Nov. 1, 2008
Sean Backman scored twice and four other teammates found the net as the Yale men's hockey team raced past Brown 6-3 at Meehan Auditorium in the season opener for the Bulldogs.
The Blue, which won for the fifth straight time against its Rhode Island rival, took advantage of its team speed edge and outshot the Bears 41-28 while scoring on two power plays.
Senior goalie Alec Richards had a strong showing with 25 saves to earn the victory. Two of the three pucks that got past him came with Brown on the man-advantage. At the other end, Dan Rosen needed 35 stops to keep the Bears in the contest.
Yale, which outshot Brown 16-7 in the first frame, dominated the first 15 minutes and cashed in with a 2-0 lead. Freshman defenseman Nick Jaskowiak converted a power-play opportunity at 3:42 for his first career goal and the first for the Elis in 2008-09.
Backman, who led the Bulldogs with 18 goals in each of the last two seasons, notched his 37th career goal to put the visitors up 2-0 at 11:09 of the first. He and the Blue took advantage of a Brown defensive miscue. The junior forward's slap shot bounced off Rosen's pads and over his shoulder before sliding into the back of the net for Yale's second tally.
The Elis were cruising through the opening frame until the home team grabbed the momentum back with a Bobby Farnham goal with 17 seconds left. Richards, Yale's most experienced goalie with 67 outings, had stopped all six shots on target to that point. The Bulldog goalie mishandled a dump-in and the puck deflected into the crease where the hungry Bear was ready to pounce on it with a backhander past Richards.
The visitors, who helped Brown get back in the game on a few occasions with penalties, got three of the four goals in the middle frame to take control.
Backman's snap shot from the right circle at 5:40 beat Rosen, who had 14 saves in the first, to make it 3-1.
The lead increased to 4-1 when the Brown goalie was hung out to dry by his blueliners, who were unable to clear the zone. Another Eli newcomer, Kevin Limbert, one-timed a pass from fellow rookie Chad Ziegler at 7:23.
The Bears cashed in on a man-advantage almost a minute later to cut the margin in half. With one second left on a Chris Cahill penalty and the Bears moving the puck well, Jeremy Russell one-timed a low shot past Richards.
Cahill got revenge for his penalty box visit with his first tally of the year late in the second on a Yale power play to increase the lead to 5-2. His shot from the left circle went five-hole on Rosen.
The Elis put the game out of reach midway through the third period when junior forward Mark Arcobello, who had a goal and two assists, zoomed into the Brown end and tried to control a bouncing puck that eventually went past Rosen. Arcobello took multiple swings at it and finally banged home what looked like a rebound off Rosen into the back of the net for the four-goal lead at 7:08.
Jordan Pietrus got the game's final tally when he converted a two-on-one, power-play rush after a Ryan Donald penalty. Brown's second man-advantage goal at 8:31 cut the margin to 6-3. Richards and Rosen both looked sharp the rest of the way.
"Our speed was effective and so was our creativity with the puck," said Keith Allain '80, Yale's Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey. "That combined with our work ethic got us the success tonight. It's great to get the first win under our belt. They have been working hard all summer and it's nice to have the reward. We got scoring chances from all four lines and the defense played well. It was an overall team effort."
Freshman forward Brian O'Neill added two assists for the Bulldogs, who are at St. Lawrence and Clarkson next weekend.
Brown, which lost to Princeton 4-1 on Friday in its season opener, is now 0-2.
Recap filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director
