With the season winding down and only Eastern College Athletic Conference opponents in front of them, men’s ice hockey (12-11-2, 8-9-1 ECAC) is on an unparalleled hot streak after winning eight of their last 10 games.
After a miserable 6-1 defeat against close rival Cornell (11-8-6, 8-6-4) on Friday, the Bears managed to gain back their winning streak by knocking off No. 19 Colgate (15-12-3, 10-6-2) 6-3 on Saturday.
Bruno now holds eighth place in the ECAC, only one point behind seventh place Harvard.
The game “was a really good win,” said Head Coach Brendan Whittet ’94 in an interview with Brown Athletics. But he noted that the team “started off slow.”
“As we progress and play teams such as Colgate and ranked teams at the top of the standings with a lot of good players, we cannot waltz into games like we did again tonight,” Whittet added.
Bruno was outshot 30 to 23 by the end of the game’s three periods. Goalkeeper Lawton Zacher ’27 was unbeatable at the crease, notching 27 saves to keep Bruno in the game.
“Nothing beats the feeling of winning,” Zacher wrote in a message to The Herald.
Though the Bears displayed both intensity and grit throughout the match, the Raiders snapped up the first goal. Bruno got caught trying to play out of their side of the rink, allowing a Colgate player to square the puck for his teammate, slotting home the opening goal of the game.
A buttending penalty by Colgate’s Ryan Spinale gave Bruno a five-minute power play and their first chance to get back into the game. But Bruno was unable to convert the power play into a goal and remained down.
Disaster struck again in the 15th minute when one-two passes from the Raiders earned them another goal, stretching their lead to two.
But Bruno was ready to fight their way back. About 45 seconds after Colgate doubled their lead, the Bears cut it in half. The puck came loose from a scrap against the sideboard, and Alex Pineau ’27 picked it up, scoring with a clever backhand shot.
Exactly one minute later, Brian Nicholas ’28 tied up the game. Assisted by linemates Charlie Gollob ’28 and Tyler Kopff ’27, Nicholas found his way onto the rebound from Kopff’s shot and smashed it home to level up the game as the first period closed.
“We started off the game fairly flat, but we knew we just had to settle in and play to our strengths,” Gollob wrote in a message to The Herald. “The key was sticking to what we do best, which is playing hard, heavy and fast.”
By the second period, Bruno was fully in the game. Thirteen minutes in, Nicholas was called for a tripping penalty in the neutral zone, giving Colgate a penalty shot. But the Raiders’ effort was fantastically saved by Zacher and the game remained tied. Not long after, the Bears took their first lead of the game.
Ryan Shostak ’26 picked up the puck and immediately looked to counterattack from his own half. Swarmed by Raiders, it looked, just for a moment, like he might lose the puck, but he creatively laid it off to Lynden Grandberg ’25. Grandberg found himself through on goal, one-on-one with the goalkeeper and took a brilliant shot into the side netting. Bruno pulled ahead.
That goal was Grandberg’s first of the season. Six different players scored goals in the match, spreading the wealth and fire to the entire team.
“Once we hit our stride Saturday night, there was no looking back,” Gollob wrote in a message to The Herald. “We got contributions from everyone throughout the lineup, Zacher (showed up) when we needed him and although it wasn’t pretty, it’s a results driven business and we walked away with 3 points in a crucial ECAC league game.”
Zacher noted that he and teammate Tyler Shea ’26 “push each other so hard in practice that when it comes to game time we are very comfortable.”
After Brett Bliss ’25 fired a shot into the net, Colgate was well and truly beaten. The Bears completed their comeback and led the game 4-2.
A minute into the third period, the Raiders broke through for a short-handed goal and cut the Bears’ lead to one. But Bruno kept the pressure on and found their response through Brendan Clark ’25. The lead was back to two and any thought of a Colgate comeback was snuffed out.
Two minutes later, Gollob secured a goal to complement his two assists in the match and Bruno ran away with a crucial win.
“I am fortunate to be playing with two very good linemates in Brian Nicholas and Tyler Kopff. When you have guys like that playing alongside you, it makes your job easier,” Gollob wrote. “It felt good to be able to contribute (to) this win.”
The Bears will look to take their hot streak on the road this coming weekend with match-ups against Princeton (10-13-2, 5-11-2) and Quinnipiac (19-9-2, 13-4-1). The games will be streamed live 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.
