NEW HAVEN, Conn. — It was a battle of two of the top goaltenders in the ECAC as No. 10 Yale hosted No. 3 Quinnipiac on Friday night.
Michael Garteig vs. Alex Lyon.
Garteig again came away the victor in the staring contest, taking away the 3-0 victory to push Quinnipiac to 14-0-2 on the year and 5-0-2 in the ECAC. He now holds the Bobcats’ all-time wins record with 60.
He already holds the record for most shutouts in a single season with six last season, and most all time with 16 for his career. He continued a 178-minute shutout streak Friday night, turning away all 25 shots he faced and got by with help from his defense against the Bulldogs (5-3-2, 3-2-2 ECAC).
“We had a lot of blocked shots [and] we did a lot of what we needed to do to pick up the win,” said Garteig. “I thought the team was awesome tonight. That was one of the better games we played. It’s always fun playing Yale.”
Yale coach Keith Allain praised the work of his team and the competitive balance of the game, but knows his team is far from where it aspires to be.
“We’re close, but we’re not where we need to be,” Allain said. “I think we need a little time and we’ll continue to get better. I got a good group in there, but we’ve got some work to do.”
Quinnipiac spent most of the second period shorthanded or skating four-on-four with Yale after heading to the box five separate times after untimely penalties.
To Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold, the team was able to compensate for the player loss.
“We said during the week mistakes are okay – we’re going to make mistakes,” Pecknold said. “We just gotta have our compete level at a high enough rate that we gotta bail people out. That’s what we did tonight, we bailed people out.”
Tim Clifton scored the goal that would break it open just a minute in a half into the second period, getting a smooth wrist shot in tight against Lyon as a rebound floated in through the paint. The junior has nine goals on the year, tying Sam Anas for the team lead.
The quick goals continued 13 seconds into the third when Landon Smith scored to double the lead, catching Lyon anticipating a pass to Anas rather than the shot that snapped past his glove.
The game was the first regular-season game between these two clubs since Feb. 14, 2014 to end in something other than a tie. That game almost 22 months ago was also the last time a team was shut out as QU won that game 4-0.
Still, Garteig still won’t take all the credit for putting up a strong game in net, deflecting praise to both the players in front of him and to those 200 feet away from him as well.
“There’s a lot of good goalies in the ECAC, not just [Lyon], so whoever we play, we’re going to face a good guy in net,” Garteig said.
