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Elis Coming Off Win at Princeton 

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The 114th season of Yale men's hockey began with a 5-2 win by the No. 6 Bulldogs over No. 11 Princeton. The ECAC Hockey season begins this weeekend as the Blue opens at RPI and Union.

SERIES

Union has won two of the last three against the Elis but Yale has the overall edge at 19-14-3 in a series that began in 1991-92. Yale and Rensselaer began playing during the 1908-09 season and the Engineers own a 48-37-6 advantage despite the Bulldogs taking the last five.

LAST YEAR AGAINST THE CAPITOL FOLKS

Yale swept RPI last winter and split (visitors won both) with Union. The Elis beat the Engineers 7-3 and 4-1 while losing to the Dutchmen 5-2 at Ingalls before beating them 4-2 in Schenectady.

ELIS COME FROM BEHIND AT PRINCETON

Yale erased a 2-1 deficit in the third period with four straight goals to take a 5-2 win over No. 11 Princeton in a season-opening, non-league contest at Baker Rink last Saturday. The Bulldogs, who avenged a loss at Baker Rink last March when Yale could have clinched the conference title, had goals from five different players despite being outshot 42-37 by the Tigers (1-1). The home team scored both of its goals on the power play, while the Bulldogs went 1-for-5 with the man-advantage but notched the winner down a man midway through the third period. Yale junior Ryan Rondeau, making his first start between the pipes since the middle of last winter, made 40 saves, including 15 in the middle period. Zane Kalemba, Princeton's 2008-09 ECAC and Ivy League Player of the Year, stopped 32 shots before being pulled with 2:35 left in the game and the Tigers down by a pair.

RONDEAU GOALIE OF WEEK

Junior Goalie Ryan Rondeau (Carvel, Alberta) earned ECAC Hockey Goalie of the Week honors after stopping 49 of 51 shots over two victories. Rondeau stopped all nine shots in an 8-0 exhibition win at home over Ontario Institute of Technology during a 30-minute appearance on Oct. 30. The following night at No. 11 Princeton, he turned aside 40 of 42 shots. Rondeau, who gave up a pair of power-play scores to the Tigers, prevented Princeton from scoring on five other chances. The 40 saves are a career-high and 10 more than his previous high in a win over a ranked Minnesota State team last December at Ingalls Rink.

BACKMAN PICKED

Sean Backman, a senior member of the Yale men's hockey team, was named to the College Hockey News (CHN) 2008-09 Pre-Season All-America squad. Backman, named to the second team, is one of three ECAC Hockey selections on the CHN team. He was second-team All-ECAC last year after leading his team with 20 goals. Backman, a forward, tallied the team's lone hat trick in a 5-0 win over Cornell that gave the Blue the ECAC Hockey Tournament Title and made him tournament MVP. His career numbers are 57-35-92 in 94 games.

BULLDOG BITES

Dedication night for the renovated Ingalls Rink is Jan. 16 when the Yale men host Brown after the women play RPI. That is also alumni day for both squads... Heading to the capitol distirct this weekend, the Blue has just one player from NY, Ken Trentowski (Ronkonkoma).

3 COULD BREAK GP RECORD

Mark Arcobello needs just two games played to crack the century mark entering the second week of the Yale season. Most Eli seniors don't get a glimpse of triple digits until late in their final campaigns. Two of his teammates, Sean Backman (94) and Ryan Donald (90), should follow Arcobello. All three could break the record of 125 games shared by Jeff Hamilton '01 and Jeff Hristovski '06.

CAPTAIN RYAN DONALD

Ryan Donald (St. Albert, ALB), a class of 2010 defenseman who helped Yale rank 10th nationally in scoring defense, is the captain of the 2009-10 Bulldogs. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Bulldog skater had eight assists in 2008-09. Donald is one of 20 NCAA hockey candidates for the 2009-10 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence - classroom, character, community and competition. Donald has compiled a 2.93 grade point average as a political science major at one of the nation's top universities. He was recognized as a member of the ECAC All-Academic team in 2009.

COACH ALLAIN

Three years with Keith Allain '80 as Yale's Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey has meant remarkable progress for the program, and the most recent campaign more than established the Bulldogs on the national scene. All he did in 2008-09 was lead the Bulldogs to the best season in the history of the sport at Yale. A school-record 24 wins, Yale's first ECAC Tournament Championship and a school-best No. 5 national ranking in late March backs up that statement. The Elis' second ECAC regular-season title, a third NCAA Tournament appearance and an Ivy League crown confirm the status of the 2008-09 squad. That's why the ECAC coaches voted him the conference coach of the year (Tim Taylor Award) and College Hockey News named him national coach of the year.

SUMMER NHL CAMPS

Yale seniors Ryan Donald (St. Albert, Alb.), Mark Arcobello (Milford, Conn.) and Sean Backman (Cos Cob, Conn.) and juniors Denny Kearney (Hanover, N.H.) and Broc Little (Rindge, N.H.) all took part in National Hockey League Development Camps this summer. Donald was with Vancouver, Kearney and Backman worked out with Washington while Little and Arcobello were with Chicago.

NHL development camps are primarily for their signed players, which could be rookies, new draft picks, top prospects and some of their AHL players. Some also include free agents, like the Yale skaters.

EARLY POLLS

The Bulldogs are ranked No. 6 with one first-place vote in this week's USCHO.com poll. Yale is No. 7 with one top vote in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine national poll. The Elis moved as high as No. 5 in both polls last March.

CONFERENCE PICKS YALE

The Bulldogs, defending ECAC Hockey regular-season and tournament champions and 2009 NCAA Tournament participant, have been picked to finish first in both the ECAC Hockey Coaches' Preseason Poll and the ECAC Hockey Writers and Broadcasters Association (ECACHWBA) Preseason Poll. Yale, predicted to finish atop the ECAC Hockey standings for the first time, received 15 of 25 first-place votes and earned 278 points in the writers' poll. The Blue had seven of the 12 first-place votes in the coaches' poll. The highest prediction for a Yale squad prior to this season was fifth in 2003.

2009-10 SCHEDULE

Date Opponent Time

Oct.. 31 @ Princeton 5-2, W

Nov. 6 @ Rensselaer* 7:00

Nov. 7 @ Union* 7:00

Nov. 13 CORNELL* 7:00

Nov. 14 COLGATE* 7:00

Nov. 19 MASSACHUSETTS 7:00

Nov. 21 @ Brown* 7:00

Nov. 24 SACRED HEART 7:00

Nov. 28 @Holy Cross 3:00

Nov. 30 @Vermont 7:00

Dec. 4 QUINNIPIAC* 7:00

Dec. 5 PRINCETON* 4:00

Badger Hockey Showdown, University of Wisconsin

Jan. 2 Ferris St. 4:00

Jan. 3 vs. Wisconsin or Merrimack 4/7:00

Jan. 10 @ Dartmouth* 4:00

Jan. 12 @ Harvard* 7:00

Jan. 16 BROWN* 7:30

Jan. 22 @ Clarkson* 7:00

Jan. 23 @ St. Lawrence* 4:00

Jan. 29 UNION* 7:00

Jan. 30 RENSSELAER* 7:00

Feb. 5 DARTMOUTH* 7:00

Feb. 6 HARVARD* 4:00

Feb. 12 @ Colgate* 7:00

Feb. 13 @ Cornell* 7:00

Feb. 19 ST. LAWRENCE* 7:00

Feb. 20 CLARKSON* 7:00

Feb. 26 @Princeton* 7:00

Feb. 27 @Quinninpiac* 7:00

Mar. 5-7 ECAC 1st Round Playoffs (campus)

Mar. 12-14 ECAC 2nd Round Playoffs (campus)

Mar. 19-20 ECAC Championship (Albany, N.Y.)

Mar. 26-27 NCAA REGIONALS

Apr. 8-10 NCAA Frozen Four (Detroit, Mich.)

* ECAC Hockey Games