Men's Ice Travels to Quinnipiac and Princeton with Home Ice on the Line

Friday, February 26

7:50 pm

Brown University

Quinnipiac

Men's Ice Travels to Quinnipiac and Princeton with Home Ice on the Line

2/26/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

This Weekend: The Bears close out the regular season with home ice for the playoffs still on the line. Brown and Princeton are currently tied for ninth place in the standings, one point behind eighth-place Harvard and two behind seventh-place Quinnipiac. If Brown were to earn a home series, it would mark the first time since 2005, when Brown finished in sixth place, that a Bears' team earned a home playoff series.

Last Time Out: The Bears claimed three points last weekend, earning a 3-2 win over Clarkson and a 2-2 tie with St. Lawrence, both of which were in come-from-behind fashion. On Friday night against the Golden Knights, Brown scored three goals in the opening nine minutes of the third period to erase a 1-0 deficit. Clarkson would add its second goal with 32 seconds left for the 3-2 final. Junior Harry Zolnierczyk led the Bears against Clarkson, assisting the first two goals and scoring the game-winner, while freshman Chris Zaires and sophomore Jack Maclellan also scored in the win. Sophomore Mike Clemente posted 23 saves, as Brown earned its first win of the season when allowing the game's first goal and when trailing after two periods. The next night against St. Lawrence, the Bears scored twice in the final nine minutes of play to force overtime and the 2-2 tie. Maclellan got things started for Brown, scoring on a penalty shot with 8:35 remaining. Senior Devin Timberlake clinched the point with the tying goal at 19:25 of the third, scored with Brown skating an extra attacker. Clemente stopped 26 shots, including all 10 he faced in the third period, and a save on a penalty shot by SLU's Kyle Flanagan.

Coming Up: The Bears will definitely play a first-round series for the 2010 ECAC Hockey Playoffs. The question is whether that series will be at home, where Brown is 6-1-3 in its past 10 games, or on the road.

These Dates Historically Speaking: All-time, Brown is 11-8-1 in games played on February 26th and 10-11-1 in games played on February 27th. Brown is 4-5-1 in away games on the 26th and 6-7-0 in away games on the 27th. Brown and Princeton have met one other time on February 27th, a 3-1 Brown win in 1954. Brown and Quinnipiac have never met on February 26th.

Brown vs. Quinnipiac: Brown and Quinnipiac split the season last year with each team winning on the road. The Bobcats claimed a 5-1 victory in Providence, while the Bears earned a 3-2 win in Hamden. Earlier this season, Brown won its second straight over Quinnipiac, posting a 2-1 win in Providence on December 5th. Quinnipiac now leads the all-time series with Brown by a 7-4-0 margin. The Bears and the Bobcats met for the first time at Quinnipiac in January of 2006 with Quinnipiac claiming a 3-2 win in overtime. Brown earned the season split with the Bobcats in 2006, with a 5-3 win in Providence to close out the regular season. The two teams split the season series again in 2006-07, with each team winning in its home rink for the second straight year. Senior Sean McMonagle leads all Brown players against Quinnipiac with 5 points (2g, 3a) in seven career games, while senior Aaron Volpatti adds five assists in nine career games.

Scouting Quinnipiac: The Bobcats were swept on the road last weekend by RPI (L, 5-3) and Union (L, 7-3), stretching their losing streak to three games. Quinnipiac's last win was a 5-0 shutout of St. Lawrence on February 12, which came six days after a 2-0 blanking of Colgate. The win over the Raiders on February 6th was Quinnipiac's first win in 10 games (0-9-1) and since a 5-2 victory over AIC on December 12th. The Bobcats are led by senior Brandon Wong, who has 33 points (16g, 17a) in 32 games, including a team-high 11 power play goals and four game-winning goals. Senior Eric Lampe (11g, 18a), sophomore Scott Zurevinski (14g, 13a), senior Jean-Marc Beaudoin (8g, 16a), and senior Greg Holt (9g, 16a) have all also posted at least 20 points on the season. Five other players have reached double digits in scoring and an additional 12 players have all recorded at least one point. Sophomore Dan Clarke has played the majority of time in net this season and has a 2.60 GAA and .908 save percentage in 26 games (1433:12). Freshmen Eric Hertzell (299:04) and Mathieu Cadieux (185:14) have each appeared in six games. Hertzell has a 2.61 GAA with a .894 save percentage, while Cadieux has a 3.24 GAA and a .870 save percentage.

Brown vs. Princeton: Brown holds a 79-61-8 advantage over Princeton in the all-time series, which dates back to a 4-4 tie during the 1899-1900 season. The two teams played six straight overtime games, with Brown posting a 1-2-3 record in those contests, before Princeton earned a victory in regulation, 4-3, in the final meeting between the two schools during the 2006-2007 season to clinch that year's ECAC First Round series. Following that win, Princeton won six straight games to stretch its winning streak over Brown to seven contests. Earlier this year, Brown snapped the Tigers' winning streak with a 3-1 win in Providence on December 4. Senior Devin Timberlake is Brown's statistical leader against the Tigers with six points (1g, 5a) in 10 career games, while classmate Aaron Volpatti adds five points, all goals, in 12 career games.

Scouting Princeton: The Tigers have alternated gaining league points (either a win or a tie) with losses since a 5-3 win over Dartmouth on January 30th. Since then, Princeton split a series with Colgate (L, 3-1) and Cornell (W, 5-3), gained one point against Clarkson (L, 4-3) and St. Lawrence (T, 2-2), and split a series with Union (L, 4-1) and RPI (W, 7-0). After playing through a six-game winless streak from November 20-December 11, the Tigers are 8-5-2 in their last 15 games. Princeton is led by senior Dan Bartlett, who has 25 points (16g, 9a) in 27 games. Two other players, junior Mike Kramer (11g, 10a) and senior Mark Magnowski (6g, 15a) have scored at least 20 points, while six other Tigers have reached double digits in scoring and an additional 11 players have tallied at least one point. Senior Zane Kalemba has seen the majority of time in net this season, posting a 2.96 GAA and .908 save percentage in 19 games (1073:54). Junior Alan Reynolds has played in eight games (440:41) and has posted a 3.00 GAA and a .900 save percentage, while freshman Mike Condon has played in three games (113:32) and has a 2.64 GAA with a .894 save percentage.

Complete release is available here.

Pictured: Leading scorer Jack Maclellan '12. photo by DSPics.net