Yale beats UMass Lowell: Game notes

2013 NCAA Frozen Four
CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, PA
SEMIFINAL GAME NOTES
Yale (21-12-3) vs. UMass-Lowell (28-11-2)
•  Today’s game was the 12th all-time meeting between Yale and UMass-Lowell.  UML leads the all-time series by a 8-4 margin.  Before today, the most recent meeting between the teams came in January of 1999, and this is the first meeting of the teams at a neutral site.
• This is the first head-to-head meeting between the head coaches Keith Allain (Yale) and Norm Bazin (UML).
• Allain’s post-season coaching record is now 15-9 overall and 5-3 in the NCAA Tournament in his seven years at the helm of the Bulldogs.  Bazin is 8-4 in the post-season and 3-2 in the NCAA Tournament in two seasons. It is the first Frozen Four trip for both head coaches.
• UMass-Lowell entered the Frozen Four on a seven-game winning streak, the longest active streak in the nation. The River Hawks previously won nine straight earlier this season.
• This was the second game to go to overtime in the 2013 Division I hockey championship; the lone OT  game in this year’s regional rounds (Yale-Minnesota) matches the fewest in the regional rounds since 2003, the first  year to feature a 16-team field. 
• Yale is 6-0-3 in overtime this season; UML is 2-2-2.

YALE PLAYER NOTES:• Andrew Miller played the role of hero with the overtime game-winner at 6:39 of the extra period; the goal tied him for first on the team in goal scoring with Kenny Agostino (17).
• Miller recorded the secondary assist on Witek’s first-period goal; the helper moved Miller into a tie for the school’s career assist record (113), held by 1984 Olympian and NHL’er Bob Brooks (1979-83). He has at least one assist in each of Yale’s three NCAA Tournament games this season (1-4-4).
• Freshman defenseman Mitch Witek opened the scoring at 12:55 of the first period.  It was Witek’s first collegiate tally, and his first point since an assist on a Kenny Agostino goal Nov. 3 against Harvard.  His three points this season entering the Frozen Four came in games against Dartmouth and Harvard (Nov. 2-3) Yale’s third and fourth games of the season.  He went 17 games without a point; tonight was his 22nd career game (of 36 this season) for the Elis.
• Senior winger Antoine Laganiere was credited with Yale’s second goal at 19:08 of the opening frame to send the Bulldogs into the intermission with a 2-0 lead.  It was his 15th goal of the season, The goal came seconds after an Eli power play expired.
• Yale junior Jesse Root is a native of Pittsburgh, and played on the Mt. Lebanon state championship team in 2006.  He attended Taft (CT) prior to enrolling at Yale.

UMASS-LOWELL PLAYER NOTES: • UML posted a pair of goals 14 seconds apart in the second period to turn an early 2-0 deficit into a tie game.  Captain Riley Wetmore put UMass-Lowell on the board at 14:38 on the power play, then centerman Joseph Pendenza scored on the ensuring faceoff to tie the game.   Wetmore’s goal tied him for the team lead with Scott Wilson (16), and Pendenza’s was his 15th of the season.
• Wetmore and Pendenza’s goals 14 seconds apart are sixth fastest by one team in NCAA Frozen Four history.
• Wetmore had his first point since March 22 vs. Providence in the Hockey East semifinals.
• Scott Wilson extended his point-scoring streak to eight games with an assist on Wetmore’s goal.  He has five goals and six assists in that stretch.
• Freshman winger A. J. White has recorded an assist  in each of Lowell’s three NCAA Tournament games this season.