Box Score Bulldogs Blank Tigers, Take 2nd in ECAC
PRINCETON, N.J. – The team with the nation's top defense had a big scoring night that won it an Ivy League Championship and secured second place in ECAC Hockey. No. 7 Yale ran the nation's longest active win streak to eight games with a 6-0 thrashing of Princeton in front of a near full house at Hobey Baker Rink.
The Bulldogs (19-5-4, 14-4-3 ECAC), enjoying their longest win streak since 2010-11, equaled their season-high in goals with ferocious play at both ends of the rink. With hardware on the line, this group of dogs played like Princeton was wearing milk-bone jerseys. The shots were an eye-popping 50-20.
The Elis had two goals from Stu Wilson while JM Piotrowski, Rob O'Gara, Henry Hart and Carson Cooper also found the cage.
The Ancient Eight title, Yale's seventh under Keith Allain, the Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach, is the third for the Elis in the last four years.
The first-period shots were pretty close at 13-10 Yale, but it was inconsequential because the Bulldogs fore-checked, cycled the puck and passed it around as well as any period all year while pumping out a season-high four goals. However, there were some early scary moments.
"We knew they would come out hard and we got a quick awakening," said O'Gara about the first period. "We weathered the storm, we were all in and were ready."
Chris Izmirlian, who had his hand on three of the four tallies in the opening frame, started things with a pass to Hart, who then got it to JM Piotrowski for a shot on target. The freshman forward followed up his shot and had the goalie down while standing on the edge of the circle. He flicked it over Colton Phinney at 4:52 for his third goal.
To say the Bulldogs were buzzing was an understatement. Less than three minutes later, Izmirlian carried over the Princeton blueline and dropped it for O'Gara. The All-American defenseman took a few strides and then rifled a slapshot over Phinney's shoulder for his third tally of the season.
Izmirlian was at it again less than three minutes after. This time he set up a goal that made the Yale bench erupt in celebration. Hart had the puck behind the net and skated out on his backhand side. He gave a shoulder fake and waited a second before sending the cylinder top shelf for his first career goal. Piotrowski grabbed the puck off the ice and skated it over to the bench as a piece of memorabilia.
"JM [Piotrowski] and Chris [Izmirlian] were able to force a great turnover with a good fore-check, JM was able to sell a good fake, which took two defenders to him, and drop it to me behind the net, where I had a clear lane out front," said Hart. "All I had to do was take it to the net and jam it in."
The visitors continued the opening-period onslaught, this time with a man advantage. It came on a pretty, tic-tack-toe tally that went high to low and then immediately over for a one-timer off the stick of Cooper at 13:29. Cooper's power-play goal was the result of an unselfish play by Mike Doherty, who saw his teammate open on the opposite side.
Princeton jumped out of the locker room with added pace and determination in the second, but the Elis quickly turned off their momentum while also drawing a five-minute advantage when Izmirlian was hit in the head after taking a shot.
Joe Snively connected with Wilson, who found the net from the low slot midway through the second to make it 5-0 and notch Yale's second power-play goal of the night. It was Wilson's seventh this season. He added another in the third, one of 21 shots on target in the period.
That early growl from the Tigers became a meow. The Blue outshot the orange and black 16-4.
An All-American goalie is a great thing to have behind you, but puck control can be almost as effective at times. Alex Lyon may have only made 20 saves, but a number of them came with Princeton skaters coming in alone or with defenders taking the second man. Yale's king of the jungle, who recorded his fifth shutout of the year (15th career), enables his defensemen to do things like that.
As mentioned earlier, most of those great Princeton chances came in the first period.
"Alex made some huge saves in the first period," said Allain, whose Bulldogs take on No. 1 Quinnipiac tomorrow night at Hamden. "We played our best defense in the third period, which speaks to the character of this team."
BULLDOG BITES
Yale played Princeton in the season opener at Trenton, midway through the season at New Haven and here on the last weekend of the regular season… Ryan Obuchowski played in his 130th game tonight, which is 10th on the school's career list… Freshman Ted Hart, who had been out with an injury, returned to the lineup… Tickets are available for the March 11-13 ECAC Quarterfinal Series at the Whale; call 203.432.1400 to order.
Filed by Steve Conn, Yale Associate AD & Sports Publicity Director… steven.conn@yale.edu
Carson Cooper image by Jashvina Shah (CHN)
