Friday night at Meehan Auditorium in Providence, the Brown Women fell to
the league-leading Cornell Big Red by a score of 3-0.
The scoreless first period featured a lot of play in the neutral zone
early and a big offensive effort by Cornell. Brown applied some pressure
early in the period, but the Cornell D was effective in clearing the slot
and bringing it back down the Brown zone. The middle 10 minutes was one
of the poorest shows of Brown defense that I've seen this season--I don't
think they won any face-offs in their end, and they just weren't
challenging the Cornell puckhandlers at all. On top of this the offense
was not very aggressive when they did finally break out. Fortunately Brown
goalie Ali Brewer was competent in goal and held the score at 0-0 to the
end of the period.
In the second Brown came out stronger, showing more energy on the
offensive side. A string of Cornell penalties helped the effort, but
Cornell netminder Alana Hayes was solid in net. Both teams' penalty kill
looked very good this evening, although in general the Brown D continued
to struggle. At 7:46 of the second, Cornell forward Danielle Bilodeau shot
from the right point, and Brewer made the stop but couldn't control the
rebound. With Brewer vulnerable, Alison Stewart knocked it in to put
Cornell up 1-0. The Brown defense really needs to work on clearing the
puck out from in front of the net and controlling the rebounds. Otherwise
this will be a big problem for the team this season.
In the third Brown tried to make a few good efforts but they were simply
outmanuvered by Cornell. At 13:15 Cornell's Jill Hannah passed the puck
from behind the Brown goal (left), across to Jennifer Turner waiting in
front of the goal, who flipped it over Brewer's left shoulder. Brewer
didn't have a chance on this one--a nice play by Cornell. Down 2-0,
Brewer was pulled with 1:17 left but Brown couldn't convert the 6 on 5
opportunity. Cornell's Robin Thompson tallied the empty-netter with 28
seconds left with a well-placed shot from her own blue line to lock in the
win.
Brown's heart did not seem to be in this game. Although on paper they
performed reasonably well (they were beating Cornell to the puck more
often than not), there just didn't seem to be any inspiration in the Brown
offense. Play in the neutral zone was poor tonight--Brown was not skating
(literally) and was getting clobbered by the Big Red. They need to be less
tentative on offense and try and create more action around the net.
Cornell has the makings of a league-leading team this season. Alana Hayes
played very solidly in goal, even if the Bears didn't seem to make very
many challenging shots. They're quick and their defense is very tight.
As long as they keep the pressure on on offense, they should be a
contender.
Brown needs some help on defense. They need to get the puck into the
corners more and take some of the pressure off of Brewer. Also with the
loss of leadership on the offensive line to graduation or the Olympics,
they'll need to be less tentative and try to get more shots on goal. With
the defense in the state it's currently in they'll need to generate more
scoring opportunities in the other end.
With the loss Brown falls to 1-2, Cornell ups its record to 4-1 (?). Brown
takes on St. Lawrence tomorrow at home at 7:00PM, also with a live
RealAudio broadcast (see the URL below).
-Brian
Unofficial Brown Hockey web page: http://www.netspace.org/users/bfisk/hockey
-----
November 22, 1997
Meehan Auditorium
Official Box Score (w/ corrected error in Goaltending)
Cornell 3 Brown 0
------------------
1 2 3 Total
------------------
Cornell 0 1 2 3
Brown 0 0 0 0
First Period:
-------------
Scoring:
NONE
Penalties:
B- JONES (charging) 17:20
Second Period:
--------------
Scoring:
C- STEWART (Bilodeau) 7:46
Penalties:
C- DAIGGER (holding) 1:20
B- LONG (high-sticking) 4:26
C- KEMP (interference) 11:15
C- PATE (interference) 13:09
C- BILODEAU (holding) 18:37
Third Period:
-------------
Scoring:
C- TURNER (Hannah) 13:15
C- THOMPSON (unassisted) 19:32 ENG
Penalties:
C- PATE (cross-checking) 5:59
B- ABEL (tripping) 7:54
Goaltending:
------------
B- Ali Brewer (58:43, 25 saves)
C- Alanna Hayes (60:00, 28 saves)
Shots on Goal:
--------------
1 2 3 Total
------------------
C- 14 4 10 28
B- 9 10 9 28
-- Brian Fisk * [log in to unmask] * http://www.netspace.org/users/bfisk --
You're not going crazy, you're going sane in a crazy world!
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