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Breakthrough victory for
men's hockey
March 23, 2009
by Mark Alden Branch '86
It took Yale 48 years to
win the ECAC men's hockey tournament for the first time, but the Bulldogs made
it look easy on March 21, defeating Cornell 5-0 in the finals of the postseason
tournament. (Yale competes with five other Ivies and six other colleges in the
ECAC hockey conference.)
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The team hadn't been to the NCAA championship tournament since 1998.
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The team's trip to its
first-ever appearance in the ECAC finals began with first-round wins over Brown
at Ingalls Rink on March 13 and 14. In the semifinals at Albany on March 20,
the Bulldogs were down 3-2 with two minutes left to play, but scored two goals
in 22 seconds to win and advance to the championship game with Cornell.
The victory, along with a
24-7-2 regular season record, earned the team a spot in the 16-team NCAA
championship tournament, its first since 1998. As it happens, Yale and
Fairfield University are co-hosting the East Regional games for the tournament,
at the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport. The Bulldogs, seeded number two,
will play Vermont in the first round on March 27. Yale is ranked fifth in the
nation in the latest USCHO.com/CBS poll, and Vermont is ranked 11th. 
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