Brown at Bright: Old Rivals Reunite

Let's get ready to rumble.

After a disappointing first month on the ice, the Harvard men's hockey team will square off tonight against the team that started its slide on the first night of the season: Brown.

That's right, the Bears (6-1-0) are back in town, and tonight the Crimson (3-4-1) looks to avenge its close loss and reassert its supremacy in the ECAC, in an 7:38 p.m. meeting at Bright Hockey Center.

"They beat us down there [at Brown], so we'll be motivated," captain Ben Coughlin said. "We just want to go out there and punish them."

The last matchup was one the Crimson might rather just forget. Harvard fell in a shocker, 4-3, in Providence, never leading in the contest.

The game was characterized by defensive lapses, lost opportunities on two five-on-three situations, and a never-ending series of penalties that left the Harvard sin bin occupied for most of the evening.

Brown historically plays a physical game, and the Harvard meeting was no exception.

The game featured 10 hitting-after-the-whistle penalties, and a load of holding, hooking and cross-checking penalties that left both teams looking less like Ivy League squads and more like a prison detail.

This week will surely be different: last weekend's matches against Union and RPI may have given the Crimson a level of confidence they might have lost in that first weekend in Providence.

"Everybody's pretty encouraged," Coughlin said. "We dominated the third period [of the RPI game]. We all know we played well."

The Union tilt marked the end of 0-for-17 power-play slump on Saturday against Union.

Sunday's game marked the return of Geordie Hyland to the Crimson lineup after a month-long bout with mononucleosis.

"Just having his presence back is good," Coughlin said. "He's a confident player."

Fellow defenseman Bryan Lonsinger agreed.

"He played consistent defense," he said. "He'll be one of our best defensemen."

One point the team worked on in practice was avoiding penalties. Volumes of penalties have haunted the Crimson all season, right up to last weekend, when the Skating Dutchmen had a whopping ten power-play opportunities.

But the team didn't appear overly concerned with the penalty situation.

"I don't think we're taking bad penalties," Lonsinger said. "We're taking aggressive penalties."

They will, however, have to be a little more careful than the last time they met Brown.

"[The Brown skaters] are real agitators out there," Coughlin said.

The big motivating factor for this game for the Harvard players is the need to stay in Ivy League contention.

This is the closest thing the Crimson has had to a must-win game this season, because after the early losses to Brown and Yale, another loss to an Ivy League team would devastate Harvard's Ivy League standing.

The skaters will be making another prime-time TV appearance, this time on ESPN2. But the team won't have stage fright.

"It's not much of a factor," Coughlin said. "It shouldn't derail us."

Fortunately, the team will again have the services of Lonsinger, who suffered a separated shoulder Saturday night and missed Sunday's RPI contest. He practiced Thursday and reported he felt a little sore, but he is ready to go tonight.

"I wouldn't miss this game for anything," he said.

No matter what happens, the fans who make it down to Bright will be in for a treat.

"We've been a really tough rivalry," Lonsinger said. "It's a very emotional game."