Bulldogs Drop Second Game of Home-and-Home Series with Brown
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Junior forward Antoine Laganiere (Ile
Cadieux, Que.) had two goals and two assists and the No. 14/15 Yale
men’s hockey team erased a pair of two-goal deficits, but it
wasn’t enough to hold off Brown, 6-4 winners in ECAC
Hockey action at Meehan Auditorium.
Junior goalie Jeff Malcolm (Lethbridge, AB) made 37 saves as the
Bulldogs (6-4-1, 4-2-0) were outshot 43-31. He helped Yale come
back from 2-0 and 4-2 margins to nearly steal this one from the
Bears.
The Bears (4-6-1, 3-3-0) pelted the Yale net with rubber in the
first period and Malcolm knocked down shots (17 saves) from every
angle. But the home team broke through in the last few minutes and
jumped out to a 2-0 lead for the second straight game against
Yale.
Joey de Concilys one-timed a crossing feed from Ryan Jacobson at
17:10 before Bobby Farnham, who had two goals and one assist,
rifled a shorthanded shot from the left circle at 80 seconds later.
There easily could have been more without a strong opening frame
from the junior Yale goalie.
At the other end, Mike Clemente (27 saves overall) stopped all nine
shots and saw a few grade-A chances, including one from Eli captain
Brian O’Neill.
Pucks found the net early and often in the middle frame. Junior
forwards Josh Balch (Wilmette, Ill.) and Laganiere found the net in
the first seven minutes to even the score at 2-2.
Balch, skating sideways through the middle of the slot, one-timed a
crossing pass from sophomore Clinton Bourbonais (Colchester, Conn.)
76 seconds in. Balch (2nd goal) tried to put some mustard on
the shot but didn’t get it all, and the speed may have caught
Clemente by surprise.
The Blue got a break on Laganiere’s power-play shot from the
top of the right circle. The puck was headed wide and glanced off a
Brown skate before hitting the net for his fourth of the year.
Malcolm needed a dozen saves to keep the Blue close. Brown again
outshot (14-8) Yale and scored two more to go up 4-2. Jacobson
one-timed a pass in the low slot at 7:32, and then Matt Wahl
unleashed a low shot from the point that beat Malcolm at 15:46.
“Our work ethic wasn’t where it needs to be and our
team structure wasn’t either,” said Keith Allain
’80, Yale’s Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey, who
watched his squad claw back from two-goal deficits three times over
the last two games.
The Elis jumped all over a man-advantage to cut the margin to 4-3
less than three minutes into the third. Laganiere, from the right
corner, sent a perfect pass to the low slot, where senior Chad
Ziegler (4th) smacked it home with an open left side of the cage at
2:32.
Laganiere, who has been using his 6-foot-4 frame to win battles,
got his second of the game to even the score at 4-4. He uncoiled
off a Yale faceoff win and sent the puck over Clemente’s
shoulder.
Malcolm made saves on two mini breakaways in the last half of the
third, but got a bad break on a failed Yale clear attempt that
turned into Brown’s fifth tally. Jack Maclellan snapped off a
rising shot from the left circle that went over the goalie’s
shoulder at 17:47.
The visitors pulled their goalie and called a timeout after the
puck went into the stands with 32 seconds left. The timeout almost
worked perfectly. Sophomore Jesse Root (Pittsburgh, Pa.) got two
grade-A chances outside the crease but Clemente knocked them both
aside before Farnham sent a long shot into an empty net with six
seconds left.
BULLDOG BITES: Yale split the season series with Brown for the
second straight year… The Blue converted two of its four
advantages… There were three freshmen in the lineup, two on
defense and one up front… Freshman F Trent Ruffolo (Coral
Springs, Fla.), who made his collegiate debut as the first
Floridian to skate for the Elis, and sophomore F Brad Peltz (Mt.
Kisko, N.Y.) were inserted into tonight’s lineup. They
replaced sophomore Kenny Agostino (Flanders, NJ) and freshman
Nicholas Weberg (Oslo, Norway). Newcomer Bennett Carroccio
(Armonk, NY) was in for classmate Matt Killian (Basking Ridge, NJ)
on the blueline.












