Bulldogs-Tigers in ECAC Quarters :: Yale Heads To Princeton For Series

March 11, 2008

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The 2007-08 Yale men's hockey team (15-12-4, 9-9-4 ECAC) has its share of accomplishments, including two playoff wins and 15 overall victories. The fact that the season continues is the most significant accomplishment of all. The Bulldogs swept Rensselaer in a a pair of overtime games last weekend at Ingalls Rink to advance to the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal Round. Yale, the No. 7 seed, gets the tall task of traveling to No. 2 and 16th ranked Princeton (17-12-0, 14-8-0) this weekend for a best-of-three series. All games are 7 p.m. and pay-per-view video is available on-line at B2 Networks. You can also hear all the action on WYBC (AM-1340) and wybc.com.

Series History

Yale leads the series 120-97-8 though Princeton has taken the last three. This will be the fourth meeting this season and the third all-time in the ECAC playoffs. The teams have split the two previous post-season encounters. The Elis took a 5-1 game at Princeton in the 1990 preliminary round, while the Tigers won (2-1) at the 1998 semifinals at Lake Placid.

Tigers Take Three

The Tigers have already taken three games with the Blue this season. Princeton won 6-2 at the Shootout at Ingalls in October before taking a 4-3 early January game at New Haven. A month later the Tigers won 4-2 at Baker Rink. Despite being outscored 14-7, the Bulldogs outshot Princeton in two of the three for a total of 101-85. Zane Kalemba has all three wins in net while stopping 94 of 101 shots. All three Yale goalies have a decision but Billy Blase (39 of 43), who has action in all three, has seen the most shots. Cam MacIntyre leads Princeton scorers against Yale this year with three goals, all from the season opener. Denny Kearney has two for the Blue. Neither powerplay has been effective in the three games; the Elis are 1-for-19 while Princeton is 1-for-17 combined.

Bulldogs in Bonus

Yale, which has played 57 ECAC tournament games, began play in 1967 with a first-round loss to St. Lawrence at Canton, N.Y. and has gone 13-39-5 overall. The Bulldogs, who have won five of their last 10 overall, exorcised some deamons with last weekend's sweep of RPI in the first round. It was Yale's first home playoff wins since 2003 and the first home playoff series victory since 1998. Other Yale firsts last week include a home OT playoff win, a mutiple-OT game at Ingalls and a playoff win over RPI.

Yale Sweeps RPI

The Blue won a pair of 3-2 overtime games at Ingalls that lasted a combined 170 minutes and 51 seconds. Broc Little, who led Yale with three points, ended game No. 1 in the third OT with a one-timer from the slot and then had the equalizer with 5:21 left the next night. Sean Backman's putback, backhander from the edge of the crease was the series winner on Saturday. Yale outshot RPI 94-47 and kept Mathias Lange (88 saves) very busy. Twenty-six of his saves were in OT. Alec Richards, who had 13 in OT, stopped 43 of 47 shots overall to earn both wins. The 3 OT game was the eighth longest in NCAA men's history and the longest game ever for Yale in New Haven.

Comparing Bulldogs, Tigers

Yale/ Princeton

Scoring Offense (ECAC rank) 2.87 (5th)/ 3.24 (1st)

Scoring Defense 2.71 (6th)/ 2.93 (8th)

Power Play 14.8 (7th)/ 16.7 (6th)

Penalty Kill 87.2 (1st)/ 84.6 (6th)

Penalty Minutes 14.6 (5th)/ 11.9 (10th)

Princeton Rests With Bye

The Tigers, coming off a pair of one-goal losses at Clarkson and St. Lawrence two weeks ago, had a bye last weekend as the No. 2 seed. Princeton is 7-6 at Baker Rink this season (but has not lost since December) and has been outscored 43-39 in those 13 games. However, junior forward Lee Jubinville (11-26-37), the 2007-08 Ivy Player of the Year, leads the ECAC's No. 1 scoring offense (3.24). Classmate Brett Wilson has a team-best 13 goals, while sophomore Zane Kalemba (2.64, .908, 15-9) is the top guy in goal.

Bones For Bullpups

Bulldog rookie forwards Broc Little (10-11-21) and Denny Kearney (8-13-21) are among the top ECAC newcomers. Little is ranked first in the ECAC with five GWG (3rd in Division I), while his .88 points per game are 12th among frosh in the country and second in the conference. Little has points in 11 of 13 since returning from injury and has Yale's only hat trick, a 3-0-3 outing in a win at Nebraska-Omaha. Kearney, who assisted on both Little goals last weekend, is sixth among ECAC rookies with .68 PPG. Kearney, the first Bulldog to tally shorthanded (Dartmouth) this year, has points in 11 of his last 15 games and goals in four of them.

Backman Online Candidate for Hobey

Sophomore forward Sean Backman (18-8-26), last year's co-ECAC Rookie of the Year (18-13-31), is listed by the Hobey Baker Memorial website as a candidate for this year's award. Go to hobeybaker.com to vote for Backman, who is 11th in the nation and first in the conference with a .62 GPG average. Backman's 18 goals are third in the ECAC (he has played 8 fewer games than the leader). He has points in 17 of his last 24 games and goals in 13 of 22. The Cos Cob, Conn., native has 36 goals in 58 career games and is trying to become Yale's first Hobey finalist since Chris Higgins in 2003.

Richards Has Last 3 Wins

Yale junior netminder Alec Richards (1.91, .919, 3-3) earned all three of his 2007-08 wins over the last three games all against RPI. Richards, who has just 503 minutes this season, stopped 64 of 68 shots over those three wins. He started the last meeting at Baker Rink and had 17 saves (4 GA) in 31 minutes. Sophomore Billy Blase (2.43, .911, 12-7-4) last played in the 2-1 loss to Union at home on Feb. 29.

Bench Leaders

Keith Allain '80, in his second year as the Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey, is 2-3 vs. Princeton. Allain, a two-time Olympic coach, earned his first collegiate playoff wins as a coach or player last week. Fourth-year Princeton head coach Guy Gadowsky is 5-4 against Yale.

Coach Allain Says

"It was an exciting and tiring weekend at home, but we are thrilled to advance and have the opportunity to add to a special season. We are looking forward to our series against Princeton this weekend. It will be a great challenge for our hockey team but I think we have something to prove to the Tigers and our guys will make every effort to show they are better than the regular-season results against them."

Making Them Count

The Elis, outscoring opponents 89-84 on the year, have been outscored in the first two periods but have a 34-24 advantage in the third and a 3-0 lead in OT.

Bulldog Bites

Yale has not been to the conference championship weekend since 1998 when the Elis lost to Princeton at Lake Placid... The Elis have never played in the conference championshp game... The current three-game win streak is the longest for the Blue since November of 2006... Junior forward Matt Nelson missed eight straight games with an injury but returned to the lineup last Saturday... Yale's 56 SOG against RPI in the playoff opener were the most since the 5 OT playoff game in 2006 at Union, which had been the last playoff win for the Blue... Friday's game was the first OT win over RPI since 1956 and the first home OT win over the Engineers since 1955.

Senior Moments

Six Yale seniors got extra time to say goodbye to Ingalls Rink over the last two weeks. They had senior night with a 3-0 win over RPI on March 1 and then a pair of OT games with the Engineers last weekend to make their last games more significant. Those wins helped the class of 2008 complete a 10-5-1 mark at the Whale this year.

No Sophomore Jinx

The sophomores lead the Elis with 36 goals this season after notching a team-high 43 as rookies. Yale newcomers have 26, while the seniors (19) are close behind. Yale got a goal from all three classes in the first-round series.

Conference Honors

Eli forward Matthew Thomey was ECAC Player of the Week on Jan. 28 (3-1-4 at Colgate/Cornell)... Freshman forward Broc Little was named ECAC Rookie of the Week after his three-goal output in a win at Nebraska-Omaha on Dec. 28... Billy Blase was ECAC Goalie of the Week on Nov. 19 after making 58 saves on the Clarkson/SLU trip.

Bulldogs In The Show

Chris Higgins '05 (213 gp, 66-53-119 in NHL), an alternate captain for the Montreal Canadiens, has 21-22-43 in 70 games this year. Jeff Hamilton '01 (136, 26-40-66), Yale's career scoring leader, had 6-13-19 in 52 GP for the Carolina Hurricanes before being sent to the AHL Albany River Rats (2-6-8, 7 GP) in late February.

Whale To Grow

The Yale Corporation has approved a $23.5 million renovation of the historic David S. Ingalls Rink (see photo). The project will include the addition of approximately 13,000 square feet of varsity operational space as well as a complete renovation of the current facility. The expanded and enhanced home of Yale Hockey will include new men's and women's varsity locker rooms, training and strength and conditioning rooms, an added press box, a lower level hockey heritage area, offices for coaches of both programs, a student-athlete study area, new lights, as well as a sound system and de-humidification unit. The upper level interior will also be decorated with photos displaying the rich history of Yale Hockey.

Elis On The Air

This weekend's playoff action can be heard live on WYBC (AM 1340) and wybc.com with Alex Goldberger `08 and Alex Jenson '10 providing commentary.

release filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director