Yale Athletics

The Yale men’s hockey team (7–18–4, 6–14–2 ECAC) finished an unsteady season with a 4–2 win against Colgate University (14–15–5, 11–8–3 ECAC) and a 5–1 loss to Cornell University (18–9–2, 15–6–1 ECAC).

The Bulldogs continued their winning streak from their commanding victory over Princeton University in a 4–2 win over Colgate this Friday.

“Overall, it was a good weekend for us,” head coach Keith Allain ’80 said. “We played what might be our best game so far this season on Friday night vs Colgate, but Cornell was a stiffer test.”

Against the Raiders on Friday night, Yale jumped onto the powerplay early in the game, at only 1:15 in the first period, following a penalty on Colgate’s Alex Young for slashing. After the Elis failed to capitalize on the man-advantage, Young came out of the penalty box and picked up a pass from Matt Verboon to find the back of the net less than fifteen seconds after his penalty ended.

Just over a minute later, at 4:38 in the first frame, Bulldog forwards Niklas Allain ’24 and Briggs Gammill ’25 snagged the puck, passing it to defenseman Connor Sullivan ’25, who put it away to tally Yale’s first goal of the weekend.

At 11:39 in the first period, Colgate exacted revenge, with Levi Glasman and Bobby Metz assisting Daniel Panetta in the team’s second point of the night. 

Though the second period remained scoreless, Yale retaliated in the third. At 9:49 in the third frame, forward Cole Donhauser ’23 and defenseman Ryan Conroy ’23 assisted forward Ian Carpentier ’24 in evening the score. Not even a minute later, Sullivan and forward Henry Wagner ’24 assisted forward Reilly Connors ’24 in successfully gaining the upper hand.

Finally, Conroy scored an empty net goal in the final two minutes to give the Elis an insurmountable two-goal lead.

Goalkeeper Nathan Reid ’24 blocked 23 shots on the goal during the game. This dominating victory was Yale’s first clinch over Colgate since Feb. 22, 2020.

The resilience in our group was great on Friday,” forward Kieran O’Hearn ’25 said. “Coming back from behind twice really showed the growth we have had throughout the season.”

However, the Bulldogs could not maintain their momentum against Cornell the next day, as they hosted their ECAC and Ivy League rivals for senior night.

The Big Red struck first at 14:37 in the first period, with Nick DeSantis and Ondrej Psenicka assisting Winter Wallace.

Two and a half minutes into the second period, Kyle Penney gave Cornell a 2–0 lead, putting the Blue and White in a difficult position. Just under three minutes later, at 5:29, Penney and Kyler Kovich assisted Jack O’Leary in scoring Cornell’s third point of the game. 

The Bulldogs headed into their second intermission trailing 3–0, but still looking to make the game competitive.

That became increasingly unlikely when DeSantis scored the Big Red’s fourth goal at 3:46 in the final frame, off assists by Travis Mitchell and Ben Berard.

Yale finally found the scoreboard at 8:08 in the third frame. O’Hearn and forward Quinton Ong ’23 assisted Donhauser, marking Donhauser’s sixth goal of the season.

Cornell soon exacted revenge, tallying its fifth and final goal at 13:47 in the third period. O’Leary and Penney assisted Berard.

Goalkeeper Connor Hopkins ’23 made 24 saves in goal.

“I think senior night is always a special night,” Carpentier said. “The end result of the game was unfortunate, but those moments are so special for our team and realizing how quickly time goes by and to not take any of it for granted.”

This unfortunate loss did not stop the team from celebrating their senior class in their annual senior night. 

The team has seven seniors: Hopkins, defenseman Michael Young ’23, defenseman Brandon Tabakin ’23, defenseman Ryan Carmichael ’23, Ong, forward Hayden Rowan ’23 and Donhauser.

“I just want to give a shoutout to our seniors; they’ve battled hard all year and have given everything that they have to develop our program,” Conroy said. “They have shown up everyday with a team-first mentality and a commitment to getting better.”

The Bulldogs will take on Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (14–19–1, 9–13–0 ECAC) on Saturday in Troy, New York, at the ECAC Hockey Tournament. 

The Elis fell to RPI in their most recent match-up on Feb. 11

“We are all excited for playoff hockey on the road against a strong RPI team that we split with during the regular season,” Allain said. “The game should be a hard-fought competitive battle with both teams fighting to advance.”

The puck is slated to drop at 7 p.m.

Amelia Lower contributed reporting.

GRAYSON LAMBERT
Grayson Lambert is a junior in Jonathan Edwards College from Atlanta, double-majoring in Applied Mathematics and Economics. She covers tennis, men's ice hockey, and crew.