Game Gab - Nightly Post-Game Analysis
Come here after the games for analysis and insights from CHN Staff members.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
Yale 6, St. Lawrence 1 - Friday, March 15, 2013
After allowing the first goal, Yale still wound up outshooting St. Lawrence, 48-13. Andrew Miller had two goals and two assists, while his linemates Jesse Root and Kenny Agostino added a goal and two assists. “Sometimes when you come out and play that way but they get the first goal, it can change the momentum,” Yale coach Keith Allain said. “What I’m most proud of was that it didn’t change the momentum at all, and that’s a testament to the character in that locker room. If you are going to be successful in our league, you have to handle adversity.”
“We haven’t had the best first periods or first games (in the playoffs during his four years),” said Miller. “We had an opportunity to jump on them early with a quick start, but we got down 1-0. When everything is going right and you are outplaying them, you hope to be on top. But that’s hockey. We just stuck to our system and made the plays.”
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Yale 2, Cornell 1 - Saturday, March 2, 2013
Yale gets scorned often for its goaltending, but the Bulldogs won the final three regular-season games after Jeff Malcolm returned from injury, and earned a hard-fought first-round bye for the ECACs. Also, Yale is in pretty good shape as far as the NCAAs are concerned. It should be good for a fourth trip in five years if its just wins its quarterfinal series.
Malcolm was helped by the Yale defense for two periods, as it shut down Cornell, which came in having won four in a row and finally turning its season back around. But after Yale took a 2-1 lead, Cornell poured it on, and Malcolm came up huge to preserve the win. “That’s playoff hockey what you saw tonight,” Yale coach Keith Allain said. “Guys were blocking shots and diving to get pucks out of their own end. It’s a great precursor to what it’s going to be like for the next few weeks.”
Because Princeton won in overtime, by pulling its goalie, Cornell finishes ninth and will travel to Princeton for the first round of the ECACs. It's a far cry from where Cornell expected to finish, but with things finally moving in the right direction again, it's not hard to foresee Cornell winning the next two series and making it to Atlantic City. Still, there's a long way between seeing it, and having it happen.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Yale 4, Princeton 3 - Saturday, February 23, 2013
Both teams got their goalies back. Jeff Malcolm hadn't played since he was injured against Princeton on Feb. 1, and Yale, which was rolling that point, has played poorly since. Princeton missed Mike Condon last weekend after he got sick, and lost both games. Yale was the bigger beneficiary of Malcolm's return, getting two late goals to pull it out and right the ship. As of now, this gets Yale back into the NCAA picture. Carson Cooper scored the game winner, the first goal of the season. “I saw the puck go around the point to Tommy Fallen,” said Cooper. “Coaches have been preaching to us to get to the front of the net to get a rebound. I did that and just got lucky enough. It popped out and I got a backhander on it. I shot it and then got knocked over, but I did see it go in. It was unbelievable.” ... Said Malcolm: “It was great to be back. I hate not being in the lineup, and I’m sick of watching hockey. The guys did a great job in front of me. Lots of guys are banged up, I’m not the only one. I was shaking off some of the rust, but it felt great.”
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Rensselaer 4, Yale 1 - Saturday, February 16, 2013
RPI keeps things rolling with two more wins, running its ECAC winning streak to eight straight. And this one leaped the Engineers into second place in the tight ECAC standings -- tight except for first, which is already locked up by Quinnipiac. There's still a ways to go in this season, but what Seth Appert has done with this team is already deserving of praise. He helped build the team back to the NCAA tournament a few years ago, then saw his roster get depleted, but has since built things back again. There's not as much pure talent as that team had, but they have come together slowly and steadily as a team. RPI is right on the Pairwise bubble, along with fellow ECAC teams Dartmouth and Union. "Gutty win tonight against very good Yale," Appert said. "We weren't great but we battled (and) found a way to win together."
The weekend marks a big setback for Yale, losing both games to drop into a tie for fifth in the ECAC. But it's managing to hold onto its at-large bid spot for the NCAAs, at the moment.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Quinnipiac 6, Yale 2 - Saturday, February 2, 2013
This was billed as a big game, and rightfully so. Quinnipiac is No. 1 in the Pairwise and Yale entered the game at No. 6 -- and the schools are just 10 miles apart. Though not quite with the old-school cachet of Clarkson-St. Lawrence, nor the ever-present BU-BC rivalry, this is budding into something with two schools similarly close together. ... Yale jumped out to a 2-0 lead, as Quinnipiac seemed to be shaking off the rust still. It had a tie the night before against Brown, getting back into the ECAC schedule after a layoff because its travel partner, Princeton, has its exam period. But once Quinnipiac got going, it took complete control, and is now unbeaten in 19 straight.
And it didn't help that Yale's goaltending issues reared its head again. Normal starter Jeff Malcolm, normally steady at least, if not great, was injured Friday, so Nick Maricic got the start. He played poorly and was pulled after two periods, allowing four goals. “They are a really good team,” said Yale captain Andrew Miller of the Bobcats. “We just wanted to play our game ... fast, hard and smart. At times we did that and there times we did not. Some bounces went their way, some went our way, and they ended up on top.”
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Colgate 4, Yale 1 - Saturday, January 26, 2013
Yale got a stirring overtime win at Lynah Rink on Friday, moving all the way up to third in the Pairwise when Saturday began. But it couldn't finish out the weekend, as Colgate scored four unanswered goals to get a weekend sweep of its own. Freshman twins Tyson and Tylor Spink each scored in the win, the third time they have done that. Yale is still in plenty good shape. Look out for Colgate, though. It's playing pretty well, and if it can stay hot, it's within striking distance of the NCAAs. The Raiders have a bunch of good young scorers, with a lot of good complementary players, and a strong defense. “We showed great poise against a great team,” Colgate coach Don Vaughan said. “We thought they would come hard in transition and we handled it very well tonight. We had some individuals step up tonight and in a game like this, your great players need to make plays. We had a excellent effort up and down the lineup and I thought we played are most complete game of the year so far.”
Kevin Lough added his first career goal for Colgate. “Lough’s goal really ignited our bench and a couple of power plays helped out as well,” said Vaughan. “I thought our guys just kept coming at them and we were still rolling back our third guy to stop the odd-man rush. A lot of great individual all-around efforts tonight and I’m proud of our guys."
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Yale 4, Dartmouth 2 - Saturday, January 19, 2013
Yale got two power-play goals against the nation's top penalty kill, and won a huge game against Dartmouth. The Big Green really needed this one to complete a sweep of the weekend, and get back on the winning path, and back up high in the Pairwise, following a little slump. But the split means Dartmouth is hanging on now, near the bubble. Still plenty of games to go, of course.
Yale, though, is now No. 5 in the Pairwise. I'm not sure many people expected them to get right back in the mix as far as the NCAAs were concerned, after dropping off last season following its three-year run in the tournament. But here the Bulldogs are, right back in the mix. “Getting two power-play goals was really big,” Yale coach Keith Allain said. “They had only given up four power play goals all year, and that’s ridiculous.” Yale is unbeaten in five games now. “Our focus was there. We knew we were going to have to be really good tonight. It was a hard-fought victory, and this is the best Dartmouth team I’ve faced,” said Allain.
The Bulldogs got on the board 4:36 into the game with a goal earned by a pretty play. First the puck bounced off of something near the Dartmouth bench and was scooped up by Antoine Laganiere, who sent it across for Clinton Bourbonais. The junior center skated in, faked a shot, and sent it back for defenseman Tommy Fallen, who was crashing the net. Fallen one-timed it from the middle of the slot past Cab Morris' glove. “We’ve been talking about the transition from the neutral zone,” said Fallen. “I saw an opportunity when Lags had the puck. I jumped in the play as the high man and had a great chance to score a goal. This was definitely one of our best weekends of the year.”
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Yale 3, Clarkson 1 - Saturday, January 12, 2013
Yale stayed hot, with a sweep in the North Country. Jeff Malcolm stopped 32 of 33 shots and three different teammates scored as the Bulldogs inched to ninth in the Pairwise. Malcolm, who had double-digit saves in two periods, combined with a great Yale defensive effort to keep the Knights off the scoreboard for the first 57 minutes of the contest. The Elis blanked Clarkson on all five advantages and moved into a third-place tie with Union at 11 points. “Our guys are pretty excited about it . It’s always a hard place to come and take two games. We needed them and got them,” said Yale coach Keith Allain ’80. “I thought we played well at both ends, and our special teams were very good. That’s what you need to play on the road.”
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Holy Cross 5, Yale 4 - Sunday, December 30, 2012
Yale has been playing well, so this is just a stunner of a strange result. Perhaps not as off-the-wall as American International defeating Quinnipiac earlier this season -- but certainly unexpected.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Union 2, Yale 2 - Saturday, December 8, 2012
Union picks up its third straight tie, which is certainly better than the game before that, when it was humbled by Quinnipiac last Friday. But it's not where Union expects to be, especially since it had a 2-0 third-period lead in this game. Union played poorly for a lot of last Saturday's game against Princeton, but managed a 4-4 tie. Then this Friday, tied Brown. ... Yale, meanwhile, was coming off a brutal 6-1 loss to RPI, so both teams were in need of a 'W,' so perhaps it was only appropriate there was another deadlock. Both teams are still in good shape if they build from here.
Yale was down 2-0 in the third, when it got a pair of goals from players who hadn't scored previously this season -- Charles Orzetti and Gus Young. Orzetti is a big freshman playing just his fourth game. Young is a defenseman who had three last season.
“I don’t usually get too excited about a tie, but I was really proud of the way our guys battled,” said Yale coach Keith Allain. “A tie was probably the right score at the end of the day.” Yale was 0-for-8 on the power play, but had 10 shots. “They have a great kill. There were some times we had some looks, but we bobbled the puck,” said Allain. The Bulldogs were playing without two of their top six forwards after injuries to Jesse Root and Trent Ruffolo last night against RPI. “I have a lot of faith in the character in our locker room. When they get punched in the nose, they come back a little stronger. My biggest fear is that we wouldn’t have enough stamina because we had a short bench.”
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Yale 4, St. Lawrence 2 - Saturday, November 10, 2012
Yale figured out how to keep Kyle Flanagan and Greg Carey off the score sheet, the first team this year to do that to St. Lawrence, and that was the difference. Andrew Miller scored twice for the Bulldogs. St. Lawrence came away with just one point on the weekend -- we'll see if it's just a temporary setback or not to what's been a strong start.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Yale 5, Harvard 1 - Saturday, November 3, 2012
This was a bit surprising, really. Yale bounced back from a 7-4 thrashing at the hands of Dartmouth to outshoot Harvard 49-29 in the win. Harvard was looking good so far this season, but got throttled here, and has some work to do. It's a very talented team, but it needs to make sure the work ethic sustains itself. Yale showed it still has some tricks in its bag. Read more in our ECAC blog.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Yale 3, Princeton 2 - Saturday, October 27, 2012
Antoine Lagainere finished a three-goal opening weekend by notching the game winner in the Ivy Showcase at Brown's Meehan Auditorium. Laganiere, who had both Yale goals in the 2-2 Friday game against Dartmouth, used a Clinton Bourbonais clean faceoff win to get the puck past Princeton goalie Mike Condon on a low laser shot from the slot at 17:42 of the second. “We’ve worked on that faceoff for a while,” said Laganiere, the 215-pound senior forward. “Trent Ruffolo did a great job of blocking out their D. It was a wrist shot that went low far side.” ... “We played well as a team and seemed to get better every period throughout the weekend,” said Yale captain Andrew Miller.
Yale 3, St. Lawrence 0 - Saturday, March 16, 2013
It's not that stunning that Yale won this series, but the way it completed dominated St. Lawrence, a team that has been playing well, was not expected. Yale got goals from three different players and limited the opposition to 17 shots, and was 6-for-6 on the penalty kill. St. Lawrence scored just one goal on the series despite coming in with two of the nation's top scorers. "Very pleased with the way our guys played all six periods. Tonight they had us under the gun, more than last night,” Yale coach Keith Allain said. “Their power play is the absolute strength of their hockey team. For us to keep them off the board on that was a real momentum swing for us.” ... Yale had to kill off a five-minute major penalty to Clinton Bourbonais. “That was a huge momentum swing. Everybody was really up on it, and we didn’t get down on ourselves. We pulled through and were very successful,” said Tommy Fallen. Allain was impressed with senior goalie Jeff Malcolm's performance. “The shot totals were low tonight, but they had some really good chances. They have some guys who can really shoot the puck." ... “We really went out and executed everything our coaches talked about,” said Fallen.
Box