It’s the final homestand of the season for Brown women’s hockey (14-10-2), as they host St. Lawrence on Friday evening and #11 Clarkson in a Senior Day matinee on Saturday. Meanwhile, the men’s team will embark on a road trip to #9 Quinnipiac and Princeton.

The women’s season has seemed to fly by, especially these past month or so. The Bears sit in fifth place in the ECAC today and are almost guaranteed to host a playoff game, as they are 11 points clear of ninth-place Harvard with four games to play. They have an outside shot at earning a first round bye if they can make up a 3.5-point gap on fourth-seeded and #7 nationally Quinnipiac.

The men (4-17-1), on the other hand, sit seven points behind Yale, which holds the final home ice playoff spot at the moment. With eight games to go, catching the Bulldogs is possible, though unlikely — these Bears haven’t proven the ability to string together the wins necessary to vault up the standings, nor win on the road (0-12-0 this season).

Let’s take a look at what to expect from this weekend’s slate of games featuring our beloved Bears.

MIH: Can we spring a trap?

Friday: @ #9 Quinnipiac, 7 pm

Brown hasn’t beaten Quinnipiac in 12 tries, and while the results on the ice have often been as lopsided as the record, the Bears have actually played the Bobcats tough the past two seasons at Meehan Auditorium — a narrow 3-2 loss last season, and a 4-3 overtime loss this year that saw them erase a 3-1 deficit and force the extra session.

However, Brown hasn’t put up the same level of fight at…uh…whatever bank Quinnipiac’s rink is named after now. Last year, they dropped the regular season game 4-0 before losing a pair of quarterfinal playoff games, 4-1 and 4-0. Quinnipiac has been fastidious and tidy in dispatching the Bears in their home barn. In fact, Brown hasn’t played a game in Hamden, CT that was decided by fewer than three goals since 2020, when they fell 2-1.

Of course, we all know what happened in Hamden the year prior. But that’s ancient history at this point.

One other element that could be at play Friday night: the Bobcats host archrivals Yale on Saturday, and they’ll be out for revenge after the Bulldogs shockingly upset them in November. Can the Bears catch Quinnipiac looking ahead? It hasn’t happened in quite some time, but that’s the thing with trap games: you never know when they might get sprung.

Saturday: @ Princeton, 7 pm

Meanwhile, Brown and Princeton have developed something of a bitter rivalry over the past couple years. Each of their past five meetings have been decided by a goal, with three going to overtime. The Bears have gone 3-1-1 (with a shootout win) in this stretch, and the terrific playoff battle between the two teams last season punctuated what has become an intense series seemingly overnight.

Ryan St. Louis taunts the Princeton bench after scoring an empty net goal to put away a playoff game against the Tigers last spring. St. Louis has tormented the Tigers, to the tune of five goals in four games spanning last year and this year - including three game winners. Photo credit to Brown Athletics.

The two teams kicked off ECAC play against one another in November, with Brown winning a hard-fought, tight-checking game, 2-1. Most recently, Brown traveled to Princeton for a non-conference matchup at the end of December, which the Tigers took by a 5-4 score in overtime.

What to watch for:

Special teams: Brown scored two power play goals last weekend, nearly doubling their season output to five (please clap). They also added a shorthanded goal in the first period against Colgate, which briefly brought their season PPG and SHG totals level until they scored on the power play a few minutes later. The Bears also killed six of seven penalties, which is a marked improvement for a team that ranks in the bottom four nationally in both special teams categories. They’ll be hard-pressed to win the special teams battles against Quinnipiac, though: the Bobcats come in converting at a 24.5% clip on the power play (good for 16th nationally) and killing 83.7% of their penalties (12th nationally).
Goaltending: This is one area in which Brown may have an edge this weekend. Tyler Shea had a bit of a rough weekend against Colgate and Cornell, but overall, he’s performing at a very high rate: he’s in the top 30 in both goals saved above expected (xGA+) and save percentage among qualified goaltenders. Quinnipiac’s Matej Miranov, meanwhile has a negative xGA+ overall and ranks in the 50s in save percentage. His rotation mate, Dylan Silverstein, sports a much better save percentage (.920), but has underwhelming underlying metrics. Meanwhile, Princeton’s two regular starters, Arthur Smith and Conor Callaghan, are also slightly in the negatives in xGA+ and have lesser save percentages than Shea. Can the diminutive goalie steal a game or two for the Bears?
Top line production: For whatever reason, the scoring has dried up this year for Brian Nicholas (nine points) and Ryan St. Louis (11 points). Maybe it’s that other teams are focusing on shutting them down, maybe it's the absence of a consistent linemate for most of the season, maybe it’s as simple as two talented guys who don’t accentuate each others’ strengths. Whatever the reason, they’re not producing nearly to the same extent as they did last season when they led the team in points per game. And at the same time, the second line is outperforming them: Ivan Zadvernyuk (17 points) and Ben Poitras (13 points) lead the team in scoring, and Charlie Gollob has matched Nicholas’ nine points in one fewer game played. If the Bears can get some timely scoring from their top guns this weekend, it would go a long way toward knocking off the Bobcats or Tigers.

WIH: Bidding adieu to a foundational class

Okay, we’ll see these players at least one more time at Meehan for their home playoff game(s). But Senior Day will nonetheless be an emotional affair for a small, but impactful class that has been instrumental in steering the program’s turnaround under Melanie Ruzzi. Landing Jade Iginla in her first full recruiting cycle was a huge win for the young head coach, and India McDadi has proven to be just as impactful of a signing.

Senior co-captains Jade Iginla and India McDadi have been at the forefront of the Brown women's hockey rervival under coach Melanie Ruzzi. Photo credit to Brown Athletics.

Meanwhile, Gali Levy transferred from Ohio State after her freshman season and has chipped in as a valuable depth forward. Ellie Gauvin served as a blue line mainstay her freshman and sophomore seasons.

These seniors have each contributed greatly to the culture shift and on-ice improvements the program has seen over the past few seasons, and we’ll always be grateful to them for that. As they gear up for the postseason, there’s no pair of leaders you could ask for that would better position Brown to make some noise than co-captains Iginla and McDadi.

Friday: St. Lawrence, 6 pm

In the past three meetings, Brown and St. Lawrence have gone to overtime twice and played another one-goal game. The Saints took a shootout win at Meehan last season before the Bears took an overtime win up in Canton, NY. In November, Brown took a 2-1 decision on the road.

Though the Bears have created a bit of separation between themselves and the Saints in recent weeks, St. Lawrence still remains within shouting distance, sitting in eighth place and just 5.5 points behind Brown. The Saints have underperformed their preseason expectations, however — they were picked to finish fifth in the conference and began the season ranked #9 in the USCHO poll. They come to Meehan at a disappointing 11-16-3, which can largely be explained by their utter inability to score, but still check in at #20 in the NPI (two spots behind Brown) due to their difficult schedule.

Brooke Mulvihill is the only Saint to average even half a point per game, at exactly 0.50 ppg. While St. Lawrence has a pretty stingy defense, allowing 2.36 goals per game, they only average a frankly befuddling 1.87 themselves. They weren’t an offensive powerhouse last season, either, but they were good enough to win 22 games and make the NCAA Tournament.

The Saints boast two of the better goalies in the country — senior Emma-Sofie Nordström has a .931 save percentage in 17 games, and junior Kassidy Lawrence has a .929 in 14 games. I’d expect another low-scoring affair like the one we saw in November, as neither team tends to light up the scoreboard when playing quality competition.

Saturday: #11 Clarkson, 3 pm

Last season, Brown took an overtime win over Clarkson (19-8-1) on the road but dropped a 4-2 decision at home. The Golden Knights started this season well below their lofty standards, losing a shocker to woeful Merrimack and then splitting with #6 Connecticut (good) and Providence (bad) in their first few weeks. Since then, however, they’ve mostly played to their potential, with one slipup against a chaotic Dartmouth team sprinkled in. Their other three losses came against top-10 teams in #8 Princeton and #2 Ohio State. It’s worth noting that they’re coming off a 6-1 home loss against the Tigers, which came as a bit of a surprise for a team that came in on a 13-2-2 run.

Clarkson is led by freshman phenom Sara Manness, who has 47 points in 30 games. They have three good-to-great goaltenders, have four players averaging around a point per game, and get terrific depth scoring, with 12 players in double digits on the season.

This is a tough matchup for Brown, which is 10th in the country in puck possession/shot attempt percentage. Clarkson is seventh, and has the kind of top-end talent that can potentially bury the Bears in their own zone for long stretches. In the first meeting, the shot totals were pretty even (26-25 Brown), but the Knights scored two quick ones in the first period and let Brown chase the game for the most part on route to a 4-1 lead by the end of the second period.

What to watch for:

Goaltending: Is Anya Zupkofska injured? Or has Rory Edwards just seized the starting job back? It’s been a bit confusing to see Zupkofska sitting the last few weeks despite her excellent numbers, but to date, there’s been no word (that I’ve heard, anyway) about her health and availability. She’s been on the bench, so presumably she could play. No matter who takes the net, Brown will need strong goaltending this weekend considering the opposition’s prowess in net — and especially against Clarkson’s dynamic offense.
Special teams: Clarkson’s power play converts at a starting 29.5% clip, good for fifth in the country. Brown’s penalty kill has fallen off a cliff after some early success and now ranks 42nd (out of 46 teams) in the country at just a 74.5% success rate. Gulp. On the bright side: the Knights’ penalty kill is only middle-of-the-pack, and St. Lawrence is pretty bad at both ends! Brown’s power play has been good lately, scoring six goals in its past five games.
Home cooking: While Brown has struggled to beat top teams on the road, the Bears have had some success at home: they beat #7 Quinnipiac, #9 Yale, and #15 Colgate, but fell to #8 Princeton and #12 Cornell. Both of these teams come to Providence ranked in the NPI top 20, so Brown will have a chance to bolster that record.

Next Up

This is a big weekend for the women’s team as the ECAC playoff race heats up, and they close out their regular season on the road next weekend against a pair of top-10 teams in Princeton and Quinnipiac. Those two games could determine the final first round bye in the ECAC playoffs, as Quinnipiac and Brown are currently fourth and fifth, respectively.

The men’s team returns home next weekend after its road trip for coach Brendan Whittet’s final two home games at the helm, hosting Harvard on Friday and #10 Dartmouth on Saturday. Sending Coach off with a pair of wins against two Ivy rivals, including the team where he spent over a decade as an assistant under former Brown coach and mentor Bob Gaudet, would be a poetic end for Whittet.

As always, get out to Meehan to support your Bears, and Go Bruno!

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