Bulldogs Finish Regular Season In Northern New York

Feb. 21, 2007

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The Yale men's hockey team (10-14-3, 7-12-1 ECACHL), coming off a two-point weekend at home, closes out its regular season schedule with road contests against Union and Rensselaer. The Bulldogs enter the weekend tied with Rensselaer for ninth place in the packed ECACHL standings, but their final seed is still undetermined. Yale can finish as high as sixth or as low as 12th and still has a chance to play at home in the first round of the playoffs. The weekend's games can be heard on WYBC (AM-1340) and wybc.com.

REVENGE ON THE MIND
Yale lost recently to both Union (13-16-3, 6-13-1 ECACHL) and Rensselaer (9-15-8, 5-10-5 ECACHL) in a pair of home games in late January. Both contests were decided by only one goal and the game against Union went to overtime. Rensselaer holds a 48-31-5 advantage over the Bulldogs in the all-time series, but the Blue have won 18 of 30 contests over the Dutchmen. Both of Yale's opponents have run into serious trouble as of late. The Engineers have won only one of their last six games while Union has gone winless in six straight after the victory over Yale in January.

DEVINE INTERVENTION
Dartmouth goaltender Mike Devine stopped 51 of 53 shots to thwart an explosive Yale offense on Senior Night at Ingalls Rink. The Bulldogs peppered Devine all game, but could not solve the junior goaltender, losing 3-2 to the Big Green. The 53 shots on goal was a season-high, easily surpassing their next highest output of 41. The last time the Bulldogs had 50 shots in a game was against Union last March in a five-overtime win that became the longest game in NCAA hockey history.

SWEEPING HARVARD
Chris Cahill had two goals and an assist and Alec Richards stopped 28 of 29 shots in a 5-1 home victory over Harvard before a sellout crowd of 3,486. The win, Yale's second over the Crimson this season, completed the Bulldogs' first sweep over their historic rival since the 1997-98 season. Yale outshot Harvard 32-29, converted two of seven power plays, and scored four goals in the second period en route to the victory. The last time the Bulldogs had four goals in a period was against Princeton on January 6, 2006.

IVY CHAMPS?
The Bulldogs, currently 6-3-1 against their Ivy foes, no longer control their own destiny in the race to be Ivy League champion. After their loss to the Big Green, Cornell (5-2-1 Ivy) now holds the cards and can steal the title with two wins over Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend. However, the Blue will claim a share of the title if Cornell loses either of its contests.

CAHILL ON FIRE
Chris Cahill is the latest freshman to find the hot hand with the puck. The rookie recorded just six points in the first 21 games of the season, but has recently turned it on with 4-5-9 in the last six games. Four of those points came this weekend, including 2-1-3 against Harvard.

FROSH AHEAD OF CLASSES
The Yale newcomers lead the team in scoring with 41 goals (by six players) and 86 points. A pair of frosh leads the team in points, but Yale has not had a rookie lead the team in points since Chris Higgins in 2001-02. The Blue has not had a freshman named team MVP since Paul Castraberti in 1977-78. The juniors (12-26-38), seniors (11-21-32) and sophomores (8-11-19) are far behind in scoring. The frosh had an amazing 8-7-15 over the Feb. 2-3 weekend and had three of the six points last weekend.

BACKMAN CLOSE TO FROSH GOALS RECORD
Freshman forward Sean Backman, the son of a former New York Ranger and New Haven (AHL) Nighthawk Mike Backman, was the Feb. 4 ECACHL Player of the Week after scoring five goals (one SHG), including a hat trick at Quinnipiac. His 17 goals ranks 2nd in the conference and trails only fellow rookie Brandon Wong (23 goals) of Quinnipiac. The Yale freshman record for goals in a season is 19 by Tom Walsh (1984-85). Backman, who was ECACHL Rookie of the Week on Jan. 8, leads Yale with 17-12-29 and is second in conference points per game for frosh (sixth overall). Backman, who has two SHG and one penalty shot goal, has a point in 18 of the 27 games including three multiple-goal outings.

THE MATCHUPS
Here's how Yale matches up on paper against Union and Rensselaer in conference play.

Conference Stat	   Yale		Union		Rensselaer
Offense		   9th (2.60)	11th (2.50)	12th (2.30)
Defense		   10th (3.30)	11th (3.55)	12th (3.75)
PP		   7th (14.9)	6th (16.2)	10th (14.2)
PK		   6th (81.9)	11th (79.5)	12th (78.3)
PIM		   1st (24.8)	9th  (17.6)	5th (19.4)

ECACHL STANDINGS
Yale can finish as high as sixth or as low as 12th depending on the outcome of games this weekend. Current standings:

Team		   GP 		W-L-T 		Pts.
St. Lawrence	   20		15-4-1		31
Clarkson	   20		12-4-4		28
Cornell		   20		10-6-4		24
Quinnipiac	   20		10-6-4		24
Dartmouth	   20		10-7-3		23
Harvard		   20		8-10-2		18
Princeton	   20		8-10-2		18
Colgate		   20		7-10-3		17
Yale		   20		7-12-1		15
Rensselaer	   20		5-10-5		15
Brown		   20		5-11-4		14
Union		   20		6-13-1		13

HIGGINS, HAMILTON PRODUCING IN NHL
Two ex-Bulldogs are having their best pro seasons ever in the NHL. Chris Higgins '05, Yale's highest draft pick ever, has 16-10-26 in 44 games with Montreal. Jeff Hamilton '01, Yale's all-time leading scorer, has 13-11-24 (48 gp) with Chicago. He had his first NHL hat trick on Dec. 2 during a four-point night.

Report by Alex Kleiner '08, Yale Sports Publicity