Box Score Yale Beats No. 6 Colgate
HAMILTON, N.Y. – Yale's first matchup against a nationally ranked team went the way of the Bulldogs. Despite playing its fourth straight game on the road, Alex Lyon stopped 28 of 29 shots as the Yale men's hockey team skated past No. 6 Colgate 3-1 at Starr Rink.
Lyon made 11 saves in the first, six in the second and another 11 in the third to earn his fourth win of the season. He got plenty of help from the Yale defense while the Elis were assisting on the other end, outshooting the Raiders 41-29.
The Bulldogs (4-2-2, 3-2-1 ECAC) got goals from three different players and points from four others on the way to splitting the New York road trip and bringing two points back to New Haven.
Colgate (9-4-1, 3-2-1), coming off an OT win last night against Brown, could not get the puck past Lyon on five advantages. Meanwhile, the home team put a rookie between its own pipes.
Zac Hamilton, in his collegiate starting debut, stopped the first 17 shots he saw through the first 19:59 of the game. However, the 18th shot came as time expired in the opening period and it found the back of the net.
After a Colgate icing call put a face-off in the home end, John Hayden won the draw and got the puck back to the point for one last chance. Defenseman Rob O'Gara was prepared to wind up and let it go. His slap shot sailed past the goalie's glove to give the Blue a 1-0 lead with less than a second remaining.
"[John] Hayden won the face-off really clean and [Mike] Doherty set a great screen. I just wanted to get the puck on net with a few seconds left in the period and was lucky enough it went in," said O'Gara.
The Bulldogs, who had a 32-17 advantage in shots through 40 minutes, used one of those pucks on target to bump the lead to 2-0 with just over two minutes left in the second.
Trent Ruffolo, seeing his first action of the season this weekend, passed to Matthew Beattie, who put the puck in the slot for freshman John Baiocco. The rookie forward put it on his backhand and slipped it past Hamilton for his first collegiate tally. All three Bulldogs earned their first points of the season on that scoring play.
"It was an incredible feeling. One that I'll definitely never forget, but I was even more excited that we were able to hold out for the win and get two points out of the weekend," said Baiocco.
The Raiders cut the lead in half with 6:16 left on a rebound, 4-on-4 tally, but that's as close as they would come to getting even.
The Blue took advantage of an empty net with under a minutes left to add an insurance score and put it away.
Carson Cooper cleared the puck out of the zone in hopes his teammate, Cody Learned, would win the race to it and get a shot off. The junior forward got to it first and skated over the blueline before silencing the crowd with a shot that slid into the cage with 12 seconds left.
"It was great to bounce back and get the two points tonight," said O'Gara. "It was a real team effort, top to bottom. Any time you win against a ranked opponent like that, especially in your league, it's a big deal. We definitely look to build on this win in the coming weeks before Christmas break."
Yale, which will finish the first half of the season with three straight games at the Whale, is home next Saturday night at 7 to face RIT. Tickets are available.
filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director
