OK, so I'm a little late... :-) But here is another perspective on
Saturday's game.
 
Brown opened the scoring early in the first when Melissa Rennison, parked
in front umarked,  got the feed from Jill Graat and beat Alicia Roberts
down low at 2:15.  Play continued back and forth for most of the period,
although Brown was looking a little sloppy and UNH was starting to come
alive. Tina Carrabba got a power play goal at 17:49 when she aired one
from the left point that sailed past Ali Brewer's glove. Richard
Hungerford said it was deflected but I didn't see it -- it looked like she
just misjudged it from my point of view (in line with the shot).
 
Kari Wilson got the gamewinner for UNH at 2:26. Parked at the right side
of the crease without any challenge from the Brown defense, she swatted
one toward Brewer.  She made the stop, but Wilson was able to knock the
rebound home.
 
Brown looked tired already, and the injuries to the team started to show
their effect -- front-liner Marcie Deering was undressed after a knee
injury Friday night, and Brewer was reportedly playing with an injured
hamstring. On top of this defenseman Jaime Abel limped to the bench midway
through the period, which didn't help matters much. Brown applied some
offensive pressure halfway through but caught some unlucky breaks, and
Roberts was solid in goal. Kerry Maher got the insurance goal when she
took a long pass in from the blue line, skated around an injured Jaime
Abel (who apparently was out for one last go at it), and beat Brewer on
the glove side at 18:18.
 
With Abel out Brown's first line was entirely dismantled for the third
period since Tamra Jones had to be pulled back. They generally looked
weary while UNH was playing some fine hockey. Melissa McKenzie scored for
UNH on the powerplay at 4:32 when she batted in a high one from Carrabba.
The Brown contingent of fans screamed for a high stick but on the replay
(which was unavailable to the referee) it looked good (though borderline).
Although Brown had the advantage of a string of favorable power plays
during the remainder of the period, they couldn't capitalize. In the end I
was not ashamed to applaud UNH as well as my preferred team, as they
played the clearly superior game. Congratulations!
 
The FleetCenter was a nice venue given its size. Granted it doesn't have
the intimacy of most college rinks, but the views were fairly good. It was
nice to see a (relatively) sizable group of fans there for the Final. It
was almost surreal to see a women's match there. Thank you everyone for
coming!
 
I was sad to see Brown play poorly in the final but they were beat up
after Friday's grueling win over Northeastern and caught some bad breaks
on Saturday. It was too bad we didn't see a more competitive match.  I
agreed with the All-Tournament team in general and certainly the Brown
picks -- Ali Brewer was wonderful to watch as always (as a crack goalie I
especially enjoy it), Cara Gardner played well on defense and Carly
Regnier is always working hard at forward, as she showed with two goals on
Friday.
 
Similarly Stephanie Acres was dazzling for Northeastern on Friday and the
UNH pics (Winny Brodt, Brandy Fisher and Nicki Luongo) were a pleasure as
well. I also look forward to excitement from Carrabba and first-year
Michelle Thornton in the coming seasons.
 
Even after missing on Saturday, Brown had a great season and I'm looking
forward to next year!
 
 
 
Unofficial Brown Hockey web page: http://www.netspace.org/users/bfisk/hockey
 
--                                                                        --
Brian Fisk                                                [log in to unmask]
 
Brown Women's Hockey: 1998 ECAC Champions!
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.