Box Score Lyon MVP, Scoring From Obuchowski, Doherty
BOSTON, Mass. – The inaugural recipient of the Tim Taylor Award for the most valuable player of the Yale-Harvard men's hockey game at Bright-Landry Center went to Alex Lyon. The Bulldogs' sophomore goalie stopped 33 of 34 shots to help Yale take a 2-1 win and knock its rival from the ranks of unbeaten.
Lyon, who was also named MVP of the Liberty Hockey Invitational on Nov. 2, came up with big saves every time Harvard had a grade-A scoring chance. He had double-digit saves in each period.
"It was a very gutsy performance tonight with so many guys out of the lineup. Everyone battled and contributed, it was great to see," said Lyon, referring to the fact that two regular forwards were unable to play.
The Taylor Cup is named after the 1963 Harvard graduate who spent 28 years behind the Yale bench and also coached at his alma mater before losing a long battle with cancer in 2013. A defensive-minded strategist, Coach Taylor would have been thrilled with the first two periods of scoreless hockey.
It was a battle of neutral ice with few scoring threats for a long stretch in the second. In fact, there were no shots on target for the last six minutes. That changed in the third. Steve Michalek needed three saves in first three minutes of final frame to retain the scoreless tie.
At the other end, Mitch Witek had to use his body to block a good scoring chance for Jimmy Vesey with 14 minutes left.
Yale (3-1-1) broke through at 6:48 of the third period on a shot from a blueliner. Forward Cody Learned passed to Mike Doherty, who went over the blueline and left it for defenseman Ryan Obuchowski at the top of the right circle. The junior left shot from Michigan moved to right of the dot, turned slightly and fired a low wrister under Michalek's glove arm.
"Doherty made an excellent play at the Harvard blueline to buy time and space for himself. He made a nice drop pass that gave me time to get my head up and get a good shot off," said Obuchowski, who notched his first goal of the season and 10th of his career. "It's always an amazing feeling scoring a goal in college hockey, but we knew it was coming as long as we stuck with the game plan that coach set out for us and got pucks to the net. We knew one would go in, and I was fortunate mine went in to give us the lead."
Harvard (3-1-1) pulled its goalie with 65 seconds left and immediately got a face-off in the Yale end. The home even won the draw, but things went bad from there. An errant pass back to the point went to center ice where Doherty won the race and zipped toward the open net. When he got to the Harvard blueline, a defender dove at his feet but Doherty still sent the puck into the cage.
Thirty-nine seconds later, the Crimson got one back to make it 2-1 with 17.6 ticks on the clock. They also got a break when Carson Cooper was called for an intentional hand pass to give Harvard two-extra skaters with Michalek out of the net.
Harvard, one of three Division I unbeaten teams heading into the night, got confirmation on its first loss when the Bulldogs cleared the puck a few seconds after the face-off in the Yale end.
The Bulldogs head back to New Haven tonight and are back on the road next weekend at Cornell and Colgate in a pair of ECAC contests. The next Yale home game is Nov. 29 against RIT.
Filed by Steven Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director
