Before the men's hockey season started, Head Coach Brendan Whittet '94 said he wanted his players to experience Meehan Auditorium like it was when he played for the Bears.
He wanted them to see the Brown band in the stands and to be surrounded by 2,000-person crowds. Most importantly, he wanted them to win. This weekend, Whittet got everything he wanted — except wins.
"Obviously we're disappointed with the outcome," said tri-captain Aaron Volpatti '10. But Meehan "was awesome. It was just an overall good atmosphere."
The arena filled with 2,357 people Saturday night to see the Bears take on No. 3 Cornell. But the Big Red left Providence with a 6-0 win. The night before, Colgate got ahead 5-0 but dropped to 5-3 by the game's end.
Volpatti knows the Bears need to win if they want to keep Meehan full.
"You're going to get more fans the more you win," he said. "That's just how it is."
Colgate 5, Brown 3
Colgate got goals from five different players before Brown got one on Friday night. Tri-captain Jordan Pietrus '10 found the net twice for the Bears in the third period. But Brown couldn't come back late, and the game ended 5-3.
The Raiders came into the game on a three-game winning streak, having swept their opening weekend of ECAC Hockey, making them tied for first in the league.
Colgate gained an early shot advantage, but the score remained even early in the first period. Disappointed with his team's intensity, Whittet called a timeout 7:51 into the game. It didn't work.
On the faceoff immediately after the timeout, Colgate's Jeremy Price got the puck to Jason Williams, who one-timed it past Mike Clemente '12 for the game's first goal.
"It was a stupid timeout," Whittet said. "It was my fault. I called it because I was pissed off at how the guys were playing, quite honestly. But looking back at it, I probably should have called it when it was in our offensive zone versus the defensive zone."
Only 1:20 after the first goal, Colgate's Brian Day ripped a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle and beat Clemente again.
Brown spent 5:48 of the second period on the penalty kill and couldn't generate any goals. But the Bears still managed to outshoot the Raiders, 13-9, in the middle frame.
In the locker room between the second and third period, Colgate Head Coach Don Vaughan told his team that their two-goal advantage wasn't secure. His players responded.
In the opening 3:09 of the third period, the Raiders scored three goals, stretching their lead to 5-0.
After the first two goals, Whittet pulled goalie Clemente, who finished with 20 saves, in favor of Dan Rosen '10. On the first shot he faced all season, Rosen let the puck past through his five-hole.
But the Bears clawed their way back into contention, beginning with a goal by Pietrus 5:40 into the final period. In the next four minutes, Brown netted another two goals, narrowing its deficit to 5-3.
"You play 60 minutes. You can't quit," said Pietrus, who had two of the Bears' third-period goals.
Whittet pulled Rosen, who finished with ten saves, in favor of an extra attacker with 1:09 left in the game. Brown possessed the puck in Colgate's zone for the remainder of the game, but goalie Charles Long turned away shot after shot, bringing his total saves to 29.
No. 3 Cornell 6, Brown 0
Cornell came into its game against Brown after dropping a 4-2 game the night before to Yale, which is ranked 12th in the USCHO poll. The Big Red gained back its confidence in Providence.
"We were disappointed with the way we played" at Yale, said Cornell Head Coach Mike Schafer. "Our players tonight came ready to play."
Blake Gallagher led the Big Red with two goals and four others contributed one. But the biggest star for Cornell was goalie Ben Scrivens, who had 28 saves in a shutout.
"I thought their goalie played tremendous," Whittet said. "We had opportunities."
Like the previous night, the game's goal scoring was done in steaks. But this time, none of them were Brown's. Cornell netted two goals within 13 seconds of each other in the first period and another three within 2:08 in the final frame.
"We played a solid game, just had some mental breakdowns on everyone's part, myself included," Clemente said. "Teams like Cornell, they score whenever you make a small mistake. That's why they're so good."
The Big Red got its first goal 11:59 after the puck dropped, when Gallagher received a cross-ice feed at the post and one-timed the puck behind Clemente.
Before the loudspeaker announced the goal, Cornell got its second, extending its lead to 2-0 12:12 into the game.
The Bears played evenly with the Big Red in the second period, but Scrivens's goaltending kept the Bears off of the scoreboard.
Gallagher scored on a power play 1:56 into the final frame, extending Cornell's lead to 3-0.
Cornell entered the game having scored on 39 percent of its power plays. But Brown's penalty kill gave up only one goal on five power plays.
"Our penalty kill was awesome," Clemente said. "I mean, they had one goal and it was on an odd-man rush."
In the last two and a half minutes of the game, the Big Red scored three goals, extending its lead to 6-0.
The Bears return to action at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night when they travel across town to play Providence College in the Mayor's Cup.
ADVERTISEMENT
