The 2023–24 Brown Bears Men's ice hockey season was the 106th season of play for the program and the 62nd in the ECAC Hockey conference. The Bears represented Brown University, played their home games at the Meehan Auditorium and were coached by Brendan Whittet in his 14th season.
Season Brown's season followed nearly the same path that it had in 2023. The Bears began poorly, losing six of their first nine due mostly to a weak offense. The goaltending dual that arose out of training camp was soon settled in favor of Lawton Zacher. However, in spite of stable goaltending, Brown was unable to capitalize on many resulting opportunities. In the first three months of the season, The Bears managed 3 goals in just four of fourteen games.
When the team started the second half of its season, there was a mild uptick in scoring but that was enough to give the Bears four wins in six games. The mini-streak put Brown in the middle of the conference standings and had them briefly competing for a home site in the conference playoffs. Once February rolled around, all of those gains were washed away. The offense slept-walked through the rest of their schedule and Brown didn't win once in their final nine games. The losing skid sent the team plummeting to the bottom of the standings and they finished just a single point out of last place.
The postseason opened with Union getting off to a quick start and never looking back. Brown was badly outplayed by the Garnet Chargers in the first two periods and found themselves down by three goals entering the third. The Bears were forced to abandon their defensive structure to try and tie the game but all that did was give Union free rein to all to their lead. When the dust settled, Brown was on the wrong end of a 0–6 score and their lackluster season was over.
Departures Luke Albert Defenseman Graduation (retired) Mathieu Caron Goaltender Transferred to Boston University Brad Cocca Forward Graduation (retired) James Crossman Defenseman Graduate transfer to Michigan State James Durham Goaltender Left program (retired) Luke Krys Defenseman Graduate transfer to Providence Connor Marshall Forward Graduation (retired) Samuli Niinisaari Defenseman Graduate transfer to Massachusetts Nathan Plessis Forward Graduation (retired) Jonny Russell Forward Graduation (retired)
Recruiting Griffen Barr Defenseman 21 Nanaimo, BC Matthew Brille Forward 20 Bethesda, MD Michael Cataldo Forward 20 Norfolk, MA Stephen Chen Goaltender 18 Beijing, CHN Tyler Kopff Forward 20 Ridgewood, NJ Ethan Mistry Forward 20 Toronto, ON Alex Pineau Defenseman 20 Thunder Bay, ON Max Scott Forward 20 San Jose, CA Tyler Shea Goaltender 22 Stevenson Ranch, CA; transfer from Michigan Ryan St. Louis Forward 20 Burlington, VT; transfer from Northeastern Lawton Zacher Goaltender 19 Buffalo, NY
Roster As of July 20, 2023.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
!colspan=12 style=";" |
Scoring statistics LW 30 13 11 24 4 F 30 3 16 19 10 F 22 7 11 18 12 F 30 6 12 18 16 D 30 7 8 15 20 D 30 0 11 11 6 D 30 2 7 9 27 F 24 3 5 8 14 C/LW 16 3 4 7 8 D 18 2 4 6 10 F 30 3 2 5 4 D 30 2 3 5 6 D 26 3 1 4 12 F 18 2 1 3 4 C 26 2 1 3 8 F 30 1 2 3 6 F 16 0 3 3 14 F 23 0 2 2 8 F 10 1 0 1 0 W 21 1 0 1 6 F 11 0 1 1 0 G 26 0 1 1 0 D 1 0 0 0 0 D 9 0 0 0 0 G 10 0 0 0 0 F 18 0 0 0 0 F 26 0 0 0 6 Total 61 106 167 201
Goaltending statistics 26 1380:40 6 14 3 67 667 0 .909 2.91 10 422:25 2 5 0 23 210 0 .901 3.27 Empty Net - 21:29 - - - 8 - - - - Total 30 1824:54 8 19 3 98 877 0 .899 3.22
Rankings
PollWeekPre 1 234567891011121314151617181920212223242526 (Final) USCHO.comNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NR USA HockeyNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 11 and 25.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.
References