Frustrating hockey loss proves costly to Union

PHOTOGRAPHER: Ken Schott

A frustrating ECAC Hockey game for ninth-ranked Union against Brown ended in the worst possible way, and puts a major crimp into the Dutchmen’s plans for tonight’s encounter with Yale.

The Dutchmen suffered a 2-1 loss to the Bears at Messa Rink, but the events at the end of the game proved costly to junior center Jeremy Welsh.

Welsh, the team’s top goal scorer with six, was given a game disqualification — along with a five-minute major — for grabbing the facemask of Brown’s Bobby Farnham at the final buzzer. Farnham was going at it with Union’s Josh Jooris as the Bears started to celebrate their upset win.

The game DQ means Welsh is suspended for the contest against

13th-ranked Yale.

“I wouldn’t say it was frustration,” said Welsh, an alternate captain. “Farnham was kind of chasing Jooris out of the zone. He was grabbing onto him and taunting him. I guess I grabbed onto him.”

Union coach Rick Bennett wasn’t happy with Welsh’s actions.

“Just watching it from the bench, I think emotions got the best of us,” Bennett said. “We’re smarter than that, we’re definitely smarter than that. It’s just unfortunate.

“When you get a DQ penalty, and it was the last shift or the end of the game, it’s just frustration because you know you’ve been outworked, outbattled and that’s your way of venting, and that’s the wrong way. I don’t expect that from anyone on our team. It’s something that we’ll address tomorrow. There’s not too much we can do about it now.”

Welsh’s DQ ended a frustrating game for the Dutchmen (2-1 ECACH, 5-2-3 overall), who had a three-game winning streak snapped and went 0-for-4 on the power play. It also overshadowed two major developments — the breaking up of the line of Welsh, right wing Jooris and left wing Daniel Carr, and Niskayuna native Colin Stevens getting the start in goal.

Bennett broke up the trio of Welsh, sophomore left wing Carr and sophomore right wing Jooris, Union’s best scoring line last season that had combined to score just two even-strength goals this season. Welsh centered left wing Kevin Sullivan and right wing Matt Hatch. Jooris was on a line with center Kyle Bodie and left wing Brian Yanovitch.

Carr, playing with center Kelly Zajac and right wing John Simpson, responded to the change by scoring his first even-strength goal of the season, and second overall, 32 seconds into the game.

“We definitely needed a change with the lack of offense five-on-five,” said Carr, who scored 20 goals last season and was robbed of a potential tying goal on a pad save by goalie Michael Clemente with eight-tenths of a second left in the game. “With the exception of tonight, our power play has been pretty good throughout the season. We’ve been getting a lot of our offense from there.”

Stevens found out Monday he was starting. The move was surprising because Troy Grosenick was named ECACH goalie of the week after stopping 49 of 50 shots in wins at St. Lawrence and Clarkson last weekend.

Stevens, making his first home start, stopped 21 shots. His best save came midway through the second period when, sprawled out on the ice, he reached out and gloved Jared Smith’s backhander on top of the crease.

“I got caught out of position a little bit there,” Stevens said. “It was just a little bit of luck.”

Unfortunately for Stevens, the Dutchmen didn’t use Carr’s goal as a spark. The Bears (2-1, 3-2) dominated the final 10 minutes of the first period. Jack Maclellan scored twice, including one on the power play with 2.8 seconds left.

“It’s hard when you give up a goal [32] seconds in,” Brown coach Brendan Whittet said. “I thought they had us running around pretty good. As that period wore on, I thought we got better. We started winning some battles. I thought they won the majority of them in that first period.

“The positive was we come out of that period where were outplayed for large portions up, 2-1. That was a good thing. We played better as the game went along.”

Brown 2 0 0 — 2

Union 1 0 0 — 1

First Period — 1, Union, Carr 2 (Zajac, Simpson), :32. 2, Brown, Maclellan 2 (Farnham, Wolff), 16:02. 3, Brown, Maclellan 3 (Wahl, Robertson), 19:57. Penalties — Maclellan, Bro (boarding), 2:54; Yanovitch, Uni (interference), 19:01.

Second Period — None. Penalties — Jooris, Uni (goalie interference), 1:36; Maclellan, Bro (cross-checking), 6:49; M. Bodie, Uni (cross-checking), 14:47; Hathaway, Bro (tripping), 19:41.

Third Period — None. Penalties — Robertson, Bro (roughing), 13:15; Farnham, Bro, misconduct, 20:00; Welsh, Uni, major-game disqualification (grasping the facemask), 20:00.

Shots on Goal — Brown 8-13-2 — 23. Union 7-12-6 — 25.

Power-play opportunities — Brown 1 of 3; Union 0 of 4.

Goalies — Brown, Clemente 3-2-0 (25 shots-24 saves). Union, Stevens 1-1-1

(23-21).

A — 1,633. T — 2:03.

Referees — Chris Ciamaga, John Murphy. Linesmen — Andy Petrus, Steve Shufelt.