Box Score NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's ice hockey team had the lead on No. 6 Clarkson twice Friday night at Ingalls Rink -- but the Golden Knights came up with the comebacks that they needed and scored the final four goals of the game for a 5-2 win. Freshman forward Jordan Chancellor and junior forward Krista Yip-Chuck scored Yale's goals, and junior goalkeeper Hanna Mandl made 34 saves.
The game got off to a good start for the Bulldogs just 2:59 in, as senior captain Janelle Ferrara got a puck off the boards and over to senior forward Jamie Haddad in between the circles. Haddad attempted a one-timer and the puck ping-ponged off a couple players before she was able to get it back and feed it over to Yip-Chuck for a goal that put Yale up 1-0.
Less than six minutes later Clarkson (16-3-2, 4-3-2 ECAC Hockey) got the equalizer, as forward Cayley Mercer -- one of three Golden Knights who just returned from winning gold medals with Canada's National Women's Development Team at the Nations Cup in Germany this week -- beat Mandl on her blocker side with a backhander at 8:50. After Clarkson killed off a Yale power play late in the first, the teams headed into the second deadlocked 1-1.
The game continued to be a defensive struggle well into the second period, and it was the Bulldogs who finally broke the stalemate at the 11:01 mark. Ferrara got the puck to Chancellor in the neutral zone, and Chancellor set up sophomore Mallory Souliotis -- playing forward instead of her usual defense -- for a wrister. Clarkson goalie Shea Tiley made the save, but Chancellor scored on the rebound to give Yale a 2-1 lead.
This time it took just over two minutes for Clarkson to answer. Forward Lauren Lefler left a pass for forward Rhyen McGill deep in the Yale zone, and she got it to a wide-open forward Katelyn Fournier for the goal at 13:04 of the second.
The Golden Knights then kept momentum on their side with the go-ahead goal 2:30 later, as a backhand pass from forward Olivia Howe deep in the Clarkson zone found Mercer in the neutral zone for a breakaway that she converted into her 17th goal of the season. After killing off another penalty late in the period, Clarkson skated into the third with a 3-2 lead.
Mandl made a spectacular kick save with her left leg to deny Lefler midway through the third, keeping the Bulldogs in the game. But a pair of Clarkson goals in a span of 34 seconds -- by McGill at 13:50 and forward Shannon MacAulay at 14:24 -- put the game out of reach. The traditionally tough Clarkson defense (ranked No. 5 in the nation entering the game) allowed Yale just one shot on goal in the third, helping seal the 5-2 win. Tiley finished with 12 saves.
This was Yale's third straight game against a nationally ranked team -- and the Bulldogs played all of them without junior forward Phoebe Staenz, who is tied for the team lead in goals with six, because she was playing for her native Switzerland at the Nations Cup in Germany this week.
Yale (4-11-1, 3-5-1 ECAC Hockey) hosts St. Lawrence Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
Report by Sam Rubin '95 (sam.rubin@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity
