Brown Men's Hockey Season Preview

10/28/2021 9:45:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

THE 2021-22 SEASON
The Brown Bears men's hockey season drops the puck on the 2021-22 season this Saturday (Oct. 30) against Yale at Meehan Auditorium. Saturday marks the first game in 602 days for the Bears after the canceled 2020-21 season.

Brown is set to play in 29 games this season – 22 of which are ECAC conference games with seven non-conference games scheduled. The Bears will host 16 of its games at Meehan Auditorium with the remaining 13 games on the road. Brown's busiest month comes in January with nine games on the calendar in the first month of 2022.

The Bears open with five straight ECAC conference games and 15 conference games in its first 20 games in 2021-22.

Brown received two votes in the USCHO.com preseason poll and remain with two votes in the most recent poll, released on October 25. Eight of Brown's opponents are ranked or receiving votes in the poll, headlined by fifth-ranked Quinnipiac, eighth-ranked Providence, 15th-ranked Harvard, and 16th-ranked Cornell.

CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN
Brown takes on each of the 11 ECAC opponents twice in 2021-22 and meets its six Ivy League opponents a total of 12 times as part of the ECAC slate.

The Bears are scheduled to make three Empire State road trips in 2021-22, traveling to take on Cornell and Colgate (Nov. 19 and 20), Union and Rensselaer (Jan. 21 and 22), and St. Lawrence and Clarkson (Feb. 25 and 26).

Prior to the 2020-21 season, the ECAC instituted a shootout for an extra league point in conference games. If a conference game remains tied following a five-minute 3-on-3 overtime period, a three-player shootout will occur to determine the extra league point. The games will officially be recorded as ties for NCAA purposes.

A regulation win nets a team three points for the ECAC standings, an overtime or shootout win nets a team two points, and an overtime or shootout loss rewards one point.

Consistent from previous years, all ECAC conference games and all Brown home games will stream on ESPN+. The ECAC recently signed an eight-year extension to continue streaming all games on ESPN+.

THE NON-CONS
Brown hosts Providence in the annual Mayor's Cup on Saturday, November 27. The annual rivalry is renewed once again as the Bears look to snap a five-game skid against the Friars and pick up its first Mayor's Cup win since knocking off the top-ranked Friars in 2016.

Boston University makes its first trip to Meehan Auditorium in 28 years to take on the Bears on New Year's Eve. The Terriers last played at Meehan in December 1993 – head coach Brendan Whittet's senior season at Brown.

The Bears meet the Merrimack Warriors in early January at Meehan Auditorium, marking the 14th all-time meeting between the two programs and first since February 2009. The contest marks the first time Whittet has faced Merrimack as a head coach. Merrimack head coach Scott Borek was an assistant for the Bears from 1989-92, serving during Whittet's freshman and sophomore seasons.

Brown hosts LIU in late January for two games, marking the first meetings between the programs in history. LIU is in its second year as a Division I program and marks the 108th opponent Brown has faced in its history.

THE CAPTAINS
Senior forward Tristan Crozier will captain the Bears in 2021-22 with four assistant captains: fifth-year goaltender Luke Kania, senior forward Justin Jallen, senior forward Michael Maloney, and junior defenseman Luke Krys.

The five Bears named to the leadership group have combined to play in 254 collegiate games.

POSITION BREAKDOWN
Brown's roster is comprised of 30 student-athletes, 17 of which are returners from the 2019-20 season. The returners combine to boast 496 collegiate games of experience.

There are 13 newcomers on the 2021-22 Brown roster, three of whom are classified as sophomores while 10 are freshmen.

By position, Brown has 17 forwards, nine defensemen, and four goaltenders.

Geographically, Brown's roster is composed of 19 Americans, 10 Canadians, and one Finnish-born player. New York leads the American contingent with four players from the Empire State on the roster. Among the Canadians, four hail from Ontario while three apiece hail from Alberta and British Columbia.

FORWARDS:
The 17 Brown forwards feature 10 returners and seven newcomers. In addition to Crozier, Jallen, and Maloney, the Bears are bolstered by the returns of Bradley Cocca, Jake Harris, Matty Holmes, Connor Marshall, Nathan Plessis, and Cole Quisenberry.

The newcomers include: Brendan Clark, Lynden Grandberg, Thomas Manty, Wyatt Schlaht, Matt Sutton, Jordan Tonelli, and Noah Wakeford.

Tonelli served as captain of the USHL's Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in 2019-20. Grandberg wore the 'A' for the AJHL's Camrose Kodiaks in 2020-21 and Wakeford wore the 'A' for the BCHL's Trail Smoke Eaters last season.

DEFENSEMEN:
Brown's nine defensemen feature five returners and four newcomers. In addition to Krys, Brown sees the return of Luke Albert, James Crossman, Dorian Dawson, and Samuli Niinisaari.

The newcomers include Tony Andreozzi, Brett Bliss, Spence Evans, and Jackson Munro.

Bliss served as an assistant captain with the BCHL's Surrey Eagles in 2020-21 and Munro wore the 'A' for the BCHL's Chilliwack Chiefs in 2020-21.

In 2019-20, Brown ranked third in the ECAC and 20th in the country with an 82.7% success rate on the penalty kill. The Bears killed off 81-of-98 power play opportunities against.

GOALTENDERS:
Brown's net is crowded with four goaltenders on the roster for the 2021-22 season. Senior Gabriel Vinal returns alongside Kania with Mathieu Caron and James Durham joining as the newcomers.

Brown ranked sixth in the ECAC in 2019-20 in goals against per game, allowing 2.71 goals per game.