Men's Hockey Caps Comeback with Shootout Win Over Harvard; Clinches Home Ice for ECAC Opening Round

Saturday, March 1

Providence, R.I.

7 p.m.

Brown University

13-13-3, 9-11-2

Harvard

11-15-3, 9-10-3

OT 1

OT 2

Harvard

Brown

Photo by: Chip DeLorenzo

Men's Hockey Caps Comeback with Shootout Win Over Harvard; Clinches Home Ice for ECAC Opening Round

3/1/2025 10:32:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score Photo Gallery

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Brown Bears (13-13-3, 9-11-2 ECAC) tallied the final three goals of the game and captured the shootout win for the extra league point in a 3-3 tie against the Harvard Crimson (11-15-3, 9-10-3 ECAC) on Senior Night at Meehan Auditorium.

With tonight's result, Brown clinched the eighth seed in the 2025 ECAC Playoffs and will host an Opening Round playoff game for the first time since 2019.

What an ending to the regular season, as it's been all year this has been a great group to coach – they're resilient and they don't give up," said head coach Brendan Whittet '94. "We battled from a 3-0 deficit to win in a shootout. We finished .500 overall in the regular season with 13 wins, which is a tribute to the team, the guys played very, very hard all year.

"We grew a lot; it's a young team that continued to grow throughout the season. We're excited, we earned our way with home ice. It's a big step for this team and this program. But our goal is to win an ECAC Championship. We're going to work hard this week and we'll be ready to go on Friday against a good Princeton team. They play hard, they have good goaltending and have some ability to create.

"It's going to be an absolute physical playoff game with I hope a great atmosphere at this rink."

Harvard opened the scoring 2:13 into the first period as Ryan Healey collected a pass from Zakary Karpa and beat goaltender Lawton Zacher (2 saves) with a shot from the faceoff dot.

Tyler Kopff had a breakaway chance eight minutes into the frame, but Harvard goalie Ben Charette (28 saves) turned it aside.

Kyle Aucoin doubled the lead 8:23 into the period with his second of the season with a quick shot from the outside hash marks. Tyler Shea (16 saves) replaced Zacher in net following the goal.

The Crimson pushed the lead to 3-0 with 1:34 remaining in the period as Philip Tresca tallied his fourth of the season off an assist from Ben MacDonald.

Ryan St. Louis ended the Crimson run with his ninth of the season less than a minute later off assists from Nick Traggio and Max Scott.

The Bears and Crimson skated to a scoreless second period with Shea making five saves. Brown had a 23-12 edge in shots on goal through the opening 40 minutes of play.

Tyler Kopff cut the Crimson lead to one on the power play 7:34 into the third. Scott won the draw back to St. Louis and after some passing between St. Louis and Kopff, the latter wired a shot through Charette for his sixth of the season.

Kopff struck for a second power play goal with 3:03 remaining in a mirror image to his first of the frame. The sophomore collected a pass from Scott near the faceoff dot and ripped a shot to beat Charette.

Shea robbed Mick Thompson of a goal right in the slot with just over two minutes remaining in the extra frame. Seconds later, Alex Pineau blocked a Thompson effort to keep the period going. Shea then made a great save on a Casey Severo effort and held on for the whistle.

In the shootout, Shea turned aside efforts from Mick Thompson and Cam Johnson with Kopff and Scott scoring on the other end of the ice to give the Bears the extra league point.

GAME NOTES

St. Louis recorded his ninth multi-point game of the season and Scott recorded his seventh of the season.
Kopff recorded his second multi-goal game of the campaign and fifth multi-point effort.
Brown finished the night with a 31-21 edge in shots on goal. Harvard blocked 22 shots compared to 13 for Bruno.
Brown went 2-for-4 on the power play with Harvard finishing the night 0-for-5.
The Bears dominated at the faceoff dot with a 47-for-73 (64.4%). Scott went 22-for-32 (68.8%) effort.

The Bears are set to host the Princeton Tigers (12-14-3, 7-12-3 ECAC) in the ECAC Opening Round game on Friday, March 7 at 7 p.m. Friday night's game will stream on ESPN+ in the United States and on Stretch Internet internationally.

Gallery: (3-1-2025) MHockey vs. Harvard (3/1/25)

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