Team Notes: Season Opens Friday at Ingalls
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The two-time defending
ECAC Hockey regular-season champion Yale men's team opens the
2010-11 campaign on Friday by hosting the team that knocked the
Bulldogs out of last year's conference tournament, the Brown Bears.
Faceoff is set for 7 p.m., the second game of the two-day Ivy
Shootout. Princeton and Dartmouth square off at 4:00 that day. The
winners and losers play each other on Saturday, the Elis with the 7
p.m. games both nights.
TICKETS
Tickets are available for both nights and all four games. Call the
Yale Ticket Office at 203.432.1400 or pick up tickets on game night
at the Ingalls Rink box office.
WATCHING THE GAMES
Only the two Yale games can be seen live on yalebulldogs.com.
SERIES
Yale and Brown first played in the 1897-98 season and Yale has an
85-69-8 lead, including wins in nine of the last 11. However,
the Bears got the last laugh in 2009-10 by winning two of the three
conference quarterfinal games at Ingalls Rink. The Elis hold a
99-85-12 lead against Dartmouth and a 125-99-8 advantage over
Princeton.
LAST WEEK AT INGALLS
Yale and Dartmouth scrimmaged for 60 minutes on Oct. 23. Ken
Agostino (Flanders, NJ), Gus
Young (Dedham, Mass.), Antoine
Laganiere (Ile Cadieux, Que), Broc
Little (Rindge, NH) and Chad
Ziegler (Spruce Grove, Alb) hit the net for the Bulldogs.
Jeff Malcolm (Lethbridge, Alb), Ryan
Rondeau (Carvel, Alb) and Nick Maricic (Alta Loma, Calif.)
each had a period between the pipes and combined to stop all but
one shot.
ALLAIN SAYS
"I was pleased with the scrimmage. We had an opportunity to see all of our players in game conditions and they handled themselves quite well against a very good Dartmouth team. We know that on Friday the tempo will will jump up a notch higher and this was a god tool in preparation for the start of our season. We are all eager to get going for real."
NCAAS BACK AT HARBOR YARD
Yale co-hosted the 2009 East Regional at The Arena at Harbor Yard
in Bridgeport, and the Bulldogs were one of the four teams to
participate. The 2011 and 2012 East Regional Tournaments will also
be at The Arena co-hosted by the Elis and Fairfield. This coming
NCAA tourney is March 23-24. Game times on the 23rd are 4 and 7:30
with a 7 p.m. championship contest on the 24th.
FROZEN FOUR
The Elis, who have appeared in two straight NCAA Tournaments, have
their sights set on the 2011 Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn. The
Bulldogs came within a game of making the 2010 Frozen Four but fell
to eventual national champion Boston College last March in the
regional final.
BACK-TO-BACK
The consecutive ECAC and Ivy League regular-season championships
and back-to-back NCAA appearances are all firsts for Yale.
LITTLE LOWE'S CANDIDATE
Yale senior forward Broc
Little (Rindge, N.H.) has been named one of the 20
candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award in hockey. The award
honors student-athletes who excel both on and off the ice. To be
eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an
NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas
of excellence – community, classroom, character and
competition. Little (95 gp, 53-46-99) led the 2009-10 Bulldogs with
27 goals, a Yale record for juniors, while leading all of Division
I in goals per game (.79). He was second on the team with 41 points
and garnered numerous post-season honors. Little was named RBK
Second-Team All-America and first-team All-ECAC, All-Ivy and
All-New England. He was also named ECAC Hockey Player of the Year
by the New England Hockey Journal. Little, a political science
major, has shown the same dedication in the classroom. He owns a
3.1 GPA and has been a three-time ECAC Hockey All-Academic Team
pick.
BENCH LEADER
Keith Allain '80, Yale's Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey, is
72-49-12 as a head coach, including 9-7 in the post season. Only
four other Yale hockey head coaches have more wins, and none have
reached the 70-win mark faster than Allain. The former Yale goalie
has led the Blue to three Ivy League titles, two ECAC regular
season championships and a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances.
Allain, who played and worked for Tim Taylor at Yale, earned the
2008-09 Tim Taylor Award as the ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year by
leading the Elis to the best season in the program's history. A
school-record 24 wins, Yale's first ECAC Tournament Championship
and a school-best No. 5 national ranking in late March were a few
reasons why he was selected. College Hockey News named him 2008-09
national coach of the year. This is Allain's 12th overall year at
Yale; he spent four as a student-athlete goalie and three as an
assistant coach in the 1980s.
CAPTAIN MARTIN
He's the team leader but the team does not rely on him for
offense. Captain Jimmy
Martin (St. Louis, Mo.) is a defensive defenseman who got
very involved at the other end last year. Martin, who has four
goals and 35 career points, notched a pair of goals and 17 assists
last winter.
IN THE POLLS
Yale was ranked seventh in the latest USA Today/USA Hockey
Magazine Poll and fifth on the uscho.com list. The Bulldogs
finished No. 6 in the USA Today poll last March after reaching
their best-ever ranking of No. 4 on that list on Feb. 22, 2010.
CLASS OF 2010
Three members of the 2009-10 Yale team are playing pro hockey this
season. Sean Backman, who signed last spring with the Dallas Stars,
is with the AHL Texas Stars, while Ryan Donald (Reading Royals) and
Mark Arcobello (Stockton Thunder), both signed by AHL teams, were
assigned to ECHL affiliates at the start of the season.
DENNY SERVING
Denny
Kearney (102 gp, 29-61-90) is one of the premier set-up
men in college hockey. Only two other ECAC players enter this
season with more career assists than the Yale senior, whose sister,
Hannah Kearney, won an Olympic gold medal in mogul skiing at the
2010 Games.
MILLER TIME
Andrew
Miller (5-29-34) registered the most points by a Yale
rookie since Tom Walsh set the bar with 41 in 1984-85. Miller was
second among conference rookies with one point per game, which also
put him fourth in the country for newcomers. He ranked eighth
in Division I with .85 assists per outing.
BACKSTOPS
Last winter was the first in the 116-year history of Yale hockey
that three different goalies recorded at least five wins each. Four
Bulldogs had decisions - the first time that's happened since
2003-04 – and three of them are back. Sophomores Nick
Maricic (2.95, .888, 7-4-2) and Jeff
Malcolm (3.05, .876, 5-3-0) had most of the work in
2009-10. Senior Ryan Rondeau (4.06, .880, 2-1-1) had the top save
night last winter with 40 at Princeton, while registering the
biggest victory, a 3-2 decision with North Dakota at the NCAA
Regional.
HELPING HAND
Brian
O'Neill (67 gp, 28-43-71) led the Elis last year with 29
assists and 45 points. The junior F ranked seventh in the
country with 1.32 PPG. One of his best plays of 2009-10 was a pass
he put on Sean Backman's stick in OT that set up the winner at
Cornell. He also had the tying goal in the OT draw at the Badger
Showdown title game against Wisconsin. O'Neill's best night was
2-1-3 against Sacred Heart on Nov. 24, 2009. He made the 2008-09
CHN (national) and ECAC Hockey All-Rookie teams after going
12-14-26.
FROSH
The class of 2014 includes four forwards and one defenseman. All
five competed in the Northeast during 2009-10. Three of the new
Elis played in the juniors (Eastern, North Atlantic) last winter
while two come to Yale from New England prep schools.
IVY
Yale won its second straight Ivy League title by finishing 9-1 for
the second straight year. The Elis now have nine (12 if you count
titles before the league officially formed in 1956) Ancient Eight
crowns including three in the four seasons under Keith Allain.
Hockey Ivy League Titles (since 1930)
1. Harvard: 25; 2. Cornell: 18; 3. Dartmouth: 14; 4. Yale: 12; 5.
Brown: 7; 6. Princeton: 4
RED LIGHT DISTRICT
Yale scored 71 goals at home last year for a 4.4 average while
going 11-4-1. The Elis led the nation in goals per game and had a
power play that ranked second in Division I. Two Bulldogs (Sean
Backman, Broc Little) were among the top five in the nation in
goals per game, while defenseman Tom Dignard was fourth in Division
I points per game for defensemen. Yale scored 44 power play goals
and 131 (most since 2002-03) overall. The 1985-86 Bulldogs own the
school record for both, 59 and 160 respectively.
FULL HOUSE
There were nine sellouts at Ingalls last year, including seven
straight. Yale students were on Spring Break during the ECAC
Playoffs, so none of the three games (2,688 average) had full
houses. Yale had six sellouts in 2008-09.
GEOGRAPHIC BALANCE
The Yale roster includes players from 12 different states and
three provinces. Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania are represented twice each on the
roster while six hail from Alberta, including a Calgary pair.
SHOOTERS
The Bulldogs outshot 2009-10 opponents in 26 of the 32 games and
were 19-5-2 in those outings. The Elis averaged 40 shots and gave
up 26 while having a 402 shot advantage overall.
SHORTY
Yale potted just four shorthanded goals last year, a year after
the Elis had nine with Broc Little (5) leading the country.
SPECIAL
The Blue was second in the nation on the power play with a 23.5
mark and was 12-0 when tallying at least two PPG. The best
night was 5-for-8 against Brown on Jan. 16, the most productive PP
day since Nov. 13, 1992, when the Blue went 5-for-7 in a 10-6 win
over Colgate at Hamilton.
ECAC
The Bulldogs won the conference regular season championship but
did not garner any of the post-season individual honors. The last
time an ECAC team won the season title and did not have a player or
coach earn a post-season conference honor was Clarkson in 1999.
BULLDOG BITES
Brock Little and Brian
O'Neill are the only Bulldogs with more career points than
games played.Andrew
Miller had 34 points in 34 games as a freshman last
year… Yale's longest win streak last year was eight games,
which came to an end in the last game of the regular season at
Quinnipiac… ECAC Hockey teams have won NCAA Tournament games
five of the last six years… Mark Arcobello, Sean Backman,
Billy Blase, Tom Dignard and Ryan Donald have graduated after
accumulating 146 career goals and 336 combined points in 528
games… A senior, junior, sophomore and two freshmen scored
goals last weekend.
BULLDOGS IN THE PROS
Fourteen former Yale players are skating professionally this
winter. Here are the details on each. Sean Backman '10 (Texas
Stars, AHL), Ryan Donald '10 (Reading Royals, ECHL), Mark Acrobello
'10 (Stockton Thunder, ECHL), Alec Richards '09 (Rockford Icehogs,
AHL), Brennan Turner '09 (Elmira Jackals, ECHL), David Meckler '09
(Manchester Monarchs, AHL), Matt Cohen '07 (Hamburg Freezers, DEL),
Brad Mills '07 (Albany Devils, AHL), Chris Brooks '06 (Bakersfield
Condors, ECHL), Chris Higgins '05 (Florida Panthers, NHL), Joe
Callahan '05 (Rochester Americans, AHL), Stacey Bauman '03 (Tulsa
Oilers, CHL), Jeff Hamilton '01 (HIFK Helsinki, FNL), Ray Giroux
'98 (Chelyabinsk Traktor, KHL).
INGALLS RENOVATIONS
The Yale hockey program celebrated the re-dedication of Ingalls
Rink on Jan. 16, 2010, with ceremonies on and off the ice. The rink
has been modernized in many ways while adding 13,000 square feet of
varsity operational space. The additions include locker rooms and
space for strength & conditioning (including skating
treadmill), student-athlete study area, medical & training,
officials, video, coaches, equipment, reception (Schley Room) and
more. There are new historical displays and concession stands and
bathrooms.
YALE HOCKEY BROADCASTS
The pay-per-view Yale home hockey broadcasts on yalebulldogs.com
are a Yale Athletic Department production that employs students to
produce, shoot and broadcast the action. Sam Dorward '13 is the
producer, Joel Oblizalo '12 does the camera work and the commentary
this weekend will be shared by Chelsea Janes '12 and Evan Ellis
'12.
filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director
