Well, the score says it all.  Two overtimes, and Princeton in a
nail-biter.
 
The game was a hard-fought, tight-checking battle of blood and guts and
great goaltending and as it turned out, Princeton came out on top.
Despite being a Brown student and having my emotions crushed when
Princeton finally won (Emotions were too high and low for me to know
either who scored for Princeton or the Brown defender he beat in front
of the net), this was easily the best game of college hockey I've ever
seen.
 
Both Brian Audette of Brown and James(?) Konte of Princeton were
outstanding between the pipes, turning away opportunity after
opportunity in the 3rd period and 1st overtime.  They played these 40
minutes without any goals being scored, and not for lack of strong
scoring chances.  The defense was tight, as evidenced that neither team
had more than 33 shots, despite playing into a second OT, but almost all
of the shots taken were quality scoring chances.
 
Brown jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when Ryan Mulhern knocked in a
goal on Brown's first 4-3 advantage of the game.  Princeton came back
and scored two straight to jump ahead 2-1 before Brown picked up another
4-3 advantage and freshman John DiRenzo knocked in the puck during a
scramble in front of the net after shots by Brian Jardine and Tony
Martino.  After this point, neither team was able to beat the opposing
goalie until a Princeton player, floating at the blue line behind one
Brown dfenseman, was able t beat the other defenseman and then go 5-hole
on Brian Audette as he went down, and Princeton frenzied in the glory of
their first ever trip to Lake Placid for the ECAC Final Four.
 
Though the losing goalie, Brian Audette deserves more credit than any
other single player on the Brown team.  As a sophmore starting only his
first three league games ever, he led Brown to victory in the final
regular season game, giving them second place in the league, and then
another victory in game two of the Princeton series, forcing this game.
After playing back-up all year to Mike Parsons, who played spectacularly
this season until faltering late, Audette proved to every spectator at
the game that he has the ability to be a top-notch Division I goalie.
After giving up the final goal, too, Audette showed nothing but class
and grace in not making a scene as some players would after losing a
game of this magnitude.  Instead, he simply shoke hands with all of the
Princeton players, wished them well, and moved into the locker room to
the approving cheers of "Audette! Audette!" coming from the Brown
cheering section.
 
My hat off to Brian Audette for playing his heart out with true
Brunonian spirit, and also to Brown seniors Mike Traggio, Patrick
Thompson, Eric Trach, Tony Martino, Jeff Reschney, and Kim Hannah who,
along with last year's graduating class, have played a key role in
turning Brown hockey from the worst program in the country to a force to
be reckoned with in the East.
 
David Blackurn
Brown University '98
 
A final note: The first period featured 96 minutes in penalties, along
with 5 or 6 misconducts.  This was partly the result of the
high-spirited play of the two teams, but also the result of some
ridiculouly over-zealous calls by the refs, who managed to botch many
calls throughout the game.  However, this was a non-factor in the
outcome of the game, as the refs were unbiased in their horrific
play-calling.