Brown exploded for four goals in the first ten minutes of the opening
period and added two more in the third to defeat Merrimack, 6-2, at Meehan
Auditorium tonight.  The victory was the Bears' first non-conference win of
the season and broke the offensive drought that had plagued Brown during its
0-2-3 run in previous out-of-conference games.

    The Bears' opening goal came at 1:59 after Brown had peppered Warrior
sophomore goaltender Casey Guenther with four consecutive shots on the same
offensive foray.  Brown senior forward Pascal Denis clicked on the 5th shot
from short-range while a delayed penalty was being signaled on Merrimack.
Freshman forward Brian Ihnacak, stationed in the slot, made the score 2-0 at
4:17 when he took a centering pass from senior forward Nick Ringstad and
fired the puck past Guenther before the goaler was able to cover.  On a Bear
power play, Ihnacak set up senior forward Brent Robinson on the doorstep
with a pinpoint pass from the bottom of the left face-off circle at 6:12.
Then, junior defenseman Paul Crosty finished the onslaught at 9:34 by
unloading a backhand shot as he skated laterally across the crease in front
of the Merrimack net.

    The Warriors responded at 13:57 of the first period on a Bear misplay as
Ringstad attempted to flip a loose puck from the slot in front of Brown
senior goalie Yann Danis to the end board, but the disc ended up in the
crease instead and was quickly tipped home by Merrimack senior forward Tim
Reidy.

    After a scoreless second period, the Bears' junior forward Les Haggett
widened the Brown lead to 5-1 as he buried a rebound on Guenther's stick
side during a power play at 5:45 off an initial shot by Robinson and a
subsequent feed from senior defenseman Vice Macri.  Reidy then notched
Merrimack's second goal at 16:30 with a backhand shot into the left side of
the net after picking up the rebound of a slapper from the right point.
Brown junior forward Chris Swon closed out the scoring off an odd-man rush
at 19:38 as he swept through the slot and deposited a nifty backhander into
the corner of the net as he passed the left post.  Denis and freshman
forward Sean Dersch collected assists on the goal.

    After the initial burst of Brown scoring, the Warriors turned up their
intensity level but were frustrated by Danis in the Bear goal until the
outcome of the game had been all but assured.  The Bears performed well over
the course of the game, challenging the Merrimack players for puck control
in all three zones.  Also, Brown consistently unloaded the puck with a
precise pass before being checked, rather than attempting to find a teammate
after a Warrior had contested possession.

    Brown improves its overall record to 10-5-4 (9-3-1 ECAC) and will travel
to Tsongas Arena to meet the UMass-Lowell River Hawks on Saturday evening at
7:00 p.m.  The Lowell game will complete the Bears' out-of-conference
schedule.


SCORING:
Brown           4  0  2  =  6
Merrimack     1  0  1  =  2

PENALTIES:
Brown           6/12 min.
Merrimack     7/14 min.

POWER PLAYS:
Brown           2/7
Merrimack     0/7

SAVES:
Danis (Brown)              6  9  10  =  25
Guenther (Merrimack)  7  6    7  =  20


Bill Corrigan

LET'S GO BRUNO!