Following a pair of victories over Rensselaer and No. 18 Union last weekend, the men’s hockey team was edged by Ivy rival Yale 4-3 in a close contest on the road Saturday.
A trio of seniors, Alex Brink ’19, Brady Schoo ’19 and Tommy Marchin ’19, scored to bring the Bears (8-10-3, 5-6-3 ECAC) within one goal of the Bulldogs (11-7-3, 9-4-1). Brink and Schoo also recorded assists for two points each.
Yale pressured the Brown net in the first period, earning an early lead when Mitchell Smith scored off of a faceoff in the Bears’ zone. Joe Snively added a goal on a breakaway midway through the stanza to give Yale a 2-0 lead as the teams entered the locker rooms.
“We were having trouble in the first period … because we weren’t maintaining any pressure in the offensive zone,” Marchin said. “We’d get (the puck) in and it would come right back out, so we tried getting more bodies to the net and making sure our forecheck was good so that we couldn’t get beat back up the ice. … Once we started doing that, we saw a little bit more success.”
Bruno began to fight back in the second period, outshooting the Bulldogs 10-8 in the frame. Seven minutes into the stanza, Brink scored to put the Bears on the board and bring the team within one. Brent Beaudoin ’20 skated around the Yale net and sent the puck to Brink, who collected the pass in the left circle and sent a shot past Bulldogs netminder Corbin Kaczperski.
Late in the period, Snively tacked on his second goal of the game for Yale after a pass from Bulldogs forward Tyler Welsh deflected off of his skate and into the net. Jack St. Ivany extended the lead a minute and a half into the final frame, sending a shot from the right circle past Brown goalkeeper Luke Kania ’21.
But the Bears answered back, peppering the Yale net with pucks and outshooting the Bulldogs 18-14 in the final stanza. The team began to mount a comeback as Schoo fired a shot past Kaczperski with three minutes remaining. Bruno continued to maintain pressure in Yale’s zone, pulling Kania for an extra skater half a minute later. Marchin added an extra-attacker goal in the final 10 seconds to narrow the deficit.
“There was more urgency in our game once we saw time starting to run down, and we knew that we had to really start putting pucks on net and challenging their team in ways that we weren’t at the beginning of the game,” Brink said. “Once we got into the flow of the game and actually took control of that, it really changed for us, and that’s why we could put up a really solid second half.”
Despite the loss, Saturday’s contest further demonstrated the consistency and depth of production across the team’s lines, which has been a positive, Marchin said.
“You have guys backing each other up, so when one line’s not having a night producing, … you get three more that are just as capable and have been playing just as well,” Marchin said. “When you’re able to rotate through those four lines and keep applying pressure line after line, it gets really hard to play against, for Yale or for other teams.”
As the final month of regular season competition approaches, the Bears maintain a confident mindset and seek to build on the year’s successes, which have included a series of victories over the winter break highlighted by a first place effort at the Three Rivers Classic tournament.
“The biggest positive is showing that when we decide to play, that we can play with any team,” Brink said. “Yale is ranked. … If we can come out and put up the second and third periods we did on a team like that, it shows that we have the work ethic and the ability to be in those games.”
The Bears continue conference play with a pair of visits to Princeton and No. 5 Quinnipiac this weekend.
