It’s mid-August, which means we’re (mercifully) closer to the start of the 2025-26 college hockey season than we are to the end of the 2024-25 campaign. But, as this blog didn’t exist until last week, we have some catching up to do!

The first item in our backlog: a retrospective on Brown’s season. Let’s dive in.

Preseason: Jeez, I didn’t think it was that bad

Before we start dissecting 2024-25, it’s important to revisit the end of the 2023-24 season to provide context. A very young Brown team, led mostly by freshmen and sophomores, had put together a nice little 4-2 stretch in January to bring its record to 8-11-1 on the season. However, injuries derailed the season, and the Bears wilted against a relatively tough stretch of the schedule, going 0-8-2 (yikes!) the rest of the way.

Perhaps the other ECAC coaches were spooked by that collapse, because they picked Brown to finish dead last in the preseason poll. It felt a bit insulting at the time, as the Bears were returning six of their top seven scorers (rising junior Ryan Bottrill defected to conference rival Clarkson) and a goaltender in Lawton Zacher who’d put up a respectable .909 save percentage while handling a large volume of games as a rookie, and a large volume of shots faced.

In front of Zacher, forwards Ryan St. Louis (24 points), Tyler Kopff (18), and Max Scott (18 in 22 before a season-ending injury); defensemen Alex Pineau (15) and Ethan Mistry (11); and highly-touted incoming freshman Brian Nicholas formed a nucleus that had promise on paper — at least in the eyes of more discerning observers, some of which may even run this very blog.

But we’re not here to relitigate a year-old preseason coaches’ poll, or this writer’s uncanny knack for predicting the future (please clap). The important takeaway is that the Bears were young, talented, and hungry heading into 2024-25.

November/December: Playing to par

The 2024-25 season started off a bit — meh. A pair of close-ish (maybe close-adjacent) losses at Colgate and Cornell were understandable, but not necessarily encouraging. The Bears then battled well against Quinnipiac in their home opener at venerable Meehan Auditorium, but couldn’t put the Bobcats away and lost by a goal. A tie (and shootout win) the next night against Princeton was…fine.

It wasn’t until a road trip to upstate New York (like, wayyyyy upstate, not Poughkeepsie or whatever people who moved to Crown Heights in 2017 consider to be the upstate cutoff) to face Clarkson and St. Lawrence that things started to look up.

Brown stole a win in Potsdam, as freshman Charlie Gollob scored the game’s only goal with under a second remaining to shock Clarkson, even as the Bears were outshot handily. Brown won another tight defensive game the next night, beating St. Lawrence 2-1 in overtime. It was, believe it or not (and please don’t be mean and say “I believe it”), the first time Brown had ever swept the North Country trip in its long history — but more on that later.

Returning to Meehan the following weekend, Brown largely outplayed Air Force in a pair of games, but settled for a 1-1 tie (before winning a truly meaningless shootout — someday I’ll start a Shootout Abolition Coalition (SAC, for short) to remove this evil from the sport once and for all) on Friday night, before coasting to a 5-2 win on Saturday.

So, at this point, hey! They’ve erased the 0-3 start and gotten back to .500. Not bad! It could have been worse, and in the past, it certainly has been. The rest of the calendar year played out as one might have expected: a 4-3 loss at Northeastern (in a weird game in which the Huskies went up 4-0 early in the third period, prompting my idiot friends to convince me to leave, before Brown scored three unanswered goals and nearly forced overtime in the final moments) in early December, and a tidy 3-0 win over Long Island at the end of the month.

The Bears stood at 4-4-2 entering the new year, which seemed pretty good, even acknowledging that the teams they’d beaten weren’t exactly a murderer’s row (with the exception of Clarkson, who was ranked in the top 20 at the time). But they hadn’t been run off the ice in any of their games against top opponents, they’d managed to survive without leading scorer St. Louis for a few games, and they’d taken care of business — for the most part — in the games they were expected to win. Promising freshman Brian Nicholas had fit in seamlessly with the Brown top six, Zacher was playing lights-out with one of the best save percentages in the country, and it seemed as though the Bears were trending up.

January: Let’s just not talk about the first half of the month

Entering 2025, St. Louis was still banged up, and he would exit the first game against Union in the first period. Gollob departed a couple shifts later, leaving the Bears down two top-six forwards. The 10 remaining forwards would get worn down after Brown essentially rolled three lines for nearly 50 minutes. Union won a tight one, potting an empty-netter after the shorthanded Bears admirably created plenty of good scoring chances in the third period. The following night, Brown’s lack of depth once again burned the team, as RPI jumped out to an early lead and made the Bears chase the game, ultimately ending in a 4-3 Engineer victory.

Next up at Meehan: a midweek Mayor’s Cup matchup against the mighty fifth-ranked Providence Friars (we love alliteration, don't we, folks?), who came across town on a scalding seven-game win streak and with an overall 15-3-2 record. St. Louis and Gollob remained out, but there was a "fun" new wrinkle: Lawton Zacher didn’t dress for the game, leaving the Bears with just two goalies on the bench.

Freshman sensation Brian Nicholas skates by during the Mayor's Cup game against Providence College. Photo credit to CoffeeCake from the college hockey Discord.

Brown actually came out on fire, dominating the first period to the tune of a 17-11 shot margin, but failing to score on several top-tier chances (seriously, it felt like the puck was just sitting there in the crease for minutes at a time, but no Bears could find it). PC weathered the storm, then turned the tables, outshooting Brown 31-12 over the next two periods.

Despite an impressive showing in net from Tyler Shea, the dam eventually broke, and the Friars scored a couple power play goals in the third period to take a 2-0 win and render the Bears scoreless in consecutive Mayor’s Cups.

A trip to Harvard and Dartmouth on short rest while still missing two key forwards did not bode well. To their credit, the Bears played both teams closely, but ultimately dropped both games. It was two weeks into 2025, and Brown had lost five games in a row in frustrating fashion.

But then, the hockey gods finally decided the Bears had suffered enough. St. Louis and Gollob returned to action against St. Lawrence, and St. Louis scored the winning goal as Brown finally got back in the win column. A matchup with a ranked Clarkson team loomed the following night, and after a back-and-forth affair, the Golden Knights left captain Max Scott completely unmarked in front of the net with 1:25 left. He sniped it home, and then added an empty-netter from his own blue line for good measure a minute later. 4-2 Brown. This would mark the first time ever that Brown had gone 4-0 against its North Country foes in the same season (which makes sense, if you paid attention earlier in the article, considering they had never swept the road trip before).

A surprising 5-1 demolition of Merrimack in Andover, a much less surprising 5-2 win over Stonehill in Providence, and then a topsy-turvy 6-5 overtime win (in which the Bears blew a 5-2 lead!) at RPI allowed the Bears to close out the month on a five-game winning streak, negating the dreadful 0-5 start. They stood at 9-9-2 entering February.

February: Wait, are we good? I can’t tell if we’re good

Brown dropped another tight game against Union on the first day of February before sweeping rudderless Yale the following weekend. A “burn the tape” game against Cornell came next, as the Bears never showed up to a 6-1 shellacking. The following night, Colgate jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, and it seemed as though Brown was going through one of its patented late-season swoons.

But this team wouldn’t let that happen. Two goals within a minute of each other late in the first period tied the game, and then two second-period goals gave Brown a lead it wouldn’t relinquish, eventually posting a 6-3 win over the Raiders after scoring six of the last seven goals.

A comeback overtime win at Princeton kept the good vibes going. The Bears were 9-2 in their past 11 games, and stood at 13-11-2 overall. But disaster struck in the form of a devastating injury yet again, as freshman phenom Brian Nicholas, second on the team in points per game, went down against the Tigers. He would not return in a full capacity for the rest of the season. Furthermore, tough losses at Quinnipiac (4-0) and at home against Dartmouth (a game in which Brown led 2-0 before ultimately losing 4-2) dampened spirits.

The calendar was about to turn to March [somewhere, Jon Rothstein just twitched], and the Bears stood at exactly .500 after a rollercoaster of a season. The next two games would embody that spirit.

March: In which my heart rate reached a new all-time high

After dropping a game to Dartmouth on Friday night, Brown would host its most hated Ivy rival, Harvard, on Senior Night, in a game in which it needed a win to ensure it would clinch home ice for the ECAC Tournament’s first round. There were some other scenarios involving Princeton and RPI losing or going to overtime that would allow Brown to clinch, but the Bears controlled their own fate heading into the final game of the season.

It started disastrously. Zacher allowed two soft goals from low-danger areas within the first nine minutes, and Brendan Whittet had seen enough, pulling his All-ECAC goalie in favor of Shea. Harvard would score again with under two minutes to play in the first period, as Brown defense fell asleep at the wheel and coughed up the puck in their own zone before failing to clear the crease, allowing Harvard’s Phillip Tresca to jam home a rebound. 3-0 Crimson. The Bears managed to get a quick one back, as St. Louis found some space in front of the net and cashed in with under a minute to play.

The second period was mostly a stalemate. Harvard was content to defend and counter, as Brown became increasingly desperate and threw more pucks and bodies at the net. The Bears outshot Harvard through the first two periods, 23-12, but could not find a second goal to cut the deficit by the end of the second. As Princeton opened up a multi-goal lead on Clarkson heading into the third, things seemed bleak.

Enter Tyler Kopff. The sophomore had come on strong in the second half of the season, producing 13 points in his previous 10 games. He was demonstrating more of a scorer’s touch after only finding the net once through the last week of January. The Bears got a power play a few minutes into the third period, and St. Louis and Kopff played catch between the right point and the hashmark. Kopff finally collected the puck, turned toward goal, and picked a corner on Harvard goalie Ben Charette’s glove side, using a Crimson defender as a screen. 3-2. Just under 13 minutes remaining.

Harvard mostly held the Bears at bay for the next 10 minutes, playing a dump-and-chase game and keeping Brown to the perimeter. But another ill-advised penalty allowed Brown’s suddenly potent man-up unit to operate in the final four minutes of regulation. Once again, St. Louis cycled the puck from the righthand point down to the goal line, where Scott helped facilitate. Kopff and Scott played catch a couple times, and then Kopff turned to the net in almost exactly the same spot from which he’d scored earlier in the period. He took almost exactly the same shot, and scored almost exactly the same goal. Tie ballgame. 3-3 with 3:01 on the clock, and as Clarkson rallied to tie Princeton in New Jersey and Cornell mollywhopped RPI in Troy, home ice was within reach.

The final few minutes played out in a stalemate, and due to the other results across the conference, Brown had the point it needed to clinch the eighth and final home ice spot. The crowd at Meehan celebrated as news reached the stands. After a mostly listless overtime period, the teams went to a shootout, where Kopff (who else?) and Scott cashed in on Brown’s first two chances, while Shea stonewalled the Harvard shooters. Brown had come all the way back to tie, and technically beat, the Crimson (okay, fine, shootouts can be cool when they cap off a dramatic comeback. Happy?).

Brown’s thrilling win set up a first-round meeting with Princeton, with whom the Bears had played two overtime games already. In front of a large whiteout crowd at Meehan, the two teams would engage in an agonizingly tight and tension-filled defensive battle. Princeton opened the scoring midway through the first period, as a shot from the left faceoff dot snuck by Zacher on his glove side.

The rest of the first period was mostly a slog, as the Tigers did their best to keep Brown to the perimeter. The Bears did manage to put up 10 shots, but most were not genuine scoring chances, and the period ended with Princeton leading 1-0.

The lead would not last long, however. Just 35 seconds into the second period, St. Louis picked off a would-be pass between Princeton defenders at the point. He picked the puck up in the neutral zone and raced down the ice, using his speed to tear past the flat-footed backcheckers. St. Louis bore down on Princeton goalie Ethan Pearson, faked a shot, and then made a nifty deke move to his left going at full speed. Pearson had no chance. Brown had tied the game, 1-1, under a minute into the second period.

The rest of the second and opening minutes of the third period were mostly a defensive stalemate. Each team generated a couple of good chances, but weren’t able to beat Zacher and Pearson, who both were playing their best hockey.

Someone needed a hero to step up and make a play to break the deadlock. St. Louis and Kopff obliged.

Just over six minutes into the frame, St. Louis broke up a pass at the left point, and the puck trickled into the neutral zone. As he collected it, he saw Kopff streaking out of the Brown zone. He teed up Kopff, who used his speed and strength to create separation and beat the Princeton defenders to the net, and then shield them off. He went backhand-forehand as he neared the crease, wrapping the puck beyond Pearson’s reach, and tucked it in the corner of the net as the Princeton netminder remained frozen.

Star forward Tyler Kopff finishes a nifty move against Princeton, giving the Bears the lead — for good — in the first round of the ECAC tournament. Photo credit to Chip DeLorenzo and Brown Athletics.

2-1 Bears. Pandemonium in the stands. Brown was in the driver’s seat.

And the Bears would not relinquish their lead. They shut down Princeton’s offense, only allowing five shots in total for the third period. After the Tigers pulled their goalie, St. Louis (who else?) took advantage of a sloppy Princeton pass, beating the point man to the puck as it hopped into the neutral zone and taking it all the way down for an easy empty-net tap-in. 3-1 Bears with 28 seconds to go. They were all but headed to Hamden, CT, to face top-seeded Quinnipiac in the quarterfinals. A late Princeton goal brought the final score to 3-2, but it didn’t matter. Brown won, extending its unbeaten home playoff streak to seven games dating back to 2005 (we don’t get home ice often, but when we do, we don’t lose!).

The Quinnipiac series was over quickly, as the Bobcats swept aside the Bears in two games, 4-1 and 4-0. Still, the season was a promising step forward for a young Brown team, which figured to bring back nearly all of its top producers and its star goaltender. They finished 14-15-3 overall, which, considering the dreadful injury-plagued 0-5 start to 2025, was a strong step forward.

The Aftermath: Here we go again

Let’s make one thing clear: Brown’s hockey programs are not allowed to have nice things. Tyler Kopff signed an entry-level contract with the Buffalo Sabres shortly after the season ended. Captain Max Scott entered the transfer portal the day it opened, as did Lawton Zacher. Scott quickly committed to Maine, where his older brother Harrison had been an assistant captain. Zacher eventually committed to Northeastern. It seemed like a disaster. Three of Brown’s top five or six most important players were gone after their sophomore years.

Brown was able to mitigate those losses somewhat, adding talented rising sophomore Ben Poitras from Northeastern (Zacher for Poitras one-for-one feels a little lopsided. We should’ve at least gotten them to throw in Eli Sebastian). Next, the Bears tabbed redshirt freshman Mike Salandra from Quinnipiac. They added Denver backup goalie Fred Halyk to replace Zacher.

On paper, the production from those three players doesn’t come close to matching that of the departed players — Poitras had just three points, Salandra sat out the season, and Halyk had an encouraging .915 save percentage, but in a small sample of just nine games.

Still, the potential with these players is clear. Poitras had scored 53 points in 51 games in the USHL the year prior to enrolling at Northeastern. The lovely folks over at the Northeastern Hockey Blog were pretty bummed to lose him. Salandra was also a point-per-game producer his last year in juniors, with 44 points in 44 games in the BCHL. Halyk has a massive 6’6” frame and has competed in the NCHC for two years, which is a significantly tougher conference than the ECAC.

Coupled with some impressive returnees in St. Louis, Nicholas, Pineau, and Ethan Mistry, as well as talented rising sophomores who showed flashes of their abilities in Ivan Zadvernyuk and Charlie Gollob, and an incoming freshman class featuring several promising defensemen, the Bears may be able to continue to compete next season.

Looking ahead: maybe it'll be fine!

We won’t do a full personnel preview in this blog — that will come closer to the season. But the Brown coaching staff did an admirable job of scrambling to replace three of their most productive players with some guys who have the potential to step up their games with more defined roles.

To put a bow on 2024-25: it was the most exciting season the Bears have had in many years, and, in my opinion, was the best team they’ve iced since 2004, even if the final record didn’t necessarily reflect that. Here’s to a (fingers crossed) more sustainable era of contention for Brown hockey!

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