In their first action since winning the national championship in April, the Yale men’s ice hockey team skated and shot as if they had never left the ice.

The Bulldogs came out victorious in their first scrimmage of the 2013–’14 season on Saturday night against the University of Ontario Institute of Technology at Ingalls rink. In a 9–2 performance from Yale, freshman gained experience and contributed on both offense and defense. Yale’s three goaltenders split time in the net. Each one played a period and combined to face a total of 18 shots. The Elis, on the other hand, put 51 shots on goal.

“I thought all five lines played great and everybody contributed,” captain Jesse Root ’14 said. “Overall it was a great team win.”

An impressive two-goal performance from forward John Hayden ’17 helped the Elis on both the power play and at even strength, while consistent defense from a veteran-dominated back line kept the puck out of Yale’s net for most of the night.

The Bulldogs jumped out to an early lead when forward Charles Orzetti ’16 hammered home a backhand rebound just under the crossbar at 7:41 in the first period.

Ontario Tech bounce right back, however, to tie the game 1–1 when Mitch Bennett scored on an assist from Cameron Yuill just 12 seconds later.

Despite evening the score quickly, Ontario did not stay in the game long.

Just over two minutes later, Hayden scored his first collegiate goal on a pass from linemate Frankie DiChiara ’17.

“It felt really good,” Hayden said. “I had a huge smile on my face and it’s a great atmosphere here so putting the first one in is a great feeling.”

Before the end of the first period, Yale widened its lead to two when captain Jesse Root ’14 knocked his first goal of the season past goaltender Colin Dzijacky.

When the teams returned to the ice for the second period of action, Ontario came out a step quicker than they had in the first. As a result, Brendan Wise scored a goal in tight on Alex Lyon ’17 just two minutes into the second period.

After a 10-minute dead period with little action from either team, the Yale offense came alive and scored six unanswered goals to make the final score 9–2. Yale’s scoring spree began with a powerplay goal from Kenny Agostino ’14. Linemate Clinton Bourbonais ’14 fed Agostino a flat pass in between the hash marks and Agostino one-timed it past Dzijacky to make it 4–2.

Before the period ended, Bourbonais struck again on the attack. This time he put away a short-handed goal for the Elis.

Yale’s conditioning showed in the third period as they wore down Ontario Tech and ran away with the game, shutting out the Ridgebacks while simultaneously putting four goals past Dzijacky. A total of six penalties were called on the Ridgebacks in the third period, including a game misconduct. Two of these penalties overlapped, resulting in a five-on-three situation midway through the period. Hayden capitalized on the two-man advantage to score his second goal of the night.

“We weren’t perfect by any stretch but I really like the fact that we got better as the game went on,” said head coach Keith Allain. “Our focus and discipline [were] great in the third period so all in all we got out of the game what we needed.”

Ruffolo tipped a shot from Nico Weberg ’15, DiChiara blasted in a rebound and Stu Wilson ’16 knocked in a clean powerplay goal for the final result.

The Bulldogs will play their season opener in the Ivy League Shootout tournament at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, this Friday, Oct. 25.