In a sparsely attended game this afternoon at Northeastern's Matthews
Arena, the fourth-seeded Brown Bears upset the third-seeded Big Green of
Dartmouth by a score of 3-1. Looking back I'm also inclined to agree with
hungerf's assessment that this was kind of a dull game to watch, but it
offered a peek of what to expect from Bruno tomorrow.
I thought Brown came out of the locker room looking like the stronger
team, but got out of sync midway through when the Green took over.
Dartmouth opened the scoring midway through the first when Liz Macri
took a shot from the right point. Jordan Jiskra dove to try and block the
shot but missed (too early) and the shot went cleanly past netminder Ali
Brewer's left pad. She may have been screened on the play, but in any case
DC was up 1-0. Jessica Clark and Kristin Romberg got the assists.
It looked like the period would end with that score as Bruno got it
together again near the end of the period, until Christina Sorbara took a
shot from the slot and the rebound bounced left to a waiting Jordan
Jiskra, who poked it home to knot the score at one apiece at 19:42. Carly
Regnier also got the assist here.
In the second period Brown found its rhythm and largely dominated the
period, although Dartmouth would put some pressure on with glimpes of
their speedy potential. Early in the period the "fiery" Julie Iler drove
into the Dartmouth zone down the left side and took the shot on Megan
Cahill. The rebound went to the right, and somehow Iler appeared deep in
the zone to scoop up the puck and put it top-shelf from a tough angle for
the eventual gamewinner at 4:14. Regnier and Sorbara also got the assist
here.
Finally the third featured more of the same. Marcie Deering would score
Brown's insurance goal at 6:11 when she skated down the left wing, across
in front of the net and beat Cahill handily into the right side,
unassisted. Brown played conservative defense for the rest of the game and
they held on for the priviledge of facing top-seeded UNH tomorrow in the
final.
Dartmouth is a speedy team that was well qualified to play in the
tournament. Once they got the puck they could put some good first efforts
on Ali Brewer but were having trouble keeping their drives alive. I
particuarly like the all-freshman line of Lauren Trottier-Kristina
Guarino-Jen Wiehn. They showed a lot of potential and worked together
fairly well. Guarino is particularly speedy and caused trouble on the
breakaways. Look for the Green to be back with a vengance next year, even
if they are losing a good hunk of their roster to graduation.
Brown played well enough today but will have to step it up tomorrow to
score the goals. The offense didn't astound me, but it hasn't really all
year. Yet they manage to get the job done. The defense however was
moving nicely and should keep them in the game tomorrow vs. offensive
powerhouse UNH. First-year Cara Gardner played very well today -- she
made a lot of nice defensive moves and seemed to have her wits about her.
She will be a big benefit to the Brown D over the course of her career.
Tomorrow, of course, marks the first time Brown will go to the ECAC Finals
in recent history (ever?), and ironically as the #4 seed instead of the #1
seed as in the last three years. The puck drops again at 2:00PM at
Matthews.
--
March 14, 1998
Matthews Arena
ECAC Semifinal Match
Unofficial Box Score (from notes)
Brown 3 Dartmouth 1
-------------------
1 2 3 Total
------------------
Dartmouth 1 0 0 1
Brown 1 1 1 3
First Period:
-------------
Scoring:
DC- MACRI (Clark, Romberg) 8:06
BRN- JISKRA (Sorbara, Regnier) 19:42
Penalties:
none
Second Period:
--------------
Scoring:
BRN- ILER (Regnier, Sorbara) 4:14
Penalties:
BRN- JISKRA (interference) 4:40
DC- O'KEEFE (holding) 9:56
BRN- McKENNA (hitting after the whistle) 16:55
DC- ROMBERG (hitting after the whistle) 16:55
Third Period:
-------------
Scoring:
BRN- DEERING (unassisted) 6:11
Penalties:
BRN- GARDNER (hitting from behind) 10:45
DC- MACRI (roughing) 13:13
Shots on Goal:
--------------
BRN- 15 19 12 -- 36
DC- 8 12 15 -- 35
Goaltending:
------------
BRN- Ali Brewer (60:00, 34 saves)
DC- Meaghan Cahill (59:30, 33 saves)
-- --
Brian Fisk [log in to unmask]
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