The women's ice hockey team (1-2-1) opened up Eastern College Athletic Conference play by splitting its two road games over the weekend, falling 5-1 to RPI on Friday before bouncing back for a solid 4-1 win over Union on Saturday.
Coming off of an impressive 2-2 tie with national power St. Cloud State, the Bears were feeling confident heading into conference play, but the team struggled in all aspects against RPI. Brown was outshot 54-8 by the Engineers, and the Bears committed six penalties in the game, allowing RPI to score two goals on power play opportunities.
"We're a physical team, we play physical in practice and we bring that to games," said captain and Herald Sports Staff Writer Nicole Stock '09. "They were a quick team, so our physical style combined with the fact that we came out sluggish ended up in us getting called for a lot of penalties."
Despite their struggles, the Bears were in the game early thanks to some impressive saves by Stock, who made a season-high 49 stops on the night. Midway through the first period, the Bears won a faceoff in their own zone, and Maggie Suprey '11 was able to carry the puck up the ice on a breakaway and beat the Engineers' goalkeeper for her second career goal to give the Bears a 1-0 lead. Just a few minutes later, RPI scored two goals just minutes apart to retake the lead, and Brown was unable to generate enough offense to return the favor. The Bears were unable to register another shot on goal in the first period, and headed into the first intermission down 2-1.
"We couldn't really get anything going," said Sasha Van Muyen '10. "We had trouble getting the puck out of the zone."
The Bears continued to struggle offensively for the rest of the game, getting outshot 18-5 in the second period and 17-2 in the third. RPI scored two more goals in the second period, including its second power-play goal of the game, and added another score with only 45 seconds left in the game to hand the Bears a 5-1 loss.
"We came out sluggish," Stock said. "We didn't have nearly as much intensity and enthusiasm as we did against St. Cloud State."
The Bears used the loss as motivation for improvement in Saturday's game against Union, and Bruno came out looking like a different team, going on the offensive attack early and often.
"(Head Coach Digit Murphy) really got us fired up before the game," Stock said. "She made sure we brought intensity right from the start and that we kept it up throughout the game."
Brown drew a penalty on the home team just 18 seconds into the game, and the Bears executed their power play to perfection, passing the puck around the perimeter to assistant captain Andrea Hunter '10, who slid the puck over to Paige Pyett '12 at the point. Pyett blasted a shot from the right circle past the Dutchwomen goalie to give the Bears a 1-0 lead just 38 seconds into the game.
"On offense we did a good job of taking more shots and looking to the net more; we didn't get caught up in trying to make a fancy play," Van Muyen said. "We played a lot more like a team. We were really working together instead of trying too hard to do things on our own, which happened a bit in the RPI game. Overall, we were more focused and more relaxed, and we all came ready to play."
Later in the period, Brown showed off its penalty-killing ability by keeping Union off of the board after being called for holding, and with 6:37 remaining, Pyett scored her second goal of the game off of another blast from up top, this time from the top of the left circle, to take a 2-0 lead. Amanda Asay '10 and Jacquie Pierri '12 assisted on the goal for their first points of the season.
Brown struck again early in the second period, as Van Muyen knocked in a rebound off of a blast by Savannah Smith '09 to give the Bears a commanding 3-0 lead just 1:39 into the period.
"Sav took the shot and we both drove the net and I was able to get a stick on it and put it in," Van Muyen said. "That was something we did well as a team all game, we drove the net hard and got rebounds."
With 11:52 left in the period, the Bears converted on another hard shot to the net, as Skyelar Siwak '12 deflected a shot from Jaclyn Small '11 into the goal to make the score 4-0. The goal was the third of the game by a freshman, and the class of 2012 also chipped in with an assist on the night. The Bears have been impressed with the contributions of their young players so far this season.
"The freshmen have really stepped in and stepped up right away," Van Muyen said. "As they get more experience and more playing time, they're just going to get better, which is going to be good for us down the road."
Union was able to score a late power-play goal to prevent Stock from getting her first shutout of the season and make the final score 4-1. After averaging over 47 saves per game through the first three games of the season, Stock only had to make 19 stops in the Bears' first conference win.
"It was great to see us really dominate another team and get to take a break from the action," Stock said.
This weekend Brown hits the ice at home for the first time this season, when the team takes on Clarkson at 7 p.m. at Meehan Auditorium on Friday and No. 9 St. Lawrence at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
"The biggest thing we need to do is play smart, put the puck in smart places and be strong on our feet," Stock said. "Clarkson and St. Lawrence are two really good teams, and we want to come out and prove we can compete with them."
