SENIOR FORWARD RILEY BOURBONNAIS FACES OFF against Yale forward Chris Izmirlian on Saturday.Friday evening held an exciting game for the Engineers. The puck dropped at 7 pm at Houston Field House between the Engineers’ senior Jimmy Devito and the Bears’ Sam Lafferty. The tensions were high and the competitors played evenly throughout the entire game. Brown outshot the Engineers for the first period but the game remained scoreless for the first 20 minutes. The first goal was not scored until junior Drew Melanson, assisted by sophomore Evan Tironese and junior Lou Nanne, had a breakaway goal in the latter half of the second period. The favorite cheer of the crowd for the evening could be heard ringing out on almost every power play and goal for the Engineers, “Brown is shit! Shit is Brown!”
The third period was far more energetic than the first two, holding almost three quarters of the penalty minutes and three goals. The Engineers’ junior Jared Wilson put up a goal not half a minute into the third. It was a shame that they could not have done it twenty seconds earlier during the Moe’s Minute of the game. As many know, a two goal lead is superstitiously known as the worst lead to have in hockey. Brown tried to put the Engineers on their heels by pulling their goalie with two minutes left in the game and managed to do so. Brown put one away with fewer than 90 seconds left in the game. The Engineers were riled up and fought back, scoring on Brown’s empty net. The game ended with a bit of a scrum. No penalties resulted but fists flew for sure. The final score was 3–1, Engineers.
The Engineers kept their temper and had about a third of the penalty kill time as Brown throughout the game. Freshman Chase Perry in net saw almost the same number of shots as Brown’s goalie, but kept the goals allowed to one.
The game against Yale was probably the most frustrating game of the season for the Engineers and their fans. Very similar to the Brown game, not a goal was scored until more than half way through the game, even more similar due to Melanson scoring that first goal. The Engineers held a goal lead through 14 minutes of the third period before scoring a power play goal and taking a two goal lead. It was not long before things began to go downhill.
Perry kept the Engineers in it through the game, in total seeing nearly double the shots as Yale’s goalie. In the last three minutes of play, Yale tied the score, resulting in overtime play. Within 30 seconds of overtime, Yale scored and headed home. The final score was 3–2, Yale. Power play minutes were about equal for both teams and Yale slightly lead the faceoff game.