September 28, 2011

Bulldogs Picked 1st By Coaches, Media

Yale Pre-Season Pick of ECAC Hockey

O'Neill, Miller on All-ECAC Team

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - They have won two of the last three conference regular season titles and tournament championships, and the Yale men's ice hockey team has been picked to finish first this season by the ECAC Hockey coaches and media. The 2011-12 ECAC Hockey pre-season polls and all-conference teams were announced today.

The Elis, defending conference tournament champions, are coming off a 28-7-1 campaign that ended with a loss in the NCAA East Regional Final against eventual national champion Minnesota Duluth.

The Blue received 25 of the 42 media first-place votes, 14 more than second-place Union. Nine of the 12 coaches voted Yale first.

"We want to be in a position where we can get to the national tournament, and our expectations for our team have not changed at all from the last few years," said Keith Allain '80, Yale's Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey.

The Bulldogs, ranked 8^th and 9^th in the two major pre-season Division I polls, had a pair of forwards, senior Brian O'Neill (Yardley, Pa.) and junior Andrew Miller (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), picked by both the media and coaches for the all-conference team.

O'Neill, the new captain, had 12 goals and 25 points in 22 conference outings in 2010-11. His goal total was second among ECAC players while he tied Chace Polacek of Rensselaer, the conference player of the year, for the points lead. One of three finalists for the conference player of the year award, O'Neill had a hat trick at Clarkson and had a point in all but four games overall last winter.

Miller, who played on the same line as O'Neill, scored nine times and had 27 points in ECAC games. His 1.23 points per game average and 18 assists were both tops in the conference. He had 11 multiple-point outings last winter including a four-assist contest against Union in December and a two-goal game against Cornell at New Haven.

ECAC Hockey 2011-12

Media Poll

1) Yale (25)

2) Union (11)

3) Cornell (5)

4) Dartmouth (1)

5) Rensselaer

6) Quinnipiac

7) Princeton

8) St. Lawrence

9) Clarkson

10) Colgate

11) Brown

12) Harvard

Media All-Conference Team

James Mello-Dartmouth (G)

Brian O'Neill-Yale (F)

Andrew Miller-Yale (F)

Greg Carey-St. Lawrence (F)

Danny Biega-Harcard (D)

Nick Bailen-Rensselaer (D)

Coaches' Poll

1) Yale (9)

2) Union (2)

3) Cornell

4) Rensselaer

5) Dartmouth

6) Quinnipiac (1)

7) Harvard

8) Princeton

9) St. Lawrence

10) Colgate

11) Clarkson

12) Brown

Coaches' All-Conference Team

James Mello-Dartmouth (G)

Brian O'Neill-Yale (F)

Andrew Miller-Yale (F)

Jack MacClellan-Brown (F)

Danny Biega-Harcard (D)

Nick Bailen-Rensselaer (D)

filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director