The Union Dutchmen got five goals from five different skaters to power past the host Yale Bulldogs 5-2 before a sellout crowd of 3,486 at Ingalls Rink.
Yale dominated the first period of play, firing 14 shots on net compared to Union’s nine. Yale had several strong scoring opportunities early, but didn’t find the scoreboard until captain Luke Earl found the net 6:16 into play. Earl’s score was set up by a pretty feed from blueliner Joe Callahan, who, from behind the net, found Earl low in the right face off circle. Earl sent a one-timer past Union netminder Brandon Snee, who finished with 26 saves on the evening.
Despite Yale controlling the flow of the period, the Elis seemed ready to head into the first intermission clinging to a 1-0 lead, but with less than one minute left in the stanza, Union forward Jeff Hutchins stole the puck away from Yale winger Ryan Steeves against the boards and sent it along to Joel Beal, who fired one between the legs of Yale freshman goaltender Peter Cohen to knot the score at 1-1. Cohen, who made his first start at Ingalls Rink, was between the posts because Yale head coach Tim Taylor wanted to rest regular starter Dan Lombard.
“Yale deserved to be ahead by more than one goal after the first period,” Union head coach Kevin Sneddon said. “I give a lot of credit to our guys for coming back in the second and third periods.”
The Dutchmen came out of the locker room playing inspired hockey, and it was not long before they lit the lamp in the second period. After Kris Goodjohn’s shot from the corner bounced in front of the net and caromed off Mark Noren, Nathan Gillies corralled the puck and sent it past a fallen Cohen to give Union a 2-1 advantage just :51 out of the break.
Despite struggling to do so at times, Yale held Union scoreless for the next 17:57 of the period, but Seamus Galligan backhanded one past Cohen at the 18:48 mark to give the visitors a 3-1 advantage.
Yale came out of the gates strong in the final period, with Denis Nam cutting the Union advantage to 3-2 just :59 seconds in with a shorthanded goal. Nam’s initial shot was kicked away by Snee, but Hellemeyer got his stick on the puck and Nam skated in and rocketed it past a fallen Snee.
That was as close as Yale would get.
Jordan Webb scored at the 6:16 mark to give Union a 4-2 margin, and Yale struggled to mount much offense until there was less than 10 minutes remaining in the contest. Despite several attempts, the Elis couldn’t find the net, and pulled Cohen with 1:20 left, but even a sixth skater didn’t help. Goodjohn scored with 10 seconds left on an empty net to ice the game for the Dutchmen.
Union (7-7-3) improved to .500 in the conference, while the Bulldogs (5-10-2) have dropped their fifth straight conference game. Union travels to Princeton on Saturday, while Yale will make its sixth attempt at the program’s 1,000th all-time victory against Rensselaer.
