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).
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| My bad, guys. |
Jan. 25-26
Results:
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| High above Cayuga's waters, there's an awful smell. Some say it's Cayuga's water, others say Cornell. (Personally, I think it's Cornell. If something is both Big and Red, it is most likely infected, and could possibly secrete unpleasant odors.) |
Brown 3, Cornell 0
(Insert sardonic remark about how we all saw the result of the Colgate game coming here. Now let's move on.)
Wow, I don't think anyone saw THAT coming! A 3-0 shutout at Lynah, of all places?! The toughest place to play east of the state of Michigan? Also, shutouts have been impossible to come by for Brown teams these past few years, and now we have two this year! Unbelievable.
Good thing Cornell fans bring newspapers to read during the player introductions, because they were probably pretty bored after their team took just 23 shots and whiffed on them all.
(Note: this thought is coming from me as I would have seen the events at the time. Obviously, we now have three shutouts, and Cornell is floundering in 11th, seriously depreciating the value of this win.)
Feb. 1-2
Results:
Brown 1, Quinnipiac 1
Brown 5, Princeton 1
WOW. This could go down as the best weekend for Brown hockey in a decade. Tying the second-ranked team in the country and thrashing a team we're fighting with for home ice/a bye? It doesn't get much better than that, does it?
Feb. 9...I mean 10...actually, 12.
Result:
Blizzard 2, Brown 1, Yale 0
It does. It does get better than that. Because Brown just upset the 10th-ranked team in the country on home ice, on the strength of 44 saves by Anthony Borelli. FOURTY-FOUR SAVES BY ANTHONY BORELLI.
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| Keep skating away, Yann. Borelli is about to shatter a few of your single-season records. (Wait, actually, please don't go. We still love and miss you. A lot.) |
Well, eat it, November version of yourself! Anthony Borelli has erased all doubts that he is merely benefitting from strong defensive play, which is what I personally believed for months.
Looking back on it, that notion seems silly: the defensive core has been absolutely ravaged by injuries for the entire season. They've played phenomenally in the face of adversity, but the fact of the matter is that they are currently, by default, the weakest link on the team. If one more guy goes down for an extended period of time, we're screwed. Right?
Well, maybe not. After all, Pfeil has played out of his mind, De Concylis has grown up real quick, Robertson and Wahl (when healthy) have been impenetrable, and Crowley has been his typical fluctuating self (though his margin of error has been far less severe this year).
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| Jake Goldberg is so unknown I couldn't even find a photo of him on Google Images. Granted, I didn't really look that hard. Anyway, here's Goldberg from The Mighty Ducks. Quack...quack...quack... |
Oh, did I forget Jake Goldberg? That guy who was benched for the rest of the season last year after screwing up a 2-on-1?
Yeah, him. He's been everything we could have asked for from a natural forward playing defense, and then some. His success has allowed Dennis Robertson, who typically logs about 30 minutes of ice time a game, to rest occasionally.
Remember that piece I wrote about the under-appreciated Matt Lorito? I apologize for that, because ever since, teams have been shutting him down for the most part. He's tallied just a goal and three assists in the past five games, which is, for him, a mild slump.
But in the wake of his recent less-effective (or, perhaps, more team-oriented) play, literally everyone else has stepped up. We're talking about Jeff Ryan, Matt Harlow, Mark Naclerio, Nick Lappin, Garnet Hathaway, Brandon Pfeil...heck, Mark Senecal got a goal against Princeton! MARK SENECAL. Goldberg tallied that game as well, which is incredible since he rarely did that even when he was a forward.
So. Where do we go from here?
Well, we go to the Capital District (*rolls eyes at own über-literal joke*) for one of the biggest series of the year. Have we been saying that a lot lately? If we have, it's because every series is the biggest of the year right now. In this year's ECAC, a team can jump up four places in a game or drop six. You just never know.
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| Seriously, folks, this race is madness! Endless possibilities, each one exponentially nuttier than the previous. We could finish anywhere between second and 12th. |
And, with each passing game, I (and I can only assume many others) have begun to believe this IS the year.
The year for what, you might ask? Well, that I don't know. I don't know how far this team can ride its resilience. But I know it's not done yet. Whether that means we end up eliminated in the first round of the playoffs or as national champions, we should enjoy it for what it's worth.
Teams that encounter so many setbacks and simply shrug them off as facts of life are rare. Resilience is one thing; calling the bluff of a man who holds a gun to your head is another.
And that's what the Bears are doing right now: laughing in the face of the circumstances trying to kill their season.
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