Slumping Yale finally gave coach Tim Taylor a new school record for wins, but not before waiting just a bit longer.
Poor ice conditions at Yale’s home rink forced the game Saturday night against Cornell to be moved at the last minute to nearby New Haven Coliseum. Once the game started, the teams waited through a shattered pane of Plexiglas that needed to be replaced.
As fate would have it, the game would stretch into overtime before Yale’s power-play goal gave it a 1-0 win over the Big Red. The win was the 279th for Taylor in his 22-plus seasons behind the bench, all at Yale. With it, he surpassed the legendary Murray Murdoch on the school’s all-time wins list.
Taylor’s record is now 279-332-47 (.460), including 11-12-0 this season (7-9-0 ECAC). The Bulldogs had lost their last four games since defeating Notre Dame on Jan. 27.
Nick Deschenes scored the game winner, 2:14 into overtime. There had only been one minor penalty to each team the entire game, until Cornell’s fateful penalty in the OT. The power-play game winner came against the league’s top-ranked penalty kill.
Taylor was an assistant for the U.S. World Junior team, supporting head coach and former Yale goalie Keith Allain. Taylor has been very active in USA Hockey programs, and was head coach for the 1994 U.S. Olympic team in Lillehammer, Norway.
In 1998, Yale finished with its lone regular-season ECAC Championship, and first-ever bid to the NCAA tournament.
