Feb. 24, 2006

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Quinnipiac (9-17-2, 6-13-2 ECACHL, 11th) took the lead early and never looked back, defeating the Bulldogs (17-15-1, 8-12-1, 9th) 6-2 tonight at Ingalls Rink in front of a sellout crowd of 3,486. It was the Elis' sixth consecutive conference loss.

"They got away from us in the first," said Tim Taylor, the Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey at Yale. "I didn't think we were in sync at all defensively tonight."

The Bobcats, who have won six of their last ten games, struck early and often. Yale made a bad line change early in the first, giving Quinnipiac winger Brian Leitch the opportunity to find a wide open Jamie Bates skating for the net. The Bobcat winger deeked to his backhand and beat Bulldog netminder Alec Richards at 2:48 of the first. Bates almost made it 2-0 two minutes later, but Richards denied him with the glove from point blank range.

At 9:29 Yale's Blair Yaworski and Quinnipiac's Jamie Bates received matching roughing penalties, setting up two minutes of four-on-four play. Bobcat winger David Marshall took advantage of the open ice and cut from the half-boards to the slot and let a wrister go that beat Richards five-hole at 11:27.

Quinnipiac got a fortunate bounce with 1:25 let to play in the opening frame when Chris Myers shot off the face-off deflected off of Yale defenseman Bill LeClerc and into the net to give the Bobcats a 3-0 lead heading into the fist intermission, despite being out-shot 15-12. The Elis struggled to solve Bobcat goalie Bud Fisher, who finished the game with 33 saves on 35 shots.

It was more of the same in the second period, and Ben Nelson's 15th goal of the year at 6:42 chased Richards, who finished with 15 saves on 19 shots, from the net. Senior Josh Gartner replaced him and was solid in net, stopping 16 of 18 shots in 33 minutes of play.

After a boarding penalty to Nate Jackson with 5:19 left to play in the middle frame, Leitch found Bates open in the low slot again and Bates ripped a one-timer by Gartner to extend the Bobcat lead to five after 40 minutes of play.

Yale got on the board at 3:29 of the third period, when Yale two leading scorers hooked up on the power play. Jeff Hristovski broke down the left side and slid a beautiful pass across the crease to a streaking Jean-Francois Boucher, who knocked his team-leading 13th goal of the year.

After another Marshall goal, Yale broke through on the power play again, when Joe Zappala found Blair Yaworski cutting to the net. The Calgary native buried the puck top shelf at 17:47 of the third to make the score 6-2, but it was too little too late.

The Elis host Ivy rival Princeton (9-16-3, 6-12-3, 10th) Saturday night at Ingalls Rink. It is the Bulldog's final home game of the season and Yale will recognize its ten seniors. With a win tomorrow night, Yale can leapfrog the Tigers in the standings and secure a 10th place conference finish.

"We haven't won for a long time, the playoffs are on the horizon, and we desperately need a momentum shift," Taylor said.

Report filed by Sean Singer '06, Yale Sports Publicity