Men's Hockey Closes Season with Playoff Loss at Union

Saturday, March 9

Schenectady, NY

4 p.m.

Brown University

8-19-3

Union

16-16-3

Brown

Union (NY)

Photo by: Brown Athletics

Men's Hockey Closes Season with Playoff Loss at Union

3/9/2024 6:53:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score Photo Gallery

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The sixth-seeded Union Garnet Chargers (16-16-3, 9-10-3 ECAC) skated past the Brown Bears (8-19-3, 6-14-2 ECAC) on Saturday afternoon to advance out of the ECAC Opening Round and close out Brown's season at Messa Rink.

"It just wasn't meant to be," said head coach Brendan Whittet '94. "I thought the guys battled and we were incredibly short-handed the last two months. The group left it on the ice, it wasn't our night.

"It's hard to win on the road in the playoffs and that's why you want to be at home. I feel bad for the guys and I feel bad for the seniors. There's only three of them but two of them haven't been able to put on the uniform in the last month and a half. It's hard, that senior group experienced COVID, they didn't get a freshman year and they battled through injuries throughout their career. I know they're going to do great things, they are Brown Men, and it's something special.

"Our goal is to win a Championship. I said that when I was hired and that hasn't changed. Our guys will get back after it, we have a ton of returning players and we'll get some guys who were injured and pretty special players and we have an excellent class coming in. The future of our program is very bright."

Caden Villegas broke the deadlock 14:57 into the first period for his ninth goal of the season. Lawton Zacher (34 saves) made the initial save on a Cullen Ferguson shot but Villegas was there for the rebound goal.

DJ Hart doubled the Union lead 7:34 into the second period with a short-handed goal. Ville Immonen picked up the assist on the tally.

The Garnet Chargers pushed the lead to 3-0 at 10:33 of the second as Chaz Smedsrud found the back of the net on a rush.

Union's Ben Tupker and Villegas added goals in the third to push the score to 5-0, and Tupker added an empty-net goal to extend the lead further.

Gallery: (3-9-2024) MHockey at Union (3/9/24)

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