Nicholas's Hat Trick Lifts Men's Hockey to Fifth Straight Win at RPI

Friday, January 31

Troy, N.Y.

7 p.m.

Brown University

9-9-2, 5-7-1

Rensselaer

9-14-2, 4-9-0

OT 1

Brown

Rensselaer

Photo by: Brown Athletics

Nicholas's Hat Trick Lifts Men's Hockey to Fifth Straight Win at RPI

1/31/2025 10:25:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score Photo Gallery

TROY, N.Y. – Brian Nicholas capped off the hat trick in the final minute of overtime to lift the Brown Bears (9-9-2, 5-7-1 ECAC) to a 6-5 road win over the Rensselaer Engineers (9-14-2, 4-9-0 ECAC) Friday night at Houston Field House. Tyler Kopff added a career-high four assists and five points in the victory.

The Bears push its win streak to five games, marking the first five-game win streak since the 2009-10 season and just the seventh such streak since the start of the 1977-78 season.

"It was a strange game, we were our own worst enemy with penalties and getting away from our identity, specifically defensively" said head coach Brendan Whittet '94. "We weren't very hard to play against in our own zone. But you have to learn how to win – we're on the road and there was a huge momentum shift in the third. I told the guys to take a deep breath, calm down, and get back to simple hockey.

"I thought we got better in that third after we gave up the lead and we found a way to win. It's a good win, a much-needed win. It would have been nice to get three points, but we'll take the win and two points. From my perspective, we just concentrate on how we have to play, and the results take care of themselves.

"We've been playing pretty good hockey and getting contributions from a lot of different guys so it's been good to see."

Nicholas tallied his eighth goal of the season 7:38 into the opening period for the night's first goal. Charlie Gollob carried the puck into the RPI zone and found Kopff in the slot, who rifled a pass to Nicholas on the back door for the tap-in goal.

The Engineers tied the game four minutes later as Jakob Lee cleaned up a rebound in front for his eighth goal of the season.

Kopff rifled a power play goal off the post and in to beat RPI goaltender Noah Giesbrecht (30 saves) with 1:05 remaining in the first period. The sophomore collected a pass from Alex Pineau at the top of the circle with Ryan St. Louis adding the secondary assist.

Jake Gagnon evened the game at 2-2 early in the second period. The RPI captain took a quick shot off a faceoff win to beat Brown goaltender Lawton Zacher (33 saves).

Nicholas added his second of the night and ninth of the season as a Brown power play expired to make it 3-2 Bears with 14:16 remaining in the second. Nicholas collected a pass from Kopff at the top of the circle and wired a shot past Giesbrecht. St. Louis added his second assist of the night on the goal.

After Brown was assessed a major penalty late in the second period, Zackary Tonelli doubled the Bruno lead with a shorthanded goal with 2:12 remaining in the frame. Tony Andreozzi caused a RPI turnover and found Tonelli on the back door for the tap-in goal.

The Bears had another offensive rush in the final seconds of the period with Nicholas hitting Kopff with a pass on the left dot. Rather than shoot, Kopff found Gollob on the far post for the bang-bang goal and 5-2 lead.

RPI stormed back in the third with Will Gilson, Arvils Bergmanis, and Jack Brackett finding the back of the net to tie the game at 5-5 with 10:05 remaining in the frame.

Nicholas capped off the hat trick with 53.6 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Bears the win. The freshman picked up a pass from Kopff and beat the Engineer defenseman wide before beating Giesbrecht.

GAME NOTES

Kopff recorded his third multi-point game with a career-high four assists and five points.
St. Louis extended his point streak to eight games and recorded his sixth multi-point game of the season.
Nicholas recorded his first career hat trick and fourth multi-point game of the season.
Gollob recorded his first career multi-point game with the goal and assist.
RPI finished the night with a 38-36 edge in shots on goal and a 15-10 edge in blocked shots.
Both teams finished 1-for-3 on the power play with the Bears tallying a shorthanded goal.

Brown closes out the weekend tomorrow afternoon against the Union Garnet Chargers (14-9-2, 7-5-1 ECAC). Saturday's puck drop is set for 4 p.m. and the game will stream on ESPN+ in the United States and on Stretch Internet internationally.

Gallery: (1-31-2025) MIH at Rensselaer (1/31/25)

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