Westlund and crew keep men's hockey rolling

By Patrick McGarvey

"I treated that game as a fluke. I would have done the same thing even if we had lost by the same margin," Taylor said. Instead of watching the tape, he chose to focus only on that night's game against Colgate.

Had Taylor chosen to replay the contest, he would have seen both offensive and defensive domination. The Big Red only attempted 16 shots as they skated to their worst loss of the season. Fighting to maintain focus throughout the contest, goalie Alex Westlund, SM '99, survived unscathed for his second shutout of the year. "Luckily, most of the shots they took were from the blue line, so I didn't have to be at the top of my game," he said. Throughout the game, Cornell struggled to get the puck out of their own zone and seldom made any threatening rushes against the Yale defense.

Julia Tiernan/YH Yale celebrates a goal scored by Jeff Brow, SM '00, during the 5-1 victory over Army on Sat., Jan 24.

If great defense starts with the goalie and builds forward, then the Bulldogs have the building blocks for a dominating unit. Not only has veteran starter Westlund been outstanding in net, but three senior defensemen have also contributed to making Yale's defense the envy of the ECAC. The cornerstones of this powerful crew are team captain Ray Giroux, BK '98, Jeff Glew, BR '98, and Daryl Jones, PC '98. The three have paved the way for the team as it rolls from victory to victory. Giroux's quiet, reserved leadership continues to drive the Elis to bigger wins as they gain more respect from their opponents.

The Bulldogs, who climbed to fifth place in the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine Poll this week, have benefited from tenacious defense. "The whole team has finally bought into the team commitment to defense," Taylor said. "From the goalie on up, everyone has been playing strong defensive hockey." The strong defensive play game after game has been a great asset for the team. While the defense has been showcased most of the year, along with the all-star netminder, the defensive role of the forwards cannot be underestimated. Strong backchecking has kept the number of odd-man rushes to a minimum and shots from the high-percentage slot area have been few and far between. "The forwards have adopted defensive responsibility and have a real defensive mindset," Taylor remarked.

On Sat., Feb. 7, Yale's special teams also had the chance to demonstrate their prowess against the league-leading Colgate offense. Following a Colgate penalty, Jeff Hamilton, SM '00, netted a power play goal to give the Elis the early lead. Yale's penalty-killing unit successfully thwarted several Colgate power plays as it has consistently done all season.

Strong special teams are a marked advantage in the tightly-refereed ECAC, and can often separate the great teams from the merely competent ones. In 21 of their last 22 opportunities, opponents confronting the dominant Eli special teams have not converted their man-advantages to goals. "The play of the special teams is one of the reasons we have been so successful this year," Westlund said. He recorded another shutout in the Colgate game, as the Bulldogs dropped the Red Raiders to third-place in the ECAC and put four points between themselves and second-placed Clarkson.

As the players gain confidence, their expectations continue to rise. But with eight games remaining in the regular season, much could still go wrong.

Yale's first test will come on Fri., Feb. 13 against Brown. An early-season overtime loss to the Bears certainly gives the Elis the motivation to play hard, but Brown, coming off its own weekend sweep of Rensselaer and last-place Union, has been on a tear recently. "Brown does some things which we aren't very good at defending," Westlund acknowledged. "Their power play was pretty effective against us last time we played them, so this will be a test for us." Furthermore, with the Harvard game the next night, it may be difficult for Yale to maintain its focus against Brown.

Fortunately for the Bulldogs, half of their remaining games are at The Whale. "The crowds have been fantastic this year; it really has given us the home ice advantage," Giroux said.

Indeed, Yale is undefeated at home, and will look to continue this streak against archrival Harvard on Sat., Feb. 14. With no love lost in this Valentine's Day clash, the Bulldogs will look to post their first regular-season sweep over the Crimson since 1978.

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