Brown and second-ranked Cornell battled through a throughly entertaining
match-up and two lead changes to end in a 2-2 deadlock before 2,533 partisan
fans (from both teams) at Meehan Auditorium tonight.  Both teams played
uptempo and emotional hockey and neither team gained a clear-cut advantage
during the contest.  The long-anticipated duel between the Bears' junior
goaler, Yann Danis, and the Big Red's sophomore netminder, Dave LeNeveu,
alone was worth the price of admission, with Danis making a total of 44
saves, more than twice the number required of LeNeveu.  Brown junior forward
Brent Robinson, assisted by senior defenseman Paul Esdale and junior
defenseman Scott Ford, scored a powerplay goal at 12:13 of the second period
to take the first lead, and sophomore forward Les Haggett, on assists from
senior forward Keith Kirley and Brent Robinson, created the 2-2 tie at 15:52
of the third period after Cornell had taken a 2-1 lead at 11:08 of the final
stanza.

    Thus, after they had lost a chance to take an extra point home from the
Capital District last Saturday when an RPI Engineer dumped a seemingly
harmless puck into the slot from a scrum along the left dasher board and saw
the disc carom off a Bear skate with 7.1 seconds left in the overtime
session for a most improbable (read lucky) 4-3 victory, the Bears gain that
elusive point a week later against the conference leader.  Some would say
tonight was a payback by the hockey gods for the distress endured by the
Bears on Big Red Freakout Night at the Houston Field House (attendance:
5070), but whatever, Brown played a controlled and solid game this evening
against a very-skilled opponent and deserved the reward for holding their
own in a crucial encounter.

    The critical gain of one point propels the Bears into a three-way tie
(with Dartmouth and Union) for 4th place in the ECAC standings.  For the Big
Red, the result left them one point ahead of Harvard in the race for the
regular season ECAC championship and sent Cornell to the Bright Center
tomorrow night with a must-win situation (to retain first place) against a
Crimson team on a three-game winning streak.

SCORING:
    Brown       0  1  1  0  = 2
    Cornell      0  1  1  0  = 2

PENALTIES:
    Brown       3/6
    Cornell      2/4

POWER PLAYS:
    Brown       1/3
    Cornell      0/2

SAVES:
    Danis (Brown)        14  12  11  7 = 44  (2 GA)
    LeNeveu (Cornell)    6    8    6  1 = 21  (2 GA)


    The Bears, now 6-1-1 at Meehan this season, host the always-troublesome
Colgate Raiders tomorrow evening, with the 'Gate arriving after absorbing a
7-0 blanking at Harvard tonight.  This promises to be still another test of
the Bears' mettle as they strive to post a three-point gain from the weekend
pairings and beat a team that posted a 3-0 shutout against them at Starr
Rink back in November.


Bill Corrigan

LET'S GO BRUNO!