Despite a 1-4 Winter Break record, women's hockey Head Coach Digit Murphy said that her Bears have grown since December.
"I think in true Brown fashion we always get better over the break," she said. "It's a nice opportunity to just play hockey without going to school. We're getting better."
"We're benefiting by having double (practice) sessions every day," Murphy added. "The players seem to like each other; they seem to be blending and gelling a little more, (and) the lines are a little (sturdier)."
Bruno began January with a win over Northeastern before running into a roadblock in the form of four of the top five ECAC Hockey teams. The Bears played well enough to fall to Harvard, No. 5 St. Lawrence and Clarkson by a total of just four goals, but, those results and a loss to Dartmouth, left Brown (3-14-1, 2-9-0) near the bottom of the conference standings.
"It's just frustrating that you... don't get any points from playing well in the game," said Jenna Dancewicz '11, who tied for the team lead over break with two goals and an assist. "You have to win the game."
The Bears did just that against the Northeastern Huskies on Jan. 3 at Meehan Auditorium, surviving a 28-13 deficit in shots to post a 2-1 victory that Murphy said reflected the strides the team has taken as a result of intensive practice.
"I think we're better skaters, we're better passers, we're better puck handlers and we're just better prepared right now," she said.
Brown jumped out to a 2-0 lead just 2:38 into the third period on two goals from Erica Kromm '11, a feat that earned her ECAC Hockey Player of the Week honors.
Although Northeastern notched a shorthanded goal less than three minutes later, the Bears never allowed the Huskies to tie the game. Captain Nicole Stock '09, a Herald sports staff writer, slammed the door in goal with 27 saves to open the second half of the season in fine form.
"We knew we could beat that team - we had in previous years - and so coming out of the break we wanted to get our legs under us," Stock said. "That win was huge for us as a confidence builder."
The team needed that confidence heading into a weekend in which they faced the two top teams in the conference.
"We knew that Harvard-Dartmouth was a big weekend, so we all knew that we had to come into that weekend with our best games," Dancewicz said.
The Crimson (8-7-3, 8-4-2) were too much for the Bears over the first two periods. Although Vika Mykolenko '12 scored the first goal of her career, Harvard held a 3-1 lead heading into the third period before Bruno turned it on. Dancewicz cut the lead in half just 2:36 into the frame. When Nicole Brown '10 notched a power-play goal three minutes later to tie the game, the Meehan crowd erupted. Stock said there was a similar surge of emotion on the ice.
"I think a little bit was, we haven't beaten Harvard in, I think, eight years, so a little bit of shock, because we were able to come back on them, and that's something that we haven't been able to do any of the previous years we've played them," said Stock, who notched 31 saves. "I think it showed a lot of courage and a lot of confidence in our system."
The Crimson broke the tie with a power-play goal 54 seconds later and pulled away with another in the game's final minute to escape with a 5-3 victory, but the Bears gained the confidence to challenge them when the teams meet again on Feb. 7.
"When we play them next time we're definitely going to turn it up a notch and hopefully win it," Dancewicz said.
The high level of play did not carry over into the following day against Dartmouth (12-6-2, 9-3-2), leaving the Bears to limp away from a 9-1 loss. Sasha Van Muyen '10 scored the lone goal for Brown, while Stock made 30 saves and Joy Joung '11 chipped in with 13 saves in her second appearance of the season.
But Bruno bounced back in a big way on Friday against a St. Lawrence team (14-5-3, 8-1-1) they have historically matched up well against, taking the No. 5 team in the country down to the wire in a 3-2 loss.
Leah Crabtree '12 scored 3:57 into the second period to tie the game, 1-1, for the first point of her collegiate career. Katelyn Landry '12 also earned her first collegiate point with an assist on the play.
St. Lawrence retook the lead less than five minutes later, but assistant captain Andrea Hunter '10 tallied her fourth goal of the season just 40 seconds into the third period to again even the score. The Saints ultimately slipped away with a power-play goal midway through the period, and, despite pulling Stock, who made 38 saves, with 1:50 to go for an extra skater, the Bears could not notch the equalizer.
"After what happened against Dartmouth, it was good for our team to just bounce back and get back to playing our game and not letting that affect us, knowing that we're better than how we played against Dartmouth," Stock said. "I think that showed this past weekend, especially at St. Lawrence, a very good team, and then again at Clarkson."
The Bears continued their upstate New York road trip the following day with another one-goal loss, this time to Clarkson (12-6-4, 6-2-2). The Bears held the Golden Knights at bay for the first 37 minutes of the game, finally taking a 1-0 lead midway through the second period on a power-play goal by Dancewicz.
"We controlled the puck, we matched their energy, our forecheck was aggressive, and I don't think they were really ready for that," Murphy said.
But Clarkson recovered to tie the game with a power-play goal just 2:36 before intermission and beat Stock, who finished with 32 saves, for the go-ahead goal only 1:55 into the third period to secure the 2-1 win.
"I was disappointed (that) we played really hard but we didn't play hard enough to steal a point in either game," Murphy said. "That tells me that we're still not there yet and we can't be satisfied with just coming close to a top team. We have to knock off one of those teams to really say we've arrived."
To do that, the Bears will have to take advantage of their special teams. Over the five games in January, Brown scored four goals in 20 power plays, while their opponents scored 11 times in 27 chances. But Murphy said that one key to the team's success in the St. Lawrence and Clarkson games was that fewer penalties were called, resulting in their opponents only notching two goals on seven power plays. To beat top teams, she said, the Bears will need to have both their power play and penalty kill working.
This weekend, Bruno will face less intimidating opponents when Colgate (12-9-2, 6-4-2) and Cornell (9-8-2, 5-5-2) come to Meehan on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m. In November the team played them tough, coming within 10 seconds of a tie in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Big Red before beating the Red Raiders, 4-3. The Bears hope this will be the weekend when the results finally match the effort.
"We just (have to) keep playing our game and keep climbing up the hill that we're climbing and hopefully win some hockey games, because it's about time," Dancewicz said.
