The men's hockey team posted two ties over the weekend to open its ECACHL season. On Friday, the Bears tied Union College 2-2, and they recorded the same score against No. 17 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Saturday.
The Dutchmen took a brief lead early in the first period of Friday's game, when Mario Valery-Trabucco scored at 7:29 from the left side of the crease. But the Bears fired back three minutes later with a goal by Paul Baier '08. Devin Timberlake '10 and Matt Vokes '09 recorded assists on the goal.
Both teams remained scoreless for the rest of the first period, but 41 seconds into the second period, Sean McMonagle '10 scored off a pass from Jeff Prough '08 to give the Bears a 2-1 lead. Union answered with a goal of its own at 13:22 when a shot from Luke Cain sailed past goaltender Dan Rosen '10.
Neither team was able to score for the remainder of the game, and though the Bears outshot the Dutchmen 3-2 during overtime, the game ended in a deadlock. Rosen tallied 33 saves for the day.
On Saturday, Brown again allowed its opponent to take the first lead. After a scoreless first period, the Engineers climbed ahead 6:19 into the second period with a goal from Andrew Lord, and RPI extended its lead to 2-0 when Jonathan Ornelas scored at 14:18.
But the Bears battled back. They finally responded at 8:49 in the third period when Vokes fired a shot from the right face-off circle to beat Engineers' goaltender Jordan Alford. The goal snapped Alford's scoreless streak at 172:01. Sean Hurley '08 and Matt Palmer '09 recorded assists on the goal.
Though the Bears continued to trail for the rest of the period, they finally buried the equalizer with 42 seconds remaining when Prough scored off assists from Ryan Garbutt '09 and Chris Poli '08 to send the game into overtime.
During overtime play, Brown outshot RPI, 12-2, but both teams failed to capitalize on scoring opportunities, leaving the final score tied again at 2-2. Rosen recorded a total of 20 saves in that game.
This weekend, the Bears will host their only home games of the fall semester, facing off against Colgate University on Friday and Cornell on Saturday. Both games will begin at 7 p.m. at Meehan Auditorium.
