Bulldogs Lose 4-3 in ECACs

NEW HAVEN, Conn. –  The Bulldogs are hoping the best-of-three ECAC Quarterfinal series goes to three games after Connor Yau scored at 17:14 of overtime to give Dartmouth a 4-3 win over the No. 7 ranked Yale.

His fluttering shot from the top of the left circle found its way into the upper corner of the net to put the Big Green up 1-0 in the series. Game two is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, with a finale on Sunday at 5 p.m. if needed.

The Bulldogs (19-7-4) outshot Dartmouth 51-40 and got goals from Frankie DiChiara, Rob O'Gara and John Hayden. Goalie Alex Lyon had 36 saves, many of which were quality stops.

"I think that if we expect to win in the playoffs, we are going to have to defend a lot better than we defended. We're going to have protect the puck way better than we protected the puck," said Keith Allain 80, Yale's Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach. "We're going to need to do that tomorrow night."

The home team had the edge in shots and quality chances in a scoreless opening period. The best of the opportunities was a blueline to blueline pass that sent Joe Snively in alone on Charles Grant (48 saves). The freshman forward's snapshot clipped the goalie's shoulder and sailed off the glass. That was one of seven shots on goal for Snively.

Lyon also had to stop a breakaway, but that came eight minutes into the second when Corey Kalk turned a turnover into a scoring chance. The Yale netminder knocked away the attempt.

The visitors would get another chance four minutes later, and this time they cashed it in to take a 1-0 lead.

The Bulldogs had five more shots on target than the Big Green in both the first and second periods. The middle period included another bunch of grade-A situations, a few of them very close calls. Two of them were O'Gara one-timers. One came in the left circle, the other in the slot.

The bubbles – also known as Lyon and Grant - enclosing the nets for the first 40 minutes, lost some air in the third period. Five pucks found the net, two for Dartmouth and three for Yale, which never had the lead.

The Elis tied it up 1-1 just 28 seconds into the third. Cody Learned stopped a Dartmouth clearing attempt with his body, dropped the puck at his feet and then sent a slap shot pass on the ice to the slot for DiChiara. The junior forward accepted the feed, spun around and then sent a low shot on the ice through the goalie's legs.

"They came out and you can tell they [Dartmouth] were at playoff pace, and we had a little time off. I think we started skating like we needed to in the second, and we weren't playing our A-game. We didn't deserve to win that game," said O'Gara.

After the Big Green grabbed its second lead, O'Gara got the call for the next equalizer. Ryan Hitchcock sent the puck up the ice out of his own end for Ted Hart, who brought it over the blueline to the middle of the ice. He lost control of it, but the senior blueliner was coming quickly. O'Gara swooped in to win the puck and snapped off a shot that sailed over Grant's shoulder at 9:21.

Dartmouth proceeded to take another lead three minutes later. Five minutes after that, down 3-2, it was Hayden's turn to tie it up for a third time. The puck went around the boards behind the net and went from Stu Wilson to Snively. That's when the Ivy League Rookie of the Year found a hole to get a pass through in the slot. Hayden took it at his feet, moved the puck from backhand to forehand, and then fired a shot two feet off the ice that zipped inside the far post 2:36 left in regulation.

The Blue had plenty of chances in the extra session, outshooting the Big Green 13-6 and coming close to winning it a few times. Yale also had a power play early on but could not get enough pucks on net to take advantage.

"I felt that we had momentum [going into overtime]. I felt that we controlled the play in overtime, but I still don't feel we played a great game, so you put yourself in a position where these kind of things can happen to you," said Allain.

BULLDOG BITES

Tickets are available for Saturday night's game and can be purchased at Ingalls after 5:30... Stu Wilson is not the only one in his family who has a conference hockey playoff series this weekend. His father, Wayne, is coaching RIT at Mercyhurst in the Atlantic Conference Tournament (RIT won 2-1 in game one)… Kenny Agostino '14 was called up to the Calgary Flames this morning; it's his second stint with the big club but his first recall from the AHL. Agostino, who will wear No. 51 tonight in the Saddle Dome against Arizona, played for the Flames immediately after leaving Yale… Andrew Miller '13 was traded this week from the Oilers to the Hurricanes and is playing for AHL Charlotte Checkers.

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