Men's Hockey Falls To Yale In ECAC Hockey Championship Game
3/21/2009 10:32:17 PM
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Yale's Sean Backman scored a hat trick as the Bulldogs sent Cornell to a 5-0 loss on Saturday night in the championship game of the ECAC Hockey tournament at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y.
In spite of the outcome, Cornell will still advance to the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2005-06 season with an at-large berth when those are officially announced on Sunday morning.
Ben Scrivens stopped 19 shots for the Big Red (21-9-4), which went 0-for-7 on the man advantage on the night. Yale's Alec Richards stopped 27 Cornell shots for the shutout. Yale went 1-for-5 on the power play for the night.
Despite Cornell controlling play for much of the first period, it was Yale who got on the scoreboard first as Brian O'Neill skated in on the right of Scrivens in a 2-on-1 with Sean Backman. O'Neill slotted a pass across the top of the crease that O'Neill popped over the outstretched leg of the junior netminder for the game's first goal.
Yale added to its tally with 6:16 to play in the second period, working a series of passes in a 3-on-2 in the Cornell end that wound up with Denny Kearney roofing the puck inside post to Scrivens' right off a pass from Broc Little.
Yale then mad the score 3-0 with 1:47 to play in the second as a shot thrown on net by Mark Arcobello was stopped by Scrivens, but the rebound came off to O'Neill, who fired it through Scrivens' legs.
A power-play goal with 13:36 to play in the game made the score 4-0 in favor of the Bulldogs. Broc Little led a 2-on-1 into the Cornell end and slipped a pass to Backman who easily redirected the puck into the Cornell goal.
Cornell pulled Scrivens for the extra skater while on a power play with just over eight minutes to play, but could not put the puck past Richards on the single man advantage. After killing off the penalty, Yale's Backman fired a shot into the Cornell goal from the blue line for his third goal of the night.
Cornell will now await its opponent and site in the NCAA tournament, which will be announced on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. on ESPN2.
ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM
F - Sean Backman, Yale (Most Outstanding Player)
F - Dan Bartlett, Princeton
F - Broc Little, Yale
D - Jared Seminoff, Cornell
D - Ryan Donald, Yale
G - Alec Richards, Yale