The Bears commence postseason play tonight as they travel to Princeton to face the Tigers. The best-of-three first-round series will take place Friday, Saturday and - if necessary - Sunday at Baker Rink.
The Bears finished the regular season in 11th place in the ECACHL at 10-13-6 and will take on the league's sixth-place team. The Bears acknowledge the difficulties that the Tigers pose.
"Obviously, Princeton did a lot of things well this season," said forward Chris Poli '08. "We need to tip our hat to them for that. They are, if anything, an extremely hard-working team, and very physical and tough. Still, we can play with them if we come out ready to compete, and we'll win if we are consistent and string together three solid periods of our style of hockey."
After completing their regular season last weekend, Brown enters the game with some of the ECACHL's top offensive threats. Jeff Prough '08 is fourth in the conference in goal scoring with 16, and the league's 11th-ranked point-producer overall with 32 points. Sean Hurley '08 ranks fourth in the ECACHL defenseman-scoring with 22 points overall. His 10 goals lead all defensemen and are three more than the next closest defender, Nick St. Pierre from Colgate University.
Despite its offensive firepower, Brown must control its aggression this weekend in order to swing the upset. The Bears finished the season fourth in the league in penalty minutes with almost 20 per game. The Tigers were the least penalized team in the ECACHL this season.
During the regular season Brown and Princeton played down to the wire in both meetings. At Princeton on Jan. 13, the Bears lost to the Tigers, 3-2 in overtime. At Meehan Auditorium on Feb. 2, the two teams again needed extra time to decide the contest, which ended in a 1-1 tie.
Including this season, the teams have played an extra session four consecutive times - in 2005-2006, the teams tied twice.
"We are just getting ready this week," said assistant captain and forward Antonin Roux '07. "We're feeling really confident. We played them in close games this season, and we know they're a good team. They are very physical, so we'll have to match them there, as well as matching their speed. They're fast. But we are definitely capable of beating them if we show up to play."
This is the 10th meeting between the schools in the postseason. Brown leads the series 5-4, but this weekend is the first time Brown has ever had to travel to New Jersey for a playoff match-up. The last time the Bears and Tigers squared off in the playoffs was 1998, when Brown took the first two games on its way to the ECACHL Final Four.
The winner of the series will advance to the quarterfinals of the ECACHL tournament. If the Bears win this weekend, they will travel to either Clarkson University or St. Lawrence University the following weekend for another best-of-three series. The loser will be eliminated.
"This weekend should be no different than any other road-trip weekend," said Head Coach Roger Grillo. "There is a little more riding on it given the finality implied if we lose, but we are capable of beating anybody in the league. I honestly believe that, and so does the team.
"We beat the first place team in the league (St. Lawrence on Dec. 1 in Providence) and lost in overtime to them at their place. Any team in the league has the opportunity to win this championship, including us."
