It should have been a cause for celebration for the women's hockey goalie. But on the same weekend that Captain Nicole Stock '09 broke Brown's career saves record, her team suffered a 5-0 loss to Colgate and a 6-0 loss to Cornell at Meehan Auditorium.
"Right now it doesn't feel good, because taking a 5-0 loss isn't exactly the outcome we wanted, but I'm sure in retrospect when I think about it, it will be good," Stock said. "It's just playing every day, and I happened to break some records along the way."
Entering the weekend 38 saves shy of the previous record of 2,490 saves held by Ali Brewer '00, Stock, a Herald Sports Staff Writer, had 45 saves against Colgate on Friday and 43 against Cornell the following day to push her career total to 2,540. Last year, she set school records with 27 saves in a period, 66 in a game and 1,004 in a season.
This record was a source of mixed emotions for Head Coach Digit Murphy after a rough weekend dropped the Bears to 3-16-1 (2-11-0 ECAC Hockey).
"She wouldn't be breaking the record of saves if we had a better team, so I guess the bad news is our team lets up that many shots and the good news is we have a good goalie," Murphy said. "I think she deserves it. She's the kind of kid that, if she played at a different school she might be an Olympian."
The Bears came into the weekend with high hopes. On the previous weekend they had fought hard in a pair of one-goal losses on the road to then-No. 5 St. Lawrence and Clarkson, two of the top five teams in the conference. And in November Brown had lost to Cornell on a goal with eight seconds left in overtime before turning around to beat Colgate, 4-3.
On Friday, after going 13 scoreless minutes, Colgate took a lead it would not relinquish with 6:21 remaining in the first period. The Raiders were whistled for the game's first penalty a minute later, but it was the Bears who were burned on their own power play, as Colgate's Katie Stewart broke away and beat Stock top-shelf for the shorthanded goal to give her team a 2-0 lead.
"I think it sucked some of the wind out of us, but we (have to) bounce back and put that behind us and move on," Stock said. "We have to be better at mentally putting things behind us."
Colgate would go on to notch three more shots during Brown power plays, but Stock stopped all of them. For the weekend, the Raiders and the Big Red combined to outshoot the Bears, 7-6, during Bruno power plays.
Stock made only 11 saves during the first period, but she notched 18 in the second period to bring her within nine saves of the record. Still, Colgate scored twice in the middle of the second frame to open up a 4-0 lead. Erica Kromm '11 came close to putting Brown on the board early in the period, but her shot clanked off the right pipe.
Entering the third period, with the game all but put away for Colgate, the primary question was when Stock would break the record.
Colgate added another goal seven minutes into the period, but Stock set the saves record two minutes later during a Raiders power play by stopping one shot to tie the record and the rebound to break it.
With 1:32 remaining, the Bears appeared to finally get on the scoreboard, but the goal was waived off because the referee ruled that a Brown player used her hand to punch the puck into the goal. Colgate's Lisa Plenderleith made 18 saves to shut out Bruno.
"I think we were just slow from the get-go," Stock said. "We weren't getting on it real quick, we weren't getting the puck in deep (and) we weren't doing the little things that really help you win hockey games. It started in the first period; we got down 2-0 and kind of just never bounced back."
It was more of the same on Saturday, as the Big Red buried the Bears early. Cornell raced out to the lead just 2:37 into the game, scored again three minutes later, and took a 3-0 lead just 10:29 into the frame, on its way to a 19-3 advantage in first period shots.
"They had better players," Murphy said. "Cornell has done a very good job of supporting its women's hockey program. They have several players on the national team that they have been able to attract to Cornell, and it's a good job in their recruiting efforts. They outworked us, and they were better athletes."
The Bears appeared to turn the corner in the second period, taking nine shots, getting 18 saves from Stock, and holding the Big Red scoreless for over 12 minutes, but the lead grew to 4-0 on a beautiful play. Cornell's Rebecca Johnston streaked down the right side nearly to the goal before centering to Chelsea Karpenko, who one-timed the puck into the back of the net.
Cornell tacked on two goals 47 seconds apart midway through the third period to produce the 6-0 final score. Sasha Van Muyen '10 led Bruno with five shots, but Jenny Niesluchowski made 18 saves to slam the door on the Bears, marking the first time in program history that the team was shut out in consecutive games at home.
"I am a little disturbed by our lack of scoring," Murphy said. "I think that mentally when we play at home we're not as focused, and it's frustrating as a coach. I think this week ... getting back to the academic routine really affected our play. If you had seen us play last weekend (against) Clarkson and St. Lawrence, we were a night-and-day team. We were a very good team last weekend, and the only thing I can think of is the imposter team showed up."
The Bears will hit the road to face Quinnipiac on Friday and Princeton on Saturday.
"Hopefully the right team will show up," Murphy said.
