Team Notes: UConn Makes Visit to Whale

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The Yale men's hockey team (4-1-1, 3-1-0 ECAC), coming off a road conference sweep, takes a break from the ECAC schedule to play a Nutmeg State rival. The No. 9 Elis, winners of three straight by shutout, host Connecticut (3-4-2) Saturday night at 7 at David S. Ingalls Rink.

UCONN SERIES
Yale has won all eight meetings with UConn while outscoring the Huskies 49 to 17. The first game was 12/01/1971, a 16-2 game at Ingalls Rink. Only one meeting (2008-09) took place at Storrs.

YALE GETS 4 POINTS ON THE ROAD
The Bulldogs moved into first place in the ECAC with a pair of road shutouts last weekend in the Capital District. Junior goalie Jeff Malcolm (Lethbridge, AB) made 27 saves and got goals from sophomore Clinton Bourbonais (Colchester, Conn.) and junior Josh Balch (Wilmette, Ill.) in a 2-0 win at Rensselaer on Nov. 11. Malcolm stopped 45 shots the following night at Union in a 4-0 decision. Senior Dan Otto (Lake Zurich, Ill.) scored twice to lead the offensive effort.

4 GOALS
The four goals at Union were a season-high for the Bulldogs, who had two goals in each of the previous five games. Yale led the nation last year with better than four per game.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Senior F Dan Otto (Lake Zurich, Ill.) notched his first two collegiate goals last Saturday at Union after battling injuries the last three years that prevented him from playing a regular season contest. Otto has played in every game this year.

HUSKIES
UConn, which plays Sacred Heart this week before coming to New Haven, has wins over Army, UMass-Lowell and Holy Cross. The Huskies are led offensively by sophomore F Brant Harris, who has eight goals and 10 points. Junior Garrett Bartus (2.40 GAA, .937) has most of the work in net.

MALCOLM IN MIDDLE
Junior Jeff Malcolm was named ECAC Hockey Goalie of the Week after stopping all 72 shots in a pair of Yale shutouts at No. 8 Union and RPI last weekend. Malcolm, who has been in the Yale goal all six games, tied (Ryan Rondeau, 2010-11) a Yale record with three straight shutouts. His scoreless streak of 185:45 covers three-plus games beginning in the third period of the Nov. 4 game with Cornell. The Yale record is 240:53 by Ryan Rondeau. Two of the three Malcolm shutouts were on the road, all three were in league play, including his first career blanking on Nov. 5 against No. 18 Colgate (39 saves). His career record is 10-5-1 with a 2.53 GAA and three shutouts. Malcolm has a 1.33 GAA with a .960 SP this year.

BULLDOG BITES
Five different Bulldogs have a pair of goals… Yale has outscored opponents 14-9 this year with six goals in the middle frames… The Elis have three straight non-league games before getting back to ECAC play on Dec. 1 against Brown… Yale is averaging 27 shots on goal per game while giving up 33.

MILLER TIME
A 2010-11 first-team All-ECAC pick, junior F Andrew Miller (76 gp, 17-64-81) has two assists this season. Miller, voted "best passer" by his teammates last season, had 12-33-45. He was No. 4 in the nation with .97 assists per game (tops in ECAC). More impressive is that 22 of his 33 assists were primary ones. His team-high 33 helpers (2nd best at Yale and five behind Mark Kaufmann '93) were a sophomore school record while 45 points were second on the team. He probably had his best offensive weekend as a collegian on Feb. 25-26 when he hit the net three times against Colgate/Cornell combined. Miller (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), was 12th in the nation with 1.29 points per contest and registered the most (34 as a freshman) 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. In 2009-10 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 that year with .85 assists per outing.

CAPTAIN
2010-11 first-team All-ECAC selection Brian O'Neill (109gp, 50-70-120), who has two goals and three points this year, was named captain of the Bulldogs last April. He has led the team in scoring the last two seasons which included a career-high three goals at Clarkson on Feb. 12. He ranked 15th nationally with 1.29 points per game. He 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. The year before, he led the Elis with 29 assists and 45 points while ranking seventh in the country with 1.32 PPG. O'Neill (Yardley, Pa.) made the 2008-09 CHN (national) and ECAC Hockey All-Rookie teams after going 12-14-26 in 2008-09.

NET MIX
The Bulldogs also have junior Nick Maricic (Alta Loma, Calif.) and freshman Connor Wilson (Cary, NC) competing for playing time. Maricic (2.29, .890 career) last played in the third period of the 2011 NCAA East Regional final.

BLUE LINE
There are seven defensemen on the Yale roster: two seniors, a junior, a sophomore and three freshmen. Three of the seven have a depth of experience. Seniors Kevin Peel (Onoway, Alb.) and Nick Jaskowiak (Bloomington, Minn.) have been regulars since arriving in New Haven. Junior Colin Dueck (Calgary, Alb.) became a mainstay last winter and sophomore Gus Young (Dedham, Mass.) has seen action in every game this season.   

AGOSTINO
Yale sophomore forward Kenny Agostino, who has a pair of assists this season, was Yale's rookie of the year last winter after scoring 11 goals and 25 points. Agostino, the HCA National Rookie of the Month for January (8-4-12), was the first Bulldog 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 in 2010-11. The former Delbarton School star had a goal and three assists before the holiday break, and 10 goals and 11 assists after. He ranked 11th nationally among rookies with .86 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.

GEOGRAPHIC BALANCE
The Yale roster includes players from 13 different states and three provinces. New York and Minnesota are represented by three players from each state while Alberta brings in four players.

FROM WHENCE THEY CAME
The United States Hockey League contributed 10 players to the Bulldog roster. There are four from the British Columbia Hockey League, one from the Atlantic Junior Hockey League and another from the Eastern Junior Hockey League. Ten Yale student-athletes came directly from prep schools.

CODE RED
There is one new face on the Yale bench this season, Dennis "Red" Gendron, who replaced Kyle Wallack as the Bulldogs' associate head coach. Dennis "Red" Gendron, an assistant at the University of Massachusetts the last six seasons and a former University of Maine coach from 1990 to 1993. He helped the Black Bears win a 1993 NCAA Championship before working in the New Jersey Devils organization.

YALE'S LAST 3
The Yale men have left a mark on Division I over the last three seasons under Keith Allain '80, the Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey. The combined statistics from 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 make the last three years the best in the history of the sport in New Haven and among the best in the nation over that span.

The Numbers From 2008-11

Overall Record: 73-25-6 (.729)    
ECAC Record:   47-14-5 (.749)    
Scoring:  405 goals, 104 games (3.89)
All-Americans: 4
All-ECAC: 8
All-Ivy League: 10

Accomplishments
    Top Winning Percentage in Division I
    Two-time Division I Scoring Leader (2009-10, 2010-11)
    Led nation in scoring defense 2010-11
    2 ECAC Hockey Tournament Championships (2009, 2011)
    2 ECAC Hockey Regular Season Titles (2008-09, 2009-10)
    3 Ivy League Titles
    3 NCAA Tournament Appearances
    2 NCAA Regional Final Appearances (2010, 2011)
    School-record 28 wins (2010-11)
    10 All-Ivy League Selections
    8 All-ECAC Hockey Selections
    4 All-America Selections
    2 Hockey Commissioners Association Players of the Month

BULLDOGS IN THE PROS
There are 22 former Yale hockey players skating professionally, including eight from the class of 2011. Here are the Bulldog pros, youngest to oldest. Chris Cahill '11(AHL, Milwaukee Admirals), Denny Kearney '11(ECHL, Trenton Titans), Broc Little '11 (HockeyAllsvenskan in Sweden, VIK Västerås HK), Jimmy Martin '11(ECHL, Bakersfield Condors), Brendon Mason'11 (Division 1-series in Sweden, Nybro Vikings), Mike Matczak '11 (ECHL, Kalamazoo Wings), Ryan Rondeau '11 (CHL, Laredo Buck), Ken Trentowski '11 (SPHL, Augusta Riverhawks), Sean Backman '10 (AHL, Bridgeport Sound Tigers), Ryan Donald '10 (Charlotte Checkers, AHL), Mark Acrobello '10 (Oklahoma City Barons, AHL), Alec Richards '09 (Rockford Icehogs, AHL), Brennan Turner '09 (Dundee Stars, EIHL), David Meckler '09 (Manchester Monarchs, AHL), Matt Cohen '07 (Fife Flyers, EIHL), Brad Mills '07 (New Jersey Devils, NHL), Chris Brooks '06 (Bakersfield Condors, ECHL), Chris Higgins '05 (Vancouver Canucks, NHL), Joe Callahan '05 (Hamilton Bulldogs, AHL), Stacey Bauman '03 (Tulsa Oilers, CHL),  Jeff Hamilton '01 (HIFK Helsinki, FNL), Ray Giroux '98 (Chelyabinsk Traktor, KHL).



CURRENT NHL CONNECTIONS
Three players on the current Yale roster have been drafted by NHL teams: Gus Young (Colorado, 7th, 184, 2009); Kenny Agostino (Pittsburgh, 5th, 140, 2010); Brad Peltz (Ottawa, 7th, 190, 2009).

ON TV
The Nov. 4 Cornell game at Ingalls was on CBS Sports Network, the first of three TV games including Yale this month. Time Warner Cable did both the Nov. 11 and 12 games at RPI and Union. Other TV games planned are Jan. 27 at Harvard (NBC), Feb. 17 Dartmouth (NBC) and Feb. 25 at Quinnipiac (SNY).

YALE HOCKEY BROADCASTS
Pay-per-view broadcasts of Yale hockey regular season home games are available on yalebulldogs.com. The Yale Athletic Department production is almost entirely student run: Sam Dorward '13 is the producer; Tom Stokes  '12 and Patrick Ouziel '13 are the cameramen; Evan Ellis '12, the Voice of Yale Hockey, and Max Valenstein '13 are the broadcasters.

WYBCX.COM
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
Yale hockey celebrated the re-dedication of Ingalls Rink (3,500 capacity) on Jan. 16, 2010. 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.

WHALE OF A TIME
The Whale (Ingalls Rink) has been a tough place for visitors in recent years. Yale, which enjoyed its first undefeated (15-0-1, only Division I team to do that) regular season at Ingalls last winter, finished 17-1-1 at home. That is the most wins ever in New Haven for a Yale team (The Blue went unbeaten at New Haven in 1928-29). The Bulldogs are 41-10-3 over the last three-plus seasons at the Whale and 12-10-3 in home ECAC playoff games all time.

SOLD OUT
Ingalls Rink was sold out for the last 12 games of the 2010-11 regular season and the first two games this season. The Nov. 26 Boston College game is already sold out, while only G.A. and S.R.O. tickets remain for contests with Harvard and Dartmouth.

HARBOR YARD
Yale and Fairfield hosted the 2009 and 2011 NCAA East Regional Tournaments in Bridgeport at Webster Bank's Arena at Harbor Yard, and the Bulldogs participated in both. The 2012 East Regional is also slated for the Yard, which has also hosted numerous NCAA post-season events.

filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director