Northeastern senior captain Aidan McDonough is intent on savoring every moment of his final Beanpot experience.

The 6-2, 200-pound left wing from Milton will anchor Northeastern’s first line when the Huskies encounter the defending champion Boston University Terriers in the nightcap (8) of the 70th Beanpot Tournament doubleheader at the TD Garden on Monday, Feb. 6. The contest will be a rematch of last year’s a final, a 1-0 BU win. Boston College will take on Harvard in the opener at 5 p.m.

“My freshman year I wasn’t nervous at all and I was just trying to not fall over my feet and do the best I could,” said McDonough. “Last year I put too much pressure on myself to perform and I felt I had to make a significant impact on the game for our team to win.

“I think this year I am just going to go out there and enjoy it. This is my last time playing in the Beanpot and if the 12-year-old me knew what I was doing now, he would be pretty excited. So, I’m just going to think back to the time when all I wanted to do was play in the Beanpot.”

Northeastern brings up the rear with seven Beanpot victories, well behind BU (31), BC (20) and Harvard (11). But the Huskies were victorious in three straight from 2018-20 and were poised to make it a four-pack when the event was cancelled in 2021 due to the global pandemic.

“There was a lot of pressure having to keep that streak going so to win it my first year against BU was amazing,” said McDonough. “It was heartbreaking in 2021 for the seniors, they were the guys that never lost one. We all kind of wanted them to end their Beanpot careers on a good note.”

For McDonough and the seven other seniors and graduate students on the roster, winning two out of three Beanpots would make for a satisfactory sendoff.

Northeastern was a team in desperate need of a meaningful victory going into its Frozen Fenway encounter with UConn at Fenway Park on Jan. 7.

The Huskies considered Fenway their home ice, an advantage they cultivated after dropping six of the last seven games. Northeastern dispatched UConn 4-1 at Fenway and came back to register a 4-3 victory in Storrs, Conn., on Jan. 14.

The Huskies followed with a two-game sweep of Merrimack to vault into first place in Hockey East with a 10-4-2 mark in conference play. Both UConn and Merrimack were ahead of NU in the Hockey East standings prior to Frozen Fenway.

“Getting that win under our belts on that big stage gave us some much-needed confidence and we started to build,” said McDonough. “We got that one and then we got another one and got rolling a bit and now we have to keep it going.”

McDonough had his hockey DNA splattered all over the four-game winning streak. He scored the opener and added an assist at Fenway and netted a pair at UConn. He added a goal and an assist in the 5-1 win at Merrimack and scored the lone tally at 18:26 of the third in a 1-0 win at Matthews Arena.

“To get the first goal was big for our group with him being a hometown kid growing up going to Fenway Park and watching the Red Sox,” said second-year NU coach Jerry Keefe.

“That moment meant a lot for him and obviously the Fenway game was huge for us. To play on the big stage is huge and it is that much bigger when you can win the game.”

McDonough leads Hockey East in conference scoring with 12 goals, 12 assists and 24 points in 15 games. He is second to Boston University’s Matt Brown (11-23-34) in overall scoring with 17 goals, 15 assists and 32 points in 23 games.

Prior to his arrival on Huntington, Avenue, McDonough competed for the Cedar Rapids Roughriders in the USHL and he played in 56 games in the 2018-19 season.

McDonough was vacationing with friends on Martha’s Vineyard on June 22, 2019, when his father Barry called with the good news. He had been selected by the Vancouver Canucks in the seventh round with the 195th pick. That year’s NHL Draft took place at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

“I flew out the next morning to go to development camp,” said McDonough. “They have been awesome with me and I have a great relationship with everyone in the organization. To have your named called in the NHL Draft is a dream come true.”

McDonough stuck with the original plan and joined NU program under coach Jim Madigan, who would hand the job over to Keefe when he became athletic director.

Unlike football and basketball players who are drafted out of college, hockey players like McDonough enter the collegiate ranks already knowing what their pro uniform looks like.

Many drafted college hockey players, especially those that go in the early rounds, do their two years on campus and jump to the AHL the morning after their final NCAA game. McDonough, who is majoring in Business Management, elected to stay in school and complete his education.

“Just because you are drafted doesn’t mean you are going to play in the NHL,” said McDonough. “I think it has taken me a little bit longer to develop and body wise I’m a late bloomer. I still have a lot of work to do in the gym and on the ice to get stronger and faster.

“Getting my education is really important to me and my family and I love this program, I love Northeastern. Those are the factors that had me staying all four years and I’m really glad I did.”

Keefe has laid out what McDonough must work on to perform at the next level and is confident he can get there.

“He knows has to be more than a scorer because at the next level he is going to have to prove himself to be strong on the walls and that he can defend and block shots and play in defensive situations,” said Keefe.

“He has already shown he can score. But the big part of his development is he wants to make sure that his entire game is rounding out. He is getting better at each aspect.”