Despite outshooting Colgate 37–28, the No. 19 Yale men’s ice hockey team slumped to a 4–1 defeat at Ingalls Rink.

Colgate took advantage of a frantic end-to-end second period to break a 1–1 tie and build a two-goal advantage. The Bulldogs took a number of ill-timed penalties, and failed to reach their normally high standards on both the power play and penalty kill, ultimately falling by three goals to the Raiders.

“It feels good [to get our first league win], especially against this team,” Colgate head coach Don Vaughan said. “This is the first win for our senior class against this Yale team, so it’s very special for them.”

After a scoreless first five minutes, in which both teams fought hard but found few real opportunities, Colgate broke the deadlock. Defender Chandler Lindstrand ’20 mishandled the puck in the neutral zone, and the Raider’s Tim Harrison scored on a breakaway at 6:45 into the period. However, less than two minutes later, the Bulldogs scored the equalizer on a breakaway of their own. Captain and forward John Hayden ’17 made a cross-ice pass ice pass to forward Joe Snively ’19, who broke into Colgate’s zone before deking past goaltender Charlie Finn at 8:10.

Yale failed to capitalize on the only penalty of the period, a hooking call on Emilio Audi, with only one scoring opportunity and no shots on goal during the player advantage.

Colgate came up flying the second period, getting a quality look just seconds into the frame and putting the heat on the Bulldogs. Barely two minutes into the period, the Raiders scored the go-ahead goal when forward Hunter Racine’s shot from the right faceoff circle trickled through the five-hole of goaltender Patrick Spano ’17 at 2:23.

Yale had several chances to draw level after Colgate took a penalty at 4:45 and, unlike the previous time that the Bulldogs spent on the player advantage, created some great opportunities. The best of those came from Hayden, whose shot from the slot rang off the post and, despite a review by the officials, was ultimately ruled not a goal.

Instead, it was Colgate that scored while on a player advantage. Snively was whistled for interference two seconds into a Yale power play, and after Hayden followed him to the box moments later, the Raiders took advantage of the four-on-three opportunity. Sebastian Weberg picked up a rebound in the crease and tapped it in at 8:21. Colgate kept the pressure up, with a shorthanded breakaway halfway through the period after another Eli slip-up on the blueline, but Spano stood tall to turn the chance away, and made a great sequence of saves to keep the Bulldogs in the game.

Down by two, the Bulldogs started the third period by putting five shots on net in the opening minutes, but the first half of the period was characterized by back-and-forth play, with neither team being able to set up in their opponent’s zone. The Elis had a strong push on their fourth power play of the game, with a number of high quality chances, doing everything right short of putting the puck in the back on the net.

“We were all locked in as a team,” Finn said. “The defense played fantastic, blocking shots, getting pucks out of the zone. We got hemmed in a couple of times  — coach always says ‘bend but don’t break’ and that’s what happened.”

Yale was given yet another opportunity to convert on the player advantage with 7 minutes left, but once again fell short. An ill-timed five-minute major boarding call on Lindstrand while the Bulldogs were still on the man advantage meant that Yale was forced to play 4:41 of the final five minutes on the penalty kill.

The Raiders stayed on the power play even after defender Brett Corkney stretched Colgate’s lead to 4–1 goals, blasting a shot past Spano at 15:41 of the third period. That rounded out the scoring for the game, as Yale was unable to put more than one puck past Finn.

“[We have to] play the full 60 minutes,” Hayden said. “There’s a lot of parity in the ECAC, so you can’t just decide you’re going to play well for ten minutes or certain stretches, you have to come ready to go for the whole game.”

The Bulldogs will be back on the ice at Ingalls Saturday night at 7 p.m. as they face-off against Cornell.