Stevens has a career night in 2-0 win (with highlights)

Box Score

by Ryan Fay

Niskayuna native Colin Stevens must really want the Mike Richter Award.

Colin Stevens (30) guards the side of the net
during Union's 2-0 win over Yale Friday
night at Ingalls Rink.
Photo: Robert Dungan/bigleaguepics.com

Hours after being nominated for the inaugural Mike Richter Award, which honors the most outstanding goaltender in NCAA men's hockey, Stevens turned in the best performance of his collegiate career.

The junior pushed aside a career-high 49 shots to lift third-ranked Union to a 2-0 win over 15th-ranked Yale Friday night at Ingalls Rink.

His 49 saves were the most by a Union goaltender in a regular season game since Corey Milan recorded 50 in a 5-2 loss at Massachusetts on Nov. 25, 2007.

The shutout was Stevens' fifth of the season, matching Kris Mayotte (2005-2006) and Troy Grosenick (2011-2012) for the program single season high. He improved to 20-4-2 while lowering his goals against average to 2.02 and increasing his save percentage to .927.

"He's in a good groove right now," said Union assistant coach Jason Tapp. "He's fighting for pucks and controlling his rebounds well. Plain and simply, he stole the game for us."

Stevens' shutout came at the right time as Union (23-6-4 overall, 17-3-1 ECACH) turned in an uncharacteristic defensive showing.

"We gave up a [season-high] 49 shots, and for the first time in awhile, 20-plus grade-A chances. It wasn't a great performance, defensively, for us," Tapp said. "We certainly helped them by turning pucks over and being too cute."

Sam Coatta, who won a team-high nine faceoffs, put Union on the board at 1:55 of the first period, capitalizing on a rebound off a Matt Hatch shot for his fifth goal of the season.

Daniel Carr (9) watches the puck go into the net
at 0:39 of the third period to give Union
a 2-0 lead over Yale.
Photo: Robert Dungan/bigleaguepics.com

Daniel Carr tied Daniel Ciampini for the team lead in goals with 16 when he knocked home a rebound off a shot from Sebastien Gingras 39 seconds into the third to extend Union's lead to 2-0.

Tapp thought Union could have gotten a few more goals against Yale goalie Alex Lyon, who finished with 34 saves.

"If we were a little hungrier around the net and wanted to pay a price to get to the dirty areas, we could have gotten a few more goals there, certainly early," Tapp said. "There were plenty of pucks out front for us to knock home, but we weren't gritty enough to get to the dirty areas and score some goals. We stayed to the perimeter quite a bit."

Even though Union didn't bring its best game, Tapp said it says something that the Dutchmen found a way to win.

"Good teams find ways to win these games. It was our goaltender tonight, who has been phenomenal in the second half of the season" said Tapp. "We did enough to win. It just wasn't in the fashion that we're accustomed to."

With the victory, Union improved to 11-1-2 against nationally-ranked competition this season and ran its unbeaten streak to eight games (7-0-1).

The Dutchmen hope to extend that streak to nine when they close out the regular season today at 4 at Brown.

"We'll watch video [this morning], go over some points and clean some areas up," Tapp said. "Brown plays us tough, especially in [their] building. It's going to be a challenge. They're fighting for home ice [in the in first round of the ECACH playoffs]. They're going to be ready to go, and it's going to be a battle for us, so we need to be plugged in and ready to go."

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

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