Bears Set to Battle #6 Cornell and Colgate

This Weekend: The Bears will look to rebound from last weekend, when they gained just a single point in a pair of home games against Harvard and Dartmouth. Brown has a tough task of facing the upstate New York duo of Cornell, currently ranked #6 in the country by USA Today, and Colgate. All-time, Brown has won just 13 games in Ithaca and just five games in Hamilton. The Bears’ most recent win over Cornell in Ithaca was during the 2006-07 season, when the current seniors earned a 5-2 victory during their freshman season. Since then, Brown is 0-5-0 against the Big Red. Brown’s most recent win over Colgate in Hamilton was last season, when the Bears posted a 4-1 victory. Brown, which sits in a tie for ninth place with Princeton, remains in the hunt for a home playoff series, as the Bears are four points out of sixth place and just two points out of eighth place with six games remaining.

Last Time Out: The Bears managed just one point in a weekend homestand with Harvard (L, 5-2) and Dartmouth (T, 5-5). Brown needed a third-period comeback to earn the tie with the Big Green, as the Bears trailed, 4-2, with less than seven minutes remaining. Senior Aaron Volpatti, who led Brown with 4 points (2g, 2a) scored his second of the game with 6:19 left to play to bring the Bears to within 4-3. Just 20 seconds later, freshman Chris Zaires tied the score at 4-4 with his sixth goal of the season. Sophomore Jeff Buvinow netted his second goal of the weekend with 1:35 remaining to give Brown a 5-4 lead. However, Dartmouth pulled its goalie with 46 seconds remaining and scored an extra attacker goal just 17 seconds later to account for the 5-5 final. In addition to Volpatti, Brown also got multiple-point outings from Buvinow (1g, 2a), senior Devin Timberlake (1g, 1a), and sophomore Jack Maclellan (3a). Sophomore Mike Clemente recorded 36 saves.

Coming Up: The Bears have four regular season games remaining, two home and two away. Brown returns home next weekend to host Clarkson and St. Lawrence in the final two regular-season home games of the year. Brown closes out its season with a road trip to Quinnipiac and Princeton on February 26th and 27th.

These Dates Historically Speaking: All-time, Brown is 9-10-0 in games played on February 12th and 10-10-1 in games played on February 13th. Brown is 4-3-0 in away games on the 12th and 3-7-0 in away games on the 13th. Brown and Cornell have met one other time on February 12th, a 4-1 Cornell win in 1966. Brown and Colgate have never met on February 13th.

Brown vs. Cornell: Cornell leads the all-time series with Brown, which began with an 8-2 Brown win on February 21, 1959, by a 66-39-5 margin. Last season, the Big Red earned a sweep over the Bears, winning 5-1 in Ithaca, and 3-2 in overtime in Providence. They stretched their winning streak over the Bears to five games with a 6-0 victory in Providence on November 14th. Brown’s last win over Cornell came during the 2006-2007 season when the Bears snapped Cornell’s five-game winning streak with a 5-2 victory in Ithaca. Brown posted its best year against Cornell in recent history during 2003-2004, when the Bears earned three points against the Big Red, earning a 3-3 tie in Ithaca and a 2-1 overtime win in Providence. Sophomore Jarred Smith is the only current member of the Brown team to have scored a goal against Cornell, while eight other players have tallied one assist.

Scouting Cornell: With 22 points, the Big Red sit in a three-way tie for 1st place in the ECAC standings with Union and Yale. Cornell earned a split last weekend, defeating Quinnipiac, 2-0, on Friday, and falling to Princeton, 5-3, on Saturday. The loss to the Tigers snapped Cornell’s three-game winning streak, as the Big Red had swept St. Lawrence (2-1) and Clarkson (5-3) the weekend before. Cornell is led by senior Blake Gallagher, who has 28 points (14g, 14a), including a team-high 9 power play goals, in 22 games. Senior Colin Greening also has reached the 20-point milestone and is second on the team with 22 points (8g, 14a) in 22 games. Six other players have reached double digits in scoring, while an additional 14 players have posted at least one point. Senior Ben Scrivens has played all but 44:22 of Cornell’s season (1292:20) between the pipes and has a 2.00 GAA with a .928 save percentage and a 13-6-3 record. Sophomore Mike Garman has played just under 32 minutes and has a 0.00 GAA and a 1.000 save percentage stopping all 21 shots he faced in relief last Saturday against Princeton.

Brown vs. Colgate: Saturday night’s game between the Raiders and the Bears marks the 73rd meeting between the two teams in a series that began on March 8, 1935, a 1-0 Brown victory. Colgate leads the all-time series, 49-17-5. However, Brown has gone 2-2-3 in its last seven games against the Raiders. Last year, Brown earned three points with a 4-1 victory in Hamilton, Brown’s first win over the Raiders in New York since 2/19/93, and a 3-3 tie in Providence. Earlier this season, Colgate earned a 5-3 win over the Bears.

Scouting Colgate: The Raiders Colgate is led by sophomore Austin Smith, who has 33 points (11g, 22a) in 27 games. Two other players, senior David McIntyre (9g, 19a) and junior Brian Day (16g, 10a) have scored at least 20 points, while six other Raiders have reached double digits in scoring and an additional 11 players have tallied at least one point. Sophomore Alex Evin and senior Charles Long have shared the majority of time in net this season. Evin has played in 16 games (860:29), while Long has played in 13 (712:44). Evin leads the team in both GAA (2.65) and save percentage (.909), while Long has a 3.37 GAA and an .890 save percentage.

Complete release is available here.

Pictured: Aaron Volpatti ’10. Photo by DSPics.com.