Engasser's Two Goals Lift Yale to 4-3 Win
Jan. 6, 2007
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Will Engasser had two goals and Alec Richards made 41 saves as the Yale men's hockey team came from behind to defeat Brown 4-3 before 2,930 at Ingalls Rink in ECAC Hockey League play.
Yale (7-6-2, 4-4 ECACHL) jumped over Brown (7-5-3, 3-4-1) in the conference standings by erasing 2-0 and 3-1 deficits despite being outshot 44-30 and having just two powerplay chances. The Elis also avenged a 3-2 loss on Dec. 9 at Providence while ending a seven-game winless streak.
Richards, who had a season-best save total that included stopping all 17 Brown shots in the final period, won the battle of young star goalies by surviving the rough start.
"It was a little frustrating but you can either go into the tank or keep battling," said Richards, the sophomore Bulldog netminder who thwarted all five Brown man advantages. "We got off to a bad start but turned it around. We needed that one to get our confidence back."
Dan Rosen, the Brown freshman who entered the game with the nation's best goals against average (1.44) and save percentage (.957), was true to form by stopping all 13 shots before finishing with 26 overall. The Bulldogs needed an impressive offensive effort to solve the Bear goalie.
"I was pleased with the way we handled the adversity. We played more and more like a team and found a way to win," said Keith Allain, Yale's Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey.
The Bears grabbed the early lead when Jeff Prough (7th goal) flipped a backhander high on Richards' glove side after the visitors won a faceoff 47 seconds into the game. Matt Vokes won the draw and Brian McNary quickly controlled it and got it over to Prough. The junior winger took the puck to the low slot where he held the puck for a moment before letting go.
Ryan Garbutt (2nd) made it a 2-0 lead when his wrister from the top of the left circle sailed over the Yale goalie's shoulder at 5:11. Garbut took a feed from inside his own blueline and then skated into the Yale end with a Bulldog defender on him, but managed to catch Richards by surprise with a quick release. That was the last of five Brown shots on net (with a pair of scores) before the Elis put anything near the Bear goal.
It was six minutes into the game before the Bulldogs put a shot on Rosen and the home team managed to get 13 in the frame, two less than the visitors.
Sean Backman (9th) cut the margin in half 71 seconds into the second by beating his former teammate, Rosen, with a snap shot from the circle that went a foot off the ice and past the goalie's glove.
Prough (8th) notched his second off another faceoff 1:31 later to make it 3-1. Vokes again won a draw but this time the puck went directly to Prough who fired a high shot for the two-goal lead.
The Bulldogs climbed back to within a goal again at 15:31 of the middle frame as defenseman Tom Dignard earned his second goal of the year. The puck came around the boards to the point and Dignard quickly sent it on net and beat Rosen low to the stick side to make it 3-2.
Brown outshot Yale 12-10 in the second and had a 5-on-3 for most of the last minute that carried into the third. The Bulldogs killed it off with some big saves by Richards and then grabbed some momentum by capitalizing on a solid offensive flurry.
Mark Arcobello nearly scored when a rebound sat on the doorstep and the Yale center couldn't direct it on net. However, he managed to get the puck back in the corner and set his linemate up perfectly. Engasser (3rd), who three goals in the last two games, was waiting at the top of the left circle and one-timed a low blast past Rosen's stick at 2:24 to even things at 3-3.
The Bulldogs had just one man advantage through the first two periods but cashed in on the second try for the game's only power-play goal and the game-winner. Backman made a great play to beat a Bear to a crossing pass from Bill LeClerc and get a shot towards the net. Engasser (4th) was in the low slot and got his stick on the shot enough to re-direct it past Rosen at 6:07 for Yale's first lead at 4-3.
"I saw the shot coming toward me and knew that their goalie was moving across to make the stop," said Engasser, who was a healthy scratch for four straight games until the Dec. 30 Nebraska contest. "I just got my stick on it and sent it through his legs. It was an exciting feeling. It's easy to score playing with those two young guys (Arcobello, Backman). They put it on my tape and make my job easy."
"He knows where to go and has a knack around the net," said Allain of Engasser. "I thought those guys (Arcobello and Backman) might be able to find him, and I knew he (Engasser) would finish well."
Brown head coach Roger Grillo pulled Rosen with 1:02 left to get the sixth skater and it nearly payed off when Sean Hurley's shot from the circle bounced off Richards' blocker a second before the horn sounded.
The Bulldogs play next Friday night at Princeton before Quinnipiac comes to Ingalls the following night.
Report filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director
