Garnet Hockey Report: Union suffers 2-0 loss against Yale (with video, audio)

Box Score

by Ryan Fay

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – There are few guarantees in life.

But in the recent past, you were seemingly guaranteed to see Union score at least one goal in each game it played.

Union entered Friday with a nation-leading 98 game goal-scoring streak. That streak didn't reach 99. 15th-ranked Yale blanked the Dutchmen, 2-0, in front of 2,049 fans at Messa Rink. The last time Union was held scoreless was a 4-0 home loss against Quinnipiac on Nov. 30, 2012.

The Dutchmen rarely came close to continuing their streak on Friday. Union only mustered four shots in the opening period and finished with just 23 for the game. Most of Union's shots came from the outside, and the team rarely generated much traffic in front of Yale goalie Alex Lyon. Yale's top-ranked defense added 15 blocks.

It added up to an easy shutout for Lyon, his fifth of the season.

“That’s a credit to Yale and how they kind of kept us from the net,” Union head coach Rick Bennett said. “We’ve got to keep at it, keep bearing down at it. Was it that absolute pack-of-wolves mentality that we need? Probably not. Anybody who was here at the game saw that.”

Pressuring the goaltender was an area of discussion for Union (6-10-1 ECAC Hockey, 14-13-2 overall) leading up to the game.

“It’s something that we talked about, getting in the goalie’s eyes,” Dutchmen forward Daniel Ciampini said. “We struggled to do that today. I think we got some shots from where we wanted to, from the outside and driving to the net. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the bounces. The rebounds were there. We just didn’t have guys driving the net with the stick on the ice.”

Union's offensive woes ruined a strong performance from senior goalie Colin Stevens, who rebounded from getting yanked in the second period of last Saturday's 7-1 loss at St. Lawrence. Stevens made 31 saves, including several big stops in the third to keep Union within one goal.

“I thought he played well,” Bennett said. “We’re going to have to feed off of that. Did he save the world? No. But, again, that’s what a goalie’s supposed to do.”

Stevens' lone miscue came at 16:16 of the first when Yale took a 1-0 lead. Mitch Witek's shot from the slot went wide of Union's net, but it caromed off the back wall and out in front of the goal. Mike Doherty was there to capitalize, and he sent it past Stevens.

“That’s kind of a tough play,” Stevens said. “But I’ve got to do a better job of tracking pucks. That’s a save I expect myself to make.”

In a bid to find the game-tying goal, Bennett pulled Stevens for the extra-attacker with a little over a minute left in the third. But Matt Wilkins' tripping penalty with 54 seconds left negated that advantage.

Yale (9-6-2, 14-7-3) iced the victory on the ensuing power-play, as John Hayden buried an empty-netter with 34 seconds remaining.

"I think everyone knows that they can be better," Stevens said. "Tomorrow’s a new day.”

End notes: Senior forward Sam Coatta returned after missing the last six games with an upper-body injury. Junior forward Matt Wilkins returned after missing last Saturday's loss at St. Lawrence with a lower-body injury.

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