Men's Hockey's Comeback Bid Falls Short Against Rensselaer

Friday, February 18

Providence, R.I.

7 p.m.

Brown University

6-17-2, 6-11-2

Rensselaer

14-18-3, 9-10-0

Rensselaer

Brown

Photo by: David Silverman Photography

Men's Hockey's Comeback Bid Falls Short Against Rensselaer

2/18/2022 10:22:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Justin Jallen cut into Rensselaer's lead early in the third with his eighth of the season, but the Rensselaer Engineers (14-18-3, 9-10-0 ECAC) held off the comeback effort to take a 4-2 win over the Brown Bears (6-17-2, 6-11-2 ECAC) Friday night at Meehan Auditorium.

"I thought we out-played them in every facet tonight; hockey is a cruel game, sometimes you don't win those games and this was one of them," said head coach Brendan Whittet '94. "I thought we were very determined, albeit lacking a bit in discipline, we can't be putting teams on power plays as much as we did. Overall, we are not satisfied with the result but I thought we played very good hockey."

The first 20 minutes ended scoreless at Meehan with the Bears controlling most of the play in the opening frame. Brown finished the frame with a 9-5 edge in shots, RPI's first shot on goal came 4:17 into the period.

Jallen had the best scoring chance of the frame on Brown's first power play opportunity. Quick puck movement from Tristan Crozier to Jake Harris to Jallen at the right dot led to the high-end scoring chance, but Rensselaer goaltender Jack Watson (28 saves) made the stop.

The Engineers struck first, taking a 1-0 lead with a power play goal 4:32 into the second period. Simon Kjellberg fired a shot from the right point that missed the net on the short side. From there, the puck caromed back in front to Ryan Mahshie on the right post for the put-back goal.

Jallen had Brown's best chance of the second period, finding himself alone in the slot against Watson at the start of a Brown penalty kill. Jallen tried to deke to his backhand, but Watson stood tall to keep the Bears off the board.

Rensselaer doubled the lead at 19:38 of the middle period as Anthony Baxter wired a point shot from the left side to beat Brown goaltender Mathieu Caron (19 saves) seconds after a Brown penalty expired.

The Bears immediately cut into Rensselaer's lead to begin the third period as Jallen found the back of the net for his eighth of the season just 15 seconds into the period. Luke Krys sent an aerial pass across the neutral zone to Crozier, who skated behind the Rensselaer net before finding his classmate on the far post for the quick strike.

Caron made a stellar save on Rensselaer captain Ture Linden 5:02 into the third, moving to his left with Linden to make the save and keep the Bears within striking distance.

Shane Sellar, a Dartmouth transfer, made it 3-1 RPI at 17:36 of the third, finishing an Engineer rush with a wrist shot from the slot.

The Bears pulled Caron for the extra attacker, looking for two goals in the final 2:24 of the third period to tie the game. The Bears got one of those goals as senior Michael Maloney found a Jallen rebound for his seventh of the season with 1:18 remaining.

Brown's efforts at a second goal to tie the game came up short as Ture Linden scored an empty-net goal with eight seconds left to put the Engineers ahead 4-2.

GAME NOTES

Junior defenseman Luke Krys recorded five blocked shots to push his season total to 88. He leads the NCAA with 3.52 blocks per game.
Jallen finished the night with six shots on goal, matching a career-high for the second time this season and fourth in his career. Nathan Plessis finished the night with a career-high four shots on goal.
Brown finished the night with a 30-23 edge in shots on goal and a 29-28 edge in faceoffs won. Rensselaer won the blocked shots battle, 13-10.
On special teams, RPI finished the night 1-for-5 with seven shots while the Bears went 0-for-3 with six shots.

Brown hosts Union (10-17-3, 7-11-1 ECAC) on Senior Night at Meehan Auditorium tomorrow night in a critical ECAC matchup. Brown and Union are tied for ninth in the standings with 21 league points. Saturday's Senior Night game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and will stream on ESPN+ in the United States and on Stretch Internet internationally. Click here to purchase tickets.

The Brown men's hockey program will recognize its six seniors and one graduate student prior to tomorrow's puck drop as the seven student-athletes play in their final regular season home game at Meehan Auditorium.

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