One glance through Brown’s men’s hockey record book is all it takes to understand the greatness once possessed by goaltender Yann Danis.
The one-time Hobey Hat Trick finalist litters every page of goaltending stats with multiple entries into the program’s top single season numbers for goals against average, shutouts, saves and save percentage, and while his career statistics don’t necessarily top every list, his four-season output reinvented the Bears as a program at a time when several traditional powerhouses sustained a down period in the mid-2000s.
Some of the most impressive numbers within the Danis file exist on a list of scoreless streaks that he singlehandedly rewrote. Six of his longest scoreless streaks between the 2001-02 season and his graduation after the 2003-04 season outstretched 125-plus minutes with his two best streaks extending well over 150 minutes. To some, the numbers stand the test of time because they’ve been challenged over the past 20 years without falling to other notable goalies like Mike Clemente, Adam D’Alba or Tyler Steel.
Just one other goalie – Clemente – reached the sacred number of 150 scoreless minutes, but this past weekend, sophomore Lawton Zacher accomplished something potentially more significant when he achieved the second-longest streak of scoreless hockey with a 157:04 streak during a five-point road sweep over North Country teams at Clarkson and St. Lawrence.
“I thought we got tremendous goaltending from Zacher,” said Bears coach Brendan Whittet of his suddenly streaking netminder. “He has high-end potential as a goaltender and has the ability, I think, to be one of the elite guys in our league, and he was coming off of double hip surgery from last year. So that first game against Colgate wasn’t indicative of what he can do as a goaltender, but he’s been great. I also think that we’ve been defending well where we’ve been very good on the penalty kill and keeping stuff to the outside.
“We were really good in terms of our back pressure, and we capitalized on offense when we had opportunities.”
Zacher entered the season as one of ECAC Hockey’s underrated goalies after not receiving any mention in the league’s postseason or preseason award bank. His numbers from last season weren’t on pace with the star power of Ian Shane, Cooper Black or Jack Stark, but a .909 save percentage and 2.91 goals against average offered a modest improvement for a team rebuilding a younger core.
He wasn’t a large-number keeper, and getting 42 saves against Union, 41 saves against Harvard and 40 saves in the Mayor’s Cup matchup against Providence wasn’t enough to help the Bears win those games. But a trend emerged in other games where Brown won games where the defense held opponents to lower numbers and less premium chances. It felt like simple math, but focusing on gaining more consistency on the back end helped Zacher see the puck exceptionally well over a seven-point stretch against the Tigers and North Country teams.
“We’ve worked hard on the defensive side in terms of making sure we’re protecting from the middle-out,” said Whittet. “If they’re going to take any shots on [net], they’re coming from grade-As. They’re more outside chances, and I think [teams] are hoping for secondary opportunities, but what Lawton has done has [prevented] those second opportunities. He’s inhaled stuff, and he hasn’t left second opportunities at all, which has [helped] a very confident goaltender.”
The process resulted in Zacher’s climb through Brown’s immediate record book after Princeton’s David Ma scored on the power play with just over 5:30 remaining in the first period. For the next 40-plus minutes, the defense and its netminder stonewalled 16 shots before recording the full-blown shutout in the 1-0 win over No. 19 Clarkson, which became the program’s first-ever consecutive road wins in Potsdam when combined with last year’s late-January 3-2 overtime victory at Cheel Arena.
The streak would eventually come to an end when St. Lawrence’s Jan Lasak beat Zacher ahead of the halfway point of the third period, but an overtime goal from Brian Nicholas registered the extra point for the Bears, who won the previous night’s game on Charlie Gollab’s goal with 0.5 seconds remaining on the clock.
“First and foremost, when you have limited seconds on a [offensive zone restart], you have to win the faceoff,” said Whittet, “so if we don’t win that faceoff, we don’t score that goal. But our guys weren’t passive, and off the draw, they went directly to the net and created a little bit of traffic. The puck landed right at the feet of Gollab, but he’s in that area where he needed to be if he wanted to score goals. So we were rewarded with that because it’s all the things that led up to that goal, adding up to scoring.”
It pushed Brown to its third overall sweep over Clarkson and St. Lawrence while registering the first sweep in the North Country since a Nov. 2004 trip quarterbacked by then-starting goalie Adam D’Alba. Even without an offensive outburst, it was enough to send Brown into eighth place after the team started its season by gaining traction during a three-weekend stretch that included the Cornell-Colgate road trip, the arrival of Quinnipiac and Princeton into Providence, and the subsequent trip to Clarkson and St. Lawrence.
There was no safety net offered by a non-conference game, but surviving through the first six games with seven points puts the Bears on a track that takes them out of ECAC play until after the calendar turns to its 2025 portion. It’s a common thread for an Ivy League team that doesn’t start until late October or early November, but the breather with a Thanksgiving weekend against Air Force or a December road trip to Matthews Arena to play Northeastern isn’t entirely a vacation for a team still searching for its full-term identity.
“We just have to play the right way,” said Whittet. “We’ve gotten better each weekend and given ourselves a chance to be successful. We just have to continue to be a little more consistent in how we start games. We’ve found ways to win, but those starts have to be a little better. We’ve had a bunch of injuries, unfortunately, so other guys are going to get the opportunity to play bigger minutes. It’ll be interesting to see how they play in those roles, but from my perspective, it’s business as usual because non-league games are important for ECAC.
“If we want multiple teams in the NCAA tournament, we have to contribute our part to the non-league side. We represent Brown, but we also represent the league.”
Brown returns to the ice this weekend when the Bears host Air Force for two games before playing a single game at Northeaster on Dec. 7. A Dec. 29 tilt against Long Island precedes a one-weekend return to ECAC play with Union and Rensselaer before the Mayor’s Cup returns to Meehan Auditorium on Jan. 7 with the annual game against Providence.
