Kent Holland

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Goalie Kent Holland (Sr., Orinda, Calif./Miramonte) made a tournament high 17 saves between the pipes to earn Player of the Game honors and help his team rally back from 5-3 deficit entering the fourth quarter as the Bears tallied a 7-6 OT win in the second consolation game of the 2009 Men's Eastern Championship. The win places Brown into the fifth place game on Sunday against the Rams of Fordham University.

The game was a battle of the former coach of MIT versus the MIT assistant coaching staff as current Brown head coach Felix Mercado matched wits against Alex Feinstein, Ed Vilandie and the rest of the Engineers' staff as MIT head coach Adam Foley was not on the deck due to the impending arrival of a child.

Neither team gained commanding control of the contest for all 38 minutes of play as the two institutions were able to counter on another's offensive success and defensive stops.

Brown jumped out to the early lead in the game as Northern Division Player of the Year Svetozar Stefanovic (Fr., Belgrade, Serbia/Russian Embassy) converted on a man-up chance at the 4:09 mark of the first quarter to stake the Bears to a 1-0 lead.

The advantage lasted 45 seconds into the second period when Devin Lewis (Sr., San Francisco, Calif./California) deked his defender and twisted a shot into the goal mesh on a man-up chance to knot the game at 1-1 with 7:15 left to play in the first half.  For MIT, the goal ignited a mini-scoring run as Lewis rifled a five-meter penalty shot past Holland at 4:12 before John Preis (Jr., Los Angeles, Calif./Phillips Exeter) split the defense to unleash a shot inside the Bears' five meter mark from the wing at even-strength for a 3-1 lead.

Brown halved the deficit before halftime as Corey Schwartz (Jr., Los Angeles, Calif./Harvard-Westlake) bested MIT goalie Columbus Leonard (So., San Francisco, Calif./St. Ignatius) with a rising shot for an advantage goal at the 1:47 mark for a 3-2 Engineers lead at the break.

For Brown, the deficit disappeared 2:12 into the third period as Gordon Hood (Jr., Carlsbad, Calif./Carlsbad) scored on a man-up chance, but the Engineers rebuilt their advantage prior to the end of the period as Preis and Alex Mattfolk (Jr., Boca Raton, Fla./St. Andrew's) lit up the scoreboard with natural goals at 5:31 and 3:49, respectively, to give MIT a 5-3 lead entering the final climatic eight minutes of regulation play.

Stefanovic added another goal at 6:50 of the fourth period to move the Bears to within a goal of tying the Engineers, but MIT regained their two-goal lead less than two minutes later when Lewis wrapped a shot around his defender and into the cage for a 6-4 lead with 4:52 left in regulation.

The advantage would not hold up, however, as Hood lofted an shot into the goal at 4:15 with the teams at even strength to move Brown to within 6-5.

With the clock ticking down and in need of another score to put the game into overtime, the Bears drew a five-meter penalty with 23 seconds left on the clock which Stefanovic buried over the left shoulder of Leonard to complete a hat-trick and send the game to overtime.

In OT, both teams scoring attempts were snuffed out by the other until Schwartz broke loose on a man-up opportunity to put the ball home for a 7-6 lead with 32 seconds left in the first of two three-minute overtime periods.

The goal would hold up due to a strong defensive presence by Holland who turned away four shots in extra time to earn the victory and move his team onto the fifth place game at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, November 22 against Fordham University in a rematch of the Northern Division title game.  Brown took the Northern Division title against Fordham with an 8-7 victory marking the first time the Bears won their division since 1993.

Overall, the MIT-Brown game lived up to its billing as the top two goalies in the Northern Division according to the coaches' voting for the All-Conference Team put on a show.

Overall, Leonard, who earned All-North Second Team honors, finished with 10 saves to combine with First Team goalie Holland to turn away 27 shots of 40 shots on goal.  In addition, the cross-bar and posts added 13 stops as the teams combined for 53+ shots on cage.

For MIT, the loss drops the Engineers into a seventh place game meeting versus Iona College at 10:00 a.m. on the 22nd.  The game will be a rematch of the Northern Division third place game from two weeks ago, a game the Engineers captured 10-8.

MIT Goals: Devin Lewis (3); John Preis (2); Alex Mattfolk

Brown Goals: Svetozar Stefanovic (3); Gordon Hood (2); Corey Schwartz (2)

Saves: MIT - Columbus Leonard (10) ; Brown - Kent Holland (17)

Exclusions: MIT - 12 ; Brown - 7

Advantage Opportunities: MIT - 2-for-7 ; Brown - 5-for-12

Sprints: MIT - 2-for-6 ; Brown - 4-for-6

Referees: Vaughn Cooper, Mark Koganov