Brown Pulls Away from Princeton to Win ECAC Playoff Opener

Ryan St. Louis tallied two goals and added an assist as the Brown Bears (14-13-3, 9-11-2 ECAC) took a 3-2 home win over the Princeton Tigers (12-15-3, 7-12-3 ECAC) in the ECAC Opening Round Friday night at Meehan Auditorium.

With the win, the Bears advance to the ECAC Quarterfinal round for the first time since 2019.

“It was a great game and a great atmosphere, that’s why you want to play at home in the playoffs, it gives you a little bit of an edge,” said head coach Brendan Whittet ’94. “It’s a resilient group; we’ve seen it all year. We didn’t get rattled down 1-0 and I thought we got progressively better as the game went on. That was a physical, hard-nosed game – there wasn’t a lot of room out there.

“I’m proud of the guys for the way they responded. It’s a good team win, and it gives us an opportunity to continue moving on. Our goal is to win the ECAC Championship, that was the first step.

“We’ll give the guys a day or two off and have them refocus and figure out who we’re playing after tomorrow’s games. But that’s irrelevant, I don’t care who we play. We’re going to win. It’s been an incredible team to be a part of and to coach, they’re good guys and good players who play the game the right way.”

The Tigers opened the scoring 11:34 into the opening period as Jayden Sison tallied his second goal of the season off assists from Ian Devlin and Jaxson Ezman. Devlin carried the puck into the Brown zone and dropped a pass to Sison, who wired a shot past Lawton Zacher (20 saves) from the top of the circle.

Brown received the first power play of the game 15:07 into the first as Princeton was whistled for too many men on the ice. The Bears did everything but score on the advantage as Princeton goalie Ethan Pearson (22 saves) made four saves, including a ten-bell save on an Ivan Zadvernyuk shot.

Ryan St. Louis scored his tenth goal of the season 41 seconds into the middle frame to even the score. The junior intercepted a Princeton pass in Brown’s zone and sprinted ahead of the Tiger defense before beating Pearson with a beautiful deke to his forehand.

Princeton went to the power play 1:59 into the second as Brendan Clark was whistled for boarding. Initially called a major penalty and game misconduct, a review reduced the call to a minor. The Bears killed off the penalty with Zacher turning aside one shot.

Brown killed a Zadvernyuk tripping minor a few minutes later with Zacher making three saves. St. Louis had another breakaway on Pearson during the Princeton man-advantage, but his shot whistled just wide.

The Bears killed off Princeton’s third power play chance halfway through the second following Clark’s second boarding minor of the game.

The Bears went to the power play 12:03 into the frame as Carson Buydens was penalized for interference. The Tigers blocked a pair of shots and Pearson turned aside another to kill off the Brown advantage.

Princeton killed Brown’s third power play chance of the night late in the second after Ezman was whistled for hooking.

Tyler Kopff broke the deadlock 6:15 into the third with his eighth goal of the season. St. Louis forced a Princeton turnover on Brown’s blue line and fed the puck to Kopff, who took his defender wide and cut to the net to beat Pearson.

St. Louis added his second goal of the night with 28 seconds remaining with an empty net to push Brown’s lead to 3-1. He forced a Princeton turnover and held off a Tiger to skate the puck into the unguarded cage.

The Tigers cut into the lead with four seconds remaining as Kevin Anderson tallied his fifth of the season, but the Tigers were unable to find the equalizer to give the Bears the win.

GAME NOTES
St. Louis recorded his second straight three-point game and his tenth multi-point game of the season. The Bears are 8-1-1 when he records multiple points.
Brown finished the night with a 25-22 edge in shots on goal. Brown also blocked 13 shots compared to nine for Princeton.
Both teams went 0-for-3 on the power play.
Brown won the faceoff battle, 28-26. Max Scott went 11-for-18 at the dot and Ryan Shostak finished 6-for-7.
The Bears will compete in the ECAC Quarterfinal series next weekend against one of the top three seeds in Quinnipiac, Clarkson, or Colgate. The Bears will find out their opponent following tomorrow’s results.