Brown played two excellent games this weekend, defeating Vermont on
Friday night by a score of 4 to 2, and blanking Dartmouth 5 to 0 last
night. The victory over Dartmouth gives Brown its second Ivy League
title in the past four years. Combined with Clarkson's two losses, the
sweep by Brown returns the Bears to first place (tied with Clarkson)
in the tight ECAC race.
 
Brown looked impressive in both games, combining excellent defense
with opportunistic scoring. Goaltender Mike Parsons was outstanding.
The penalty-killing units performed extremely well, allowing no
power-play goals, while scoring two short-handed goals.
 
As I expected the game against Vermont was a dandy. Vermont is a well-
coached team with a great deal of talent, particularly on offense. I was
impressed that they refused to quit even after Brown had built 3 to 0
and 4 to 1 leads. The Vermont players skated and pressed hard until the
final buzzer.
 
It was interesting to watch Eric Perrin and Martin St. Louis. They are
very exciting and creative offensive players. Nevertheless they lack
the defensive ability of some of the other top forwards in the league,
such as Brown's Ryan Mulhern or Harvard's Steve Martins. Mulhern, in
particular, is probably as good a defensive player as he is an
offensive player. He's out there both when Brown needs a goal and
wants to protect a lead. He's outstanding in the power play, and
totally dependable as a penalty-killer. Yet, I wouldn't be surprised
if, because of their impressive offensive statistics, Perrin and St.Louis
were picked ahead of Mulhern when post-season honors are announced.
Complete players like Mulhern play both ends of the ice, and in so
doing, they sacrifice some offense for the good of the team. At this stage
in their careers Perrin and St. Louis are far from being complete players.
They could be helping Vermont more if they paid a bit more attention
to the defensive part of the game.
 
Talking about complete players, there's no question in my mind that
the best defensive forward in the ECAC is Brown's Eric Trach. And,
yes, he's also pretty good offensively. Just ask Ryan Mulhern.
 
Dartmouth demonstrated a lot of character, giving the Bears all they
could handle for two periods. In the end Brown proved to be more
skilled -- faster, quicker, and better at the transition game.
Dartmouth is, however, a team to be reckoned with, as its
victory at Harvard clearly indicates. The bottom line is that there
are no truly weak teams in the ECAC this year. Dartmouth may be in
last place, but the Big Green is definitely not a bad team. If they make
the playoffs, they could do some damage.
 
Next weekend Brown has a difficult road trip to New York State, playing
at Union College on Friday evening and Rensselaer on Saturday evening.
 
Luiz F. Valente