Yale Clicks For 60 Minutes

TRENTON, NJ – The team that dominates puck possession and gets the majority of the shots doesn't always win the hockey game. Tonight that dominating squad was the victor, though it took almost the entire game to separate the teams on the scoreboard.

Mike Doherty, John Hayden and Chris Izmirlian scored goals and Alex Lyon made 28 saves as the Yale men's hockey team opened the 2015-16 season with a 3-1 win at the Capital City Classic.

The Bulldogs will take on UMass for the championship on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

The Elis outshot the Tigers 44-29 while winning most of the battles, applying a ferocious fore-check and putting bodies on white shirts all night. The Blue, which did not appear to be skating in their first game of the season, moved the puck at times as if their line combinations had been together for years.

"It was a hard-fought victory, as most will be this year," said Keith Allain '80, Yale's Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach.

The first goal of the season came from the Bulldog who led the team in goals last winter, Doherty. The junior winger found a loose puck along the edge of the crease just 66 seconds into the game and poked it across the goal line.  Freshman forward Andrew Gaus picked up an assist on the play.

The Tigers got the equalizer on a fluky goal 22 seconds later, and that was it for scoring until the closing minutes of the game.

Yale, outshot 16-12 over the first 20 minutes, got 15 saves from Lyon, including a number of grade A stops. The Elis, winning many of the puck battles and playing their typical up-tempo style, clearly had more quality chances but couldn't get another past Colton Phinney.

The Blue turned it up a notch or two in the second and peppered the Princeton net with rubber to the tune of 19 shots on target while only allowing five. However, none of those shots found the net. That included a pair of power plays.

Lyon, who made a number of significant stops with the game in the balance, had his most impressive one in the third with 8:38 left. It was a nifty kick save off a faceoff with the puck heading for the lower corner of the net.

Yale took the lead again with 3:04 left on great efforts by rookie Joe Snively and Izmirlian. Snively raced in over the Princeton blueline with three Tigers all over him. He had the puck taken away momentarily but won it back and raced around the net while spotting Izmirlian coming to the high slot. The freshman sent a pass to that area, but the puck was rolling on its side. It didn't matter to Izmirlian, who wound up and blasted a low shot past Phinney for the winner.

Hayden, who added an empty-netter with 25.9 seconds left, made sure the Elis would play the Minutemen in the finale on Halloween with a shot from center ice that split a pair of defenders.

"We stuck with the game plan for a full 60 minutes, and I think we wore them down," said Allain.

BULLDOG BITES

Sophomore John Baiocco was a late replacement at center for Stu Wilson… Yale had five newcomers in the lineup tonight: forwards Joe Snively, Andrew Gaus and JM Piotrowki and defensemen Anthony Walsh and Charlie Curti… In the first game of the night, UMass beat Maine 5-4 in OT on a shot that bounced off the leg of a Black Bear defenseman… The extra time in game one pushed the start time of the nightcap to 7:50… Saturday night's game airs live on the Ivy League Digital Network.

filed by Steve Conn, Yale Associate AD & Sports Publicity Director

Doherty image by Michael Kurman