Bulldogs Take 4-3 Game in Regular Season Finale

Feb. 24, 2007

The Yale men's hockey team needed some momentum heading into the 2007 ECACHL Playoffs and it came in the form of great special teams play and a big night from senior goalie Matt Modelski, who stopped 24 shots, in the Bulldogs' 4-3 regular-season ending victory at Rensselaer.

The victory puts the Blue (11-15-3, 8-13-1 ECACHL) in 10th place and sets up a first-round playoff weekend at No. 7 Harvard, which the Elis swept in the regular season for the first time since 1997-98. The Bulldogs and Crimson square off in the best-of-three series March 2-4 at Bright Hockey Center.

Special teams were the difference in this one with Yale lighting the lamp three times on nine attempts. At the other end, Modelski, who had 11 stops in the final period including a few on a two-man advantage, and the Bulldogs blanked RPI (10-16-8) on all eight of its chances.

The Engineers had a 27-20 edge in shots on target but the visitors still managed to win their first regular-season finale since 2001-02. The Elis got two pucks past both starting goalie Mathias Lange (5 saves) and his replacement, Jordan Alford (11).

Yale forward Sean Backman, who tallied his 18th goal of the season and moved to within one of the school record for rookies, finished with a goal and an assist. He notched the game's first goal on a powerplay at 2:24 of the first.

The home team evened the score when Tommy Green grabbed a Bulldog turnover and made a nifty move to the net at 18:20 of the opening frame.

With 47 seconds left in the period, senior blueliner Bill LeClerc (6th goal) gave the Blue a 2-1 lead off a faceoff on another man-advantage. That helped the Bulldogs grab momentum heading into the first intermission.

Early in the second, Robert Page, a junior defenseman, hit the net for the second time this season to make it 3-1, but the killer for the Engineers came with four seconds left in the that period. Sophomore forward Patrick Brosnihan (3rd) beat Alford with a well-placed shot to put the game out of reach.

However, Rensselaer was not going away on its senior night before 3,793 at Houston Fieldhouse. Jake Luthi and Chris Jensen tallied the lone goals of the third period and the Bulldogs got a late scare before holding on. Jensen's goal got a big argument from Yale captain Matt Cohen and Modelski who argued that the Eli goalie, who lost his stick on the play, was interfered with.

The Bulldogs, who got two points from LeClerc and a pair of assists from Mark Arcobello, finish off the regular season with one more win than last year's total that included a pair of playoff victories at Union. Yale also captured a piece (share with Dartmouth) of the Ivy League championship this winter.

"We had all the seniors on the team in the lineup tonight and they all made major contributions. That was most pleasing for me on the last night of the regular season," said Keith Allain '80, Yale's Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey. I was very impressed with our power-play unit. RPI is a team that really pressures you on the penalty-kill, but we kept moving the puck and found open guys. We scored some pretty goals tonight."

First-Round ECACHL Byes

#1 St. Lawrence

#2 Clarkson

#3 Dartmouth

#4 Cornell

First-Round ECACHL Match-ups

#5 Quinnipiac hosts #12 Union

#6 Princeton hosts #11 Brown

#7 Harvard hosts #10 Yale

#8 Colgate hosts #9 Rensselaer

Report filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director