Men’s ice hockey opened its season with a road trip to upstate New York this weekend, losing to Colgate 5-3 on Friday and 3-1 to No. 6 Cornell on Saturday, who had already played several games on their own season.
Colgate rushed out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, scoring both goals less than two minutes apart. Alex Pineau ’27, scoring the Bears’ first goal of the season, got Bruno on the scoresheet less than three minutes later. But, despite 25 saves from goalie Lawton Zacher ’27, Bruno could not overturn the deficit and eventually lost 5-3 with goals from Ivan Zadvernyuk ’28 — his Brown debut — and Ryan Shostak ’26.
“We have lots of young talent who were playing in their first college hockey games,” Head Coach Brendan Whittet ’94 wrote in an email to The Herald. “The pace and compete needed at this level are learned and can only be gained through … growth moments in actual game.”
Brown came out much stronger against Cornell than in their previous game. Cornell was coming off a surprising shootout loss to Yale the night before. With both teams on their second game of the weekend, it proved to be a tight and evenly matched affair.
After early power plays from both teams were successfully killed off, the game seemed to remain close heading into the first intermission. But Brown’s offense forechecked aggressively and generated an opportunity. Retrieving the puck after offensive pressure on the board, Ryan St. Louis ’26 drove toward the net and fired a shot at Cornell goaltender Ian Shane, who made an initial stop of the puck. But, it rebounded off of Max Scott ’27 and into the net to give Brown the lead.
“My line including Tyler Kopff ’27 and Ryan St. Louis ’26 did a great job working them down low which allowed Ryan St. Louis to find ice up high,” Scott wrote. “I knew a shot was coming and I needed to get the net front effectively. I was able to spin off the defender at the right time for Ryan to shoot it toward the net and I was able to deflect it in.”
Brown took the lead and held momentum into the first intermission. But eight minutes into the second period, Cornell evened the score through Dalton Bancroft. Although his initial slap shot was blocked, the rebound fell for Bancroft, who rifled a shot past Brown goaltender Tyler Shea ’26.
“Our team stood their ground, and at times, had Cornell on their heels,” Shea wrote in an email to The Herald. “I give all the credit to the defensive core of that game, they made my life easy through constant communication and letting me see the puck when called upon.”
The back-and-forth remained even throughout the rest of the second period and well into the third. But, Brown’s defense was continually tested and with 53 seconds remaining, Cornell’s Ben Robertson fired a cross-crease back door pass to Bancroft, who shot the puck into the net’s roof, sending the sold-out crowd of over 4,000 at Lynah Rink into a frenzy.
“I think the biggest takeaway for us this past weekend was figuring out how to manage the games effectively,” Shea wrote. “We are a young team that kept trending in the right direction as the periods went on, and right now we are focused on continuing to build the foundation we set this weekend.”
“Both Colgate and Cornell started both games with a ton of energy, and I think it was good for our guys to see what that was like and use that to slingshot us into next weekend where we will set the tone early in our rink,” he added.
The line of Scott, St. Louis and Kopff had a major impact in the Cornell game, especially on the forecheck and by generating numerous chances. In addition to his goal against Cornell, Scott was dominant in the faceoff circle across the entire weekend, winning 20 of 29 faceoffs against the Raiders and 22 of 33 against the Big Red.
“But from Friday to Saturday we made great progress in our team’s ability taking on one of the top teams in the country,” Scott wrote.
Brown continues its season at home on Friday against No. 15 Quinnipiac and on Saturday against Princeton.
“This is a good group of players who we are molding into a team and I believe will have exponential growth throughout the season,” Whittet wrote. “It is nice to be playing at home this weekend with our home opener against the 2023 NCAA Championship team in Quinnipiac.” ”
“We are focused on consistently developing as a team,” Shea wrote. “All the outside noise is just that - it's not about where you start the season, it’s where you end it.”
