Win Streak Ends at 3

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale men's hockey team shot pucks off pipes, sticks and bodies tonight, but it could not get enough to hit the net as its win streak ended at three games after a 3-1 loss to defending national champion Union before a full house at Ingalls Rink.

The Dutchmen (9-6-1, 3-4-1 ECAC) had the edge in shots and had one more power play than the Bulldogs (6-3-2, 4-3-1), but the game came down to which team could take advantage of openings. Union was afforded a few in a short span and scored twice late in the second and once early in the third.

Yale, which got two points on the weekend, had 27 saves from Alex Lyon, who stopped all three Union power plays.

The battle of the NCAA's last two national champions was a defensive struggle for almost all of the first two periods.  Lyon did have to make a number of quality saves to keep the game scoreless, including a shot by Matt Wilkins midway through the first period that the Eli netminder had to swipe out of the air with his glove.

Lyon was also getting plenty of help from his teammates with blocked shots and Yale sticks put in Union passing lanes. In fact, the Dutchmen had two straight man-advantages in the second and only got one shot to the goalie.

The same was happening at the other end with Union backup goalie Alex Sakellaropoulos, who finished the game with 28 saves.

The scoreless streak ended with 1:23 left when the Dutchmen converted a turnover at the Yale blueline. The visitors did it again 40 seconds later to make it 2-0 heading to the third.

It became 3-0 before the Bulldogs finally cracked the egg. Matt Killian carried into the Union end and then sent a pass back for Tommy Fallen. The captain fired a shot off the pads of the goalie and the puck bounced out for sophomore Chris Izmirlian, who was skating in his second game this season. He quickly pounced on the rebound and smacked it home at 2:07.

There were plenty of chances for the home team to get back in the game, but Union survived all the close calls. One of those nearly cut the lead to one with nine minutes left when Carson Cooper caused a turnover and then fired off the pipe from 15 feet away.

BULLDOG BITES

Union won the first 11 face-offs and was up 15-2 at the end of the first. However, Yale had the overall advantage 32-28… There was a change on the scoring of Friday night's first goal. Tommy Fallen took the shot and was credited with the goal, but it was later determined that the shot hit Trent Ruffolo's body before hitting the net near the end of the first period. The change was made on Saturday… The Bulldogs are off until the Russian Red Stars come to town on Dec. 27.

Report filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director