Despite a third-period comeback that forced the game into overtime, the No. 7 Yale men’s hockey team failed to surmount a Dartmouth lead in the first game of the ECAC quarterfinal series, falling 4–3 in an upset 17 minutes into overtime.

Coming off a bye week in the first round of the ECAC Hockey Tournament, the second-seeded Bulldogs (19–7–4, 14–5–3 ECAC Hockey) lacked the momentum that a battle-tested Dartmouth team (17–15–1, 11–11–0) capitalized on in the contest at Ingalls Rink. Although three Eli goals in the final period sent the game into overtime, Dartmouth defenseman Connor Yau ended Yale’s chance of come-from-behind victory when he knocked the puck past goaltender Alex Lyon ’17 to give the Big Green a one-game lead in the best of three series.

The Bulldogs launched 26 shots at Dartmouth goaltender Charles Grant in the first two periods of the game — far above the 16 leveled at Lyon during the two frames — but the first 40 minutes remained scoreless for the Elis. The tally drought presented an opportunity for a 1–0 Dartmouth lead when defenseman River Rymsha scored the first goal of the night midway through the second period.

Yale evened the score at 1–1 just 28 seconds into the third period off a shot from forward Frankie DiChiara ’17. The rest of the final frame would be characterized by back-and-forth scoring, including a goal by defenseman Rob O’Gara ’16 and an equalizing goal from forward John Hayden ’17 to send the Ivy foes into a 20-minute overtime period.

It took nearly all of those 20 minutes to break the 3–3 tie. Despite 13 shots in the extra time, Yale could not find the net in time to stop Dartmouth from lighting the lamp itself and winning its third overtime contest of the postseason.

The Bulldogs will continue their series against the Big Green Saturday night as they fight to remain in the conference tournament.

The pucks is scheduled to drop at 7 p.m. at Ingalls on Saturday.