This past weekend the Bears men’s ice hockey team (8-13-2, 4-10-2 ECAC) lost games on Friday and Saturday night to both St. Lawrence (14-14-0, 9-7-0 ECAC) and Clarkson (12-13-3, 6-8-2 ECAC).
The Bears had a difficult time maintaining their momentum after an upset against the Harvard Crimson nearly two weeks ago on Jan. 21.
“The 14 days in between games was obviously not beneficial for us,” Head Coach Brendan Whittet ’94 said via Brown Athletics. “We looked really rusty and it showed."
This weekend was the first appearance of goalie Jacob Zacharewicz ’26, who started after Mathieu Caron ’25 suffered an injury. Despite the tough scores of the weekend, Zacharewicz performed well, with 20 saves Friday and 30 on Saturday.
St. Lawrence 6, Brown 0
The Bears showed strong defense during the first St. Lawrence attack but were unable to maintain the effort, conceding a goal in the fifth minute.
The period continued with a St. Lawrence penalty giving Brown a power play in the seventh minute. Despite strong offensive attacks by the Bears, the Saints were able to complete their penalty kill.
Shortly after, the Bears were unable to stop the Saints’ attack, leaving them down 2-0 in the 11th minute.
The period continued to cause problems for the Bears, as a penalty committed by Ryan Bottrill ’26 put the Saints in their first power play of the game, leading to a goal that put the Bears on the losing side of a 3-0 score at the end of the first period.
The Bears struggled to break the Saints’ goalie, who had multiple saves on breakaways by Bruno. The Saints’ defense also prevented any shots during two Brown power plays.
The Bears were unable to recover in the third period as the Saints scored two goals in the fourth and sixth minutes, bringing the score to 5-0. Later in the period, the Bears failed to capitalize on a 5-3 powerplay, and a late St. Lawrence goal in the 16th minute concluded the game 6-0.
“We got to be better on the power play,” Whittet said, noting that the team lost forward Matt Sutton ’24 to an injury before the game. “I thought our power play struggled all weekend.”
Clarkson 6, Brown 2
The Bears sought redemption from Friday’s game against St. Lawrence but were unable to obtain it Saturday against Clarkson.
The game started with two early Clarkson goals in the third and fifth minutes, giving them momentum and a commanding lead from the onset, similar to Friday’s game.
“At the start of the game, they kind of just outworked us just getting to the net,” said forward Jordan Tonelli ’24. “That's how they got a couple of goals.”
The Bears showed signs of a strong offense late in the first period with a goal in the 16th minute by Gavin Puskar ’24, ending the period 2-1 for Clarkson.
The second period, similar to the game against the Saints, was mostly a defensive stand. Despite only being outshot by 8-7, the Bears conceded a goal that put them down 3-1 going into the third period.
In the third period, Clarkson extended their lead dramatically with a natural hat trick by player Alex Campbell, and despite a late goal by Puskar in a Brown power play, the Bears lost the game 6-2.
“We're gonna get better overall. I think we (will) go back on Monday and think about this weekend. Obviously, that's an embarrassing weekend for us,” said defenseman Luke Krys ’23. “We never want to lose two at home, but we're gonna start over on Monday.”
The Bears will look to get back on track with Friday’s away game against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.
Dennis Carey is a Sports editor who enjoys playing volleyball, listening to and collecting vinyl records and poorly playing the guitar in his spare time.
