The men's hockey team (2-15-4, 2-10-3 ECAC Hockey) was the only team in the nation that hadn't given up a shorthanded goal all season when the puck dropped against Quinnipiac (14-10-2, 7-5-2) on Friday night. Twenty-four minutes into the game, Brown had given up two shorthanded goals and was on its way to a 5-1 loss to the Bobcats.
Brown's struggles continued the next night when they fell by the same score to the No. 9 Princeton Tigers (15-6-0, 9-5-0).
Quinnipiac and Princeton were the only two ECAC teams that the Bears had yet to face in a league game heading into the weekend.
Quinnipiac scored the first goal of the game while Brown had a one-man advantage. Mike Atkinson of the Bobcats stole an errant pass at mid-ice and charged down the right side. Atkinson dished the puck off to Eric Lampe on his left. Lampe deked goalie Dan Rosen '10 before shooting the puck past him for the game's first goal.
The Bears evened the score under a minute later when Eric Slais '09 found Assistant Captain Jordan Pietrus '10 in the middle of Quinnipiac's defensive zone, directly in front of the goalie. Slais passed from the right point to Pietrus.
"I got it and turned on it as fast as I could and shot," Pietrus said. Pietrus fired a shot from within 10 feet of the goal and beat the goaltender to tie the game at 1-1.
The first period ended with the score at 1-1, behind strong play from Rosen, who was 13-for-14 in the net.
"I thought they took it to us in the first period," said Quinnipiac Head Coach Rand Pecknold. "I thought they outplayed us."
Brown Head Coach Roger Grillo agreed, saying the "first period was solid." But Grillo added, "We shot ourselves in the foot in the second."
Quinnipiac's first of four second-period goals came when Mike Atkinson of the Bobcats deked Rosen to the right before coming back to his left and backhanding a goal in traffic. The shorthanded goal gave Quinnipiac a 2-1 advantage.
"We gave up the (second) shorthanded goal and we were too mentally weak to recover from it," Rosen said. "We spiraled downhill."
Quinnipiac's Bryan Leitch, the nation's leader in assists and points, assisted the next three goals in the second period. The first was a rocket that Dan Henningson fired from the right point over Rosen's right shoulder 5:38 into the period, while the Bobcats were on a power-play.
The next goal came with under five minutes left in the frame, when Leitch slid the puck between two Bears in front of the goal to David Marshall, who one-timed it home to give the Bobcats a 4-1 lead.
The final goal was Jean-Marc Beaudoin's backhand that beat Rosen glove-side low. The Bears couldn't come up with a goal of their own in the second period, and when the frame ended, Quinnipiac was ahead, 5-1.
"We're like two different teams. You never know which is going to show up," Rosen said. "We came out first period and played as good as we have all year and came out in the second and played as bad as we have all year."
Rosen left the ice at intermission with 24 saves on the night, including his 2,000th career save.
Mark Sibbald '09 replaced him for the final period, and was five-for-five in the net.
Brown took its home ice again the following night to face No. 9 Princeton. The Tigers came into the game amidst a slump, having fallen to their last four ECAC opponents, including a 3-1 loss to Yale the night before.
The Tigers beat the Bears 4-1 earlier this season in the Showcase at Meehan, but the first meeting was not counted as an official ECAC game.
The Tigers controlled the action early in the game, scoring two goals before Brown even took a shot.
Brown players spent 10 minutes in the penalty box during the first period alone, giving the Tigers two five-on-three opportunities and five power-plays.
One of the five-on-three opportunities led to a goal by Jody Pederson midway through the first period to put the Tigers ahead, 2-0. Princeton lined up shot after shot, gathering each rebound before Pederson finally beat goalie Mike Clemente '12 top shelf with a slap shot.
Clemente was the third Brown goalie to see the ice this weekend.
"We're trying to find a guy who wants to step up and be the guy," Grillo said. "We've got three good goalies who've all played well at times. We're just looking for some consistency."
When the first frame ended, the Bears had gotten off four shots to Princeton's 18.
"The first period we took too many penalties and dug ourselves a hole," Grillo said. "I thought we played pretty well in the second and third but just couldn't capitalize."
The Tigers outshot the Bears in the middle period by a more modest margin of 16-12, but still netted another two goals. Mark Magnowski added another goal and assist in the second period.
The third started out 4-0, Princeton. Bobby Farnham '12 prevented the shutout 2:30 into the final period off an assist from Jack Maclellan '12.
Maclellan controlled the puck at the bottom of the left faceoff circle.
"I was just yelling to him, 'Pass it out,'" Farnham said. Maclellan found Farnham at the top, and Farnham one-timed the puck into the back of the net for Brown's only goal.
Princeton made it a four-goal game again when Magnowski added his second goal of the night with under eight minutes remaining, making the final score 5-1.
The two losses moved Brown back to the bottom of the ECAC standings, as Colgate picked up a win against Clarkson on Friday night. Both Colgate and Brown have just seven points.
"There's no trophy for the regular season," Assistant Captain Matt Vokes '09 said. "Everybody makes the playoffs. We're going to fix some things and stick together so we can get some wins."
