Feb. 26, 2005

The Bulldogs amassed a 2-1 third period lead in their final regular season game against Rensselaer, but could not hold on as the Engineers evened up the score midway through the third period and added an overtime game-winner with 15.1 seconds remaining.

Yale falls to 4-23-2 with the loss, tying the school record for defeats in a season. The 11th-place Engineers improve to 14-20-0.

RPI took the first lead of the game 11:13 into the first period when Jonathan Ornelas, off assists from Blake Pickett and Kirk MacDonald, beat Yale goaltender Matt Modelski for the 1-0 lead.

Yale answered with 2:40 to play in the period and the Bulldogs on a power play after MacDonald was whistled for roughing. Junior Jeff Hristovski scored his seventh goal of the season for the extra-man equalizer, with Joe Zappala and Jean-Francois Boucher earning the assists.

With the second period having been underway for 3:27, Nate Jackson scored his eighth goal of the season on a feed from Bill LeClerc to put Yale up 2-1, a lead that remained throughout the rest of that frame despite two Yale penalties.

In the third period, Shawn Mole was whistled for hooking at 7:45, and with 15 seconds remaining on the ensuing RPI power play the Engineers got the tying goal from Kevin Broad, with Oren Eizenman and Ornelas tallying the assists.

The Elis took three more penalties over the course of the third, but were able to hold off RPI. With the sudden-death overtime period nearing its end, however, the Bulldogs were whistled for a too-many-men penalty, and RPI's Kevin Croxton was able to beat Modelski with just 15.1 ticks remaining on the clock to earn the RPI victory.

Modelski finished with 24 saves, while Engineer goaltender Andrew Martin picked up the win with 28 stops.

Yale travels to Dartmouth to face the Big Green in a best-of-three series in the opening round of the ECAC playoffs next weekend.