Tuesday night at Bright the Brown Bears whipped the Harvard Crimson
5-7 in an Ivy League match.  The Bears, currently with Russ McCurdy
coaching behind the bench, came out huge and then sat back for an
easy win.  The score flatters Harvard who was never in the game.
 
Brown played the best hockey I have seen at Bright in the first period,
since the days of Lane, Albie and Coach Cleary (Harvard Men).  They
have an incredible attack that pounded the Crimson one wave after
another.  Nan Gorton (Becky Kellar) opened the Brown scoring when she
took a rebound out of the corner, skated to the slot and drilled her
wrist shot through the Harvard goalie's pads.  The play occurred on
a power play.  The Bears knew they had to get to the Crimson netminder
early, or it would be a long hard night.  Kellar (Gorton) made it 0-2
after Gorton's slap shot was saved, but left uncleared by the Harvard
defense.  Kellar (Katie King) scored a near identical play when King
let rip a slap shot from the opposite side.  King (Molly Driscoll)
made it 0-4 Brown when at the end of a Harvard power play she took
a lovely long break away pass from Driscoll, charged in on goal,
and then deked the Harvard goalie before tucking the puck away.
Excellent goal!  With little time left in the first, AJ Mleczko was
able to bring the puck out of the corner and fire home for the lone
Crimson score.
 
At the start of the second, Christa Calagione (Diana Clark) pulled off
a wrap-around to cut the score to 2-4.  Soon afterwards, Danielle
Solari (Driscoll) hit the jets and performed her own oh-la-la break in.
Harvard managed to come back in the last minute of play when Stacy
Kellogg (AJM) was setup at the near post from behind the net.  However
Brown came right back when Andrea Boudreau (Solari) took the puck out
of the corner, and fired under the goalie's pads, to make it 3-6 Bears.
 
In the final period, Brown sat back, and Harvard showed some pressure.
The result was Calagione (Holly Leitzes) finishing off a clean shot
from the right slot.  That caused the Bears to wake up a little.
Boudreau (Solari) put on a heck of shift to beat Harvard's backup
netminder.  The play was made by the efforts of Solari who had stolen
the puck and beaten two Crimson defenders, before setting up Boudreau.
Harvard closed out the scoring on a dubious 4 on 3 power play situation.
Winkie Mleczko (Leitzes) point shot found net after a face-off.
 
Brown is a great team.  At times in the first period I thought I was
back in Lake Placid watching Team Canada Women.  Yes their attack is
that good!  Their problem is defense.  If they can solve that problem,
both on the blue line, and through team defense they could win it all.
Joy Woog's play on defense was excellent.  She seems a natural.  I
think her vision and set of skills makes her perfect for the blue
line.  Woog is so cool under fire, and then can hold onto the puck
or make the telling pass.  Her partner Driscoll looked much better.
She still makes too many mistakes, but she is learning.  My number
one question for Brown would be: Why not play first-year defender
Jodi McKenna on defense.  She played extremely well against North-
eastern.  Wasting her on the third line is silly.  Which brings up
the only other problem for the Bears.  They have to get that third
line on the ice.  Playing two lines does not make it against the
better ECAC teams.  Fatigue becomes a factor.  The woman of the
match had the be Brown's first line.  Kellar, King and Gorton are
a fantastic line.  Kellar has a great, heavy shot.  She also has some
of the best anticipation on the team.  If there is half a chance,
Kellar's got it.  King is the power forward.  Her speed, touch
and smarts lets her dominate the game.  King is a great player
who appears to be getting even better.  Gorton has the speed and
finesse to do anything.  Last night she again impressed me with some
of her defensive back-checking.  Gorton is such a smart player with
the puck and off the puck.  Together those three are playing magni-
ficiently.  The play of the game occurred when King hit Gorton for a
break out play.  Gorton carried the puck up ice and closed in on the
Harvard goal with great speed and looking like she was going to shoot.
Instead, at the last second, Gorton cuts the puck back and across to
the speeding and wide open King.  King just shot wide, but what a
play!  Meanwhile, the second line featured Solari and Boudreau.
On any other evening, I would have picked Solari as woman of the
match.  She has such great speed and just looks so good taking the
play up the gut.  Solari is an elegant player with all the moves.
Boudreau also had a good game.  She showed very good speed and pulled
off some lovely moves.  The thing I enjoyed most last night was
getting to see a real attack again.  Brown was using a number of
offensive sets, but their angular runs, where the puck carrier goes
wide, while the two other forwards slant to the net was thrilling
stuff.  Coach "Digits" has brought together a super bunch of skilled
players, and they are a delight to watch.  Merci beau coup!!!
 
Harvard showed themselves to be the team I knew they were.  They have
been getting some good results, but in the process have not done the
development of skills that the players need.  The result: reaching
doesn't make it against a skating team.  In many ways this match was
a coaching loss.  When you only play three defenders, sooner or later,
and often, its going to catch up with you.  The energy factor and range
of plays you can run are too low.  The outstanding player for the
Crimson was goalie Erin Villiotte.  She made half a dozen saves/play
break ups that would have resulted in easy goals in the first period
alone.  Villiotte got no help from her defense.  Even though she had
kept her team in the game, she was pulled at the start of the third.
Stupid.  Jen Bowdoin, who has shutouts this year against Boston
College and Yale, came in and looked pretty good.  She did not face
the real Brown team, and her defenders played better in front of
her than they had for Villiotte.  Calagione had a big night.  She was
showing some drive and creating scoring chances.  If she could keep
her feet moving, she could be the offensive leader.  Diana Clark and
Jenny Duval were the only two forwards who kept their heads and played
their games.  They played some good two-way hockey and showed some
fair skating.  Overall, this games shows how far Harvard has to go to
play with the big teams.  Without the skill develop, I do not look
for much improvement.
 
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 good shooting
 rhun
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