Brown's Mike Meech '05 was named ECACHL Player of the Week Monday, after helping Brown to a weekend sweep of Yale and Princeton. The wins improved Brown's ECACHL record to 6-5-2 (11-6-3 overall), bumping the team up into a tie for sixth place.
Friday against Yale, Meech led the Bears to a 5-3 win with his first career hat trick. He tied the game at 1 with his first goal, then broke a 3-3 tie with what proved to be the game-winning goal.
"Yale has not been having a good season, but they've turned it around the last few games," Meech said. "They play an up-tempo style and jump their D-men up into the play. That creates a lot of chances for us, and we were ready for them."
Brown's scoring opportunities this weekend mainly came on power plays. The team's seven power play goals this weekend raised its percentage from 15 to 20.2 percent. "We've had two freshmen playing on the power play. For freshmen to step in and contribute in such a big way has been great," Meech said.
Head Coach Roger Grillo adjusted the personnel on the power play unit, adding first-year Jeff Prough into the front line with Meech and captain Les Haggett '05.
"Prough knocked down a clearing attempt by the Yale defender," Meech said. "There was a loose puck and he got taken out (of the play), but he got me the puck and was able to walk in from the wall and beat the goalie up high."
The next night against Princeton, Meech scored on the power play to give the Bears a 2-1 lead late in the first period.
"Our team started off really strong at Princeton," Meech said. "Chris Swon ('05) had a good game. He's on my line. We had some good even-strength chances. And freshman Chris Poli joined the line. Poli can shoot well, and hopefully I can get him some passes and scoring chances."
Meech's scoring on the weekend made him the team leader with 18 points, including nine goals.
"Coming in this year as a senior, I was more confident," Meech said. "And I've been getting more ice time, and playing on the first unit on the power play."
Meech says that after the season is over, he'd like to continue playing hockey professionally, noting that four players from last year's team made the jump. "There are a lot of different leagues, but hopefully the NHL will be back up next year," he said.
Meech talked about how this year's Brown team is different from last season's squad.
"We're a little more offense-minded than last year, but pretty much the same," Meech said. "(Last year) everyone said Brown was just a goalie, just a team carried by the Hobey Baker candidate (Yann Danis '04), and now we've been doing nearly as well defensively," he said, crediting the strong play of freshman goalie Adam D'Alba '08 and the solid defense in front of him.
The Bears will need their defense this weekend when they host Vermont on Friday and Dartmouth on Saturday at Meehan Auditorium. The Catamounts and the Big Green are the two teams directly in front of the Bears in the ECACHL standings. The puck drops at 7 p.m. for both games.
