#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).
Brown 2, RPI 2 (OT)
Borelli looked good in his first ECAC start of his career, making 34 saves against the Engineers of Rensselaer. Brown looked pretty mediocre for the first two periods, taking a pedestrian 12 shots and failing to find the net. However, in the third, the Bears came out flying, as Lorito tied the game at 1-1 less than a minute in. Unfortunately, Brown could not keep the game tied for long, as RPI regained the lead just two minutes later. After that, the play settled down a bit, with both teams trading some good chances, but never really threatening. With seven minutes to go, Chris Zaires poked a nice slot pass from Mike Juola past a sprawling Jason Kasdorf to tie the game at 2-2, giving us our final score.
It was a scoreline that I think each team can be both satisfied and frustrated with. For RPI, it capped off a 3-point weekend, in which they throttled Yale at the Whale the night before coming to Providence. But they also failed to get the two points against a team that clearly isn't as good as the one they had demolished on Friday. For Brown, a come-from-behind tie is never a bad thing, but an 0-0-4 ECAC home record is unsettling, and a home game against a bottom-tier conference opponent should be always two points.
UConn Hockey Classic
Brown entered the UConn Hockey Classic with a slew of injuries: defensemen Nate Widman and Kyle Quick are, as we've known for a while now, out for the season. However, just a couple days before the tournament began, it became known that sophomore defender Joey De Concilys, who had been playing well before the break, would not be available, leaving Brown with just four normal starters on defense. Goaltender Marco DeFilippo was out with a knee injury, meaning that walk-on and former club player Joe Mello would be backing up Borelli, should anything go wrong. And the day of the first game, Borelli had a bad case of the flu. Brown looked like a team ready to implode.
But it didn't. Whittet organized a patchwork defense, including a third pairing of sophomore defenseman Greg Tang, who had never before seen the ice in a Brown uniform, and junior forward Jake Goldberg, playing his first game on defense at Brown. The weekend had a recipe for disaster, but the Bears found a way to come through.
#18 Minnesota State 3, Brown 1
In the first game of the UConn Hockey Classic, Brown played a great game against a very tough team, but ultimately fell, 3-1 to Minnesota St. The Mavericks justified their #18 ranking in my eyes, as their defense was seemingly impenetrable (Brown had the majority of possession in MSU's defensive zone, but only got 19 shots through to the net) and their goaltender had great positioning. They ground it out on offense, and benefited from an incredibly fluky goal in the first period. A shot deflected off the glass behind Anthony Borelli , who turned around, only to see the puck hit off his glove and into his net.
The two teams played a great physical, but clean, game the rest of the way, and the Mavs beat Borelli on (you guessed it) a power play goal midway through the third. The Bears would go on another penalty kill just a couple minutes later, but Garnet Hathaway and Mark Naclerio combined to score a terrific shorthanded goal off a rush that brought Bruno to within one goal with a little under seven to go. After a late flurry that saw the puck loose in the crease and five or six Brown players desperately hacking at it, Jean-Paul Lafontaine scored an empty-netter with four seconds left on what he intended to be a clearance. Yes, the Mavericks were getting all the bounces in this game.
Brown 7, American International 2
In the consolation game, the Bears were again limited to four regular starters on defense and just two goaltenders, with Borelli still recovering from flu symptoms. AIC shocked Brown just 15 seconds into the game, beating Borelli for a quick 1-0 lead. However, the Bears were not going to lose to an inferior AHA opponent two years in a row.
Joe Prescott got his first collegiate goal about 12 minutes in. Late in the period, AIC received an inexplicable game disqualification and 5-minute major penalty. Both the Brown and AIC broadcasters were notably puzzled, as no one seemed to see what occurred, but there did not seem to be many objections from the AIC bench. The Bears did not waste time wondering about the strange the call, as Brandon Pfeil and Matt Lorito both cashed in to give Brown a 3-1 lead at the first intermission. The Bears held a 17-6 advantage in shots in the first period.
 |
| Freshman defenseman Brandon Pfeil was named the ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week on January 1st for his role in Brown's third-place finish at the UConn Hockey Classic. Pfeil recorded a goal and three assists over the weekend, as well as a +3 rating. He helped a makeshift Brown defense keep all but four shots out of the net over two games. |
In the second period, AIC showed some life, and got a goal back about seven minutes in. But just a minute later, Prescott got his second of the game to restore the two goal advantage. In the third period, Brown was all over the Yellow Jackets, as Mark Hourihan, Nick Lappin, and Massimo Lamacchia helped extend the Bruno lead to 7-2. Borelli was again solid, recording 25 saves. Though AIC is a perennial basement dweller in all of college hockey, the blowout should give a beaten-up Brown team some confidence heading into league play.
The Bears blew out the Russian Red Stars 7-1 in an exhibition a few days later, as Jeff Ryan recorded a hat trick.
Looking forward, Brown has the weekend off as ECAC league play resumes (if you have nothing to do the next couple of nights, I'd advise tuning in to NESN to watch Harvard and Dartmouth visit Quinnipiac. DC and QU are both ranked in the top ten currently). On January 11th and 12th, the Bears travel to the North Country to take on Clarkson and St. Lawrence. Both teams recorded 3-3 draws with Brown at Meehan in November.
I'll post some more content next week. But for now, it's just good to get back in the blogging game!
No comments:
Post a Comment