Bulldogs Earn 3-2 Win Over UMass

AMHERST, Mass. – John Hayden has five goals in his last three games, but none was more important than his tally with 1:47 left in overtime that gave the No. 12 Yale hockey team a 3-2 win over UMass at the Mullins Center.

The Bulldogs (7-4-2), who beat the Hockey East squad for a second time this season, saw its two-goal lead disappear before Hayden's second goal of the night gave his team a second straight victory.

The Elis had a power-play opportunity early in OT and nearly ended it when defenseman Rob O'Gara fired a shot off the crossbar. The senior was coming to the bench after the advantage and got his stick on the puck along the boards. Freshman Joe Snively quickly took it from there and sent it to the middle of the ice for Hayden.

"Whenever Joe [Snively] has the puck, I know I've got to drive the middle," said Hayden, who never saw the puck go in the net. "I expect that pass from Joe. His skill set is incredible. The second it hit my stick I knew I had to get a shot off right away."

The shot was taken from the right circle and went five-hole on Alex Wakaluk.

"O'Gara found me on the blueline quickly on transition and I saw Hayden driving hard behind their D. Hayden did a great job of getting open and buried it," said Snively, who leads the team with 12 points.

Yale, which outshot UMass 38-18, scored twice in the second and was dominating play the entire way.

The Bulldogs had plenty of great opportunities to get on the board early tonight, including a brief 5-on-3 and some other grade-A chances. Many of the close calls came from Yale skaters stepping in front of UMass passes and firing away at Wakaluk, who made 14 saves in the first.

The same kind of stinginess was not required by Alex Lyon (16 saves), but the Eli netminder still had his share of quality stops. He made a challenging stop on a one-timer during a penalty kill and another excellent one through a screen late in the period. He finished with seven saves in the opening frame.

The second period was much of the same great play by the Blue, winning the small battles while buzzing with a relentless fore-check and opportunistic anticipation. The only difference from the first 20 minutes was goal scoring.

Yale broke through 4:21 into the second on a pretty Ted Hart deflection, his first collegiate tally. UMass attempted to clear its defensive zone along the right wall, but Frankie DiChiara grabbed it and threw it out to Nate Repensky at the point. As the sophomore blueliner was about to fire a low slap shot, Hart was battling for position on the inner edge of the right circle. The rookie right wing got his stick on the shot and sent it over the goalie's shoulder.

The visitors found the net again a little more than three minutes later on the advantage when Stu Wilson made a nifty, lateral move through some Minutemen before Hayden finished the play with his team-best seventh goal of the season. Wilson, the senior forward who got the puck after Joe Snively poked it toward him, stick handled from the right boards into the low slot and then left it for Hayden to bang home with authority.

"Hayds [Hayden] started playing better when his game got more physical," said Keith Allain '80, Yale's Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach. "After he established a physical presence, he started scoring more."

Yale outshot UMass 15-6 in the second, but the home team notched a power play tally early in the third to cut the lead in half. They would get another advantage a few minutes later with a chance to even things, but Lyon robbed Shane Walsh with an outstanding point-blank glove save when the UMass forward came in alone in the slot.

The Eli penalty-kill got most of the work late in the game as UMass got the equalizer shortly after Yale killed an advantage. The goal was scored on a delayed penalty, and the Blue had to win more battles to kill off the momentum shift.

"They came at us in the third," said Allain. "We took four minor penalties in the third period. we generally don't take four penalties in a game. We need to play better than that"

Senior forward Charles Orzetti helped Yale snatch the momentum back when he skated over the blueline and was tripped to draw the OT power play.

BULLDOG BITES

Yale sophomore forward Ryan Hitchcock helped Team USA to a bronze medal at the IIHF World Juniors in Finland this week. The U.S. team beat Sweden, which had Minutemen defenseman William Lagesson on its roster, 8-3 on Tuesday to grab third place… The Bulldogs head to Arizona early on Thursday to play in the Jan. 8-10 Desert Hockey Classic… A former Bulldog and an ex-UMass skater are teammates in San Diego for the AHL Gulls. Antoine Laganiere '13 and Brandon Montour… The Mullins Center ice is 10 feet wider than Ingalls.

Filed by Steve Conn, Yale Associate AD & Sports Publicity Director – steven.conn@yale.edu