Team Notes: Dogs, Cats Weekend
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The No. 3 Yale
men's hockey team (20-5, 14-4 ECAC), has a rare Friday night,
Sunday afternoon ECAC Hockey set this weekend that completes its
regular season road schedule. The Bulldogs take on Quinnipiac
(13-12-5, 6-8-4) on Friday at 8 p.m. at TD Bank Sports Center
(Comcast New England/CPTV) before heading to New Jersey to face
Princeton (14-9-2, 9-7-2) at Baker Rink (ESPNU) on Sunday at 1 p.m.
VS. QUINNIPIAC
Quinnipiac leads the series with Yale 6-4-1 in a New Haven County
rivalry that began in 2005-06. The Bobcats and Bulldogs each won
their home games last season, but Yale took the November meeting at
Ingalls this season. The Blue erased an early 1-0 deficit with five
straight goals to beat Quinnipiac 5-1. Yale scored late in the
second to take the lead and then broke it open with three in the
third while slightly outshooting the visitors, 33-30. Brian
O'Neill hit the net twice while the Elis also got goals
from Jeff
Anderson and Denny
Kearney, who had two points. Chris
Cahill added two assists. Ryan
Rondeau stopped 29 of 30 shots and four out of five
man-advantages. Quinnipiac's Dan Clarke (21 saves) held off the
charge for a while before being replaced by Eric Hartzell (7) early
in the third period. The two combined to stop five of seven
power-plays.
VS. PRINCETON
Yale, winners of the last four, owns a 127-101-8 lead on Princeton
in a series that dates to 1899. Chris Cahill scored twice and added
an assist and Ryan Rondeau stopped 27 shots in Yale's 5-3 win over
the Tigers in the conference opener for both schools at Ingalls in
November. The Bulldogs outshot the Tigers 46-30 but needed a dozen
Rondeau saves in the final frame. The Elis, who killed off six of
seven Princeton advantages, had multiple 5-on-3s to deal with.
Princeton's Alan Reynolds had 41 saves including 19 in the middle
period.
LAST WEEKEND
Brian O'Neill had three goals and Brendan
Mason added a pair as Yale erased an early deficit with
five straight tallies on the way to a 6-3 win over Clarkson last
Saturday at Cheel Arena. Yale had a 37-25 edge in shots and scored
twice on five man-advantages while also getting a goal from Chad
Ziegler and 22 saves from Ryan Rondeau, who blanked
Clarkson on three advantages. The night before, Yale outshot St.
Lawrence 33-24 but dropped a 3-2 decision at Canton. Andrew
Miller and Antoine
Laganiere found the net for the Bulldogs while Ryan
Rondeau made 21 saves. St. Lawrence got 31 saves from Robby Moss,
who helped the Saints kill off all four Yale advantages.
TOTALS FROM LAST WEEKEND
Yale, which had goals from five different players, outscored last
weekend's North Country teams 8-6 while having a 70-49 advantage in
shots. The Bulldogs were 2-for-9 on the power play and did well to
stay out of the penalty box, killing off four of five attempts.
Ryan Rondeau stopped 43 of 49 shots, the opposition made 62
saves.
BOBCATS
Quinnipiac, 2-2-3 over its last seven, is coming off a 3-1 loss at
Dartmouth last Friday. The Cats are in seventh place, a point ahead
of Clarkson. The guys from Hamden have some quality non-league wins
this season including Nebraska-Omaha, St. Cloud State, and Ohio
State.
TIGERS
Princeton, four points ahead of Quinnipiac in sixth place, is
coming off a 4-4 tie at Harvard and a 4-1 loss at Dartmouth last
weekend. The Tigers are 3-3-1 over the last seven outings and have
had a five-game win streak in addition to a pair of
four-gamers.
PAIRWISE
The NCAA's power ranking system used to compare teams for
tournament time is called Pairwise. It uses four criteria: record
against common opponents, head-to-head competition, record against
other teams under consideration and the RPI ranking. Yale is
currently first with 28 points followed by Boston College (27) and
North Dakota (25).
RANKED TEAMS
Yale is 3-2 vs. ranked teams this year. The Elis beat Union and
RPI in December and Dartmouth last weekend at home while falling to
the Dutchmen and Engineers on the road.
BOUNCING BACK
The Blue bounced back from a Friday loss to win last Saturday on
the road during the ECAC's longest road trip. The Elis avoided
being swept on consecutive road trips with an offensive outburst at
Clarkson. Yale had gone 57 conference regular season games (Feb.
2008 to Jan. 2011) since falling twice in a row.
PLAYOFFS
The Elis have clinched a home ECAC Hockey playoff series in March,
but the weekend has yet to be determined. The top four seeds have a
bye for the first round and host quarterfinal series on March
11-13. The fifth through 12-place teams play March 4-6. With four
games left in the regular season, Yale can finish as high as first
and as low as sixth.
LEAGUE WITHIN A CONFERENCE
Six members of ECAC Hockey compete for the Ivy League's Hobey
Baker Trophy, which is all that is on the line in this race. Yale
is first with 14 points, but Dartmouth (13) can still catch the
Blue with one game (at Cornell) left. The Elis have games to play
at Princeton and home against Cornell.
MILLER TIME
Sophomore F Andrew Miller (59 gp, 12-53-65), voted "best passer"
by his teammates, is No. 5 in the nation with .96 assists per game.
More impressive is that 15 of his 24 assists are primary ones. He
is also hitting the net when it counts this season; four of his
seven goals have been winners, which ranks seventh in Division I.
Miller (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), who is 21st in the nation with
1.24 points per contest, registered the most (34) points by a Yale
rookie since Tom Walsh set the bar with 41 in 1984-85. The speedy
forward was the 2008-09 USA Junior Player of the Year and 2007
Michigan High School Mr. Hockey. Last winter, he 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
last year with .85 assists per outing.
CAPTAIN AHAB BEWARE
The Whale (Ingalls Rink) has been a tough place for visitors this
season, Moby Dick would be proud. Yale, 14-0 at Ingalls and the
only Division I team perfect at home, has never won that many games
in a season at New Haven. Yale, which has never been perfect at
Ingalls in a year, last went unbeaten at New Haven in 1928-29. The
Bulldogs aren't biting any legs off, but they are 37-9-2 over the
last three seasons at the Whale. Yale has sold out its last nine
straight home games.
ENGINE NO. 9
Junior F Brian O'Neill (92gp, 43-60-103), who has points in nine
of the last 10 games, leads the Blue with 15 goals and 32 points.
That includes a career-high three goals at Clarkson on Feb. 12. He
ranks 13th nationally with .60 goals per game and is 17th with 1.28
points. O'Neill began 2010-11 with a 3-2-5 weekend in the two wins
including 2-1-3 and the GWG against Dartmouth on Oct. 30. Last
winter he led the Elis with 29 assists and 45 points while ranking
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 (Yardley,
Pa.), who was voted "most humorous" by his teammates, made the
2008-09 CHN (national) and ECAC Hockey All-Rookie teams after going
12-14-26 in 2008-09.
NET GAIN
A year after four goalies shared the Yale net, Ryan Rondeau
(Carvel, AB) has started 23 of the 25 games and has been named ECAC
Hockey MLX Skates Goalie of the Week three times this year. He has
three shutouts this season (and career): vs. Harvard (season-high
34 saves), Union and Vermont. Rondeau, who had a 141:29 scoreless
streak and consecutive shutouts (first time for a Yalie since 1998)
in December, is 19-4 this year. He ranks ninth in GAA (2.02) and
11th in SP (.925) in Division I. Rondeau's career-high is 40 saves
at Princeton in 2009. The senior, who owns a 25-8-1 career record,
has been in net for seven wins over ranked teams including a 3-2
decision with North Dakota at the 2010 NCAA Northeast Regional
semifinal.
GOLD STANDARD
Hobey Baker candidate Denny Kearney (Hanover, NH) is third on the
team with 11 goals and fourth with 27 points. His assist total (16)
includes 12 that were primary helpers. Kearney notched eight points
over the first two games (Brown, Dartmouth on Oct. 29-30) and was
ECAC Hockey's Player of the Week. That included his first
collegiate hat trick (natural) and a game-winner during the most
prolific weekend of his collegiate career. In addition, all four
assists were primary ones. Kearney (127 gp, 40-77-117), who was
voted by his teammates as the "best dresser" and "most talkative"
among the Bulldogs, is Yale's active career assist leader (7th best
at Yale) and is 11th in points and third in career games played.
However, he may not be the best athlete in his family. His sister,
Hannah Kearney, won an Olympic gold medal in mogul skiing at the
2010 Games and is the top ranked American in that event.
LOTS OF LITTLE
Yale senior forward Broc
Little (Rindge, N.H.), a Hobey Baker candidate, is second
on the team with 14 goals and 30 points. He is 20th in the nation
with .56 goals per game and 23rd with 1.20 points. Little, sixth on
Yale's career goals list, had his third career hat trick (3-1-4)
against Holy Cross on Jan. 2. Nine of his 16 assists have been
primary ones. He was named one of the 20 candidates for the Lowe's
Senior CLASS Award in hockey, which honors student-athletes who
excel both on and off the ice. Little (120 gp, 67-62-129), who has
nine more points than games played, 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, including RBK Second-Team
All-America, first-team All-ECAC, All-Ivy and All-New England.
Little, a political science major, has shown the same dedication in
the classroom with a 3.1 GPA and three-time ECAC Hockey
All-Academic Team status.
WALTER BROWN AWARD
Chris Cahill, Broc Little and Denny Kearney are all among the 15
semifinalists for the 59th annual Walter Brown Award given to the
top American born Division I player in New England by the Gridiron
Club of Boston each March. A Yale player has never won the
award.
VOTE HOBEY
Senior Yale hockey forwards Broc Little (Rindge, N.H.) and Denny
Kearney (Hanover, N.H.) have been nominated for the 2011 Hobey
Baker Memorial Award. The first phase of the process includes fan
voting. Go to hobeybakeraward.com and make your choice once every
24 hours. The results of the fan voting will impact the final
selection process.
BENCH LEADER
Keith Allain '80, Yale's Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey, is
92-54-12 as a head coach, including 9-7 in the post season. Only
two other Yale hockey head coaches have more wins, and none have
reached the 90-win mark faster than Allain. The former Yale goalie
has led the Blue to three Ivy League titles, two ECAC regular
season championships, three straight 20-win campaigns 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. Allain, a
former NHL (17 years) and Olympics (1992, 2006) assistant, was
named the 11th head coach of the Yale men's ice hockey program on
April 15, 2006. Allain is the second Yale graduate to take the
position and the first since Holcomb York '17 led the Bulldogs from
1930 to 1938 (Lawrence M. Noble '27 coached the Elis from 1928 to
1930). The starting goalie on four Bulldog squads, Allain recorded
the second-most (31) wins for a Yale netminder and ranks third at
the school with 2,337 career saves. He owns four of the top 10 Yale
single-game save totals, including 55 stops in a 7-3 loss at
Minnesota on Dec. 28, 1978.
WORLD JUNIORS
Keith Allain served as head coach of the 2011 U.S. National Junior
Team and led the squad to a bronze medal at the International Ice
Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Buffalo, N.Y. The
U.S., which won all but its semifinal game, defeated Sweden to take
the bronze on Jan. 5. Allain, who helped the U.S. National
Junior Team win a second straight medal at the IIHF World Junior
Championship for the first time, owns a 13-4-2 overall record as a
head coach in the event, giving him the top winning percentage
(.736) of any U.S. head coach to have served on multiple teams.
Allain was joined on the U.S. team by Yale's hockey strength &
conditioning coach Joe Maher. Kyle Wallack, Yale's fifth-year
assistant who is in his first season as associate head coach,
served as Yale's head coach in Allain's absence.
ALLAIN SAID LAST SATURDAY
"We didn't feel good about last (Friday) night, and we
responded the way a good team should. We had all four lines going
and playing well. They [Bulldogs] know when they do the right
thing, there is a good chance they will be successful."
CAPTAIN MARTIN
Captain Jimmy
Martin (St. Louis, Mo.) is a defensive defenseman who has
turned himself into a player with offensive potential. He has
points in five of his last six games. His four goals this year are
a career-high. He now has eight goals and 49 career points which
rank ninth at Yale. Martin, who attended three different high
schools in three states before coming to New Haven, is a political
science major who helped the Des Moines Buccaneers make it to the
2007 USHL final four.
BACKSTOP BACKDROP
A pair of experienced sophomores joins Ryan Rondeau in the net
mix. Jeff
Malcolm (12 gp, 4.02, .837, 6-4-0) made 16 saves in the
7-4 win over Brown on Oct. 29 before stopping 25 shots in a 4-3
loss at Air Force. The Lethbridge, AB, native has allowed eight
goals, including six on the power play and two with a 5-on-3
advantage. Alta Loma, Calif., resident Nick
Maricic (16 gp, 2.89, .888, 7-4-2) played the last period
against Holy Cross (5 saves) and some of the third at RPI. Maricic
has not had a start this winter.
BLUE LINE
Three seniors, two juniors and a sophomore comprise the typical
Yale defensive lineup this season. These six players, who have nine
goals between them in 2010-11, have a combined 509 career games
played. Two seniors with 27 points combined, Jimmy Martin
and Mike
Matczak (Sewell, N.J.), have produced six goals this
season.
CAHILL
Chris Cahill (North Andover, Mass.) entered the season with 16
goals in three collegiate seasons. He already has 11 this winter,
including four different two-goal games and a trio of three-point
outings. Cahill was named ECAC Hockey Player of the Week on Dec. 6
after leading (3-1-4) Yale to a pair of wins over nationally ranked
teams with three goals and four points. The senior forward is third
on the team in goals and has career numbers of 27 goals and 67
points in 115 games.
AGOSTINO
Yale freshman forward Kenny
Agostino, named HCA National Rookie of the Month for January
(8-4-12), is the first Yale freshman to receive that award. He was
ECAC Hockey MLX Skates Rookie of the Week on Jan. 23 (3 goals vs.
Clarkson/SLU), becoming the only Bulldog to earn conference rookie
honors this season. Agostino has eight goals over his last 13
games. The former Delbarton School star had a goal and three
assists before the holiday break, and has eight goals and four
assists since. The leading scorer (9-7-16) among Yale freshmen, he
ranks ninth nationally among rookies with .90 points per
game. Agostino became the first Yale newcomer in 30 years to
record five points in one game on Jan. 2. He notched three goals
and two assists against Holy Cross and became the school's first
freshman to tally five points since former Olympian and NHL star
Bob Brooke '83 established the school rookie record against
Dartmouth in 1980.
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 came to Yale from New England prep schools. F Clinton
Bourbonais (Colchester, Conn.), F Kenny Agostino
(Flanders, N.J.) and F Jesse
Root (Pittsburgh, Pa.) have all found the net this season.
D Gus
Young (Dedham, Mass.), who has been fighting injuries, has
an assist in three games played, while F Brad
Peltz (Mount Kisco, N.Y.) is looking for his first regular
season action. Agostino (2), Root and Peltz combined for four of
Yale's five goals in the Dec. 29 win over the Russian Red Stars.
Agostino tied a school rookie record with five (3-2) points against
Holy Cross.
HITTING THE NET
The Bulldogs have 108 goals and are No. 1 in the nation with a
4.32 average after 25 games. Yale hit the 100-goal mark after 23
games. The Blue scored 10 against the Crusaders and had seven goals
twice, six twice and five on seven occasions this year. Yale led
the nation in scoring in 2009-10 and hit the 100 mark in game No.
25.
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 while
six hail from Alberta, including a Calgary pair.
FROM WHENCE THEY CAME
Northeast prep schools and the United States Hockey League each
contributed nine players to the Bulldog roster. Six former British
Columbia Hockey League skaters are at Yale while the Atlantic
Junior Hockey League has a pair. One Eli played in the Eastern
Junior Hockey League and another came from a private school.
SHOOTERS
The Bulldogs have outshot 23 of 25 opponents (by 247 combined)
this year after having the advantage in 26 of the 34 games last
year. Vermont (32-30) and Union (34-30) are the only squads to
outshoot the Blue this season.
STREAK
After opening the season with five straight wins, the Blue
stumbled on Nov. 14 at Air Force before bouncing back with a road
win at Cornell on Nov. 19. That was the first of 10 straight wins
that carried through to the Jan. 15 victory over Brown at Ingalls.
Division I's longest win streak this year came to an end the next
day at Brown.
A CLASS OF ITS OWN
The Class of 2011 became the winningest in Yale men's hockey
history after beating Holy Cross on Jan. 2. The current seniors
have amassed 79 victories, surpassing the total reached by the
Class of 2010. In addition, the Class of 2011, which is the first
from this school to be undefeated (3-0-1) at Cornell, is the first
at Yale to have four winning seasons since the Class of 1954.
SCORING SPREAD
Eight members of the senior class have accounted for 49 goals. The
juniors (6) have hit the net 33 times. Yale sophomores (4) have
tallied 13 goals, while the freshmen (4) have added 13. Bulldog
defensemen have hit the net nine times.
SHORTY
Yale had four shorthanded goals last year and led the nation with
nine the year before. The Bulldogs' first goal of 2010-11 was
shorthanded by Broc Little, the school's career leader with seven,
but the team has not done that since.
BULLDOG BITES
Brian O'Neill's first career hat trick was Yale's first three-goal
outing since Jan. 2 when both Broc Little and Kenny Agostino each
did it against Holy Cross. It was the first road hat trick for a
Bulldog since Sean Backman '10 at Quinnipiac on Feb. 2, 2007 and
the first Bulldog hat trick at Clarkson since Francis Lloyd '59 in
1957… Denny Kearney (5 goals) is Yale's active leading
scorer against Quinnipiac while Broc Little and Brian O'Neill have
two each; Little is the active leader against Princeton with
five.
UP NEXT
The conclusion of the 2010-11 regular season is next weekend as
Colgate and Cornell come to Ingalls on Friday and Saturday nights
at 7.
BULLDOGS IN THE PROS
This season, for the first time ever, two former Yale players
skated on the same National Hockey League team. Chris Higgins '05
and Joe Callahan '05 have been on the Florida Panthers' roster at
times. They played in the same game again on Feb. 13 and Higgins
had a goal that night against the Sharks. In other alumni news,
Mark Arcobello '10 was named MVP of January's ECHL All-Star Game
after netting three goals. Thirteen former Yale players are skating
professionally this winter: Sean Backman '10 (Texas Stars, AHL, 41
GP, 5-10-15 ), Ryan Donald '10 (Reading Royals, ECHL), Mark
Arcobello '10 (Oklahoma City Barons, AHL), Alec Richards '09
(Rockford Icehogs, AHL, 73 GA, 2 SO, 2.64, 10-17-1, .904), Brennan
Turner '09 (Binghamton Senators, AHL), David Meckler '09
(Manchester Monarchs, AHL), Matt Cohen '07 (Hamburg Freezers, DEL),
Brad Mills '07 (New Jersey Devils, NHL; Albany Devils, AHL), Chris
Higgins '05 (Florida Panthers, NHL, 42 GP, 10-11-21), Joe Callahan
'05 (Florida Panthers, NHL; Rochester Americans, AHL), Stacey
Bauman '03 (Tulsa Oilers, CHL), Jeff Hamilton '01 (HIFK Helsinki,
FNL), Ray Giroux '98 (Chelyabinsk Traktor, KHL).
YALE HOCKEY BROADCASTS
The pay-per-view Yale home hockey "TV" broadcasts on
yalebulldogs.com are a Yale Athletic Department production that
employs students to produce, shoot and broadcast most of the
action. Sam Dorward '13 is the producer and Joel Oblizalo '12 does
the camera work. Evan Ellis '11 handles most of the calls for the
Elis as well as an interview with Coach Allain.
ON 'TV'
The Dec. 5 game against Union aired live on ESPNU, the first of
two Yale games on ESPNU this season. The Feb. 20 game at Princeton
is also on ESPNU. The YES Network aired the Feb. 5 Dartmouth game.
The Elis have also been on CBS College Sports (at Cornell) and Time
Warner Cable (at Colgate, Union and RPI).
WYBC
The Yale student radio station formerly found on AM-1340 and on
wybc.com, is only available via internet this season. WYBC does
most of the home contests and a pre-game interview with Coach
Allain.
INGALLS RENOVATIONS
Yale hockey celebrated the re-dedication of Ingalls Rink (3,500
capacity) on Jan. 16, 2010, with ceremonies on and off the ice. The
rink built in 1958 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 for the building nicknamed the Yale
Whale because of its humpback-shaped roof.
NCAAS BACK AT BRIDGEPORT
Yale and Fairfield hosted the 2009 East Regional in Bridgeport at
Webster Bank's Arena at Harbor Yard, and the Bulldogs were one of
the four teams to participate. The 2011 and 2012 East Regionals are
also slated for the Yard. This coming NCAA tourney is March 25-26.
Game times on the 25th are 3 and 6:30 with a 6:30 p.m. championship
contest on the 26th.
IN THE POLLS
Yale, which has been among the top 3 ranked teams nationally all
season, moved back one spot in both polls to No. 3 this week.
Boston College grabbed all 34 first-place votes in the USA
Today/American Hockey Magazine Poll with North Dakota jumping to
No. 2. The Eagles had all 50 votes in the uscho.com poll with the
Sioux in the second spot again.
CONFERENCE RACE
Yale, winners of the last two conference regular season titles,
trails Union by a point with four games left. Dartmouth is four
points behind the Bulldogs. The Dutchmen (14-1-1 at home) finish at
Clarkson/St. Lawrence and then host Quinnipiac and Princeton.
filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director
