Men’s Hockey Edged at Yale, 3-2, in Season Opener

Friday, November 1

New Haven, CT

7:00 PM

Brown University

0-1-0, 0-1-0ECAC

Yale

1-0-0, 1-0-0ECAC

Brown Bears

Yale Bulldogs

Men’s Hockey Edged at Yale, 3-2, in Season Opener

11/1/2019 10:12:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Rookies Nathan Plessis (Salmon Arm, British Columbia) and Bradley Cocca (Toronto, Ontario) both scored in their first career games, but the Brown men's hockey team fell at Yale, 3-2, in the season opener for both teams Friday night at Ingalls Rink.

Brown (0-1-0, 0-1-0) pulled within one in the third period and went four-for-four on the penalty kill. Yale (1-0-0, 1-0-0) outshot the Bears by a 36-20 margin.

"It was the first game, and I just thought we were doing too many things individually, we didn't really play as a group of five when we were out there," said head coach Brendan Whittet. "I thought we got better in the third period, playing with more pace, but overall we need to play with a bit more tenacity."

Gavin Nieto (Yorba Linda, Calif.) made 33 saves for the Bears. Corbin Kaczperski stopped 18 shots for the Bulldogs in the win.

Yale struck first midway through the opening period for the early lead. Nieto turned away an initial shot from Justin Pearson but Curtis Hall cleaned up the rebound in front. Mitchell Smith added another Bulldog goal just over two minutes later for the two-goal advantage.

Brown answered back at 13:53 when Plessis scored his first career goal, as he corralled a feed from Chris Berger (Buffalo, N.Y.) in the slot and rifled a shot past Kaczperski. Tristan Crozier (Calgary, Alberta) also picked up an assist.

Yale regained a two-goal advantage at 8:13 in the middle period. After the two teams swapped penalties to make it four-on-four, Hall backhanded a shot past Nieto for his second of the game.

The Bears battled back with a power-play goal at 8:21 in the third period, as Cocca tipped in Zach Giuttari's blast from the point, scoring his first career tally. Tony Stillwell (Green Bay, Wis.) also earned an assist.

The Bears pulled Nieto for the extra skater with about two minutes left in regulation, but the Bulldogs blocked three shots down the stretch to secure the win.

Brent Beaudoin (Londonderry, N.H.) paced all players with five shots.

Brown will host the Bulldogs Saturday night (7 PM) at Meehan Auditorium in the home opener.

Video of all home contests and most ECAC games, home and away, will be broadcast live on ESPN+. Fans can subscribe and view games by purchasing a monthly package for $4.99 or a yearly package for $49.99.

Tickets for all Brown men's hockey games can be purchased online, by calling the Brown Athletics Ticket Office at (401) 863-2773, or by walking up to the box office located in the Pizzitola Sports Center, open Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.