Is it too early to say rank the Bears?

Brown couldn't have asked for a better way to start their year, beating Boston University 2-1 at Walter Brown Arena on Friday, before returning home to beat Merrimack, 1-0, on Sunday at Meehan Auditorium.

In my season preview I said that if Brown could pull off the upset on their very first game of the season, it could give them a huge boost in morale and momentum to kick off the year the right way. I have no doubt that coach Mel Ruzzi saw it the same way when the opening game at BU was scheduled. I did also say that win would somewhat pain me as I am a BU undergrad alum, but when I wrote that I didn't think it would be because BU would have a disastrous start to the season, going 0-4, and now losing a fifth game. Before this game, BU held the series edge over Brown at 3-1-2, and was 1-1-1 when facing the Bears at home (stats courtesy of friend of the blog BU Hockey Stats). As of today Brown owns Walter Brown Arena. Brown was able to take the momentum from upsetting BU to then open the hockey season at Meehan Auditorium by beating Merrimack.

We each were able to make it out to a game this weekend, with Stefan reporting from Walter Brown and Kevin checking in from Meehan.

Brown getting ready to open the season on the road at Boston University's Walter Brown Arena

An upset over #13 BU - Stefan

Despite the USCHO rankings placing BU at #13 and being picked 2nd in the Hockey East Preseason Coach's Poll, BU came into this weekend after getting swept in back to back series by Minnesota and Colgate, meaning they would come into Friday desperate for that first win, and that was evident off of the first faceoff. The Bears would have to survive a physical Terrier team that was looking to take every chance possible to get close to the net and put one past Rory Edwards.

However, BU is currently one of the most penalized teams in the country, coming from this physicality that forces them to make mistakes, and thus this lead BU to commit four minor penalties on the day. Brown would have some difficulty trying to find scoring chances going 0/4 on the power play, but that can be excused for their first game of the season. Brown would also commit four minor penalties, thankfully executing a perfect penalty kill, with some openings for shorthanded chances that were stopped by Terrier goaltender Mari Pietersen. (BU's power play is pretty bad this year, across 5 games now going empty for a blistering 0/18).

The first period would go scoreless with a lot of back and forth play and physicality especially from BU. Two early penalties from BU would produce the bulk of the scoring chances for Brown for that period. The second period was more equal, as both Brown and BU would find different scoring chances against the respective goalies. BU's Luisa Welcke would be the first skater to score as she got three rebounds against Rory Edwards, beating Edwards on the last one.

Brown wasn't entirely shaken by that goal, as they still found plenty of ways to produce offensive activity against Pietersen despite half the Brown penalty kills coming in that period. Olivia Fantino would score the first Brown goal of the year in the last minute of the second period with a tipped shot from the blue line by first-year Avery Lian that Petersen had no way of predicting. It wouldn't take long in the third period for Brown to take the lead, as last year's leading goalscorer Monique Lyons would score her first of the year off of a simple but effective pass from Sam Broz, thanks to a leaky Terrier defense.

From then on, the goal was simple: Survive.

Brown would do an excellent job of shutting down the Terriers, preventing them from clawing their way back, even with a critical penalty kill with five minutes left in the third period. BU would pull Mari Pietersen with more than 2 minutes left in the game, but Brown would ultimately survive the onslaught (not before almost getting an empty net goal courtesy of Monique Lyons), and complete the upset over a Terrier team that had no business being ranked going into the weekend.

Narrowly avoiding getting goalie'd by an overmatched Merrimack squad

The Bears returned to Providence to host their home opener against the Merrimack Highlighters (er...Warriors, that is) at Meehan Auditorium on Saturday. The Warriors finished dead last in Hockey East last season and were picked last again in this year's preseason poll.

And the talent gap was obvious on the ice. Brown utterly dominated the game from a possession and chance generation perspective, to the tune of a 90-23 shot attempt difference. The shots on goal tally was 43-10 in favor of Brown. The Bears looked ferocious in the first period, outshooting Merrimack 15-1 and creating at least a half dozen chances that could (or, in some cases, should) have found the back of the net. Brown's top two lines (Iginla-McDadi-Norehead and Broz-Lyons-Decoste were superb in hemming the Warriors in their own zone for minutes at a time, including an opening shift forecheck that lasted almost three minutes of game time before Merrimack could settle in.

Merrimack goaltender Adreanna Doucette, a sophomore transfer from Clarkson, was rock solid in net, keeping the score at 0-0.

Merrimack netminder Adreanna Doucette put together a sparkling performance on Sunday. Photo courtesy of Friend Of The Blog Ben.

The second period saw Merrimack push back on the Bears, coming out with a renewed energy and taking advantage of a rather passive start to the period for the hosts. The Warriors had a few real chances in the early part of the frame, including a shot from the left hashmark that beat Brown goalie Anya Zupkofska and clanged off the intersection of the crossbar and the post.

Merrimack was able to keep pressuring the Bears on the forecheck for the first half of the period, and their compact defensive structure broke up a number of zone entries and attempts to cycle the puck from low to high, which seemed to frustrate Brown's attackers. Before the Bears went on the power play with just under six minutes remaining in the period, Merrimack actually had taken more shot attempts. But back-to-back powerplays to close out the second enabled Brown to generate a handful of half-decent or better opportunities. Doucette stood tall, making some athletic saves and denying Brown on a pair of one-timers that easily could have beaten most goalies.

The mood was a bit tense heading into the third period, as the heavily-favored Bears were still locked in a scoreless battle with a Hockey East bottom dweller. But the third period looked much like the first: Brown dominated play from start to finish, levying 21 shots on goal at Doucette while the Warriors could only muster three. It felt as though the entire period took place in the Merrimack defensive zone, and Brown once again created chance after chance that Doucette turned away.

The story of the day, Doucette made several impressive saves, but none more gobsmacking than a pair of mirror image partial breakaways in which she made the initial saves on a Bear driving hard to the net, and then sprawled to her left to deny chances off the rebound in front of a mostly open cage. As she continued to stupefy the Bears, the game had the feeling of a classic Goalie-ing, in which a goaltender keeps a clearly inferior team in the game until they can find a goal and complete the upset.

But, much to the relief of the Bears, it wasn't to be. Merrimack took another penalty with 5:51 remaining in the third period. Brown threw shot after shot on goal, and Doucette repeatedly turned them away, surviving multiple net-front scrambles in the process.

Finally, on the ninth shot attempt of the power play, the Bears cashed in. Senior co-captain Jade Iginla had a shot blocked from the top of the right circle, but the puck bounced to the opposite point where sophomore Victoria Damiani was waiting. Damiani settled the puck, pump faked to freeze Merrimack's penalty killers, and whipped a pass down low to a wide-open Margot Norehead, who deflected it into an open net as Doucette was partially screened and couldn't react in time.

With exactly four minutes remaining at the time of the goal, the Bears had rescued the game in the nick of time. Merrimack, exhausted from defending for 56 minutes, unsuccessfully searched for an equalizer, but Brown wouldn't allow it. Despite taking a penalty with 2:33 to go, the Bears kept the puck in the offensive zone for nearly all of the remaining time in the game. Merrimack last registered a shot attempt with 7:59 left in the game. While Brown wasn't able to score on the empty net, the Warriors didn't challenge Zupkofska whatsoever, and the Bears ran out the clock. Zupkofska finished with 10 saves and her first career shutout, looking confident and cool in net on the few chances Merrimack created.

It wasn't pretty, and Doucette mystified the heavily favored Bears for most of the game, but Brown got the win and moved to 2-0. Boy, good thing she transferred away from Clarkson so Brown doesn't have to see her twice per season over the next three years!

The Bears survived a scare from Merrimack. Phew!

Weekend Takeaways

The Bears looked the part of a top-half ECAC team this weekend. While they didn't necessarily control the game at BU, the Terriers figure to be a strong opponent this year (despite their record), and they had already played four games prior to hosting Brown. After shaking some rust off in the first period, the Bears played the Terriers fairly evenly for the final 40 minutes of the game and were able to come out on top, taking advantage of a heavily penalized team with leaky defense.
Brown completely dominated an overmatched Merrimack side, but failed to capitalize on their myriad opportunities thanks to a heroic goaltending performance from Doucette. And that's okay - good teams find ways to win games even when they're not firing on all cylinders, and with the sheer volume and quality of the opportunities Brown created, the goals are sure to come eventually.
The top six looks like it could be a capital-p Problem for the rest of the conference. While the top line hasn't created a goal yet (Iginla assisted on the power play goal, but they haven't scored in five-on-five play yet), they've titled the ice in their favor over two games. The same can be said for the second line, which did cash in on Friday night. Monique Lyons looks set to follow up her fantastic freshman season and become a star.
The bottom six may not create as many chances as the top two lines, but both forechecked well and put pressure on Merrimack skaters on Sunday. The third line scored the tying goal on Friday. Any depth scoring these two lines can generate will be most welcome on a team that already figures to have some firepower at the top of the lineup.
The freshman class looks like it has a few players who will contribute right away. Defenseman Isabella Gratzl was outstanding on Sunday, moving the puck well both in transition and in the offensive zone cycle, while hounding Merrimack puck carriers to create turnovers. Zoe Li seemed to have good chemistry with linemates Olivia Fantino and Shauna Vadeboncoeur. Martina Accardi started the BU game on the top line, before settling into a fourth line role on Sunday. Cadence Richards was steady on the back end.

That's it for now. The Bears return home to face ECAC rivals Princeton and Quinnipiac next weekend. Stay tuned for more coverage, and Go Bruno!

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