Yale to Face UConn Sunday in Championship

NEWARK, NJ. – Ryan Hitchcock's shoot-out goal on the third and final attempt against Princeton advanced the Yale men's hockey to the championship game of the Liberty Hockey Invitational at the Prudential Center.

The two teams actually skated to a 2-2 OT tie, but tournament rules call for a shoot-out to make a 4 p.m. Sunday championship game pairing with Connecticut, also a shoot-out winner in game one tonight. It was the season opener for both the Bulldogs and Tigers.

Bulldog sophomore goalie Alex Lyon turned aside all three Princeton shoot-out chances before Hitchcock nailed the winner. It was the only tally of the extra session. Lyon, who finished with 35 saves, had many top-notch stops over the 65 minutes and three solo situations.

"It's a pretty good feeling," said Hitchcock, the rookie, about his shoot-out plan. "It's the kind of move I've been working on for the last year."

The Bulldog newcomer also assisted on the game's first goal. "I'm playing with two (Frankie DiChiara, John Hayden) really good players who have been mentors for me," said Hitchcock, who heard Yale head coach Keith Allain call his name third for the shoot-out.

The score was knotted at 1-1 after the first 20 minutes, which included 25 shots on goal and three power-play chances.

"I thought we played ok in the first period and got better as the game went on," said Allain, whose squad outshot Princeton 47-37. "There was a lot to like out there."

Yale got on the board first with a John Hayden power-play tally at 9:57. Hitchcock, playing the point, moved the puck to the right circle for Frankie DiChiara, who one-timed it to the slot for Hayden. The sophomore forward stopped the pass with a defender while a defender tried to push him away and then Hayden, who notched his seventh career goal, slapped at it with his backhand into the back of the cage.

The Tigers answered at 11:25 and took a 14-11 shots advantage into intermission.

The Bulldogs amped it up a notch or two in the second and fired 27 shots on target, all of which were stopped by Colton Phinney. That included a bunch on 89 seconds of a two-man advantage at 7:01. The last time a Yale squad put something near that many shots on goal (25) in a period was the opening frame of the 2009 game at Dartmouth.

Princeton, outshot by 16 in that period, got the only goal at 17:23 on a rebound off a shot that bounced off the boards and into the slot.

The Elis broke through to tie the score midway through the third after killing off a two-man advantage by the Tigers. Mitch Witek grabbed the puck off a Yale fore-check at the point and passed to Hayden, who quickly moved it to Mike Doherty. The sophomore forward was moving toward the high slot when he controlled the puck and fired a wrist shot over Phinney's blocker.

Both teams came so close to taking the game in regulation, but the best chance for Yale was a power play for the last two minutes. It nearly backfired for the Blue when Tucker Brockett went in alone on a breakaway before Lyon squeezed his wrist shot between his pads. The Elis had a few more quality chances but could not come up with the winner.

Hayden had the best opportunity to win the game in the five-minute overtime when he had the puck 15 feet from the cage. Phinney came up with the stop to help send the contest to a shoot-out. Hayden, who led the team with two points, went first for Yale in the shoot-out and narrowly missed the target.

DiChiara, who followed two saves by Lyon, went second and barely missed on a kick save by Phinney.

Hitchcock came in slowly on Phinney, deked backhand and then flicked his shot over the goalie's blocker to set the Yale bench off in celebration.

"We have the opportunity to compete for a championship, which is what we want to do," said Allain. "I don't like shoot-outs, but we are in the good game on Sunday."

Bulldog Bites: Yale suited up four freshmen (Baiocco, Hart, Hitchcock, Larkin), three at forward mixed into three different lines… Yale had four New Jersey natives (Baiocco, Orzetti, Beattie, Killian) in the lineup… UConn defeated Merrimack in a shootout in game one. The official result was a 2-2 OT tie.

Filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director

Alex Lyon image by Beverly Schaefer