Box Score LAST REGULAR SEASON ROAD TRIP
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The Yale men's hockey team, 4-1-1 over its last six games and heading into the final two weekends of the regular season, concludes the 2013-14 road schedule with two important ECAC contests. Friday night at Hamden's High Point Solutions Arena it's a battle of first and third-place teams as the Bulldogs take on Quinnipiac in a game airing live on SNY and TSN. Then the Elis play Ancient Eight rival Princeton on Saturday at Hobey Baker Rink. Both face-offs are set for 7 p.m.
YALE
The Bulldogs, No. 14 in the Pairwise, enter the weekend alone in third place after registering their third (2nd on road) conference weekend sweep. The Elis are in contention for an NCAA bid primarily because they are the least scored on (1.56) and penalized (6.4) team in Division I. Sophomore Mike Doherty leads the Blue with 11 goals and 18 points, while classmate John Hayden is next with 17 points. Another member of the class, goalie Alex Lyon, tops Division I in goals against (1.59) and is third in save percentage (.940).
QUINNIPIAC
The Bobcats, 9-0-1 in their last 10 conference games, have clinched a first-round conference playoff bye. After sweeping SLU and Clarkson at home last week, Quinnipiac has a six-point lead on St. Lawrence with eight points on the table. The school that sits in a three-way tie (BC, Providence) for No. 10 in the Pairwise is the first ECAC school to get 20 wins this year.
PRINCETON
The Tigers might be a long shot for home ice in the first round of the playoffs, but Princeton played like it might be in line for a bye last weekend. At Baker Rink, the Tigers beat Clarkson and then tied St. Lawrence. Colton Phinney, the ECAC Goalie of the Week, stopped 28 of 29 shots and Tucker Brockett got the game-winner (2-1) against the Knights. Phinney had 34 saves in the 1-1 tie with the Saints.
ECAC
With two weekends left in the regular season, there are few givens in the standings. For example, Yale can finish anywhere between second and eighth. Four points separate the third-place Bulldogs and seventh-place Clarkson/Colgate. ECAC Hockey, which hosts its championship weekend at Lake Placid, is looking for a third straight NCAA Champion in 2015.
SERIES NOTES
Yale has a 139-102-10 lead on Princeton in a series that began in 1899. The Elis are 8-0-1 over the last nine... Quinnipiac has a 13-6-4 lead in the series with Yale. The last Eli victory was the 4-0 game in the 2013 national championship. The Bobcats are 3-1-2 over the last six.
LAST MEETINGS
Carson Cooper and Ryan Obuchowski scored goals and Alex Lyon made 29 saves, including four in overtime, as Yale and Quinnipiac skated to a 2-2 tie last month at the Whale. Frankie DiChiara and Nate Repensky had two-point nights and Lyon made 31 saves in Yale's 4-0 win over Princeton at New Haven on Jan. 30. The two teams opened up the season with a 2-2 tie at the Liberty Hockey Invitational.
FRIDAY SHO LEADERS
The battle of New Haven County features two goalies who own their school's career shutout record and are currently among the national leaders in goals against and save percentage. Yale's Alex Lyon and Quinnipiac's Michael Gartieg each have five shutouts this season while the Bulldog sophomore has eight overall and the Bobcat junior has 11.
SATURDAY'S IVY IMPACT
Saturday's game is Yale's second to last against Ivy competition. Dartmouth (13 pts, 9 gp) has a one-point lead and one more game over Yale in the Ivy standings. The Bulldogs have two (Princeton, Cornell) contests left while the Big Green plays Princeton on Feb. 27. The Elis have won 11 Ancient Eight titles since the first in 1981.
SWEEP OF CAPITAL DISTRICT
Alex Lyon stopped 49 of 50 shots as the Blue beat Union (2-0) last Friday before taking a 4-1 decision at RPI on Saturday. Mike Doherty, who had the winner at Schenectady, led the Elis with two goals and three points in the set while Nate Repensky added three assists. The Bulldogs handed the Dutchmen their first shutout in 98 games.
CLOSE CALLS
Ten of Yale's 25 games have been decided by a goal or less and the Elis are 3-4-3 in those contests. Two of the three wins were by 2-1 scores (exhibition win over the Red Stars was also a 2-1), while three of the four losses were 3-2. All three ties were 2-2.
RANKED
Yale is 4-0-1 vs. ranked (polls) teams, including a pair of 3-1 wins (at Colgate and home against Vermont) and two wins over Harvard. The tie was a 2-2 decision against Quinnipiac.
BULLDOG BITES
Yale is 14-2-2 when scoring the first goal… The Blue has been outshooting opponents 33-26 on average… Yale's never won a game its trailed entering the third and never lost one it has led… The Elis are 4-1 when getting at least two PPG… The Bulldogs have outshot their last four opponents. You have to go back five games (Quinnipiac, 31-31) to find a team that did not get outshot… Nine of Yale's 11 home games have reached attendance capacity (3,500).
DID YOU KNOW
There are 15 right-handed shots and 10 lefties among the 25 Eli skaters… Stu Wilson's dad, Wayne Wilson, is the head men's hockey coach at RIT… There are three firsts on the Yale roster: Norwegian (Weberg), Floridian (Trent Ruffolo) and North Carolinian (Connor Wilson)… Mike Doherty's father, Michael Doherty, is Deputy Chief of the City of Boston Fire Department… Frankie DiChiara's father, Ernest, is a former Connecticut State ADFPA Powerlifting Champion.
BLUELINE
The regular six on defense for Yale includes a senior (Tommy Fallen), three juniors (Rob O'Gara, Ryan Obuchowski, Mitch Witek) and two freshmen (Adam Larkin, Nate Repensky). They have combined for 12 goals and 48 points. Fallen is the team captain who has played 130 career games. O'Gara is a Boston Bruins draft pick and the team's top scoring blueliner this season with 4-7-11. Obuchowski was an ECAC All-Rookie Team pick in 2012-13, while Witek has been a solid performer for three seasons. Larkin has played in every game. Repensky is second among rookies with 10 points.
HAYDEN
John Hayden, alternate captain for the U.S. National Junior Team at the IIHF World Junior Championships, gets much of his inspiration from the memory of former HoneyBaked (AAA Club) teammate, the late Ian Jenkins, a goalie whose motto was "Have a Purpose" (HAP). Hayden and others are currently organizing fundraising events to raise money for the Big "E" Have a Purpose Foundation. The Greenwich, Conn., native, a third round draft pick by the Chicago Blackhawks wore a HAP 35 sticker on his helmet when he was with the U.S. National Development Program. He has plenty of Team USA experience, including winning a silver medal at the 2013 IIHF U-18 World Championships in Sochi, Russia. Hayden tops Yale in average points per game this season.
LYON
Yale goalie Alex Lyon (1.59. .940) owns Yale's career record for shutouts with eight after a 2-0 win at Union on Feb. 13. That may have been the most significant SHO of his career because it ended the Dutchmen's goal-scoring streak at 98 games. He is tops among Division I netminders in GAA and is third in SP. Lyon has four awards this season and is a finalist for the Walter Brown Award. He began the 2014-15 season by stopping 67 of 70 shots and earning tournament MVP honors at the Liberty Hockey Invitational. Lyon, who stopped 33 shots in a 2-1 win, earned the Tim Taylor Cup as the MVP of the Nov. 15 Yale-Harvard game. Lyon was named the ECAC Goalie of the Week on Nov. 17 and on Feb. 2. The latest came after stopping 60 of 62 shots combined in a 4-0 win over Princeton and a 2-2 tie with Quinnipiac. The Bulldog sophomore had a bit of a culture shock when coming to New Haven after growing up in rural, Northern Minnesota, where his family is in the resort and ice fishing business. Lyon, who began schooling in a one-room house, currently lives in Lake of the Woods, Minn. Ice fishing wasn't the only winter activity they did on the water. When he was in ninth grade, his high school hockey team played a game on Baudette Bay.
SPANO
Sophomore goalie Patrick Spano improved his career record to 4-0 by stopping all 21 shots, including 10 in the third period, in a 2-0 win over RIT on Nov. 29. It was Yale's first shutout since last March in the ECAC playoffs. The start against the Tigers was the first for Spano (1.01, .947) since game five of last season and his fourth overall.
CAPTAIN
Senior defenseman Tommy Fallen was named captain last spring and is Yale's active career leader in games played (130), goals (19), assists (47) and points (66). His 19 goals are fourth on the Yale career defenseman list. Fallen earned honorable mention All-Ivy League status in 2012-13 and was the Bulldogs' rookie of the year in 2011-12. Fallen, who had seven goals and 16 points last winter, had three multiple-goal games while skating in every contest. He led all Eli defensemen with seven goals and 23 points during the national championship season in 2012-13. The Plymouth, Minn., native was the top scorer among the Yale newcomers with four goals and 20 points in 2011-12. Fallen's father, Bob, is the president and commissioner of the United States Hockey League.
GEOGRAPHIC BALANCE
The Yale roster includes players from 11 different states, two provinces and Norway. Six players represent Minnesota and there are five each from New Jersey and New York while Michigan has a pair. All-time Yale hockey rosters have included players from 29 different states.
BEFORE YALE
The United States Hockey League contributed 11 players to the Bulldog roster, the most by any league. Here is a breakdown.
USHL – 11... Prep/High School – 6... EJHL – 4... BCHL – 3... USNDT – 2... AJHL – 1... NAHL – 1
BY CLASS
The Bulldogs have seven seniors (10 goals), including four forwards, one defenseman, one who plays both, and a goalie. There are eight juniors (24 goals), eight sophomores (23 goals) and five newcomers (7).
FROSH
Three forwards and two defensemen, who came from the USHL, NAHL, the U.S. National Program and a New England Prep School, were added to the 2014-15 Bulldogs roster. There are two Minnesotans and one each from Long Island, New Jersey and Michigan.
POLLS, PAIRWISE
The only listing of teams that really matter is the uscho.com PairWise Rankings. The calculations involved in coming up with that list are the closest thing to the NCAA's method for selecting tournament teams. Yale is 14th heading into the weekend. As for the voting rankings, Yale was No. 13 in the uscho.com poll and No. 14 on the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine's top 15.
THE YALE ROSTER INCLUDES
The student-athletes on the Yale roster came to New Haven with the following accomplishments:
22 captained a hockey team
10 captained another team
14 won scholar-athlete awards
14 graduated in top 10%
7 National Honor Society members
NCAAs
Yale, 2013 Frozen Four Champions, has earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament four of the last six years, and played in three regional finals.
INGALLS
"Ice hockey has never had as provocative a setting as Yale's new $1.4 million David S. Ingalls Rink." That's how Sports Illustrated described the famous building also known as the Yale Whale in a 1959 article. And it's just as exciting today. Ingalls (3,500 capacity), re-dedicated on Jan. 16, 2010, was modernized and expanded during a multi-phase project. The original (1958) look remains, but 13,000 square feet of operational space was added along with numerous amenities.
FORMER CAPTAINS, AHL ALL-STARS
A pair of former Yale captains earned 2015 AHL All-Star status, but only one got to play in the skills event and all-star game. Brian O'Neill '12, among the league scoring leaders with 44 points at the time in Manchester, was selected for the all-star events but was unable to play because of an injury. Andrew Miller '13, a forward for Oklahoma City, was also selected and played for the Western Conference. Miller competed in the all-star skills competition and finished third overall in the "fastest skater" event. Miller, who led the Bulldogs to the 2013 national championship and was the Frozen Four MVP, and his Western squad came up 15-11 losers to the East.
BULLDOGS PLAYING PRO THIS WINTER
There are three current Bulldogs who have been drafted by NHL teams: Rob O'Gara (Boston), Matthew Beattie (Vancouver) and John Hayden (Chicago). Sixteen former Yale players are skating professionally this season including Vancouver Canucks forward Chris Higgins '05 and Mark Arcobello '10, who is currently with the Arizona Coyotes after playing with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Edmonton Oilers and Nashville Predators. Brian O'Neill '12, who is second in the AHL with 53 points in 45 games, was named league player of the month for December.
filed by Steven Conn, Yale Associate AD & Sports Publicity Director
Don Clark image
