Disaster, Followed by Domination

(ECAC Hockey)

Results:
Providence 7, Brown 0 (Mayor's Cup)
Brown 3, Holy Cross 2

What a crazy weekend at Meehan. After getting absolutely trampled in the third period against Providence, the Bears fought back from a two-goal deficit early on against Holy Cross and pulled out the win.

Despite being outshot by just five (40-35), the Bears lost by a touchdown Saturday afternoon. Brown looked shaky from the start, and Providence jumped out to an early lead on a goal from a mad scramble in front of Marco DeFilippo. Though Brown never seemed to be playing its best, it was still in the game in the middle of the second period, when a brawl broke out to the right of Providence's rookie goalie Jon Gillies. This was the breaking point for the Bears.

After receiving three roughing penalties on the play, including a ten-minute misconduct to Captain Dennis Robertson, Brown took a couple more trips to the sin bin due to some really undisciplined play. The Friars took full advantage, scoring two power play goals in the second period and never looking back.

Continue reading on Meehan Madness.

Time to Earn Some Respect!

Nate Owen, in his weekly ECAC game picks over at USCHO.com, has picked Brown to lose to both Providence and Holy Cross this weekend.

Week in and week out, forum members pick the Bears to consistently get swept in league play in the "ECAC Pick 'Em" weekly contest.

Brown was picked last in every poll preceding the season, and the general prognosis is that there is no reason to think otherwise at this stage in the season.

All of this had really ought to piss Brendan Whittet and his boys off. I mean really: Owen claims the Bears won't be able to defend against Holy Cross, but will be able to score easily? Come on! The strength of this team has been defense, while the offense has struggled most of the time. This ignorant "analysis" (and I'm not necessarily picking on Owen, here) shows that nobody even respects the Bears enough to do them the kindness of watching some highlights, or even checking statistics.

Continue reading on Meehan Madness.

Brown 3, Army 0

Matt Lorito scored a hat trick (ECAC Hockey)

Marco DeFilippo has achieved something that no Brown goalie has in the regular season since Dan Rosen in 2008: kept an opponent off the scoresheet. Brown beat Army, 3-0, for the first shutout in the regular season since that 2-0 victory over Union to close out the 2007-2008 season.

And furthermore, Matt Lorito got himself a hat trick! There was a lot to be pleased with in the Bears' victory Saturday night. Yes, Army is a weaker opponent than most of the teams in the ECAC. But the team played well in all facets of the game.

Brown scored all its goals on special teams, with two coming from the power play and one shorthanded. DeFilippo made 25 saves for the shutout, and Lorito netted three to boost his points total on the season to 6-1-7.

The guys who provided the assists to Lorito are all big names we've been waiting to hear from: Jacobsen and Zaires; Wahl and Robertson; and Lamacchia. If those five players can keep getting involved on scoring plays, we're in good shape.

Continue reading on Meehan Madness.

What Effect Will All These Injuries Have on Brown?

Bears head coach Brendan Whittet (Brown Athletics)

Brown had a promising start to the season, beating a Princeton team that has since ascended to fourth in the ECAC in this young season; losing tight contests at Harvard and Dartmouth, historically two places where Brown plays poorly; and earning two hard-faught draws against nationally-ranked St. Lawrence and its travel partner that always gives us fits, Clarkson.

However, with a young roster, the Bears were expected by many (if not most) to struggle at times this season. That was before the roster was decimated by injuries.

Already, we've lost promising freshman Nate Widman for the year, and sophomore Kyle Quick, who had looked greatly improved, for a long time, if not the whole season. Nick Lappin was out for a game or two, and was not at 100% this past weekend.

The Achilles' heel for Whittet's team these past three years has been a team-wide lack of depth. It is a great irony that in the year in which the stars have seemingly faded into the background and the strength of the team has become its depth, injuries are already decimating the roster. We could be down to just six natural defensemen for the whole season.

Continue reading on Meehan Madness.

Thoughts After Week 3

(Brown Daily Herald)

Results:
Brown 3, St. Lawrence 3
Brown 3, Clarkson 3

It was a weekend of parity for the Bears, as they played to a pair of draws with the North Country teams. One can hardly complain about Friday night's come-from-behind tie against the 16th-ranked Saints, but Saturday's result left a slightly sour taste in the mouth, as Brown coughed up a 3-2 lead to the Golden Knights.

Brown looked to be no match for St. Lawrence 15 minutes into the second period, as the Saints had stormed out to a 3-0 lead, and looked to be running away with the game. However, Taki Pantziris scored his first in a Brown uniform with under a minute to go in the period, and in the third the Bears continued to claw back into the game.

A pair of goals from Matt Lorito and Nick Lappin within three minutes of each other brought the score level and gave Brown hope for an upset. While Bruno was aggressive in pushing forward for a winner, outshooting the Saints 34-20 in an upset attempt, the effort fell just short, and the two teams settled for a hard-fought tie.

Continue reading on Meehan Madness.

Thoughts After Week 2

Brown's Matt Lorito (Brown Athletics)

Results:

Harvard 3, Brown 2
Dartmouth 2, Brown 1


It was a tough weekend for the Bears, as they dropped two closely-contested games with Ivy rivals Harvard and Dartmouth. However, the greatest loss was seeing freshman Nate Widman go down with what appears to be a season-ending knee injury. Classmate Nick Lappin also left the Harvard game early, apparently with some sort of hamstring injury.

The Bears struck first in both games this weekend, and could/should have gotten better results. Marco DeFilippo had a fantastic pair of games, allowing just five goals on 74 shots. Not bad at all. It looks like Anthony Borelli will be on the bench for good, contrary to some of Whittet's preseason comments regarding the goaltending situation.

It's good to see Matt Lorito keep scoring. He could be a really important piece to build around for the next three seasons. Last year, he was hampered by a broken wrist before the season started, but he seems to finally have recovered all his wrist/forearm strength and has even better hands than last year.

Continue reading on Meehan Madness.

Thoughts After Week 1

Can anyone look better than Snoop Dogg
in a Brown jersey? (Daily Herald) 

Results:
Brown 2, Princeton 1
Dartmouth 4, Brown 0

Two recent trends remained true this past weekend: Brown and Princeton played a low-scoring affair dominated by defense, and Dartmouth beat the crap out of Brown.

I was not able to catch the Princeton game, but after seeing the highlights, I was impressed by a couple things:

First, the new highlight format is terrific! I'm hoping that this is a constant thing for the rest of the season, though it wasn't as comprehensive for the Dartmouth game.

Second, Nick Lappin had a terrific goal in the second period. Great hands.

The new jerseys, however, are hideous. One poster on the USCHO forum mentioned that he was told these were the alternate home jerseys, but the team wore them again against Dartmouth Saturday. I'm hoping he was right, because I really don't like them at all.

Read the entire post on Meehan Madness.

Mark Your Calendars, Part 2

Bears head Coach Brendan Whittet (Brown Athletics)

This is part two of a series of installments previewing potentially-exciting Brown hockey games in the upcoming season. The previous post focused on Brown's opponents in the Ivy Shootout at Meehan Auditorium.

Jumping forward a week, the Bears will open league play at Harvard on Friday, November 2. Harvard emerged victorious in Cambridge in a game where every officiating call possible went against Brown. I won't get into it because it's water under the bridge, but I was at the game and watched the replays on the Harvard jumbotron, and I could not have been more displeased with the missed calls.

In Providence, the Crimson jumped out to a 3-1 second period lead before Brown rallied for a spirited 3-3 tie. This series hasn't had as much bite in it as in previous years, but the results have still been extremely close and hard-fought. In the 2009 playoffs, 12th-ranked Brown went into the Bright Hockey Center expected by many to be swept away by a clearly superior Harvard team. However, the Bears managed to do something no one had done in Harvard's storied 100-plus-year history: shutout the Crimson in back-to-back games at home, largely on the back of Mike Clemente's stellar goalkeeping.

Brown would go on to be swept by a juggernaut of a Yale team in the quarterfinals, but beating Harvard on its own home ice was inspiring enough (and, perhaps, exacted a measure of revenge for their victory over Brown in the 2004 playoffs, when the Bears were one of the favorites to win the ECAC Tournament).

I think most Brown alumni and fans would consider Harvard their biggest rival in all sports (maybe not lacrosse), even though the Crimson don't seem to give us much thought. Whenever we beat Harvard in any sport, you can see how much it means to the players. The Harvard game is often promoted as some sort of fan-centered event, such as a "Whiteout" or a giveaway of some gimmicky item. Though this game is on the road, it's still a big one for the Brown fanbase- last year, the allegedly sold out crowd at Bright was made up of probably one-third Brown fans. When these two teams meet, it's a big deal for Brown.

Check out the entire post on Meehan Madness.

Mark Your Calendars!

Hopefully the Bears will draw a little better this season at the Meehan Auditorium (College Puck Fan)

Now that the season is approaching rapidly, I figured it would be a good time to write about some of the most intriguing and exciting games Brown will play this season. Some of the obvious rivalries will be included, as well as some potentially-overlooked games and any with an interesting twist, either on the ice or off. This is the first installment, with more to follow in the coming days.

Right off the bat, Brown faces an interesting first weekend of play. On Friday, October 26th, the Bears host Princeton in the first game of the Ivy Shootout at Meehan Auditorium. While Princeton is an Ivy League rival, the two potential matchups on Saturday really grab my attention. Brown will play either Dartmouth or Yale, depending on Friday's results.

Ever since Bobby Gaudet was left Brown to coach Dartmouth following the 1996-97 season, Dartmouth has essentially owned the Bruno. The Bears have an absurdly abysmal record of 6-19-3 against the Green since the 1998-99 season (I couldn't find a record of the 1997-98 season online, though I remember a 6-5 home overtime win and I believe a 4-2 loss on the road. Don't quote me on that). Gaudet has had no problem mercilessly beating his former employer, and his success has extended into the Whittet era. The Bears just cannot seem to buy a win against Dartmouth, which is frustrating because they always seem to play a somewhat dirty game (against Brown, anyway- I admittedly haven't seen them play anyone else).

Goalie James Mello, while struggling at times against the rest of the league, always seemed to have Brown's number, coming up with huge performance after huge performance against the Bears. Fortunately for Bruno, he graduated in the spring of 2012, meaning we'll never have to see him wearing Green again.

Read about more games to look forward too on Meehan Madness.

Let's Go!

via ECAC Hockey

It's been well over a month since my last post, and for that, I apologize profusely. I've been very busy lately and haven't had much free time. Additionally, there hasn't been a whole lot of Brown hockey-related news worth writing about.

But now that the beginning of the season is in sight (we're just a week away from the Ivy Showcase), it's time to start writing about and discussing Brown hockey.

Brown has been picked last by just about everyone. Coaches, media, Brian Sullivan, members of the USCHO Fan Forum- no one seems to have any faith that the Bears can take the next step this season. Unlike in previous years, the pundits seem to have respect for the way Brown plays, but simply do not think Bruno can compete based on its perceived lack of talent and youth.

I suppose it's easy to understand most people's reasoning: this is a program that hasn't hosted a home playoff game, had a winning season, or finished any higher than 9th since 2005. It hasn't been nationally ranked since 2004. It hasn't seen a 40-point scorer since Damian Prescott in 1998. It hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since 1993, and has never won an ECAC Championship. Why should any neutral observer think there's any chance of any of these things happening this season?

Continue reading the post on Meehan Madness.