This weekend in Connecticut, the men’s ice hockey team (14-15-3, 9-11-2 ECAC) was swept by first-seed Quinnipiac (24-10-2, 16-5-1) in the Eastern College Athletic Conference quarterfinals, losing 4-1 on Friday and 4-0 on Saturday in a best-of-three series.
Despite the loss, the ice hockey team gave fans a sensational season. The Bears reached the ECAC quarterfinals for the first time since 2019 and tallied 13 regular season wins along the way — the most since the 2004-05 season.
“It’s a tough ending, but it doesn’t diminish what Brown Hockey accomplished this year,” Head Coach Brendan Whittet ’94 said in a message to Brown Athletics. “We took a huge step as a program and I couldn’t be more proud of the way the guys played and battled.”
While hoping to pull off the upset against the talented Bobcats, the Bears struggled from the very beginning. Just 5:23 into the opening matchup on Friday, Quinnipiac’s Cooper Moore fired a missile from the blue line, which was deflected by Victor Czerneckianair past Bruno goaltender Lawton Zacher ’27 to put the Bobcats up 1-0.
Despite the early Bobcat momentum, Brown’s defense stepped up for the remainder of the period. Their effort was highlighted by a power play kill over 10 minutes in when Brown’s lockdown defense did not let a single shot on goal despite being a man down. Play was deadlocked for the rest of the period, which ended with a score of 1-0.
“Quinnipiac is a very gifted hockey team, and they have some skill,” Whittet said. “If you make a mistake, they’ll make you pay and the mistakes you make are magnified because they end up in the back of the net.”
After the first intermission, both teams came out swinging, but Quinnipiac once again grabbed the upper hand. Less than five minutes into the period, the Bobcats exploited a fastbreak, leaving the Brown defense dumbfounded and extending Quinnipiac’s lead to 2.
Though the Bears kept fighting, they could not seem to find the back of the net. After nearly 14 minutes into the second period, a holding call on the Bobcats resulted in Bruno’s first power play of the match. Despite a valiant effort of three shots on goal during the man-up advantage, Bruno could not convert.
The third period continued to be a physical battle, underlined by the period’s four total penalties. Over halfway through the period, the Bobcats capitalized on one such penalty to make it 3-0.
Less than two minutes later, Tyler Kopff ’27 was able to net the first Bruno goal of the day. Taking advantage of a power play, Kopff tipped in his own deflected shot on the crease.
Though Zacher continued to be a force in the net, finishing the game with 21 saves, the Bobcat offense proved too much to handle. Quinnipiac eventually netted their fourth goal of the game to end the match-up 4-1.
“We have to play a little bit more to our identity,” Whittet said after the first loss. “We’re a hard-nosed, tough, physical hockey team and I thought we got away from that at times tonight. It’s a new day tomorrow, it’s a series for a reason.”
Unfortunately, Saturday’s do-or-die game was a replay of Friday’s beating for the Bears. During the first period, both teams flexed their defensive strength and the game remained tied at 0-0.
Brown’s offense peppered the Bobcats with chances, outpacing Quinnipiac 12-5 on shots on goal in the first period, but Bobcats star goalie Matej Marinov did not let anything through.
The Bobcats pulled through with the first tally of the game just under five minutes into the second period when Tyler Borgula ripped a rocket top-shelf on Zacher to make it 1-0.
Trying to keep up with the Bobcat offense, Brown relentlessly pressured Quinnipiac with shots throughout the second period. But the Bobcat goalie remained strong, fending off every shot, including five shots on goal during Brown’s lone power play. By the end of the period, despite a total of 13 shots on goal by Bruno, the score remained 1-0.
Brown conceded their second goal just two minutes into the third period after Mason Marcellus fired a shot from the middle of the Bruno defensive zone. The remainder of the period continued to be an uphill battle for the Bears.
Borgula scored his second goal of the game for Quinnipiac on a power play with under three minutes to go, making it 3-0. This was the only power play goal scored by the Bobcats over the game’s five Quinnipiac power plays.
The nail was hammered into the coffin with an empty net goal by Quinnipiac with under a minute left, ending the game 4-0. Brown finished with 34 shots on goal as opposed to Quinnipiac’s 25, with Marinov saving all 34.
Quinnipiac advances to their fifth consecutive ECAC semifinals this Friday.
