Men’s hockey ended its three-game losing streak, defeating Brown University 5-2 on Saturday. The day prior, the Big Green lost to Yale University 3-2 as the Bulldogs scored the winning goal with less than five seconds left in the game.
Following a challenging winter break schedule, the Big Green was hoping for a weekend sweep after they fell out of the national rankings the weekend prior, head coach Reid Cashman said.
The game started in the Big Green’s favor, as John Fusco ’25 — after puck drop on a Dartmouth power play — scored within the first four minutes. Once Ian Pierce ’25 recovered an unblocked shot from rookie Hank Cleaves ’28, Pierce found Fusco waiting in the faceoff circle. Fusco fired it in, putting Dartmouth on the board.
The Bulldogs fired back, taking the first period as they scored two goals on small defensive mistakes by Dartmouth. Those errors eventually cost them the game.
Neither team scored during the second period, but Pierce was able to tie it with less than five minutes remaining in the game.
“It was a good feeling,” Pierce said. “But the job’s not done until the 60 minutes is up.”
While Cleaves was battling a Yale defenseman, he was able to pass the puck off to Hayden Stavroff ’28, who made a quick pass to Pierce for the goal. It marked his first of the season and his second career goal against the Bulldogs. For Pierce, whose season ended early last year due to injury, scoring was a welcome return to form.
“Every decision I made was trying to get back to the team and do my best to help them win as much as I could,” Pierce said. “Right now, we’re in a bit of a rough patch, but we’re working our way through it.”
Cashman, meanwhile, said he was impressed with Pierce’s comeback.
“He’s one of our hardest workers for the last three and a half years,” Cashman said. “Super proud of not only tonight but how he’s been practicing and how he’s handled some of the adversity that’s gone on. When you see a kid do the right things and get rewarded on the score sheet, it’s pretty rewarding as a coach.”
With less than five seconds on the clock, the crowd assumed that the game would go into overtime. However, after Cooper Flinton ’26 recovered a rebound off goalie Roan Clarke ’27, the Bulldogs were able to steal the puck from Flinton to score the game-winner.
With a 3-2 loss, the game extended the Big Green’s losing streak to three. Nonetheless, the Big Green went into the next day’s matchup versus Brown with a positive attitude.
“I have a ton of belief in our group,” Cashman said after the Yale loss. “I love where our game’s at and so we just have to believe that, if we can stick with it for 60 minutes, we can find a way at the end of the day.”
The game started in the Big Green’s favor right away. At the 1:51 mark in the first period, Luke Haymes ’26, who had missed the first half of the season due to injury, scored his first goal of the season.
“It took a little bit to come back, but I’ve had a great support crew throughout the whole thing, and I’m super grateful for it,” Haymes said.
After Haymes recovered the puck from a pile, which included Nikita Nikora ’27 and two Bears skaters, he skated it down from the neutral zone, took the shot and, with help from a Brown defender, was able to find the back of the net.
“Cooper and Nikita are awesome players, awesome hockey players, very smart, easy to play with and make my job very easy,” Haymes said.
However, the Bears did not let the Big Green go into the second period with a lead. They retrieved the puck off an unfortunate bounce and were able to score to tie the game, before taking the lead on a power play in the second period.
The Big Green fired back, with Haymes scoring his second goal of the night at 43 seconds into the third period.
Flinton recovered a puck fumbled by Brown in Dartmouth’s zone. With a breakaway chance, Flinton skated the puck down with a Bear trailing right behind him. He took his shot, but the puck rebounded off the goalie. Flinton’s defender skated away, thinking the Big Green had already scored, and Haymes flipped it into the net to tie the game.
Haymes explained that he attributed that shot to his close relationship with Flinton.
“He’s my best friend on the team,” Haymes said. “We’re pretty close off the ice, so it’s a privilege to play with him.”
Haymes’s goal started an eruption as the Big Green scored three more goals in the third period.
CJ Foley ’27 scored unassisted, and Braiden Dorfman ’25 deposited the puck for his fourth goal of the season. Flinton then scored an empty-netter from the other side of the ice after Brown took its goalie out with less than a minute remaining in the game.
“We’ve had a lot of experience with third periods and not coming back,” Haymes said. “It was a good opportunity for us to show our maturity and bounce back from [the Yale game].”
The third period against Brown was the second time this season the Big Green had a four-goal period — the first came on Nov. 3, when it scored four in the second against Stonehill.
With a 5-2 win against Brown, the Big Green, which faces road games over the next two weekends, is hoping to carry the momentum forward.
“We’re ready to go on the road,” Cashman said. “We’ve been home a lot, which is nice. We love Thompson [Arena]. Our fans were great this weekend, but I think it’ll be good to go into some tough environments like Union [College].”
The Big Green will be back on the ice this Friday in Schenectady, N.Y. to take on the Garnet Chargers of Union College.
