NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! Yale beats QU for title

Which unbelievable thing shall we start with? That the Yale men's hockey team, which barely even qualified for the NCAA Tournament, made it to the Frozen Four for the first time since 1952? That they got there by beating the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the country? That, in the finals, they ended up facing No. 1 Quinnipiac, a team from just eight miles up Whitney Avenue in Hamden? Or that after losing three times to Quinnipiac this year, the Bulldogs pulled off a shutout 4–0 win tonight in Pittsburgh and won their first national championship in modern hockey history?

Yale was unquestionably the underdog going in tonight, but they also had the momentum from their two previous upset wins in the tournament, to midwestern hockey powers Minnesota and North Dakota. Tonight, they lagged behind Quinnipiac in shots on goal but stayed in the game thanks to brilliant play by goalie Jeff Malcolm ’13 (celebrating his 24th birthday today), who stopped 36 shots—more than one of them too close for comfort. After a longer scoreless period than any NCAA title game since 1968, Clinton Bourbonais ’14 put the Bulldogs on the board with just three seconds left in the second period.

Charles Orzetti ’16 and captain Andrew Miller ’13 added goals in the third period, and Pittsburgh native Jesse Root ’14 capped it off with an empty-net score after Quinnipiac pulled its goalie with seven minutes to play.

The Yale Daily News has more, as does the Yale Athletics website.