With last Saturday's 4-3 victory at Northeastern, the Brown Bears posted a
4-1-3 record in January and are now poised to make a strong return to ECAC
play this weekend when they host Union and R. P. I. at  Meehan Auditorium.
Despite playing 14 of their first 19 games on the road, the Bears are still
in a good position for the stretch run which will determine whether they
can nail down a home ice berth in the ECAC Championship Tournament for the
4th straight year.  Brown starts the weekend one point behind R.P.I. and 4
points ahead of Union in the ECAC standings.  The Bears have lost only to
Vermont (2-5) over their last ten games and played both R.P.I. (4-1 victory
at Houston Field House) and Union (2-2 overtime tie at Achilles Rink)
during that string.
 
The Skating Dutchmen arrive at Meehan following a 10-0 thrashing of the Air
Force Academy last Sunday.  Brown fans can only hope that that outburst of
goal production did not awaken a latent offense because Bears witnessed a
spectacular goaltending performance by Trevor Koenig in their first
encounter three weeks ago, and if the Union snipers start to find the
range, that could be an awesome combination.
 
On Saturday, the Bears will meet an Engineer squad that is riding a
two-victory sweep over travel partner Union on the past two weekends.  This
is another team that needs to be handled very carefully so as not to awake
their offense before the season's over -- Memo to Harvard:  Do not shake,
rattle or roll the Chery & White tonight.
 
As I said three weeks ago, and it still holds true, for the Bears to
succeed this weekend, they will have to find a way to harness the Skating
Dutchmen's Reid Simonton and the Engineers' Bryan Richardson.  Two weekends
ago in the Capital District, those were the only two players to solve
Brown's goaler, Jeff Holowaty.  As for the Bears, freshmen fowards Paul
Giblin and Dustin Sventy are beginning to take regular shifts in a line-up
depleted by the unfortunate season-ending injury to freshman center Jade
Kersey (Broken ankle/fibula @ Union).  Kersey had really begun to help the
team with his scoring on both the power play and on the first line; he will
certainly be missed.  Both Sventy and Giblin have already made significant
contributions to the Brown offense and appear to have solid potential for
the future.
 
The Bears have an opportunity to overtake and put some distance between
themselves and R. P. I. this weekend as well as make a resounding statement
about their intention to break out of the middle of the ECAC pack and into
the battle for seeded playoff position.  Neither Union or R. P. I. will go
gently into the night, but with this first home weekend in nearly a month
(and only the third since last November 17-18), Brown may now begin to reap
some of the rewards of being able to perform in a friendly building as well
as utilize some of the mental toughness acquired during the extended
schedule of visits to hostile arenas.  BTW, the Bears have two more home
weekends at Magificent Meehan during the month of February, so the pendulum
may be headed the other way.  As Brian Morris says: "It's a new year."
And with the pivotal portion of the season beginning, I couldn't agree
more.  We'll see which teams end up with *happy* new years.
 
 
Bill Corrigan
 
LET'S GO BRUNO!
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.