Stayin' Alive

I apologize for not posting at all over the past couple of weeks, but to be honest, I've been too nervous about each game to think about compiling my thoughts into a single post. 

But after a fine performance at home in a sweep of Clarkson and a fantastic upset of RPI, a team that has had our number in the regular season for a number of years, I think it's necessary to do a pre-Atlantic City post. The fact that there's still something to write about on ECAC championship weekend is remarkable in itself. 

Having beaten Clarkson and RPI, Brown will
face #2 Quinnipiac in the ECAC semi-finals.

Photo courtesy of ecachockey.com

Brown has surprised everyone outside of College Hill in advancing to the 2013 ECAC Hockey Championship weekend. At this point, it doesn't matter how we fare (though a berth in the championship game would be amazing). This team has overcome all obstacles and defeated the odds in finishing a respectable seventh in the standings, before making an incredible run to the semi-finals. 

Let's look back at how we got here: 

Hosting Clarkson in the first playoff series at Meehan Auditorium in eight years, the Bears dispatched of the Golden Knights relatively easily. In Game One, Brown took a 1-0 lead in the first period and held that lead until the third, when Matt Lorito made it 2-0 and Joey DeConcylis iced the game with a terrific empty-netter from his own blue line. 

March Madness at Meehan

Well, here we go. 

We got what we've all been wishing for eight years. Meehan Auditorium will see men's collegiate playoff hockey for the first time since Saturday, March 5, 2005. Brown will play host to Clarkson this weekend in a best-of-three matchup. 

And the Bears have a great shot at winning the series, as well. Sporting a 1-0-1 record against Clarkson this season (though both games were incredibly close), and with Clarkson coming off a mauling in the Capital District this past weekend, it would be silly not to see the Bears as a favorite in this game. 

But it's not that simple. It never is in the ECAC, especially in a season in which six points separated third place (Yale) from tenth (Clarkson). 

If Clarkson goalie Greg Lewis makes saves like this
 one, Brown might have some trouble finding the net.
Photo courtesy of ecachockey.com

Tech freshman goalie Greg Lewis has been inconsistent, but when he has been on, he's been spectacular. He's shut out Dartmouth and Yale, who both finished in the top five of the standings. He also had strong performances against Quinnipiac (saved 32 of 34 shots), Union (saved 27 of 28), and St. Lawrence (saved 34 of 35). 

Clarkson is also relatively good at comebacks, which could be a problem for a young Brown team. The Golden Knights sport a 6-8-3 record when opponents score first, as opposed to their terrible 3-10-4 record when they get on the board first. So we could see a lot of lead changes in this series. 

Cornell 4, Brown 1

Cornell is like the New York Yankees. 

If you're not a fan, you hate them. They've been a dominant force in the ECAC forever, and they have an arguably unfair recruiting advantage over other Ivy League schools in that they can offer athletes admission to the agricultural school. They have a historic arena which is always packed to capacity with the best fans in the league, and they always bring a big contingent of traveling fans that annoy the piss out of the hometown fans. 

Their uniforms are distinctive and haven't been changed in forever, and they operate like a cold, heartless machine, designed to win at all costs. 

I'm sick of them. I really am. 

But, just like the Yankees, it's impossible not the respect the hell out of them and envy them for every single one of the aforementioned traits (well, maybe not the aggie school). 

Tonight was a typical Cornell performance from a team that hasn't played Cornell hockey until recently. But boy, have they turned it on at the right time. 

We Beat Harvard and We Beat Yale, and We Tied a Knot in the Tigers' (and Bobcats') Tail(s)

Results:
Brown 4, Princeton 1
Brown 3, Quinnipiac 3 (OT)

Highlights for both games can be found here.


At this rate, Brown might not have made its final trip to the state of New Jersey this season. 

If the Bears can continue to win by doing the little things right and fighting until the bitter end, they might find themselves on a bus to Atlantic City come March 21st for the ECAC semi-finals. 

Earlier in the season, Matt Lorito was the beginning and end of Brown's offense. However, in the past several weeks, the Bears have continued to play well without any significant contributions from Lorito whatsoever. Guys like Jeff Ryan, Garnet Hathaway, and Mark Naclerio continue to step up and find ways to will the team to fight tooth-and-nail for every point it can get. 

No Dice

Results:
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 5, Brown 1
Union 2, Brown 0


Well, that'll bring us back down to earth. 

Just a few days after a huge win over Yale and on the heels of our best weekend of the season, the Bears took the weekend off in the Capital District, being outscored 7-1 by RPI and Union. 

Or maybe the Engineers and Dutchmen are just that good. The standings would certainly seem to indicate that, and both teams are on a roll right now and swept the weekend over Brown and Yale. 

Borelli had his first so-so outing of the year on Friday,
allowing five goals on 33 shots against streaking RPI.

Photo courtesy of TimesUnion.com

In any event, Anthony Borelli continued to rewrite his personal records on Saturday night, making a career-high 46 saves in the loss to Union. 

This stellar performance validated him, in a way for a fairly poor performance against RPI Friday night. Though the Bears couldn't muster anything on offense all weekend, Borelli's play needs to be heralded, because the Dutchmen absolutely peppered him on Saturday. 

Union outshot Brown at a 2-1 ratio (48-24), and yet Borelli only conceded one goal and an empty-netter. That's pretty great. 

Playing Catch-Up

Well, hello there. It's been a while, hasn't it? 

I apologize for not writing anything during what has turned out to be the most exciting stretch for a Brown hockey team in years. I've been super busy lately, and haven't even been able to get out to many home games this year (shamefully, I've only been to the Providence, RPI, and Harvard games). 

My bad, guys. 

Nonetheless, I'm more excited about a Brown team than I've been since Yann Danis graduated. Let's recap an eventful three weeks: 

Lorito-bey Baker?

Gaudreaubey Baker is a movement started by Boston College fans to promote their sensational sophomore sniper Johnny Gaudreau (also nicknamed "Johnny Hockey," in reference to Texas A&M's Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, Johnny Manziel, known colloquially as "Johnny Football." Are we all on page with the various nicknames now? Good. Let's get back to the post). 

Yeah, Johnny Gaudreau has earned his accolades. But
it's time for our guy to get his props. 

And there is a great case to be made for Johnny Hockey to win the Hobey Baker award- college hockey's finest honor. He missed three of BC's games while winning a gold medal with Team USA at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Ufa, Russia over winter break, and still has compiled 31 points in 18 games. That's a 1.72 points per game average, which is by far the best in Division 1 college hockey. 

But Brown's own Matt Lorito has, I believe, earned himself a spot in the discussion for Hobey Baker finalists. He's compiled 13 goals and nine assists over the course of 18 games. The 22-point total gives him a 1.22 points per game average, a number that ranks him in the top 20 nationally. 

Lorito, henceforth known on this blog as the Ontario Onslaught, is fifth in the nation in goals with 13, one more than Johnny Hockey himself has scored. He has scored five power play goals, good for ninth in the country. He's added a shorthanded goal, just to prove he can come through in almost every circumstance. 

Another Two Points

Results:
Dartmouth 4, Brown 2
Brown 5, Harvard 2

Video highlights and interviews of the Harvard game can be found on the Men's Ice Hockey page on Brown's athletic site. It is currently the second post. 

http://www.brownbears.com/sports/m-hockey/index

After earning two points up in the North Country last weekend, the Bears came home for one of their bigger homestands of the season- the annual grudge matches against Ivy rivals Dartmouth and Harvard. 

While the Dartmouth game went as most games between the two teams do (Dartmouth overcoming a strong Brown effort and winning by a comfortable margin due in significant part to the play of their goaltender), the Bears exploded on offense against Harvard on Saturday night. 

I was able to watch some of the Brown-Dartmouth game, but was preoccupied with other things and then the stream was messed up in the third period. But from what I saw, it was a typical Brown-Dartmouth game. Brown played pretty well and had some good opportunities. The Bears outshot the Big Green, 33-25, and flu-stricken Anthony Borelli relieved an ineffective Marco DeFilippo (who was battling a knee injury) after a first period in which he allowed a couple of soft goals. 

The first goal was scored when DeFilippo failed to control a rebound (surprise!), and Dartmouth's Tim O'Brien poked home a loose puck. After Matt Lorito answered for the Bears with just over two minutes left in the first period, Matt Lindbald capitalized on a botched power play setup and skated in on DeFilippo untouched. While it's not normal to blame a goalie for a breakaway, I think DeFilippo should have done better: Lindbald's move was not particularly challenging, and he simply slipped a pass through DeFilippo's five-hole and into the back of the net. 

Injuries. Again.

After a solid win over Clarkson at Cheel Arena Friday night, Brown had every chance to, and should have beaten St. Lawrence on Saturday evening. The Bears held a 2-1 lead in the third period, and coughed it up to a resilient Saints team for an eventual 3-2 loss. 

But the loss to the mediocre Saints was overshadowed  by a much more serious loss. Key defenseman Matt Wahl is out for 2-3 weeks now with a shoulder injury. That's especially devastating considering our next three weeks of opponents: 11th-ranked Dartmouth and Harvard, who just came back from a 5-2 deficit to beat ninth-ranked Boston University at Agganis Arena, come to Meehan this weekend. Both teams have beaten the Bears this season already. 

Brown will travel to 16th-ranked Cornell and 20th-ranked Colgate the next week, a place that has historically been fruitless for the Bears. As if that weren't bad enough, 4th-ranked Quinnipiac (yes, the team with the 16-game unbeaten streak. No, that is not a typo) comes to Providence the following weekend. And Princeton, who is no slouch, having garnered five votes in the most recent USCHO.com poll, will head to College Hill the following night. 

The North Country

Finally, ECAC conference play has returned for Brown! And the Bears appear to be getting healthier as they head north to face Clarkson and St. Lawrence. 

Joey De Concylis and Marco DeFilippo are expected to be available to play this weekend, which should serve as a huge relief to Brown fans who find themselves unable to trust the patchwork defense and previously untested Anthony Borelli in net. Though Borelli will start, it's nice to have a backup we can count on the step in and play solid in net in case he has a stinker of a game. 

But there's no reason to expect any sort of letdown this weekend. Clarkson and St. Lawrence are two teams who have not been playing well of late. The Bears have already tied both opponents at home this year. 

Clarkson has lost three in a row to Mercyhurst and UMass-Lowell, scoring just four goals in the process. Their only two wins in their past eight have come against St. Lawrence. 

...And we're back!

It's been over a month since I last posted, and for that, I apologize. Fortunately for me, I picked the winter break to take some time off from the blog, so I didn't miss too much. Let's have a quick recap of what happened since my last entry: 

#15 Yale 4, Brown 3

Brown jumped out to a 3-1 lead at Ingalls against a somewhat flat Eli squad, before taking a bunch of questionable, but also misguided penalties that should have been avoided. Yale took full advantage, scoring all four goals on the power play in a comeback win. A frustrating night for the Bears, to be sure. Victory was at hand, but they blew it. Despite outshooting the Bulldogs, 14-6, in the third period, Brown could not find an equalizer. 

Brown 3, #12 Union 3 (OT)

Chris Zaires got Brown started off right against the 12th-ranked Dutchmen, as his nifty tally about 12 minutes into the game rewarded the Bears for a hot start and gave them even more energy for the next several minutes...until, once again, they were undone by penalty troubles. Union's power play, at the time the best in the nation, scored twice in the first period: nine seconds and 13 seconds into each extra man opportunity. They added a third just a minute or two after their second power play goal. 

Anthony Borelli has been the biggest story for the Bears
lately, replacing the ineffective Marco DeFilippo and
posting an incredible .941 save percentage and 1.50
Goals Against Average. 

This prompted Brendan Whittet to pull goaltender Marco DeFilippo, who in truth probably should have stopped two of the goals, if not all three. Untested senior Anthony Borelli came in to relieve DeFilippo, which would turn out to be the most significant move the Bears have made all season. Borelli was flawless the rest of the way, though he wasn't tested too much as Brown pushed forward to claw its way back into the game. Matt Lorito scored on a power play one-timer in the second, and Massimo Lamacchia scored a thrilling tip-in goal with just over a minute to play. Neither team could find a winner in regulation or overtime, but Brown was more than pleased with the tie. It continues the recent success the Bears have had against the Dutchmen (5-1-4 dating back to 2006-07).