Brown continued its winning ways against Vermont Friday, getting a pair of goals from Les Haggett and 26 saves from freshman goalie Adam D’Alba in a 3-1 win over the Catamounts in ECAC Hockey League action Friday night at Meehan Auditorium.
Brown has won seven straight games against Vermont, including the last three in Providence by a combined score of 14-1. The Bears are now tied for fifth in the ECACHL with Dartmouth, which lost, 2-1, at Harvard Friday.
Brown, 12-6-3 overall and 7-5-2 in ECACHL play, jumped out to a 1-0 lead midway through the first period on a power-play goal off the stick of Haggett. Paul Baier and Haggett played the give-and-go, with Haggett receiving a return pass in the high slot before sliding a low shot through a screen and past Vermont goaltender Joe Fallon. Baier received the assist on the goal, Haggett’s eighth of the season.
The Bears, 5-0-1 in their last six games, increased their lead to 2-0 midway through the second period after they had killed off a pair of 5-on-3s. Jeff Prough jumped on a rebound of a shot by Brian Ihnacak and beat Fallon to give Brown a 2-0 advantage at the 8:28 mark of the frame.
Prior to that goal, Vermont had two 5-on-3 situations but couldn’t capitalize, with Brown’s Adam D’Alba robbing Mike Arcieri late in the second two-man advantage.
Vermont cut into the Brown lead with an unassisted goal by junior Jeff Corey at 11:58 of the third period. Corey stole the puck behind the Brown net and single-handedly got the Catamounts back into the game with a wraparound move to the short side that surprised D’Alba. The goal was Corey’s 13th this season and the 28th of his career.
“It took us a period and a half to get into the game tonight,” Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon said. “You can’t play college hockey like that. We didn’t play our style of hockey in the first period and a half, but we have no excuses. Brown played very well and we did not.”
Fallon made 22 saves for Vermont, which falls to 15-10-3 overall and 9-5-2 in the ECACHL. The Catamounts remain in fourth place in the league standings, four points ahead of Dartmouth and Brown.
