The men’s hockey team fell to two Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference foes on the road this weekend, losing to No. 18 Cornell 5-1 Friday and Colgate University 3-1 Saturday. Bruno has sunk to 11th place in the conference, having lost each of its last three games and four of its last five.
The Bears (3-5-1, 1-4-1 ECAC) started off strong against the Big Red (6-3-1, 4-3-1) with a penalty shot goal from Matt Lorito ’15 early in the first period, but the momentum quickly shifted and the team gave up the next five goals. A power play goal by Joe Prescott ’16 against Colgate (7-7-1, 5-3-0) marked the only Bruno score Saturday.
Brown committed six penalties against Colgate and ten against Cornell and went a total of 1-for-7 on power plays over the course of the two games.
“We had some penalty trouble early in both games,” Lorito said. “That’s been one of our biggest problems this year. It’s tough to get any kind of momentum when you’re killing a penalty all the time.”
In one of the weekend’s few positive signs, Nick Lappin ’16, Brandon Pfeil ’16 and Joey de Concilys ’15 all returned to play from injuries.
“They’re three guys we rely on,” said Massimo Lamacchia ’15. “It was a boost for us, and we all played hard, but things just aren’t going our way right now.”
Cornell 5, Brown 1
Despite finding the back of the net first, Bruno could not sustain any offensive momentum, while Cornell lit up the scoreboard.
“We came out pretty strong,” Lamacchia said. “We played well in the first, but the penalty trouble in the second didn’t allow us to do the things we wanted offensively. We were playing from behind for most of the game.”
The Bears found themselves on the power play less than three minutes into the game, when Cornell’s Rodger Craig took a roughing penalty. A few seconds after the power play expired, Cornell forward Eric Freschi was penalized for covering the puck in the crease, giving Brown a penalty shot. Lorito took the shot, firing past Cornell goalie Andy Iles to give Bruno a 1-0 lead.
“I came in with a lot of speed,” Lorito said. “The biggest thing for me on penalty shots is to have confidence in what I’m doing. When I got to the circle, I had a feeling I was going to score. I was looking to the low blocker side. I placed it there, and luckily it went in.”
The Big Red responded midway through the first period with a Matt Buckles power play goal that tied the score at one.
Cole Bardreau struck next for Cornell midway through the second period, beating goalie Tyler Steel ’17, who turned aside 23 of 27 shots, on a rebound from near the right faceoff circle. Five minutes later, Freschi redeemed his first-period blunder by sneaking a quick shot past Steel to give the Big Red a two-goal lead.
Lappin and Matt Wahl ’14 both had scoring opportunities in the third period, but Iles shut the door on Bruno’s comeback efforts. Reece Willcox added an empty-netter for Cornell, and Freschi scored again with less than a minute to play, bringing the final score to 5-1.
Colgate 3, Brown 1
As with the Cornell matchup, the Bears could not generate enough offense Saturday to stay in the game. Goalie Marco De Filippo ’14 turned away 26 of 28 shots on goal for the Bears.
After killing three penalties in the game’s first seven minutes, the Bears went on the power play with just over six minutes left in the first period. But a turnover in the neutral zone led to a shorthanded goal from Colgate’s Kyle Baun, giving the Raiders a 1-0 advantage.
“We got off to a really slow start,” Lorito said. “We need to get our power play going. If we score on more than one of the power plays we had, it’s a tie game and maybe a different outcome.”
Two minutes later, Prescott responded for Bruno, scoring on the power play after another Colgate penalty. Garnet Hathaway ’14 took control of the puck and fed it to Matt Harlow ’15, who hit Prescott in front of the cage for the goal.
The Raiders responded a minute later with a Mike Borkowski goal over De Filippo’s shoulder to put Colgate up 2-1 heading into the first intermission.
Despite outshooting Colgate 13-10 in the second frame, Bruno failed to get on the board. The Bears had to kill a two-minute Colgate five-on-three when captain Dennis Robertson ’14 and Wahl took penalties almost simultaneously midway through the period. Bruno extinguished the threat, keeping the score at 2-1 heading into the third period.
Despite scoring chances for Lamacchia and Pfeil late in the third, Colgate goalie Charlie Finn kept Brown off the board on his way to a stellar 38-save performance.
“Lorito centered the puck in front of the net, and the puck was just lying in the crease,” Lamacchia said of his opportunity. “I tried to shovel it in, but (Finn) made a pretty good save.”
Colgate forward Darcy Murphy added an empty-netter with just over a minute of time left on the clock to bring the final score to 3-1.
The Bears will face Providence College (10-2-1, 6-2-0 HEA) Saturday in the 28th edition of the Mayor’s Cup.
“It’s a big game for us,” Lorito said. “I always circle it on my calendar. We weren’t able to win it last year, but it’s a new year, and we’re really looking forward to it.”
“Any time we play for a trophy during the season, it’s big,” Lamacchia said. “We just need to bring our A-game to get out of this little rut we’re in. If we do that, we should be fine.”
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