Hockey season is back, and the Brown men’s hockey team (3-6, 2-5 ECAC) — relying on a fresh class of first-years and transfers — is looking to make a jump in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, where Bruno hasn’t finished above seventh since 2005. But a month into the season, results have so far been mixed for the Bears.
With nine goals in nine games, forward Ryan St. Louis ’26 is currently leading the nation in goals per game, while his linemate Max Scott ’27 is 14th in the NCAA in points per game, with three goals and nine assists. But partially because of a defense that has allowed an average of 3.56 goals per game, which ranks 54th of 60 Division I programs, and three overtime losses, Brown enters December three games below .500.
“I believe we have the right guys in the room,” St. Louis said. But “some games we just beat ourselves.”
The Bears are a young team: St. Louis and Scott are among several players in their debut seasons at Brown whom Head Coach Brendan Whittet ’94 has relied on. St. Louis, who is the son of Hockey Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis, originally began his hockey career at Northeastern University and then spent last season in the United States Hockey League, the country’s top junior league, before arriving at Brown this year. In his second game, he recorded a hat trick on just three shots in a 7-2 win over Stonehill College (0-14, 0-5 NEC) and then followed that performance with a goal in six of his next seven games.
Scott, who recorded four assists in the game against Stonehill, is leading the team in points and shots and has also won 56% of his faceoffs.
“Max Scott and Ryan St. Louis are players that do everything right and approach their games in a professional manner,” Whittet said. “Max does everything hard with a high compete level and is extremely detailed in his game. Ryan is extremely gifted offensively and has that instinctual knack to always be in the right place at the right time. … They are only scratching the surface of what they ultimately will be as players.”
“The start of my Brown career has been great,” Scott said. “I have been building chemistry with my teammates every practice and game; this has enabled me to be successful throughout the start of the season.”
Playing with Scott and linemate Ryan Bottrill ’26 “has definitely made hockey easier,” St. Louis said. “We are starting to get more chemistry on the ice and understanding each other's tendencies. I believe there is still more we can do to help our team win more games.”
The Bears fell to Yale (2-7, 2-5 ECAC) 3-2 in overtime in their season opener in late October before beating Stonehill and Colgate University to move above .500. But since then the Bears have suffered crushing losses to top-10 teams Cornell (5-3-1, 2-3-1 ECAC) and Quinnipiac University (9-4-1, 5-0-1 ECAC) and close overtime defeats to Princeton (3-4-1, 3-2-1 ECAC) and Clarkson University (6-5, 3-1 ECAC).
Most recently, Brown defeated St. Lawrence University (3-10-1, 1-3 ECAC) 2-1 before falling to College of the Holy Cross (7-6-2, 3-6-2 AHA) 6-3 last Friday.
Since the Bears’ three overtime losses each count for a point, Brown is currently tied for second place in the ECAC, but Bruno has played more games than any other team besides Yale.
“The start to the season has seen its positives in terms of growth of a very young team,” Whittet said. “We have taken some major strides playing consistently to our identity as a program and that identity is based on relentless work ethic, grit and playing with a chip on our shoulders. When we play to that identity the wins have come and when we get away from that it becomes much more difficult to succeed.”
The Bears will next take on Long Island University Friday and Stonehill again Sunday before facing a difficult run of opponents in Northeastern University, Merrimack College and Providence College.
“This team has tremendous potential. Will we have adversity to battle through? Of course we will,” Whittet added. “But I am confident that this team will respond to those challenges and emerge as a program that is on the rise in the ECAC and in the NCAA.”
