This weekend the Men’s Ice Hockey team played back-to-back games against Yale University and Brown University.

Friday night the Dutchmen were at home against Yale, the number 20 team in the ECAC.

Both teams had a slow start, putting up no points in the first period. Yale outshot Union 11-7, but neither team could find the back of the net. The second period started out slow, but the Dutchmen got a big opportunity to score when they got a power play about halfway into the period. Unfortunately, the Bulldog’s Joe Snively scored, unassisted, on a defensive turnover. Less than 40 seconds later the Dutchmen tied the game 1-1 with a goal from Sebastian Vidmar ’19.

The Yale goalie made an initial save, but Vidmar picked up the rebound and netted his eighth goal of the season. With a tied game to start the third, Yale scored twice in a four-minute span to give the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead with less than 12 minutes remaining in the game.

Not only were the Dutchmen down by 2, but they were also in a five-on-three penalty kill situation. The successful penalty kill gave the Dutchmen the energy they needed. Union’s second goal of the game started when Brett Supinski ’19 won a battle along the half boards to keep the puck in the offensive zone. Vidmar picked it up behind the net and dished it off to a wide-open Anthony Rinaldi ’20 in the right circle. Rinaldi sniped the puck off the near pipe and over the shoulder of the goalie to bring Union within one at the 13:43 mark.

The tying goal, again, came from some great board work from the Dutchmen. This time Sean Harrison ’21 won a battle behind the Yale net and got the puck to Jack Adams ’21.

Adams curled toward the front of the net and threw the puck across the crease to Lucas Breault ’22 who banged in his second of the season to tie the game with less than five minutes to play in the game.

This goal forced the game to go into overtime. Rinaldi scored the game winner on a puck that bounced over the stick of a Yale forward.

The Bulldogs outshot the Dutchmen 35-33, but it didn’t matter in the end.

In what started looking like it was going to be a blowout for the Dutchmen, Brown ultimately battled back to hand the Union Men’s Hockey team a 3-2 defeat on Saturday night at Messa Rink.

The game started off with a bang, as Liam Morgan ’21 scored just 22 seconds into the game to give the Dutchmen the early lead. This was the fastest goal scored by the Dutchmen this season. Despite the early goal, Brown would out-shoot Union 11-6 in the first and end up tying the game at 1-1 in the 11th minute of the period.

The second period saw the Dutchmen out-shoot the Bears, but Brown’s Colin Burston would be the lone scorer of the middle frame.

In the third period, Union upped the pressure on the Brown net and it paid off early. The Bears tried to chip a puck off the glass to get out of their zone, but Brendan Taylor ’19 collected it and quickly dished it off to Adams on the left side.

Adams one-timed and buried it for his seventh of the season to tie the game up to 2-2 at the 4:13 mark of the game.

Later in the third, the Dutchmen were attacking the net, but the Bear’s goaltender caused a turnover, creating a rush to Union’s net.

Union goalie Jake Kupsky ’19 made the first save on the rush, but the Bears pounced on an uncleared puck and put it in the net during the scramble in front of Kupsky.

The Dutchmen were given a power-play opportunity in the final two minutes of regulation, and with an empty net outnumbered the Brown skaters six to four.

However, the Bears kept Union from tying the game and forcing overtime for a second night in a row.

Union outshot Brown 28-21, but that wasn’t enough for a win.