The women's hockey team was shut out twice over Thanksgiving week by tough Hockey East opponents. After a sloppy 4-0 defeat to the Connecticut Huskies (9-6-2) in Storrs, Conn., on Tuesday, Brown (2-9-1) lost the battle for the Mayor's Cup to cross-city rival Providence College (7-6-2), 1-0, on Saturday at Meehan Auditorium.
"It's becoming a challenge for us to score goals," said Head Coach Digit Murphy. "I'm disappointed with our power play's production ... and it's something that we have been working on, which is even more frustrating. I'm not really sure what to do, except to just keep trying harder and keep working with the combinations."
Tuesday's game was delayed for about 45 minutes by a power outage at Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum, and the Bears struggled from the start. UConn scored a pair of goals in each of the first two periods, including two power play goals. The Huskies' attack was fueled by a 49-17 advantage in shots.
"The first period was slow for us, and we just never really picked it up," said captain and goalie Nicole Stock '09, a Herald sports staff writer. "We're a much better team than we (showed) against UConn. We got outshot, we got outplayed, we got outhustled, outmuscled. I thought that they did a good job of just putting the puck in front of the net and just crashing, and we had a tough time battling, but we let down in the defensive zone a little bit and it cost us a few goals."
The Bears regrouped before facing the Friars and came roaring out of the gate to outshoot them 21-12 in the first period, but missed out on golden opportunities. PC penalties gave Bruno two extended five-on-three advantages, but the Bears could not find the back of the net despite producing 10 shots on the first power play and four on the second. Friars' goalie Genevieve Lacasse made some tough saves by turning aside all 21 shots she faced.
"To have two five-on-threes early in the game, that would have been huge to capitalize on one of those, get the momentum and start picking up some more goals," Stock said. "But it didn't happen, so we have to move on and try to make it better."
On the other side of the ice, the Brown penalty kill suffocated the PC attack over the first two periods, holding the Friars to only six shots during the six-and-half minutes they had the advantage. Murphy said that she tweaked the penalty kill units to insert some new players and rest some of the first-line players. The moves paid off.
"I thought they did a really good job," Murphy said. "I think we're getting more seasoned. I see the team coming together and I think it's hard for them, because they're not getting the results yet, but I can really see them start to gel, so I'm encouraged by that."
Stock said that the key was sticking to the fundamentals.
"We were good at picking up sticks, we picked off a lot of cross-ice passes, got sticks in the lanes," she said. "I thought we did a really nice job of battling on the boards and getting the puck out."
Choosing to use only three lines for most of the game, the Bears were also able to skate with the Friars at even strength, finishing with a 37-33 advantage in shots.
"I thought that the three lines that we put together were pretty formidable," Murphy said. "They were good defensively."
But the Friars finally broke through for a power-play goal early in the third period. In the waning seconds of the advantage, after Brown had cleared the puck, Lacasse slapped a long pass up the ice. PC had been burned on a similar play late in the second when Lacasse's pass caught the Friars in a line change, prompting confusion that resulted in a penalty for too many players on the ice that killed a power play. This time, Lacasse's pass found Katy Beach far up the left side, who took the puck into the middle and beat Stock glove side to give PC a 1-0 lead 3:33 into the final period and just four seconds before the power play was due to expire.
"We can't let people come into, as we call it, our house, and get into the middle of the ice and get shots like that," Stock said. "We made one mistake and it ends up being the game."
But Brown almost tied it on a stunning play as time wound down. With 3:53 left and PC again skating on the power play, Lacasse roamed far out of the crease to try another long pass, but Katelyn Landry '12 picked it off, giving her a golden opportunity to score the first goal of her career. Lacasse dived to make an incredible save, just reaching the puck with the end of her stick to deflect it up into the netting above the glass to preserve the shutout.
"I thought the goalie made a great play," Murphy said. "You have to (tip) your hat to her for even making the dive. I'm sure Landry wants that one back."
Lacasse stopped all 37 shots she faced to beat Stock, who made 32 saves to go along with the 45 she made four nights before against UConn. Maggie Suprey '11 led Brown with eight shots, seven of which came in the first period, followed by Paige Pyett '12 with seven and Sasha Van Muyen '10 with six.
Stock said that the game should serve as a confidence boost for the Bears.
"We were in their face most of the game," she said. "We outshot them. I thought we outplayed them for most of the game. It was definitely good for our team to know that we were in the game. We played really well and it just didn't go our way."
The Bears will return to ECAC Hockey action on Thursday against Yale (4-6-0, 2-4-0) in New Haven, Conn. Murphy said that the offense will need to step up for Brown to improve on their 2-4 conference record in the final game of the fall semester.
