Re: Brown Hockey 2011-2012 - The Future Is Now
Brown got solid performances from so many players that it's difficult to single one out. However, I'd like to mention Matt Lorito. Matt has only played five games so far due to a pre-season injury but he's beginning to confirm all the high expectations for him while he was being recruited. He's already started to attract the attention of pro scouts, as has another freshman, Ryan Jacobsen. Matt has scored seven points in five games, but what impresses me most aren't his stats, but his hockey sense. Some of his passes are uncanny. His assist on Brown's fourth goal was a thing of beauty. His positioning is also impeccable.
Agreed. I'm excited about the Lorito-Jacobsen combination moving forward for the next three-plus years. The fourth goal quite possibly was the best one-two goal we've seen since Haggett-to-Robinson. Both of those guys are smart, intelligent hockey players who do the little things well and have a hockey acumen far beyond their freshman status. Jacobsen won several battles for pucks in corners against more senior defensemen for both PC and UNH.
There's no question that this year's freshman class is very good. Besides Jacobsen and Lorito, forward Massimo Lamacchia, and defensemen Joey DeConsylis and Kyle Quick have played very well. I love watching Quick. He's a highly skilled player, who will only get better especially as he grows into his body.
Quick is a good player, as is DeConsylis. They are developing rapidly into defensemen the coaching staff can trust in a variety of spots. They have speed and are starting to play far more confidently with the puck, and the upside is tremendous.
However, as good as the first-years have been, some of the upperclassmen have ratcheted up their play of late. Jeffrey Ryan and Jarred Smith are two players of note, Ryan having scored a backhander against UNH and Smith playing perhaps the most consistent hockey of his career, considering his role on the third line in the third period of both victories this week. And Francis Drolet found himself in position to score from simple "sticktoitiveness." I can only imagine that playing time is at a premium, and, as opposed to days where Brendan Whittet could confidently skate 2.5 lines a game, he can look down the bench and have four lines of options into crunch time. That says nothing of some of the guys not playing from whom we have seen decent play as well, guys like Draper and Siers (who I hope get chances, but am not sure where it will happen). Obviously, that's the goal: the more guys the Bears have fighting for PT, the better they will obviously be. Just makes it tough for guys like Goldberg, Juola and Borge to crack the lineup.
I can't remember the last time Brown scored five goals or more in three straight games. There was one stretch a few years back where the Bears had a 3-0-1 run with a scoreless draw against UMass-Lowell, but the dark days of the scoreless stretch against AIC and Holy Cross seem to be a thing of the past.
The other piece of this run maybe the inherent culture shift. Against UNH, Brown raced out to a 3-0 lead, and after UNH stormed back, scored twice, dominated the first few minutes of the third, and saved a McLellan penalty shot, one would think the question was when and how, not if, the Bears would surrender their lead. Instead, DeFelippo comes up with a huge save on UNH's top forward line, and a freshman forward goes down the other end of the ice and delivers the game-clinching goal. Against PC, the Bears were dominating play, only to find themselves down 2-0 after a shorty and a breakaway strike following an odd turnover at the point by the always consistent Matt Wahl. Instead of folding, Brown scores 5 unanswered. That good fortune, though, has to turn into results in ECAC play if this team wants to be playing games at Meehan in March.
Finally, congratulations to the seniors, who had never beaten PC. On to Princeton and Quinnipiac and what hopefully will be two entertaining hockey games in which the Bears play above, not at, the level of their opponents, which was the case this weekend against the Wildcats and Friars.
