Before the puck drops at 3:30 pm in Potsdam, NY, let's look at what the contributors of Where Angels Fear to Tread have taken to calling "The Jess Brown Effect."
Sharpening Our Claws
Her first game back proved the spark that the Lady Rouge needed. Taylor Woods carried the team and Jess Brown's first game as a senior was the 2015-16 Cornell hockey team's first win. Before she returned, in that winless 0-3-1 stretch, the team only scored four goals. Jess Brown's appearance resulted in a win. Coincidence? Let's delve deeper into the numbers to see how true this is.
Linemates Lifted
How did their performances compare before and after the Cat Lady sauntered back onto the ice?
Hanna Bunton's goal scoring remained about even, but her point scoring more than doubled. Doering similarly maintained her rate of goal scoring but nearly tripled her point scoring when Brown was on the ice.
Is that not enough? Let's delve deeper.
Cornell scored 66 goals this season since number 18 took the ice. Almost half of those goals were while the Cleveland native was on the ice. A third were contributed by her line. That may not convince you, so consider this: Jess Brown is just one of 18 skaters who has played since her return and one of only 11 forwards. If we assume each person contributes roughly their percentage of the team to goals, that gives her a 5.56% rate as a skater. If we restrict this solely to forwards, it is just over 9.00%. If she is only 9.00% of the team but 47.0% of the goals are scored when she is there, is this enough of a statistic to persuade you?
The Cat Lady leads the team in power-play goals this season at three. Her linemate, Kaitlin Doering, leads in shorthanded goals (three). The third musketeer, Hanna Bunton, leads the team in power-play points, tied with freshman Micah Hart, a defenseman who often sees ice time with the line.
Hat tricks are rare in hockey, but not rare for this line. This season, three hat tricks have occurred among these players. Hanna notched one and Jess notched two. All three occurred since the return of Jess Brown.
The Cat's Meow
Power-play goals and goals per game are not the only categories that belong to the Cat Lady. Game-winning goals have a Cleveland flair to them as well. Four of the Red's 13 game winners belong to Brown.
The team plays differently when she is in the line-up. When she scores a point, they have been defeated but once. When she scores a goal? They have yet to be defeated. Wins have certainly occurred without a Jess Brown point or goal, but when she rises, the team is lifted with her.
This senior class is a special one. It is typified in the Jess Brown Effect.