Friday night at Bright, the Brown Bears and Harvard Crimson showed
each other a ton of respect, but showed the fans very little.  In the
end, a draw seemed the perfect result, as neither team would commit
enough force to the attack to go out and win the match.
 
Harvard scored first when Tom Holmes (Sean McCann, Marco Ferrari)
drilled a shot into the top corner, off a centering pass from behind
the net.  In the second period, Brown tied the match when Kelly Jones
(Mark Fabbro, Brendan Whittet) tipped up and in a trickling shot from
the point.  The Crimson regained the lead on a power-play off a
blast from the point by Ben Coughlin (Holmes, Gustafson).  In the
third period, the Bears tied it at 2 when Ryan Mulhern (Mike Flynn)
finished off an excellent rush with a quick shot from the slot.
Harvard took the lead again when Coughlin (Steve Martins) put home
his drive from a face-off.  Brown even things up, when Mulhern
(Jones, Brian Jardine) tipped in a blast from the point, on
a power-play.  There was no more scoring.
 
I thought Brown played a good game.  They are a talented team.
If they were to emphasis offense more, I belive they would win many
more games, like the one last night.  I particularly liked their
puck movement on their power-play.  The line of Fabbro, Chris Kaban,
and Jones is real good.  At times they pressed the Crimson.  The line
of Kim Hannah, Mike Noble, and Tony Martino can also play.  On
defense, I liked Ron Smitko, for his reads and intelligent play, and
Mike Traggio for his movement and shot.  Geoff Finch had a good game
in goal, and has a very good glove hand.  A little more attack and
these guys could take their basic plan and go places.
 
The good news for the other teams in the ECAC is Harvard is in a
panic early in the season.  There may be other reasons, but for
the first time I saw long-time JV coach Kevin Hempe behind the
bench last night, working with the defenders.  Harvard went with
a shoot and chase it offense.  Actually, they went with a check-
check-check style of play, and hope for something good to happen.
I miss you angular offense.  The match in many ways seemed like a
pinball game, sons wizard.  The Crimson were without defenders
Ashlin Halfnight, Derek Maguire and forwards Perry Cohagan and
Jason Karmanos.  Marco Ferrari got his shifts on defense last
night and looked fairly good.  Kirk Nielsen was the strongest
attacker, and had the most creative spirit.  Tom Holmes played
a great game.  He used his speed well to opening up paths to the
net.  The outstanding players for the Crimson were Bryan Lonsinger
and Lou Body.  Without those two defenders, Harvard would have
lost the match.  Time and time again they made the big play.
Lonsinger's last second blocking of shots in the third period
and OT saved them.  Overall, the Crimson looked tired.  Too
much practice?  The play of the whole team is tentative and
static.  Ah, waiting for OT, what a creative concept.  The
power-play, which I was looking forward to, after last weekends
reports from the finger lakes, was anything but deadly.  This team
has gone in its shell early.  They have the skills to play, if
only they have the psyche to push it forward.
 
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 good shooting
 rhun
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