Brown Drops Contest to Visiting AIC

Photo by Glenn Osmundson/The Providence Journal

Final	1	2	3	Final
American Int'l (3-8-2, 2-3-2 AHA)	0	1	2	3
Brown (3-4-1, 2-2-0 ECAC)	0	0	0	0

Scoring Summary
2nd - 08:38	PP - Steve Mele (American Int'l)
3rd - 03:59	Blake Peake (American Int'l)
3rd - 18:50	EN - Matt Cassidy (American Int'l)

American Int'l	Brown
G: 3 Players (#15, #19, #29 - 1) A: Jon Puskar - 1 Sh: 2 Players (#28, #29 - 5) Sv: Ben Meisner - 38	G: N/A A: N/A Sh: Chris Zaires - 5 Sv: Mike Clemente - 27

TEAM STATISTICS	American Int'l	Brown
Power Plays	1 for 4	0 for 3
Shorthanded Goals	0	0
Penalties (min)	3 (6)	4 (8)
Shots on Goal	30	38
Face Offs Won	26	46

full stats

PROVIDENCE, RI – AIC scored three goals in the final 30 minutes of the game, as the Yellow Jackets (3-8-2, 2-3-2 AHA) stunned the Brown men’s hockey team (3-4-1, 2-2-0 ECAC Hockey) with a 3-0 win over the Bears on Tuesday evening at Meehan Auditorium.

The Bears were flat from the start, failing to generate many quality chances offensively, while over-skating the puck and not connecting on passes throughout the night. Despite outshooting the Yellow Jackets, 38-30 for the game, AIC would skate away with the 3-0 win. It was the Yellow Jackets first-ever win over Brown, which had an 8-0-0 all-time record over AIC in the all-time series.

The two teams were scoreless through the first 20 minutes, as Brown held a 14-10 advantage in shots and had two power play chances to the Yellow Jackets one. Sophomore Mark Hourihan (Lynnfield, MA) nearly had his first goal of the year midway through the period, attempting to tip a centering feed from freshman Chris Draper (Calgary, ALB) from the top of the crease, but AIC’s Ben Meisner was there for the save to keep the Bears off the board.

Sophomore Garnet Hathaway (Kennebunkport, ME) also had a dangerous chance stopped by Meisner at the tail end of the period with Brown on the man advantage.

Brown took its second too many men on the ice penalty eight minutes into the second period and it led to AIC’s first goal, as Steve Mele back-handed the puck past senior Mike Clemente (Great Falls, VA) on the rebound of a shot by Jon Puskar at the 8:38 mark.

The Bears came out aggressively to start the third period, but AIC took the wind out of Brown’s sails 3:59 into the final period when Blake Peake scored his first of the season, unassisted, when he skated the puck into the zone and wristed a shot over Clemente’s glove from the top of the left circle.

Draper had a good chance to get the Bears on the board with just over 12 minutes left in the game, one-timing the puck on net after Meisner left a big rebound on a shot by junior Richie Crowley (Canton, MA). However, Mesiner gloved the puck out of the air, keeping Brown off the board.

The Bears pulled Clemente with two minutes remaining in favor of the extra attacker, but could not maintain possession on the zone for any sustained amount of time and Matt Cassidy scored into the vacated net with 1:10 left to account for the 3-0 final.

Brown continues action on Saturday afternoon when it travels to Holy Cross to face the Crusaders in a 3:00 p.m. contest, the Bears’ third straight against teams from the Atlantic Hockey Association.