The men’s ice hockey team (1-2, 1-2 ECAC) lost to Princeton (2-1, 2-0 ECAC) in a 6-3 battle Friday night. The Bears started the game with a spark of momentum in the first period, before a second period surge by the Tigers put the game out of reach.
Brett Bliss ’25 brought Bruno to a lead just 52 seconds after the opening faceoff, marking the first goal of his career. Shooting from the top of the right circle, Bliss sent the puck straight through Princeton’s defense and landed a goal, supported by an assist from Michael Maloney ’22 and a secondary assist from Samuli Niinisaari ’23. Securing a 1-0 advantage, Bliss brought the Bears their only lead of the game.
With 2:34 left in the first period, Princeton sent the puck past Brown goaltender Luke Kania GS and tied the score. Despite the goal, Kania remained poised for the Bears, ending the game with 22 saves. The Tigers outshot the Bears 47-16, making it difficult for the defense and Kania to keep Bruno in the game.
Head Coach Brendan Whittet mentioned that he was proud of Kania’s goaltending efforts, especially considering the shot differential.
“Kania was not our problem,” Whittet said. “We had to play a lot better in terms of effort and tenacity. It was something that stemmed little from (our defensive) systems ... As a team, we weren’t playing (to the standard of) Brown hockey.”
The Tigers dominated the Bears in the second period, scoring four goals to stun Brown’s defense. After a scoreless second period by Brown, defenseman Luke Krys ’23 turned things around in the third period and helped the Bears diminish Princeton’s advantage in their second power play goal of the match. Krys scored at the top of the slot following a pass from Tristan Crozier ’23, who was set up with a pass from Justin Jallen ’23.
Krys explained that there were positives to take from Brown’s defeat. “It’s a huge learning opportunity for the team to understand we have to be ready to play any other team just as much when we play a top five team in the country,” Krys said. “It starts with the leaders needing to push the pace and for us to play as (a) unit.”
Cole Quisenberry ’23 echoed a similar sentiment, saying the Bears are ready for a clean start. “This is a game we want to put behind us quickly and move on from,” Quisenberry said. “It will be a good test for us to see how we respond bouncing back from this game. We’ll need to show up to the rink much more prepared and ready to go against the rest of our opponents.”
With just 35 seconds left on the clock, the Bears scored their final goal of the night off a one-timer from the right dot by Nathan Plessis ’23 and a feed from Jake Harris ’22. The foal marked Plessis’s second in two games.
Brown had a quick turnaround to complete the weekend, as the Bears played Saturday against No. 6 Quinnipiac University (7-1-2, 2-0 ECAC). Brown shored up its defense against Quinnipiac but fell to the Bobcats 1-0 after letting up a third period goal.
The Bears are off next weekend before a Nov. 19 game at Cornell (3-1, 1-1 ECAC) and a Nov. 20 game at Colgate University (5-6, 0-2 ECAC). Both games are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story contained passages with identical or nearly identical language to a news article on the official Brown Athletics website. These portions have since been revised. An Editors’ Note explaining this and other changes can be found here.
