Yale Drops Non-Conference Game at UMass
AMHERST, Mass. – Branden Gracel broke a 1-1 tie midway
through the third period that sent Massachusetts to a 3-1 win over
the No. 17 Yale men’s hockey team before 2,473 at the Mullins
Center.
The Bulldogs (6-5-1) played hard and had plenty of chances to
distance themselves from the Minutemen, but going 1-for-6 with the
advantage was just too much for Yale goalie Jeff Malcolm
(Lethbridge, AB) to overcome. He made 30 saves and stopped all four
power plays, including a number of grade-A chances, and deserved a
better fate than a second straight loss.
UMass (5-7-4) outshot the Blue 33-27 and erased a one-goal deficit
with the game’s last three tallies, while freshman goalie
Kevin Boyle made 26 saves. Ten of those saves came with his team
down a man, which ended up being the difference.
“This was another hard-fought game that went down to the very
end,” said Keith Allain ’80, Yale’s Malcolm G.
Chace Head Coach of Hockey. “Once we get better with the
details of our team game, we will be able to win this type of game.
We have a nice stretch here where we will be able to work and
improve our overall game.”
The Blue had three power-play chances in the first seven minutes
and cashed in the middle one to take a 1-0 lead. Senior Chad
Ziegler (Spruce Grove, AB) won the draw in the UMass end and the
puck went to junior Antoine Laganiere (Ile Cadieux, Que.), who
slipped it to junior Nick Jaskowiak (Bloomington, Minn.), whose
blueline partner, Gus Young (Dedham, Mass.) was ready for a feed.
Young, looking for his first collegiate goal, snapped off a low
shot that got past Boyle at 5:25.
Nobody in the building figured it would be Yale’s only goal
tonight, the Bulldogs were forechecking, creating chances and just
barely missing one shot after another.
Malcolm needed some huge stops to keep the home team off the board
in the opening frame. A Bulldog defenseman gave the puck away in
his end and the junior goalie snapped a point-blank shot out of the
air with 5:11 left. Malcolm, who made 11 saves in the first,
stopped a few scary shots on a two-man disadvantage at the end of
the period and made another big save to kill off the rest of the
power play starting the second.
The Yale defensive effort was nearly perfect until the Minutemen
capitalized on a two-on-one rush down the right side. Peter
DeAngelo held on the outside and then wristed a rising shot inside
the far post at 7:36 into the middle period. Malcolm, who had 11
saves again in the period, rebounded from the tally to make a huge
stop on a three-on-one rush and sent the visitors to a
second-intermission tie.
The game-winner didn’t appear to come from a dangerous
defensive situation until Gracel skated out from the corner without
any defensive pressure, pulled up at the edge of the crease and
backhanded a low shot into the back of the net at 9:18.
The Elis, who don’t play anyone until the Russian Red Stars
come to New Haven for a Dec. 28 exhibition, had more great chances
to even things with a power play a little more than a minute after
the Gracel tally but couldn’t solve Boyle, who had his best
period with 11 saves.
Malcolm got off the ice for the extra skater with 37 seconds left
and T.J. Syner dropped a shot into the empty net seven seconds
later to put it away.
BULLDOG BITES
This was Keith Allain’s first game coaching at the Mullins
Center, which has an ice surface 10 feet wider than Ingalls Rink
(85 feet)… The one change in the lineup from last Saturday
at Brown was freshman F Nicholas Weberg (Oslo, Norway) in for
classmate Trent Ruffolo (Coral Springs, Fla.)… The only
player in the Yale lineup who came back to his home state tonight
was sophomore D Gus Young (Dedham, Mass.).















