Preview: Expectations High at Brown
The following article appeared October 6 on the U.S. College Hockey Online (USCHO) Web site.
By Brian Sullivan
ECAC Hockey Columnist
For a while there, they may as well have been the Brown Bear-skins, with which the rest of the ECAC warmed its feet and decorated its basement. But since the school welcomed native son Brendan Whittet back to the Meehan bench, the school has elevated its hockey program to something resembling the un-Bear-ables: unbearably physical, unbearably tough and unbearably determined to give opponents everything they’ve got … but with unbearably inconsistent returns in Whittet’s first two years at the helm.
Last year’s promising 3–2–3 start included a four-point road weekend at Colgate and Cornell, and culminated with Hockey East-stunning ties at New Hampshire and Boston University. Something failed to carry over, however, as Bruno fell into an enduring slump thereafter. A late-season surge that included a matching home sweep of the Raiders and Big Red also bore a devastating injury, as then-leading scorer Jack Maclellan was lost with a foot injury. Quinnipiac buried Brown in the first round of the playoffs with consecutive 4–0 thumpings in Hamden.
Gone, now, is high-scoring, hard-hitting and hot-tempered Harry Zolnierczyk, who finished his senior campaign as the team leader with 16 goals and 31 points (tied with Maclellan), as well as a whopping 128 minutes in penalties. Graduating with him were fellow forwards David Brownschidle (7–9–16, 29 games played) and Jesse Fratkin (6–7—13, 26 GP). Overall, the senior class accounted for 30 of Bruno’s 83 goals in 2010-11.
Complete article can be accessed via the USCHO Web site by
clicking here.
