Following a split home-and-home series against Yale last weekend, the men’s hockey team suffered a pair of losses to Ivy rivals Dartmouth and No. 3 Harvard on the road Friday and Saturday, respectively. Bruno fell to the Big Green 4-3 in Hanover before dropping a 3-0 shutout to the Crimson in Cambridge.
Trey Dodd ’20 and Nolan Aibel ’20 delivered multiple-point efforts in Friday’s matchup, recording a goal and an assist each. Joe Maguire ’20 also added a pair of helpers.
Dartmouth 4, Brown 3
Despite outshooting the Big Green 27-22, the Bears (1-3, 1-3 ECAC) were unable to recover from a trio of early Dartmouth goals Friday night.
“We know how we want to play — it’s a matter of how we’re executing and how hard we’re working as a team,” Aibel said. “We weren’t focused off the start and we dug ourselves into a hole, which is never easy to come back from.”
The Big Green (2-2, 2-1) scored twice in the first six and a half minutes of the contest before widening the lead with a shorthanded goal 22 seconds into the second period.
The Bears responded quickly, when Dodd and Aibel scored within half a minute of one another in the second stanza. Dodd capitalized on a rebound, sending the puck into the right corner of the net at 1:57. Thirty-one seconds later, Aibel collected a feed from Tony Stillwell ’21 and fired a shot from the slot past Big Green goaltender Devin Buffalo to trim the deficit to one.
Conner Wynne ’19 answered a Dartmouth power play goal in the third period, sending the puck over the shoulder of Buffalo with five minutes remaining. But the Big Green closed Bruno out in the final stretch.
In the net, rookie goaltender Luke Kania ’21 made his first career appearance with the Bears, stopping 18 shots in the loss.
Harvard 3, Brown 0
The following day in Cambridge, Brown fell at the hands of third-ranked Harvard (2-1, 2-1), conceding two power play goals from defenseman Ryan Weiss in the final two frames.
The consistency of Bruno’s penalty kill has been a strength, said Head Coach Brendan Whittet ’94. The Bears entered the weekend at 100 percent on the penalty kill and held the Crimson at 2-for-8 on the power play in Saturday’s loss.
“Penalty kill has been excellent — the power play for Harvard is one of the best in the country and was last year,” Whittet said. “They have elite personnel that can move pucks, and we have to do a better job of not putting ourselves at that disadvantage, to make sure we are disciplined and don’t get needless penalties.”
Zach Giuttari ’20 led the Bears with five shots and Alex Brink ’19 recorded four.
Harvard outshot Bruno 36-26 in the contest. Goalkeeper Gavin Nieto ’20 returned to the crease, posting 33 saves.
Looking forward, Whittet emphasized the importance of achieving simplicity on the power play.
“We’ve done a pretty good job on the killing side,” Whittet said. “On the power play we’ve just got to simplify what we’re doing, outwork the opposition and make sure we’re putting pucks in the net and not over-passing.”
Mentally, the Bears remain poised and focused on the process of improvement as they delve deeper into conference play. With the bulk of its season lying ahead, Bruno seeks to maintain its work ethic in practice and competition.
“If we’re lazy in practice and we’re not winning battles, that’ll most likely show up in the games,” Aibel said. “It’s a matter of being 100 percent focused, being locked in for a full practice and just constantly competing with each other.”
If the team continues to devote attention to its development, the results will take care of themselves, Whittet said.
“We have a team that wants to leave Brown hockey better than when they arrived — there’s a lot of good seniors on our team, and they’ve done things the right way this year,” Whittet said. “I don’t look at where we are four games in in November as where we’re going to be at the end of the season — we’re just going to keep getting better.”
The Bears return home to host No. 13 Clarkson and St. Lawrence at Meehan Auditorium Friday and Saturday.
