huskies' three goaltenders: sophomore backups Mike Binnington and Ryan Mula and Hobey Baker candidate Thiessen, who has played every minute of every game for NU and is second in the nation in victories this winter.

"I've got to give a lot of credit to John," said Thiessen. "He takes time out of his own schedule to be here and work with us. We were on the ice (yesterday) morning, cleaning up a few parts of my game that needed tweaking.

"John's there to talk the goalie language with me, to bounce ideas off of me, to watch my technique. He's been a big help."

"I don't take any credit for Brad; he was great long before I got here," said Carratu, a 1992 Salem State graduate. "What I've done is basically help him pace himself throughout the season, staying mentally and technically prepared for every game. We fine-tune it from week to week; he does the rest."

Northeastern's rise to prominence not only in Hockey East, but in the NCAA rankings comes as no surprise to Carratu. From Day 1, he realized that head coach Greg Cronin and his staff prepared their players in all areas of the game, leaving nothing to chance. The end result has been a Huskies team that is talented and deep, but also mentally tough and resilient.

They'll go into next Monday's Beanpot final against Boston University looking for only their fifth title ever; compare that to the Terriers, who will be gunning for their 29th 'Pot in the tournament's 57 years.

A goaltending director and co-owner of Stop It Goaltending in Woburn (with former Bruins goalie coach Brian Daccord) that works with 300-400 goaltenders, ranging from mites to the pros, each year, Carratu has been able to combine his two passions — teaching and goaltending — into a career for himself.

"Twenty years ago, I never would have even dreamed this were possible," he said. "But wow, what a joy it is to come to work every day."