Arcobello's Five-Point Day Leads Blue to Win
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Mark Arcobello had two goals and three assists as the Yale men's hockey team earned its first conference victory by defeating Colgate 6-4 before 2,844 in an ECAC matinee at Ingalls Rink.
The Bulldogs (2-2-2, 1-1-2 ECAC) were outshot by the Raiders (3-6-1, 0-3-1) 37-28 but took advantage of their grade-A scoring chances by erasing a 2-0 deficit and never trailing after that.
"We got off to a sluggish start and spotted them two goals before we started to skate," said Keith Allain '80 the Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey. "We used our speed and were able to turn the game."
Sophomore goalie Billy Blase, who had 11 saves in each period, stopped 33 of 37 shots to earn his second career victory.
Defenseman David Sloane put the visitors on the board first when he fired a shot from the point that was tipped home by Brian Day (6th goal) at 7:49. Blase never had a chance to stop the shot with the Colgate winger camped outside the crease.
Sloane fired a shot from the high slot that hit the left post and then the right before bounding out to the crease where teammate Ben Camper (2nd) was ready to tap it in for a 2-0 lead at 11:21.
The Bulldogs cut the lead in half at 15:21 of the opening frame when Sean Backman, who notched his first goal of the season on Friday night, slipped a wrister inside the near post. The sophomore forward took a backhand feed from Arcobello and beat Mark Dekanich (20 saves) on the stick side before the Raider goalie could close the angle.
The Elis did not take long to get the equalizer. Arcobello, who had a career-best performance, fed defenseman Ryan Donald, who skated into the left circle before firing a shot that was blocked by a defender. The puck came back to the sophomore Bulldog and Donald (1st) flipped it past Dekanich just seven seconds into the middle frame.
Sixty-five seconds later Arcobello (2nd) intercepted a break-out pass in the Colgate end and skated into the middle slot before snapping off a nasty writer on the goalie's glove side that made it 3-2 Yale.
"He [Arcobello] was fantastic and really on his game. We really needed him today," said Allain.
Jesse Winchester's impressive individual effort enabled the Raiders to erase the Yale lead with their third goal at 7:38 of the second. Winchester controlled the puck behind the Bulldog net and worked his way out to the goal line before firing a wrister that hit someone's stick before rocketing off Blase's water bottle to make it 3-3.
Arcobello notched his second of the night with a mean backhanded wrister with 1:25 left in the second to put Yale back in the lead at 4-3. The Bulldog who grew up just 10 miles away in Milford took a feed along the boards from Robert Page and carried toward the left circle with a defenseman in good position. Arcobello waited as long as he could and then flipped a rising shot over Dekanich's right shoulder.
"We were really moving our feet today and not looking for the easy play," said Arcobello. "We always seem to wait until someone's pushing us from behind. We just came out too slow. After coach Allain's pep talk after the first period, we really turned it on."
Dekanich got knocked out of the game four minutes later when Day, hustling back to help on defense, ran directly into his goalie. Fellow senior Justin Kowalkoski (2 saves) jumped off the bench and got into the game without any warm-up.
The Raiders again erased the Yale advantage with a nifty tally. Day (7th) got his second of the day by one-timing a crossing feed from David McIntyre at 9:53 of the third period.
The only power-play goal of the game was a big one for the Blue. Arcobello won the faceoff and defenseman Tom Dignard took the puck and skated into the slot before snapping off a shot that beat Kowalkoski high on the glove side at 12:57.
Camper nearly tied the game with 5:02 left with a rising shot from the low slot that Blase miraculously picked out of the air. That got the Bulldogs even more pumped up as the forwards began buzzing the Colgate net. He made a number of big stops the rest of the way to keep the Raiders from making another comeback.
Yale made it a two-goal lead with a penalty called on the Raiders and the Bulldogs skating with the extra man. The penalty never made the stat sheet because Michael Karwoski put a perfect pass on the stick of sophomore winger Greg Beller (1st), who one-timed it into the back of the net.
