Yale Defeats Quinnipiac in Home Opener

Yale University broke a seven-year, 17-game losing streak to its local rival last night, with a 4-2 win over  No. 5 Quinnipiac at venerable Ingalls Rink in New Haven, Conn. The Bulldogs rebounded from a two-goal deficit with four unanswered goals, including the game-winner from captain David Chen with less than four minutes remaining in regulation, to claim their 2025-26 home opener. It was also the ECAC Hockey conference opener for both schools.

After Antonin Verreault  and Charlie Leddy staked the visiting Bobcats to a 2-0 lead just over 10 minutes into the contest, David Andreychuk got the Bulldogs on the board just over three minutes later with his first career collegiate goal. Yale then tied the contest at two apiece on James Shannon's first-ever NCAA goal late in the second stanza.

Chen stole the puck deep in the Quinnipiac zone and scored on a backhand in tight to put Yale up, 3-2, for the first time late in the final frame, before Ronan O'Donnell closed out the scoring on an empty-net tally in the final minute of play. Noah Pak made 25 saves for the Bulldogs (1-1-0 overall, 1-0-0 ECACH) in victory, while Dylan Silverstein had 19 stops for the Bobcats (5-3-2-) in defeat. Quinnipiac outshot Yale, 27-23, and also won 37 out of 56 faceoffs, while the two teams combined to go 0-for-8 on the power play.

The win was Yale's first over Quinnipiac since a 3-2 triumph on Feb. 9, 2018, also at Ingalls Rink. Last night's victory was also the first ever for first-year Yale head coach Joe Howe.

Yale Blanks Princeton on Road, 4-0

Princeton University's home postseason hopes took a bit of a hit with a 4-0 loss to visiting Yale University on Saturday evening, in the Tigers' regular-season home finale at 100-year-old Hobey Baker Rink.

Ian Carpentier notched the game-winning goal for Yale on a 5-on-3 power play in the first period, before closing out the scoring with just over a minute remaining in regulation on an empty-net goal. His two scores were sandwiched around a second-period tip-in by Niklas Allain, and a third-period partial breakaway converted by New Jersey native David Chen.

Yale improved to 6-17-4 overall, and 5-13-2 in ECAC Hockey, in gaining the season series split with Princeton, after a 3-0 loss to the Tigers three months prior in New Haven. Nathan Reid stopped all 40 shots he faced on Saturday in recording his second shutout of the season for the Bulldogs, while Aidan Porter made 22 saves on 25 shots against for the Tigers.

Princeton (12-15-0, 8-13-0) is in seventh place in ECAC Hockey, three points ahead of both Rensselaer and Union. The Tigers will visit both schools next weekend to close out the regular season. 

The top four teams in the conference will receive a first-round playoff bye, while the fifth through eighth seeds will host the ninth through 12th seeds, respectively, in the new single-elimination ECAC Hockey first round that will take place the first weekend of March. The first-round winners will advance to the best-of-three quarterfinals on March 10-12, also on campus sites, before the four quarterfinal survivors advance to the ECAC Hockey championship in Lake Placid on March 17-18. The ultimate winner in Lake Placid will receive ECAC Hockey's automatic berth to the 2023 NCAA tournament.