Brown coach Digit Murphy warned her opponents last weekend that her healing team would soon be a force to be reckoned with in the ECAC, and on Friday No. 5 St. Lawrence discovered it firsthand.
The Saints (23-5-3, 13-3-1 ECACHL) dropped their first home game of the season by a 4-2 margin. Three unanswered goals by Brown (12-12-2, 9-7-1) in the first period proved too much for St. Lawrence to overcome.
Early on, it looked as if this game would more of the same story for Brown. For the second straight game, the Bears gave up a sloppy goal in the opening minutes. This one came just 22 seconds into the game off a Chelsea Grills shot from the faceoff circle that beat Brown freshman goalie O’Hara Shipe five-hole.
But unlike Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Mercyhurst, Brown answered right away on the power play. At 2:58, top scorer Jessica Link put a rebound home past Saints goalie Meghan Guckian to knot the score at one.
Brown’s Kathryn Moos, who assisted on the first goal, picked up another helper when she found surefire ECAC All-Rookie pick Hayley Moore streaking down center ice for the 2-1 lead just 6:24 in.
Link struck again at 8:47 when linemate Keaton Zucker found her wide open in front of the net. Link, a First Team All-ECAC player a year ago, is beginning to look like her old self again.
St. Lawrence junior Emilie Berlinguette cut the lead to 3-2 less than a minute later, and extended her team-record point streak to 16 games. Freshman Sabrina Harbec gathered the rebound from behind the net and set up Berlinguette in front to cap the game’s early flurry of scoring.
Brown captain Katie Guay added an insurance goal on the power play at 5:45 of the second period, and that was all the scoring for the day. Shipe played strong in making 26 saves, while Guckian finished with 32.
St. Lawrence had one last chance at a comeback when Brown took a penalty with just over two minutes to go, but the Bears played aggressive and kept the Saints from getting any quality scoring chances.
The Bears will wrap up their weekend in the North Country tomorrow with a 4 p.m. tilt with Clarkson. The Saints play host to longtime nemesis No. 6 Harvard, who they have not beaten in their last 10 tries.
