The men’s hockey team fell to Union 3-1 in the ECAC Championship Saturday night, capping an improbable run through the ECAC tournament including wins over No. 1 Quinnipiac and No. 16 Rensselaer. Barring an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, the loss will end Bruno’s season.
“First, I want to give credit where credit is due,” Head Coach Brendan Whittet ’94 told Brown Bears, Brown’s athletic website. “I thought Union personified a champion. They had a good night and another good year. They are well coached, a great team and I wish them well as they move on to the NCAA tournament.”
Daniel Carr started things off for the Dutchmen (21-12-5, ECAC 10-8-4) midway through the first period, besting goaltender Anthony Borelli ’13 on assists from Josh Jooris and Sebastien Gingras. Max Novak tallied another goal with 14 seconds left in the period to make the score 2-0.
Novak came out of the locker room strong in the second period, tallying his second goal of the game to put Union up 3-0 at the two-minute mark.
Captain Dennis Robertson ’14 responded midway through the second with Bruno’s only goal. It came on the power play, and was assisted by Mark Naclerio ’16 and Brandon Pfeil ’16. Robertson wristed a shot from the blue line through traffic and past Union’s goalie Troy Grosenick.
Down 3-1 heading into the third period, Bruno outshot Union 11-1 in the final frame, including several close scores in just over a minute with Borelli pulled. Overall, Brown (16-14-6, 7-9-6) outshot Union 33-22.
Grosenick, who stopped 32 of 33 shots on net, was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
Saturday’s game marked the Bears’ first appearance in the ECAC finals since 1993.
“For us, I look at this past year as a tremendous year. It was a great step in the right direction,” Whittet told Brown Bears. “We won 16 games — first time Brown has won 16 games in a long time. We finished with a winning record — first time with a winning record in a long time. We were 5-2 in the playoffs and made a pretty good run.”
With Saturday’s victory, Union has now won back-to-back ECAC championships, and will move on to the opening round of the NCAA tournament next weekend.