Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

[kdiff77]

Re: Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

Before the series starts tonight, I think it's important to recognize what a fun season this has been.

No matter what happens this weekend, this has been the most exciting season of Brown hockey since 2003-2004, when Yann Danis was on the Hobey Baker shortlist and the likes of Haggett, Robinson, Esdale, and Burke made Meehan Auditorium a fortress. The 2012-2013 Bears have not seen similar success - that '03/'04 team was ranked in the top ten nationally before a late-season swoon knocked it out of the polls - but they've definitely provided a similarly special season for us all. Two ties against #1 in the country, an upset of a heated rival and then-tenth-ranked Yale, a shutout at Lynah, a senior goaltender who had rarely played putting up numbers better than the great Danis himself, a team that was picked to finish dead last and lost plenty of significant contributors throughout the season coming together to fight tooth-and-nail for home ice, and, most importantly, hosting (and sweeping) the first playoff series at Meehan Auditorium in eight years.

Maybe we beat RPI and go to Atlantic City. Maybe we get crushed. It doesn't matter. The future of this team is bright, and I just want to thank every player on the team, as well as the coaching staff, for a really fun and exciting season.

With that said, let's go get a couple wins in Troy. There's no reason this season can't continue.

[DarthBruno]

Re: Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

So proud of the Bears tonight!

[Jon]

Re: Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

A rare perfect night of college hockey in the Ocean State.

[Osorojo]

Re: Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

Congratulations to Brown. Keep digging.

[Humanoid]

Re: Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

Lots of work left but Brown is 3-0 and halfway to a league championship. Proud to be Brunonian right now.

Keep digging fellas. We are all behind you.

Whittet\White '16 - oh wait, Brendan wasn't good enough to be nominated for COY in ECAC.

Regardless of outcome, this team is one of our favorites. And now Brendan is on the cusp of a 2nd trip to the semifinals before he's ever really built the program to where HE wants it with HIS guys on a couple recruiting cycles.

[Mike Hutter]

Re: Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

Terrific win tonight. A most exciting game. I was hardly able to sit still the entire game.

Everything was clicking tonight. RPI is a solid team and I don't think the two week layoff hurt them. It was simply too much Bruno. You could see the energy when the team came out for the warm-ups. Their fist-bumps almost knocked by grandkids over!! Totally different from when Brown came out last month against RPI. Brendan had them up!!

I was impressed with the line of Zaires, Harlow and Juola even before Juola scored the winning goal. They were flying and were disrupting every effort by RPI on their attempted break-outs. When you throw in Jeff Ryam and Mark Senecal you have the energy guys that showed ROI no shift would be easy. True the PK gave up a goal but the goal was really one scored on a 5-3 as Robertson 's stick broke on his shift, and RPI took advantage of it.

Speaking with rbuno before the Colgate game, he said the key to that game was Matt Lorito, and if he scored early brown would win. He did and brown won. Same could be said tonight. Once he scored, there was something in the air that strongly suggested Brown would win.

Brown better keep up the intensity. I was impressed on how RPI kept breaking a player free on the net to redirect a cross-ice pass. Three of those efforts came very close to a score, and Borelli stoned an RPI player's point blank shot. If that continues, Brown is in trouble.

Good turnout on Brown's part. At least 50 Bruno fans. While most were family of a Brown player, it was still a good showing. And a loud one as well!! I don't understand why Brown alums in the Capital District don't come to games anymore. 10-15 years ago there were great turnouts but as I look back most were alums from 50-60's and unfortunately many have passed on. With the younger alums, It seems like their attitude is I didn't go to hockey games when I was at Brown, why start now. RPI alums are quite different - they really support their team. It was good talking to a few of them after the game.

Now to bed to rest up and get my blood pressure down.

[kdiff77]

Re: Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

Can it just be tomorrow at 7:00 already?

[GRussinko]

Re: Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

Terrific win tonight. A most exciting game. I was hardly able to sit still the entire game.

Everything was clicking tonight. RPI is a solid team and I don't think the two week layoff hurt them. It was simply too much Bruno. You could see the energy when the team came out for the warm-ups. Their fist-bumps almost knocked by grandkids over!! Totally different from when Brown came out last month against RPI. Brendan had them up!!

I was impressed with the line of Zaires, Harlow and Juola even before Juola scored the winning goal. They were flying and were disrupting every effort by RPI on their attempted break-outs. When you throw in Jeff Ryam and Mark Senecal you have the energy guys that showed ROI no shift would be easy. True the PK gave up a goal but the goal was really one scored on a 5-3 as Robertson 's stick broke on his shift, and RPI took advantage of it.

Speaking with rbuno before the Colgate game, he said the key to that game was Matt Lorito, and if he scored early brown would win. He did and brown won. Same could be said tonight. Once he scored, there was something in the air that strongly suggested Brown would win.

Brown better keep up the intensity. I was impressed on how RPI kept breaking a player free on the net to redirect a cross-ice pass. Three of those efforts came very close to a score, and Borelli stoned an RPI player's point blank shot. If that continues, Brown is in trouble.

Good turnout on Brown's part. At least 50 Bruno fans. While most were family of a Brown player, it was still a good showing. And a loud one as well!! I don't understand why Brown alums in the Capital District don't come to games anymore. 10-15 years ago there were great turnouts but as I look back most were alums from 50-60's and unfortunately many have passed on. With the younger alums, It seems like their attitude is I didn't go to hockey games when I was at Brown, why start now. RPI alums are quite different - they really support their team. It was good talking to a few of them after the game.

Now to bed to rest up and get my blood pressure down.

I would have to disagree on the week off not hurting our guys. Don't get me wrong - Brown played a great game, but the one RPI played was not even remotely like what we've been accustomed to seeing the past couple months. It was probably the worst execution I've seen since November. Blind passes to nobody, ill-advised passes through the slot dozens of times over the course of the game, inability to move the puck up ice for long stretches even when seemingly unpressured...it was a polar opposite from what's been the norm in 2013 so far.

It was weird because there would be short flashes of what we're used to seeing and the result would be a stretch of pressure in Brown's zone where we seemingly had all the momentum, then all of a sudden the next pass would be nowhere near its target and go out of the zone and we'd be back to square one for the next five minutes.

I was impressed by the speed and forechecking of a lot of the Brown players and noticed Whittet does a great job of getting the right guys out on the ice once he gains the zone. In multiple instances 2-3 guys changed on the fly while the puck was tied up on the boards in the RPI end in order to get the matchups he wanted, which led to RPI getting pinned in their own end repeatedly. The RPI defensive pair of Leboeuf and Bradley was dominated by your guys all night and it seemed hardly a shift went by where they didn't end up pinned in their defensive zone for way too long.

I thought Borelli played very well and Kasdorf played OK but not up to the level he's been at recently. He looked a bit like a freshman playing his first playoff game (surprise surprise). His positioning was off, he was moving around the crease way more than usual and gave up a lot of rebounds (which is often the case but seemed to be moreso tonight).

The GWG still has me ticked off as it was set up not only by a trip of Bubela in the Brown end which let them take the puck, but also what appeared to be an icing by the Bears which was waved off. Two things that would have at a minimum set up an offensive zone faceoff if not a power play for the Engineers, and instead RPI finds the puck in the back of its own net. The answer there for our guys is to not put themselves in a situation where a call or non-call is going to potentially decide the game late in the third. Brown took the hand they were dealt and capitalized to walk away with a win while RPI blew most of he chances they had. It happens. How they bounce back will be very telling.

Time to try and get caught up on sleep missed while traveling for work this week. Will be interesting to see how the two teams play tomorrow compared to tonight.

[nescachockey]

Re: Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

One more win to AC baby! Ki Yi Yi!

[Onion Man]

Re: Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

What a fun ride this turned into. Time to sweep the leg tonight and move on!

[hawkeytown]

What a fun ride this turned into. Time to sweep the leg tonight and move on!

Did Roy score the game winner?

[BrunoFan00]

Re: Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

Some thoughts from the greater Providence/Massachusetts area:

1. I'm convinced that if I had made the trip that Brown loses 4-1 and we're lamenting the near-end of another season. I have never, in about 20 games at Houston Field House, seen a win, or so it seems. Even in the 2010 playoff series, I was there only on Friday (which I believe was a win) but missed the penultimate game three. Work precluded me from making the drive on Friday, and so if it comes to a third game, I'm staying home.

2. Even if the Bears lose out, they're assured of a .500 season for the first time since 2004-05, a season when Haggett was among the top centermen in the league, Mike Meech put together a solid senior campaign, and Brian Ihnachak hadn't fallen from grace - and Brown's freshman class of Hurley, Prough, and McNary hadn't fallen victim to the hard years to follow. For a team picked to finish 12th by everyone - and that had no clear-cut #1 goalie, a ravaged defense, and nearly 100 man-games to injury - they've given us our money's worth.

3. Somewhere on the RPI thread, a poster commented that this is a bad team with a good goalie, which was backed up by a Yale team. Part of me agrees in that Borelli has given the Bears far more than we could have ever asked, but there's also a part that completely disagrees. This is a team in the strongest sense of the word. A guy like Zaires is moved off the wing to center in the playoffs, and Matt Lorito has surged. A freshman wins four huge faceoffs in the final two minutes of a one goal, series-clinching victory. And a Jake Goldberg moves from forward to defense and emerges as a legimitate #3 pointman, contributing both behind the blue line and on special teams. So bad team? I would contend the exact opposite - that this team's successes are built on the very essence of the team concept, where everyone plays his role, does his job, and relies on the other to do the same.

4. Mike Juola has a game winner in the playoffs. Jake Goldberg has a game winner in the playoffs. Anyone else have that on their card in November?

5. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but the last time Brown was in this place, in 2010 and last year against Quinnipiac (on the road with a 1-0 lead), the first periods were unmitigated disasters. Last year, the Q struck 2 minutes in; Yale scored 26 seconds in in the second game in 2010 en route to cruising to victory, and RPI scored 12 minutes or so in. In those periods, Brown was outscored something like 8-0. They need to be ready to face a highly-seeded team that does not want its season to end, because RPI is out of the NCAA conversation without this series. And I'm sure they know it.

6. To the point on Keith Allain getting a COY nod over Brendan Whittet, I would ask Yale fans where the Bulldogs would be without 95 man-games, let's say to Obuchowski (top frosh D), Fallen (top returning soph D), and an assortment of injuries to Laganiere (power forward), Young, Ruffolo, etc. And a decommitment of the top recruit (I guess Wilson?) I'm not trying to take anything away from Yale's season, and I'm obviously biased, but it doesn't seem like the nominations take context into consideration.

7. It's one game, and I'm certainly not punching any tickets for Atlantic City just yet. (ASIDE: Who thought putting the playoff final there was a good idea? It's five hours from nowhere, there isn't a campus within eyeshot, the city itself is not exactly appealing, and the games are 4 and 7 on Friday. Moronic). But either way I speak for a lot of people in saying this ride has been more than we could have asked.

8. The hubris is Hamden is something. After the loss last night, Rand Pecknold called his team a "great hockey team that just ran into a hot goalie." Can't imagine many coaches calling their team "great," particularly after a home loss to the #9 seed, when supposedly the #1 team in the land.

9. Be ready for the first period tonight. Seth Appert will have team ready, and any residual rust from a week layover will be gone, and the Bears must be ready for it.

[Mike Hutter]

Re: Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

I would have to disagree on the week off not hurting our guys. Don't get me wrong - Brown played a great game, but the one RPI played was not even remotely like what we've been accustomed to seeing the past couple months. It was probably the worst execution I've seen since November. Blind passes to nobody, ill-advised passes through the slot dozens of times over the course of the game, inability to move the puck up ice for long stretches even when seemingly unpressured...it was a polar opposite from what's been the norm in 2013 so far.

It was weird because there would be short flashes of what we're used to seeing and the result would be a stretch of pressure in Brown's zone where we seemingly had all the momentum, then all of a sudden the next pass would be nowhere near its target and go out of the zone and we'd be back to square one for the next five minutes.

I was impressed by the speed and forechecking of a lot of the Brown players and noticed Whittet does a great job of getting the right guys out on the ice once he gains the zone. In multiple instances 2-3 guys changed on the fly while the puck was tied up on the boards in the RPI end in order to get the matchups he wanted, which led to RPI getting pinned in their own end repeatedly. The RPI defensive pair of Leboeuf and Bradley was dominated by your guys all night and it seemed hardly a shift went by where they didn't end up pinned in their defensive zone for way too long.

I thought Borelli played very well and Kasdorf played OK but not up to the level he's been at recently. He looked a bit like a freshman playing his first playoff game (surprise surprise). His positioning was off, he was moving around the crease way more than usual and gave up a lot of rebounds (which is often the case but seemed to be moreso tonight).

The GWG still has me ticked off as it was set up not only by a trip of Bubela in the Brown end which let them take the puck, but also what appeared to be an icing by the Bears which was waved off. Two things that would have at a minimum set up an offensive zone faceoff if not a power play for the Engineers, and instead RPI finds the puck in the back of its own net. The answer there for our guys is to not put themselves in a situation where a call or non-call is going to potentially decide the game late in the third. Brown took the hand they were dealt and capitalized to walk away with a win while RPI blew most of he chances they had. It happens. How they bounce back will be very telling.

Time to try and get caught up on sleep missed while traveling for work this week. Will be interesting to see how the two teams play tomorrow compared to tonight.

Can't disagree with a lot you said. Thinking back with your comments about LeBouef and Bradley, you are right. Leonard was your best Dman and L and B were clearly a few steps behind. I still don't think RPI was "rusty". Their passes into the slot were consistently well done, Brown couldn't stop them and but no score. May be rust in finishing but certainly not in starting.The odds are that RPI will start scoring on them unless Brown stops them.

Close call on the no-call you mention. But I do think a trip was in order on Brown when RPI was attacking in the final two minutes. Clearly, the refs had put away the whistles. For what it's worth, I believe the refs overall called a good game and there were certainly no calls that should have been made against RPI.

[ncaasuperfan]

Why is Lamacchia not playing? Is he injured?

[kdiff77]

Re: Brown Hockey 2012-2013:Climbing the ECAC Ladder

Why is Lamacchia not playing? Is he injured?

He had a mediocre season and Whittet has been favoring more physical guys like Senecal lately. Brown has enough undersized forwards in Lorito, Naclerio, and Lappin, and there was really no set role for Lamacchia on this team. I'd expect to see him bounce back next year, but this year has been pretty disappointing for him.