Well, well, well — look who decided to write a blog!

We’ve been busy of late, so we haven’t been able to provide our tantalizing analysis with as much regularity as we’d like. There’s been plenty of Brown hockey action to discuss from the past couple weeks — although it’s not all hunky-dory here in Providence (well, things are going well for the Friars over in Elmhurst, but not so much on College Hill).

Since we last spoke, the Brown men’s (4-15-0) and women’s (12-9-2) teams have both had some frustrating results, particularly on the road. The women now have a 1-5-2 record away from Meehan, while the men are a shocking 0-11-0.

Let’s get into the recent results and the road struggles for each team, with a look at the men first.

MIH:

Brown played about four periods of good hockey over this stretch of four games, which is particularly maddening because they’ve shown they can hang with some good teams when they’re playing well.

Clarkson: L, 2-3

After an abysmal 40 minutes against Clarkson (11-12-1) that saw them enter the third period down 3-0, the Bears came out roaring in the final frame, scoring two goals within the first 6:01 and threatening to find the equalizer with a 13-5 shot advantage. They ultimately fell, 3-2.

Poor Fred Halyk (33 saves) was besieged for the first two periods, as Brown was outshot 31-11 and frankly deserved to have allowed more than just three goals. Halyk was excellent in the first, turning away 17 Golden Knight shots, before succumbing to the pressure in the second and allowing a pair of power play goals and another one at 5-on-5.

St. Lawrence: W, 4-1

Brown bounced back against a woeful St. Lawrence team (2-20-2) the following night, riding two early Ben Poitras goals to their first win since late November, breaking an eight-game losing streak in the process. A pair of goals in the latter half of the second brought the score to 4-1, and it would hold for the remainder of the game. Tyler Shea stopped 39 of 40 Saint shots, which is great for him, but probably an indictment of the team defense for the game. 17 of those shots came when SLU was pressing in the third period, so we’ll give the Bears a mulligan in light of their first win in nearly two months.

Ben Poitras went on a tear last weekend, scoring three goals against Clarkson and St. Lawrence. Photo credit to Brown Athletics.

@ Union: L, 0-4

This past weekend, Brown headed to the Capital Region of New York to take on travel partners Union (14-7-2 )and RPI (6-17-0).

Things started off poorly, as Union scored just 2:24 into the game on Friday evening. They scored another in the back half of the first period, and that would about do it, as Brown couldn’t beat Brayden Gillespie (25 saves). Union added a pair of empty-net goals in the third period to clinch the game, winning 4-0.

It was another strong outing for Tyler Shea (37 saves on 39 shots), but the offense let him down despite generating a handful of chances that could’ve been goals with some better puck luck. But, puck luck aside, the Bears have the 12th-worst shooting percentage (8.2%) in the country for a reason: they lack the type of clinical finishers that you need at this level to make good teams (and good goalies) pay.

@ RPI: L, 1-4

Looking for a rebound on Saturday against an RPI team that’s in the first year of an exhaustive rebuild, Brown instead laid an egg. They once again allowed nearly 40 shots and fell behind in the first period, failing to create the requisite offense to back the beleaguered Shea (35 saves) up in net. The final: 4-1 with an empty netter against one of the worst teams in the conference.

On a positive note, it was nice to see Ryan Shostak get his first goal of the season after recently returning from injury.

Tyler Shea has been very busy in net of late. Photo credit to Ben King.

Fading Away

I didn’t realize it until after Brown was swept by Union and RPI this past weekend, but the Bears are now 0-11-0 on the road this season. It’s an astounding record that amplifies the struggles of a team that has actually been pretty solid at home: Brown is 4-4-0 at Meehan, with each loss coming against a higher-rated, more talented team by one goal (or two with an empty netter, in the case of the Providence game).

The Bears’ inability to win away from home is baffling. Last year, they were 5-7-0 on the road in the regular season, which certainly wasn’t amazing, but kept them afloat as they compiled a more respectable 8-6-3 record at home. This year, they’re struggling mightily to do just about anything right away from Meehan Auditorium. They’re allowing 4.36 goals per game and scoring only 1.54. It’s just about impossible to win any game with margins like that. In fact, they’ve only played two close games on the road: a 4-3 loss to Air Force the opening weekend of the season, and a 5-4 overtime loss at Princeton last month in which they blew the lead on three separate occasions and were outshot 51-20.

Among the biggest culprits in Brown’s futility away from home is its special teams play. The power play is the worst in the country, converting at just a 5.9% rate with just three goals on the season. And the penalty kill isn’t much better, coming in at fourth-worst with a successful kill rate of just 71.2%.

If Brown is going to mount a comeback and finish this season respectably (and maybe vie for home ice in the first round of the ECAC playoffs, though that goal is becoming less and less likely from a mathematical perspective), they’ll need both sides of the special teams coin to improve rapidly and substantially. Tyler Shea is giving them a chance to win games (as is Fred Halyk, for my money, even though his numbers may not indicate it), but the offense simply can’t convert enough either at 5-on-5 or with a man advantage, and the penalty kill is, well, killing the Bears in nearly every game.

WIH:

The Pandas had a rough go of it at Harvard and Dartmouth last weekend, falling to the Crimson 2-1 in overtime before losing a shootout to Dartmouth after 65 minutes of scoreless play. It was a rather large setback for a team that entered the weekend in second place in the ECAC standings.

@ Harvard: L, 1-2 OT

The Bears and Crimson played their second overtime game in as many months, with the hosts taking the win in each matchup. Ava DeCoste got Brown on the board seven minutes into the second period in what was a classic goalie duel, but Harvard found the tying goal in the third period and went on to win it in overtime.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the Bears failed to capitalize on their opportunities en route to a disappointing result. Brown outshot the Crimson, 36-26, but moreover created about a dozen good goal-scoring opportunities that went unrewarded. They were very good for the most part, staying out of the penalty box and allowing Anya Zupkfoska to see the puck, but couldn’t make good on their many opportunities and fell to a Harvard team that’s 10 points beneath them in the standings.

@Dartmouth: T, 0-0 (SOL)

Oof. This one hurt. The Big Green (4-15-3) have been dreadful offensively this year, being shut out 12 times in their 22 games and scoring a somewhat shocking 0.71 goals per game. They’ve been much better defensively, allowing just 2.64 goals per game, but against teams at a comparable level to Brown, they’re much more accustomed to allowing three, four, or even five per game.

But the Bears, down Jade Iginla for the game, couldn’t crack Dartmouth’s defense. They peppered Michaela Hesová’s net, outshooting the Big Green 40-18 on the game. Hesová, who’s been just okay this season, turned them all away and carried the Green to overtime and then a shootout, where she continued her heroics. After seven Bears missed on their shootout attempts, Meredith Jensen finally converted on Dartmouth’s seventh opportunity to cap off a perplexing game.

These two games more or less removed Brown from the NCAA Tournament at-large berth range, and they’ll now need to worry more about making a run in the ECAC Tournament if they hope to dance this year.

#12 Cornell: L, 1-3

For the first time in many tries, Brown actually went toe-to-toe with the Big Red. The result was the same, however, as they fell 3-1 against a stingy Cornell team.

In a recurring theme for both the men’s and women’s hockey teams, the Bears struggled to make good on their power play opportunities, going just 1 for 5 with a late tally by Monique Lyons bringing the score to 3-1. Iginla returned to the lineup and took six shots, but reigning ECAC Goalie of the Year Annelies Bergmann stonewalled her and the Bears much like she did in Ithaca earlier this season.

#15 Colgate: W, 6-2

After all the gloom and doom for both teams over the past couple weeks, Brown was in need of a vibe shift — and they got it, pouring it on against a ranked Colgate team Saturday afternoon to the tune of a 6-2 win.

The Bears took the lead in the first period and never looked back, eventually jumping out to a 5-0 advantage by the middle of the second period, as the enigmatic Raiders struggled to gain their footing. Colgate would get the score to within three goals midway through the third, but never seriously threatened Brown’s grip on the game. Monique Lyons scored her third of the weekend to cap off the win with an empty netter.

On a somewhat concerning note, Rory Edwards started both games for the Bears this past weekend. We certainly hope it was a coaching decision, and not indicative of an injury or illness for regular starter Anya Zupkofska, who did appear to be on the bench for both games.

Edwards played very well, so Brown may not have missed Zupkofska much. But the Bears only have two goalies on their roster this season, leaving them extremely vulnerable if one of the two is unavailable for the long run.

Rory Edwards had a great weekend in relief of Anya Zupkofksa. Photo credit to Brown Athletics.

Clinging to First-Round Bye Hopes

After a 1-2-1 record over their past four, Brown finds itself slipping down the standings a bit. The Bears are currently in fifth by total points, but, having played more games than some of the teams around them, they’re actually sixth in points percentage and virtually tied with Colgate in that category (and St. Lawrence isn’t far behind).

On the bright side, the path to finishing in the top four is clear: they play each of the teams ahead of them once more besides Yale, which will provide them the opportunities they need to make up ground on the teams with games in hand. Whether or not they’ll be able to do so is the big question.

Next Up

Both teams have the weekend off from ECAC play, but will play a non-conference game to stay fresh. The women will take on RIT at Meehan Auditorium Saturday afternoon, while the men will play Stonehill at the Bruins’ practice rink later that day.

We’ll try to have a preview up on the site later this week. Until then, go Bruno!

About the Author

Kevin

Stay Updated with Bears Hockey