Last week, the men’s ice hockey team (3-7, 2-4 ECAC) split a two-game series against Yale (4-5, 3-3 ECAC) and fell to No. 12 Northeastern (9-4, 4-3 Hockey East).
“It’s still early, we’re growing (and) we’re learning,” Head Coach Brendan Whittet ’94 told Brown Athletics after the Yale series. “I like the team a lot, but my expectation is every game we play, we win.
On Nov. 21, the Bears faced off against the Bulldogs in the Meehan Auditorium. Bruno started off strong, and less than 3 minutes into the game, forward Brian Nicholas ’28 finished off a feed from fellow forward Michael Salandra ’28, putting the Bears on the scoreboard. But moments later, a review overturned the play due to an offside call, and the game remained scoreless.
Brown then spent much of the first period killing penalties instead, with goaltender Fred Halyk ’27 turned aside 6 shots during 3 straight Yale power plays. On the other end, Brown couldn’t take advantage of 2 late power plays — including a long 5-on-3 — and entered intermission tied at 0-0.
Yale opened the scoring early in the second period when forward Will Richter picked off a Brown buildup and scored on the counterattack.
But Yale didn’t have the lead for long. Five minutes later, Salandra reacted quickly after a shot by Alex Pineau ’27 rebounded, scoring smartly with a light tap-in to tie the game.
The Bears took the lead less than 2 minutes into the third period when forward Matthew Cataldo ’29 buried a loose puck after winning a faceoff and scramble in front of the goal.
But just like Brown did the period before, Yale was quick to level the score. During a power play midway through the period, Bulldog forward Micah Berger released a long shot through layers of traffic that hit the back of the net.
Fighting hard to regain the Bruno lead, defenseman Matt Desiderio ’29 disrupted a Yale entry, allowing forward Mike Cataldo ’27 to send his brother, Matthew Cataldo, into the neutral zone. With a shorthanded breakaway, Matthew Cataldo gave Brown a 3-2 advantage less than a minute after Yale equalized the game.
To close out the game, forward Tanner Hartman ’26 added an insurance goal off an offensive-zone draw with less than 4 minutes left, effectively sealing Brown’s triumph. Throughout the game, Brown held a narrow 32-31 advantage in shots on goal and logged 25 blocked shots over Yale’s 6.
“That was a battle tonight. There were ebbs and flows to it, and we had to kill off a ton of penalties,” Whittet told Brown Athletics following the game. “We did a great job on the penalty kill, Halyk made a few huge saves and gave us a chance. By and large, I thought we battled and played pretty hard.”
But Brown’s success against the Bulldogs was short-lived. Just one night later, the Bulldogs evened the series following a 40-save outing from Yale goalie Jack Stark.
Brown played without standout captain forward Ryan St. Louis ’26, and the game “was hard” without him, Whittet said. “That being said, you expect other guys to step up in his absence. I thought we did some good things. We were just a little inconsistent.”
The opening period had 7 combined penalties, with Yale finally breaking through on a power play with a clean finish by forward Zachary Wagnon, securing a 1-0 lead.
Yale then doubled its advantage early in the second period as forward David Chen carried the puck straight up the middle and fired a shot through traffic that bested Brown goalie Tyler Shea ’26.
Brown generated multiple high-quality chances to score throughout the period — including a shorthanded breakaway by Matthew Cataldo and a solo look for forward Ben Poitras ’28 — but Stark held firm.
In the final period, Yale forward Ronan O’Donnell pushed the lead to 3 after a sloppy Brown turnover behind the net.
The Bears pulled Shea with 4 minutes on the clock, and forward Ivan Zadvernyuk ’28 spoiled Stark’s clean sheet on a late power play to get Brown on the scoreboard. But to the Bears’ dismay, 1 goal was all they would get, and they headed back to Providence with a 3-1 loss, splitting the series with Yale.
Brown’s Thanksgiving break play ended with a road loss on Saturday against Northeastern.
On the Huskies’ Senior Day, the Bears gave up 2 early goals just 37 seconds apart to Northeastern forwards Amine Hajibi and Joe Connor.
The Huskies added a third goal early in the second period before Desiderio finished a late-period rush to get Brown on the scoreboard.
The Bears pressed for a second goal in the third period, but they couldn’t break past the Husky defense. Any hope Brown had left was crushed when Northeastern defenseman Vinny Borgesi capitalized on an empty net in the final 2 minutes, sending the Bears home with a 4-1 loss.
“We literally lost the game on a 30-second shift in the first period where we turned pucks over,” Whittet said. “We have to be better, and that’s everybody, including the staff.”
Brown returns to the ECAC next weekend with road games at No. 10 Dartmouth (8-0, 4-0 ECAC) on Friday and No. 20 Harvard (5-3-1, 3-1) on Saturday. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m.
