Women's Hockey Back Home to Host Union and Rensselaer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Brown women's hockey returns to Meehan Auditorium for two games this weekend as the Bears host Union on Friday (6 p.m.) and Rensselaer on Saturday (3 p.m.).

Friday's game against Union will be Brown's Breast Cancer Awareness Game sponsored by Rhode Island Medical Imaging and the first 150 fans will receive a Brown mini hockey stick.

Saturday's game is Youth Day with free youth tickets for ages 12 & under. Both games will feature post-game autographs with the team.

GAME LINKS
Union – Watch | Live Stats
Rensselaer – Watch | Live Stats

SKATE SHAVINGS
• Brown returns home for its next four games, beginning with a weekend against Union and Rensselaer on Friday and Saturday. Puck drop against Union will be at 6 p.m. and the game against Rensselaer begins at 3 p.m.
• Brown earned two ties on the road last weekend against No. 13 Princeton (2-2) and No. 10 Quinnipiac (0-0). The Bears are now unbeaten in their last five games (3-0-2) with the last four games being overtime contests on the road against ranked teams.
• Rory Edwards earned ECAC Goaltender of the Week after collecting 80 saves and allowing just two goals at Princeton and Quinnipiac. It was Edwards second shutout in the last five games.

SCOUTING THE GARNET CHARGERS
• Union is 11-16-1 on the season and 7-9-0 in ECAC play. Union is on a three-game winning streak with a victory at Harvard, followed by back-to-back wins against Rensselaer.
• Prior to the three-game win streak, Union had lost five-straight games after beating Brown on December 7.
• Karianne Engelbert leads Union with 12 goals and is the only player with double-digit goals on the roster. Engelbert also leads the way with 21 points.
• Union is averaging just 2.04 goals per game and has only scored four goals three times this season, the last time being the 4-1 win against Brown.

INSIDE THE SERIES
• Brown's loss at Union on Dec. 7 ended a six-game win streak against the Garnet Chargers.
• In the first meeting this season, Union broke a 1-1 tie with three second period goals in a span of seven minutes.
• Brown has won three-straight home games against Union with the last loss inside Meehan Auditorium being a 4-1 defeat on Nov. 11, 2019.

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
• Rensselaer is 12-13-3 overall and 5-9-2 in ECAC play. The Engineers dropped both meetings against Union last weekend and are 2-6-3 away from home.
• The Engineers are 1-6-1 in their last eight games since sweeping Brown and Yale on Dec. 6-7. Four of those six losses are against ranked opponents.
• Rensselaer is the second-most penalized team in the ECAC with 7.21 penalty minutes per game but the Engineers are killing penalties at an .817 clip.
• Ellie Kaiser and Aylah Cioffi lead the team in goals with both players having scored nine goals this season.

INSIDE THE SERIES
• Brown dropped its last game against Rensselaer, falling 4-1 in Troy earlier this season.
• The game was tied 1-1 after a goal by Ava DeCoste in the second period but three thrid-period gaols gave the win to RPI
• This has been a back and forth series with the teams splitting the last four games. Brown has won the last two meetings in Providence including last season's ECAC First Round game.

THE EXTRA FRAME
• Brown has played in four-straight overtime games for the first time in program history. The Bears are 2-0-2 in those four games.
• All four of the overtime games came against ranked teams on the road.

NORTH COUNTRY SWEEP
• Brown swept its North Country trip for the first time in program history earning overtime wins against No. 8 St. Lawrence and No. 7 Clarkson.
• The win at St. Lawrence was the first time since 2005 and the win at Clarkson was the first win there since 2006.

THE NEXT W
• With Brown's next win, the Bears will match the most ECAC (7) and overall (12) wins under Ruzzi.
• 7 ECAC wins and 12 overall wins would be tied for the most since 2005 (10 ECAC, 15 overall).

SERIES WINS
• Brown went 1-0-1 against both Princeton and Quinnipiac this season.
• This is the first season that Brown has gone unbeaten against Princeton since the 2002 season when the Bears picked up wins in both meetings.
• Winning a season series against Quinnipiac has not happened since 2009 when Brown won both matchups. Brown has now gone three-straight games without losing to Quinnipiac for the first time since going 2-0-1 in 2009.

RANKED SUCCESS
• Brown has gone 2-0-2 in its last four games, all coming against ranked teams. It is the longest unbeaten streak against ranked teams under head coach Melanie Ruzzi.
• The Bears' overtime win at No. 7 Clarkson is tied for the highest ranked team Brown has beaten under Ruzzi (No. 7 Yale in 2021-22).
• Brown has four ranked wins this season, the most ranked wins for the Bears in a season under Ruzzi.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
• Brown is in the midst of a youth movement as the Bears are being led by the underclassmen with freshmen and sophomores accounting for 40 of the Bears 60 goals (66.7%) and 57.9 % of the team's assists.
• The three top goal scorers for Brown are underclassmen with freshman Monique Lyons leading Brown with 12, followed by sophomores Ava DeCoste (10) and Margot Norehad (8).

EIGHT IS GREAT
• Brown's eight wins in the first half of the season are the second-most wins in program history before the winter break. It was the the most wins for the Bears since Brown won nine games in 2004-05 before the calendar turned to January.

THE THREE-POINTER
• Brown had two players collect three points against Sacred Heart (Monique Lyons - 2-1-3, Ava DeCoste - 1-2-3) marking the first game two Bears had three points since Oct. 19 against Franklin Pierce when three Bears had at least three points.
• Brown followed that up with three players tallying three points in the overtime win over St. Lawrence. Monique Lyons had three goals, while Ava DeCoste and Sam Broz each had three assists.

SACRED SHUTOUT
• The Bears shutout Sacred Heart for the first shutout win this season for Brown. Rory Edwards picked up her first-career shutout with 20 saves against the Pioneers.
• The last time Brown shutout an opponent was a 1-0 win over Rensselaer in the first round of the ECAC Tournament last season (20 games)
• The last regular season shutout was a 3-0 win over RIT on Jan. 6, 2024 (29 games)

FAST 11
• Brown reached its 11th win of the season in its 21st game of the year, the fastest team for Brown to get to 11 wins in a season since the 2003-04 team that made it to 11 wins in 18 games.
• Brown reaching 11 wins with the two wins last weekend gave the Bears their second-straight season with double-figure wins. Brown had not had back-to-back seasons with 10+ wins since 2005-06 and 2006-07.

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Women's Hockey Back Home to Host Union and Rensselaer

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Players Mentioned

Sam Broz

Ava DeCoste

Rory Edwards

Monique Lyons

Margot Norehad

Brown University Athletics