It’s a big weekend for Brown hockey: each team has a turf war against New England-based Ivy League rivals on its hands. The men’s team (3-7-0) journeys north to take on [gulp] #10 Dartmouth (8-0-0) and #20 Harvard (5-3-1) on Friday and Saturday, while the women (8-5-1) will split a home-and-home series with #15 Yale (8-6-0) starting Saturday afternoon at Meehan Auditorium. We’ll also sneak in a preview of the men’s Mayor’s Cup, which will take place at Meehan on Tuesday as the Bears hope to unseat the trophy-holding #16 Providence Friars for the first time in three years and win their first Mayor’s Cup on home ice since, if you can believe it, 2006.

But first: a completely unrelated and unsolicited anecdote!

When I was young, my dad told me that it’s always wrong to root for Harvard, unless the Crimson winning can somehow help Brown. Well, that theory was put to the test in 1999, when I was just seven. The Brown football team celebrated its first Ivy League championship in 23 years on the field with a mob of fans at Brown Stadium after thumping Columbia. But everyone was watching the scoreboard, awaiting the result of the Harvard-Yale game to determine whether the Bears would share the title with Yale, whom Brown had edged out in the first game of the season, 25-24.

Harvard lost in the final minutes after blowing a lead on the final drive of the game (sound familiar?), which was bittersweet for those of us who had stormed the field and the students who were in the process of dismantling the east end zone’s goalposts. The Yale win meant they had clinched a share of the title; but Harvard lost, so that was good in a vacuum. A real Sophie’s Choice situation.

But this is not a football blog. All of that was to set up the ultimate point, which is: the only thing worse than Yale in this world is Harvard, and the Brown men’s and women’s teams have a date with both of them this weekend (Harvard for the men, Yale for the women). Also, there’s Dartmouth, which may not conjure up such spiteful imagery, but is somehow still undefeated (the “somehow” can probably be attributed to an easy schedule and overperforming their analytical profile to date, but still) and holds the top spot in the NPI rankings.

Ivy League games are always most intense for Brown, especially against the other New England-based schools.

Let’s break down each matchup against the nefarious other New England Ivies, starting with the men, since they’re up first tonight.

MIH: A wicked hahd trip up nawth, kedd

New Hampshire: what is it? But more importantly, why is it?

Brown will find out tonight as they foray up to Hanover, which borders Vermont and is thus marginally less reprehensible than the rest of the Granite State, to face #10 Dartmouth. On the way home, the Bears will stop in ~~Cambridge~~ Allston, MA to take on #20 Harvard Saturday night.

Friday, 7 PM: @ #10 Dartmouth

First up: the Big Green. Dartmouth has been phenomenal thus far, validating this writer’s preseason ranking but also vastly exceeding my expectations. The secret to their success: a PDO bender. They’re leading the country in shooting percentage (15%) and save percentage (.949). That’s not going to hold up over the course of the season.

But that’s not to say the Green won’t keep up their winning ways. Regression hits differently in college hockey than it does in the NHL, since there are fewer games played and the talent disparity between any two teams can vary significantly. Dartmouth, under fifth-year coach Reid Cashman, has been building up to this moment for years, accumulating talent and improving their record each season.

Their biggest weakness had been goaltending; that appears to have been remedied, as both sophomore Emmett Croteau (.970) and junior Roan Clarke (.921) have been fantastic in net. The Big Green have a deep, balanced forward core led by sophomore Holden Stavroff (11 points in eight games). Junior defenseman CJ Foley has been one of the best two-way defenders in the nation so far, taking home ECAC Defender of the Month honors for November (Croteau was also named Goalie of the Month).

This is a deep, experienced, well-rounded team. They appear to be in good position to finally end their 45-year tournament drought, which would leave [checks notes] Brown in possession of the longest-active streak, dating back to 1993, Brendan Whittet’s junior season. Shit.

Saturday, 7 PM: @ #20 Harvard

The Crimson entered this season as somewhat of a dark horse (if you can call it that when you have like 14 NHL draft picks on your roster) pick to ascend the ECAC standings. And for good reason — they returned one of the top lines in the conference in Mick Thompson (12 points in nine games), Phillip Tresca (nine in nine) and Casey Severo (eight in nine). They also returned a strong defensive core led by senior Ryan Healey and sophomore Lucas St. Louis (hey, we know his brother!).

The biggest question for Harvard was the same as it was for Dartmouth: could they get the goaltending and depth scoring to really establish themselves as ECAC contenders?

The answer has been “yes, for the most part” to both of those questions so far. The Crimson have 16 skaters who’ve notched three or more points in their nine games to date, and sophomore netminder Ben Charette has been steady if not spectacular, to the tune of a .917 save percentage (and that’s after a weekend series against Michigan, the nation’s top-scoring team).

While Harvard doesn’t have any truly good wins yet, their only losses have come at the hands of a good Cornell team and the aforementioned Wolverines, who are one of the best two or three teams in the country this year.

Last Year

Brown lost a pair of relatively close games in Allston and Hanover last season, dropping a tightly contested 3-1 decision (with an empty-netter) to Harvard and blowing a 2-1 lead in the third period en route to a 5-2 loss to Dartmouth.

The return trip to Providence was a mixed bag, as the Bears relinquished an early 2-0 lead to the Big Green and ultimately lost, 4-2, with an empty-netter adding to the deficit. The script was flipped the following night, as Harvard stormed out to a commanding 3-0 first-period lead after Lawton Zacher gave up a pair of softies and his replacement Tyler Shea was left on an island by his defense. However, the Bears would rally to tie the game behind a pair of Tyler Kopff power play goals in the third period and force overtime, clinching the final home-ice playoff spot in the process. Brown won an essentially meaningless shootout that was nevertheless good for the vibes.

How They Match Up

These are two really good teams with some of the top players in the ECAC, and they’re backstopped by good goaltending. Brown has posted a 2-4-1 (with a shootout loss) record against Dartmouth over the past three seasons, but have fared better against Harvard in that span, with a 3-1-2 record that includes two shootout wins.

Things are different this year, however. Dartmouth looks the part of a well-oiled machine that’s set to take the ECAC by storm. They’ve outscored their opponents 34-9 in eight consecutive wins to start the season, and their perfect record is the last remaining in Division 1.

Harvard looks as though they’ve taken a big step forward from last year’s middling, though talented, squad that could never put the whole package together. While they haven’t beaten a good team yet, they’ve been very tidy in winning the games they were expected to and were competitive in their games against top competition: a 1-1 tie at UConn to open the season, a close loss to Cornell, and taking Michigan to overtime. Their lone blemish was a 5-1 loss to the Wolverines last Friday.

Brown will likely struggle to control the shot clock against either of these opponents. The Bears will need to optimize their offensive zone time, getting pucks in deep and taking advantage of open shooting lanes when they appear. Keeping these two teams off the board will be difficult, but not impossible — Merrimack held Dartmouth to just one goal last weekend, while Harvard has scored plenty against the worst teams on their schedule but hasn’t been able to consistently produce goals against good goalies (and Brown hopes it has two, considering Fred Halyk’s recent form).

Here’s what we’ll be looking for in these games:

Give your goalie a chance! The Bears hung Halyk out to dry on each of Northeastern’s three non-empty net goals on Saturday. Otherwise, their defensive zone play was fine (other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?) for the most part, and they seemed to be more comfortable breaking out of their own zone than they have in other recent games. They’ll need to limit the mistakes and not think twice about clearing the puck when pressured — take the icing if you have to; Dartmouth and Harvard are teams that will punish you for dilly-dallying in your own zone looking for the perfect outlet pass.
Getting the top line on track: Brown’s feeble offense has mostly been carried by its second line thus far, as Ivan Zadvernyuk leads the team in points and Charlie Gollob has the most goals. Third-liner and power play merchant Ben Poitras has also provided some depth scoring. And while top-line center Brian Nicholas is tied for second on the team in points, co-captain Ryan St. Louis, Brown’s leading scorer each of the past two seasons, has struggled to find his footing with just four points in nine games. The opposite wing on the top line has also been a revolving door, with Matt Cataldo and Michael Salandra each getting some time there. It hasn’t really worked; Cataldo has three points in 10 games and Salandra has two in eight. Can Nicholas and St. Louis get in a better rhythm and live up to preseason expectations? Or will Whittet try to mix up his top six in search of the right combinations?
Who’s in net? The ever-present question this season. Halyk has started three of the past four games for Brown after Tyler Shea had started five of the first six (and replaced Halyk in the other game in that span). Are we doing a rotation here, especially with a midweek trophy game on deck after the weekend, or has Halyk earned the starting job for the time being? I guess we’ll see!

Brown could certainly use a breakout game from Ryan St. Louis this weekend.

WIH: New Haven pizza is mid, fight me

I don’t actually believe that, I just have a moral opposition to giving the state of Connecticut credit for anything.

Anyway: Brown will be looking to bounce back from a pair of disappointing losses last weekend, as they fell to Providence in the Mayor’s Cup on Saturday and to New Hampshire on Sunday. Brown was without leading scorer Monique Lyons for both games, and without second-leading goal scorer Margot Norehad on Sunday.

Last Year

The Bears will be looking to avenge last year’s lopsided sweep at the hands of the Bulldogs, 4-1 in New Haven and 3-0 in Providence. The only goal the Bears managed to score came in garbage time, as Yale had built up a 4-0 lead late in the third period and the game was not in doubt.

How They Match Up

Yale comes into this series battle-tested, but with only one signature win, against #11 Princeton in overtime. They appear to have stayed in the national rankings mostly due to poll inertia, as they’ve lost to most of the other ranked teams they’ve faced thus far: #9 Quinnipiac, Princeton (also in overtime), #10 Clarkson, and #7 UConn. They also lost to unranked Harvard at home. They do have a second ranked overtime win at #14 Colgate, but the Raiders have a losing record overall, which begs the question of how much they deserve to be in the rankings at all.

All of this is to say that this is not an unbeatable Yale team. Their strengths are evident: they ride their excellent top line and defensive pairing and get great goaltending from junior Anna Phillips (.928 save percentage). A one-line team can win plenty of games in college hockey, and that’s essentially how Yale functions (not dissimilarly to Princeton; no wonder they played two overtime games).

Brown really missed Lyons and Norehad this past weekend. If these two aren’t healthy, it could be a long weekend for Brown. The Bears struggled to create many good offensive chances against two teams that have given up goals in bunches this year. The lack of forward depth was evident against UNH, as the Wildcats weathered an early storm of Brown chances and then took control of the game as it went on.

Monique Lyons' status is one of the biggest X-factors for this series.

Here's what will be watching for this weekend:

Will Lyons and/or Norehad play? If the Bears are without both players, the path to victory in either of these games becomes more of an off-roading adventure. If one is healthy but not the other, Brown will still be hard-pressed to score, but should at least have a full-strength power play unit. If both are back, the Bears’ outlook improves greatly. Their availability could be the linchpin for this series.
Defense vs. offense: if Brown can keep Yale’s top line off the board, it should feel pretty good about its chances. The Bears struggle to go goal-for-goal with explosive teams, but when they can keep the game tight and control possession (as they did against a fearsome Quinnipiac top line en route to a 1-0 upset win), they’ve been hard to beat.
Zupkofska’s steadying presence: Anya Zupkofska leads the country in save percentage (.948) and has bailed Brown out a number of times when their young defensive core (which often includes three freshmen) has made mistakes. She’ll need to be on her game to give the Bears a chance this weekend: Yale is fourth in the country in shots per game, though they, like Brown, have struggled to put the puck in the net at times (both teams are shooting a paltry 7.4%). In addition, Yale’s power play is cashing in at over 29% coming into the weekend. These Bulldogs love to shoot the puck.

Bonus Round: Mayor's Cup Preview

The Brown men's team will host Providence next Tuesday in the Mayor's Cup, which is somewhat inexplicably being played at Meehan Auditorium for the third year in a row. Home-ice advantage hasn't been beneficial to the Bears in this series, though: they haven't won a game against PC at Meehan since upsetting the #1-ranked Friars in 2016 in the midst of a dreadful 5-19-7 season. At the time, the two teams played a home-and-home Mayor's Cup series that was determined by aggregate goals. PC won the first leg, 4-1, and took home the Cup in the least satisfying fashion possible after the overtime loss at Meehan. The Bears haven't won the Mayor's Cup at home since a 5-1 shellacking during a snowstorm in 2006.

Since that 2006 win, the Friars are 11-3-1 against Brown overall. The two teams also met outside of the Mayor's Cup series at the illustrious Ledyard Bank Classic at Dartmouth in 2019, a 3-1 Providence victory.

Last Year

While the win totals have been lopsided for the past couple decades, recent games between the two crosstown "rivals" (if you can call them that) have been hotly-contested. Brown stunned the #8 Friars, 3-2, at Schneider Arena in early 2024. The past two seasons at Meehan, the teams have played mirror-image games: each edition featured two tight-checking scoreless periods before PC finally was able to put the games away in the third. The final scores were 3-0 (with an empty-netter) two years ago, and 2-0 last season.

How They Match Up

This PC team has been somewhat perplexing: they added 10th overall draft pick Roger McQueen to a promising returning core, including sophomore standouts John Mustard, Logan Sawyer, junior Hudson Molinski, and four-year starting goaltender Philip Svedeback. However, the Friars have been very inconsistent to date and haven't taken the step forward many expected. They've beaten #14 UConn in Storrs, and split a series at #20 Colorado College last weekend. PC checks in at just 7-6-1, but are still ranked 16th in this week's USCHO poll.

The talent gap will be noticeable on Tuesday: PC has seven NHL draft picks on their roster, and their shot volume-oriented system tends to give Brown fits since the Bears often struggle to with clean zone exits.

It's the last game of the fall semester for both teams, and PC has the weekend off, so there may be an element of fatigue in play for the Bears. Brown will have to be opportunistic to find the net against Nate Leaman's stingy defensive structure, and hope they can catch the Friars on an off night, which appears to be more of a real possibility this year.

A Rousing End to the Semester

This figures to be a big week for both Brown hockey teams at the tail end of the fall semester. They'll be jockeying for position in the ECAC standings against the other three New England Ancient Eight schools and (in the men's case) looking to reclaim the Mayor's Cup for the first time since 2023. A couple wins would go a long way both in terms of the standings (or winning a trophy) and improving morale after a tough weekend.

Stefan will be at Bright-Landry for the Harvard game on Saturday to cheer on our Bears, while Kevin will be at Meehan for the Mayor's Cup on Tuesday. We suggest you join them, and/or get out to Meehan Saturday to support the women.

Till next time. Go Bruno!

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