Men's Hockey Drops Friday Matchup Against Merrimack

Friday, December 29

Providence, R.I.

7 p.m.

Brown University

4-8-1

Merrimack

7-9-1

Merrimack

Brown

Photo by: Emma C. Marion

Men's Hockey Drops Friday Matchup Against Merrimack

12/29/2023 10:15:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score Photo Gallery

PROVIDENCE, R.I.- The Brown Bears (4-8-1, 2-5-0 ECAC) fell to the Merrimack Warriors (7-9-1, 2-6-1 HEA) 5-1 Friday night at Meehan Auditorium in the first game in nearly three weeks for both teams.

"We looked really rusty – as individuals and as a team it just wasn't our best effort," said head coach Brendan Whittet '94. "Credit to Merrimack, I thought they played very well, but we weren't very good in terms of our resiliency and we were a little off.

"Defensively, that was one of the poorer games that we've played in a long time. We just gave up way too much space to that team and they're good enough players to make plays with time and space."

Merrimack struck first with a goal scored by Ethan Bono, assisted by Liam Dennison and Christian Felton at 3:00 into the first period.

After two quick penalties assessed against Brown, Merrimack forward Alex Jefferies tucked a power play goal past Lawton Zacher (10 saves) at 14:55 of the first to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead. Zach Bookman and Matt Copponi were credited with the assists.

As the first period came to a close, the Warriors notched another power play goal to extend their lead. Christian Felton sent a pass to Ty Denault, who ripped a shot past Zacher for his fourth goal of the season.

Trevor Griebel made it 4-0 Warriors 11:42 into the second period with assists going to Michael Citara and Mac Welsher.

With just three minutes remaining in regulation, Tyler Kopff tallied his second goal of the season after picking off a Merrimack breakout pass and wiring a shot over the shoulder of Merrimack goaltender Zachary Borgiel (20 saves).

Just 29 seconds later, the Warriors would counter as Frank Djurasevic beat Brown netminder Tyler Shea (16 saves) to push the score to 5-1.

"The positive is we play again tomorrow," Whittet added. "That Providence team is one of the best teams I've seen in a long time so our guys have to be 100% better and we have to play together as a team rather than individuals. So, a big challenge tomorrow and we'll see how the guys respond. We'll come out and play better than we did tonight."

Brown hosts tenth-ranked Providence (9-5-2, 4-3-2 HEA) in the Mayor's Cup tomorrow night at Meehan Auditorium. Saturday marks the 108th meeting between the cross-town rivals and Brown looks to retain the Mayor's Cup. Click here to purchase tickets.

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