SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The Union College men’s hockey team completed the weekend sweep with this afternoon’s 3-1 victory over Brown University at Messa Rink.
Combined with last night’s 3-1 win over Yale, this marks the first ECAC Hockey weekend sweep of the year and the first since the sweep of Harvard and Dartmouth the weekend of Feb. 25-26, 2022.
Union (13-15-2, 7-10-1) picks up a total of six points in league standings on the weekend.
Seven Union skaters found the scoresheet in the win. Junior Liam Robertson, sophomore Caden Villegas, and senior Owen Farris all scored for the home team. Defenders Mason Snell and John Prokop and forwards Chris Theodore and Josh Nixon all registered assists.
Union jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first period. Senior Chris Theodore sent the puck skittering down the left-wing wall to junior Mason Snell at the end boards. Snell corralled the puck and found Robertson in the left-wing circle who one-timed it past Jacob Zacharewicz for the score.
Villegas extended the lead 2:20 into the second period. The sophomore gained possession at center ice and slid past a defender to find classmate Josh Nixon in the slot. Nixon drew Zacharewicz out of position and made a quick pass back to Villegas who flipped home the puck into the open net.
Trailing 2-0 going into the final 3:33, Brown pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. Brett Bliss sent a shot from the top of the slot to snap the shutout bid with 1:08 to play. Brown pulled their goaltender again in an attempt to tie it up, but Farris forced a turnover in the neutral zone and took it all the way to the net for his sixth goal of the season.
Senior Connor Murphy made 21 saves to improve to 11-13-1 and Zacharewicz stopped 19 shots to fall to 1-4-0. Senior Merek Pipes made his season debut in the final 36 seconds of the game.
Union heads out for the final road trip of the regular season with a tilt at Harvard on Friday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Bright-Landry Hockey Center.