Men's Hockey Takes Shootout Win at Harvard to Finish Regular Season

Saturday, March 2

Cambridge, MA

7 p.m.

Brown University

8-18-3, 6-14-2

Harvard

6-17-6, 6-10-6

OT 1

OT 2

Brown

Harvard

Photo by: Yale Athletics

Men's Hockey Takes Shootout Win at Harvard to Finish Regular Season

3/2/2024 11:09:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Playing nearly the entire game three skaters shy of a full lineup, a battered Brown Bears (8-18-3, 6-14-2 ECAC) squad grinded out a 1-1 tie against the Harvard Crimson (6-17-6, 6-10-6 ECAC) Saturday night at Bright-Landry Hockey Center.

Brown won the shootout for the extra league point against the Crimson.

"We're really banged up; we have forwards playing defense and we aren't dressing a full roster," said head coach Brendan Whittet '94. "I thought we battled pretty hard – it wasn't perfect and it was ugly at times. For us, we just had to get over a hump, six weeks ago we were right up there in the standings and hit the injury bug worse than I've ever seen. We wanted to get onto a positive roll as we head into the playoffs.

"I think Zacher is one of the best goalies in the league and one of the best goalies in the East. He's been battling injuries too and came back tonight and looked great throughout and looked like he was in control to give us an opportunity."

Lawton Zacher (41 saves) was stellar from the outset and turned aside all 17 shots faced in the opening period. Brown killed off a major penalty and two minors and lost a defenseman with the misconduct assessed to Brett Bliss just 3:31 into the frame.

Derek Mullahy (14 saves) made a big save on Ryan St. Louis on a Bruno odd-man rush halfway through the period. At the end of the play, Harvard senior Ryan Drkulec was assessed a minor penalty for boarding. The minor was the only infraction on the board following a video review.

After Zackary Tonelli was penalized for boarding with 1:48 remaining in the second, Harvard forward Joe Miller negated the Crimson power play with a hitting after the whistle penalty to end the period with 4-on-4 play.

Zacher recorded eight saves in the middle frame to keep the Crimson off the board, including consecutive saves on Cam Johnson and Tommy Lyons with less than five minutes remaining in the period.

Alex Pineau broke the deadlock with 31 seconds left in the second, collecting the loose puck in the slot after Tyler Kopff's long shot was blocked by traffic.

Ben MacDonald was assessed a major and misconduct 6:12 into the third for a vicious hit against Spence Evans. Brown was unable to find the insurance marker on the extended power play.

Alex Gaffney found the equalizer with 1:19 remaining in regulation, finding the loose puck in traffic for his eighth goal of the season to force overtime.

The Bears killed off a penalty in overtime and finished the night with 20 blocked shots to send the game to a shootout.

Zacher turned aside both shootout attempts and Kopff and Ryan Bottrill beat Mullahy to give the Bears the shootout win and extra league point.

GAME NOTES

Senior forward Gavin Puskar moved back to defense for the final two periods and overtime.
Zacher's 41-save performance marks the second-most saves of his career and third game with 40 or more saves. He recorded 42 saves against Union (Feb. 3) and 40 saves against Providence College (Dec. 30).
Brown finished the night 0-for-3 on the power play with Harvard finishing 0-for-4.

Brown turns to the ECAC Opening Round next Saturday with a trip to take on the Union Dutchmen (15-16-3, 9-10-3 ECAC). Saturday's game is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. and will stream on ESPN+.

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