Brown Leaves UNH Feeling Blue Before Thanksgiving Break

It was a slow start for UNH at an unusually quiet Whittemore Center on Tuesday night.  Non-conference foe Brown University came out skating strong with great puck possession.  The first scoring opportunity came during a UNH powerplay after a hooking penalty was called on Brown’s junior forward Jared Smith.  A usually solid UNH powerplay unit could not score on Brown’s goaltender Mike Clemente. 

After a few close saves by goaltender Matt DiGirolamo, UNH finally outmuscled Brown on a breakaway after taking advantage of a turnover in the neutral zone.  With just 2:24 left in the first period, UNH senior captain Mike Sislo scored on an assist by Paul Thompson.    

The second period saw a slew of Brown goals starting just a minute into the period when sophomore forward Chris Zaires scored, assisted by senior Harry Zolnierczyk. Less than a minute later, Brown scored again on an unassisted breakaway shot by Bobby Farnham. After several shots on net, UNH was finally able to put the puck past Clemente on a goal by defenseman Brett Kostolansky assisted by Phil DeSimone.  

Brown was simply relentless with their presence in front of the net in the final minutes of the period and Jeremy Russell able to score on DiGirolamo while assisted by Jack MacLellan. 

After the final whistle of the second period, Sislo and Zolnierczyk received matching penalties for some pushing and shoving that the referee interpreted as unsportsmanlike conduct.  The period started with some intense 4 on 4 action as both teams looked fired up and ready to put pucks on net.  DiGirolamo went into a full split to stop an attempt by Brown after UNH’s defense faltered in the netural zone.  UNH was finally able to score on the powerplay with a hard, unassisted wristshot by Sislo.  Brown returned the favor with a goal by Zolnierczyk, but with 2:30 left in the third period, UNH pulled DiGirolamo for the extra attacker and scored two unanswered goals by Blake Kessel and Mike Borisenok.

The score remained the same through the overtime period.  While UNH had a commanding lead of shots on goal (41-27) the team seemed relieved to skate to a draw after such a flat start to the game.