The men's hockey team traveled to upstate New York this weekend for two games with playoff implications. Brown faced Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Union College in its last two ECACHL games and would have had an outside opportunity to host a first-round playoff series with two victories.
But Brown fell 6-5 to the Engineers on Friday night. Even though the team rebounded on Saturday and defeated the Dutchmen 3-1, it will be heading to Princeton on Friday to face the Tigers in the ECACHL first round. The Bears closed the regular season with a record of 10-13-6 overall, and 6-13-4 in the ECACHL. Both were improvements over last year's regular season marks of 4-18-7 overall and 3-14-5 in the conference.
The opening period of Friday's game was full of offensive chances for both teams. Brown and RPI each tallied two goals in the first 20 minutes of play. Captain and forward Sean Dersch '07, started the scoring at the 7:16, notching a short-handed goal. After an RPI player lost control of the puck at the blue line, Sean Muncy '09 and Dersch capitalized on the ensuing two-on-one advantage.
RPI struck back at 13:34, beating goaltender Dan Rosen '10 on a rebound on an Engineer power play. Just 2:24 later, forward Jeff Prough '08 regained the lead, scoring off a pass from forward Brian McNary '08. McNary has a point in six consecutive games. But Brown's lead was short-lived. RPI knotted the game at two at 17:11 of the first.
After the intermission, the Engineers scored back-to-back goals 24 seconds apart at 4:19 and 4:43 of the second, staking them to a 4-2 lead. Bears' forward Chris Poli '08 buried a puck in the net just 46 seconds after the second RPI goal though, narrowing the RPI lead to 4-3 at 5:29. Forward Aaron Volpatti '10 assisted on Poli's goal.
After 10 minutes of scoreless play, the Engineers padded their lead with another goal to take a 5-3 lead just before the end of the second period.
"We had a good first period," said Muncy. "But then we just kind of fell apart. We came out looking flat. And then they got a lucky goal, which deflated us. We never really got our energy back."
During the intermission, Rosen was replaced by Mark Sibbald '09. After a number of solid saves, Sibbald was finally cracked when an RPI player scored on a breakaway at 7:35, increasing the Engineers' lead to 6-3. But the Bears responded once again as Prough scored just 1:03 later to bring Brown back into the game
After another minute of back-and-forth play, Prough gained possession of the puck after an RPI turnover and passed it to forward Sean McMonagle '10, in the middle of the offensive zone. McMonagle finished the pass into the back of goal for his third goal of the year and his sixth point in as many games, narrowing the RPI lead to 6-5 at 5:46.
Brown kept the pressure on the Engineers, holding the puck in their defensive zone for almost the entire three minutes remaining in the game. Bruno was unable to net a tying goal, losing 6-5. The loss ended Brown's chances of hosting a first-round series in the ECAC tournament.
"I think we played pretty well, overall," said Head Coach Roger Grillo. "Friday night, our defensive play was lacking, but the forwards were great. They're putting up some really big numbers lately, and that's good to see because that wasn't really our strength earlier in the season. We just need to get back to defense, which has traditionally been one of our best areas. If we can do that, we can beat anybody."
Brown responded to the setback with a strong effort in Saturday's regular season finale. Union and Brown played an even first period, with each scoring on the power play. McNary scored the first goal of the game at 2:39 with Brown on a two-man advantage. Prough sent the puck back to defenseman David Robertson '08 at the blue-line, who hit McNary with a pass at the bottom of the left face-off circle. McNary buried the pass for his seventh point in as many games.
"We opened the game skating, playing more consistently, not just at the start but throughout all the periods," Muncy said.
Union evened the score at 10:41, sneaking a puck past Sibbald. Brown regained its lead 46 seconds into the second period when Robertson picked up a rebound off a Muncy blast and knocked the puck into an open net.
The final goal of the game was an empty-net goal scored by forward Devin Timberlake '10 with 1:55 left in the third period. The 3-1 win was Sibbald's second of the season.
The Bears finished the regular season in 11th place and will travel to Princeton next weekend for a best-of-three series in the first round of the ECACHL playoffs.
"Of course, now there's added pressure," Poli said. "It's important to just try not to think about that going into the games. Princeton is a very good team and they've earned their position up there at the top of the rankings. We'll just try to play them tough and if we do, we will definitely match up well against them and come out on top."
In the regular season, Brown lost at Princeton, 3-2 in overtime, in the first meeting and tied the Tigers, 1-1 at home, in early February.
"I feel confident against any team in the league at this point," Grillo said. "There's really not much difference between teams. One more win, or two more points anywhere, and we'd be playing at home. All the teams are really close. If we play the way we're capable of playing, we could go all the way."
