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). 

Big Game Tonight

Let's hope to see a repeat of this.