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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
No. 13 Yale
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Players Mentioned
No. 13 Yale Spoils Senior Day for Princeton Hockey
February 21, 2015 | Men's Ice Hockey
Box Score
PRINCETON, N.J. (2/21/15) - No. 13 Yale's offense erupted at Hobey Baker Rink as the Elis skated to a 6-2 win in Princeton's home finale on Saturday, Feb. 21.
Frankie DiChiara scored twice and added an assist, while defender Rob O'Gara collected three assists. Cody Learned tallied two goals and Carson Cooper chipped in two helpers as Yale outshot Princeton 38-19.
Princeton got on the board first but for each goal it scored, Yale had an answer.
The line of sophomore Ben Foster, junior Jonathan Liau and senior Tucker Brockett nothced the Tigers' first goal at 13:52 of the first period. Brockett skated into the zone and sensing a trap in the corner he flung the puck in front of the net where Liau had a whack at it before Foster got the final touch and buried it, while netminder Alex Lyon was searching for it with his glove.
Less than three minutes later a Yale power-play goal by DiChiara knotted the game at 1-1. O'Gara positioned at the blue line in front of the Princeton bench was the recipient of a push pass after a battle along the boards. He sent the puck across the ice to Nate Repensky who whipped the shot on net and it was tipped in front by DiChiara.
It took 33 seconds for the Bulldogs to grab their first lead of the game as Learned scored his first of the night. The goal was off a bouncing rebound that came off a Ryan Hitchcock deflection and an Adam Larkin drive. John Hayden expanded the lead to 3-1 at 7:50 when he had a back door goal on a back hand pass from Stu Wilson.
Senior defender Aaron Ave cut it back to a one-goal game at 10:04 with Liau and Brockett getting their second assists of the evening. Brockett got a loose puck in the defensive end and swung the puck to the right boards to Liau. Liau skated into the neutral zone and seeing Ave on his right, sent him a backdoor pass for the bang-bang play.
Sixty-two seconds later Yale answered.
The play started and finished with John Baiocco. He skated down the left side and swept the puck along the boards and out the other side to O'Gara. O'Gara pushed it down the boards to Matt Killian and he slotted it for Baiocco who went over the glove of sophomore Colton Phinney. Phinney came into the game at 5:04 and made 26 saves after senior Ryan Benitez was given the start in his final home game as a Tiger. Benitez would also close the game, playing the last 2:15 and made six saves.
Yale scored two more goals in the third period.
O'Gara had a shot from the point that sailed wide and Carson Cooper tracked it down. He sent it across the ice where a battle ensured and just as Princeton thought it had possession, O'Gara poked it away and the puck made its way into open ice. DiChara, just coming out of the corner, was the first to get to it and made it 5-2 at 2:42.
Princeton pulled Phinney at 3:51 to try to make up some ground, but it would be Yale that would find the back of the net.
DiChiara tried to run time off the clock by trapping the puck along the boards. It squirted free and Kevin Liss got the puck and tried to dump it in, instead it deflected off of Cooper to keep it in the zone. Cooper threw the puck toward the goal where DiChiara corralled it for Learned's second goal of the night, this one at 17:45 of the third.
Lyon made 17 saves for Yale, who was 1 for 2 on the power play. A rarity, Princeton did not receive a power-play opportunity in the game.
After this weekend's results it has been determined that the Tigers will be the No. 12 seed in the ECAC tournament. They will face the No. 5 seed - a seed that is yet to be determined. (see scenarios below).
Princeton travels to Dartmouth & Harvard next weekend, Feb. 27 & 28, for the final games of the regular season.
Seedings
Quinnipiac: 1
St. Lawrence: 2
Yale: 3-7 (clinches bye with 2 pts, clinches #3 with 3 points)
Harvard: 3-7 (clinches bye with 4 pts)
Colgate: 3-7
Dartmouth: 3-8
Cornell: 3-8
Clarkson: 6-9 (clinches home ice with 1 pt vs Rensselaer or 2 vs Union)
Rensselaer: 8-11
Union: 9-11
Brown: 9-11
Princeton: 12