Yale beats North Dakota in NCAA tournament
March 27, 2010
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP)—Denny Kearney had two goals, Mark Arcobello also scored,and Ryan Rondeau made 34 saves to help Yale beat North Dakota 3-2 on Saturday inthe NCAA Northeast Regional semifinals.
Third-seeded Yale (21-9-3) will face top-seeded Boston College on Sunday fora berth in the Frozen Four at Ford Field in Detroit. The Bulldogs’ onlyappearance in the final four came in 1952 when they lost to Colorado College inthe semifinals.
Kearney and Arcobello scored in a 4:57 span in the second period to giveYale a 3-0 lead. Brett Hextall and Matt Frattin scored early in the third periodfor North Dakota (25-13-5).
“A lot of people weren’t expecting much out of us,” Yale defenseman RyanDonald said. “We’re kind of playing with house money. We played the underdogrole pretty well and we were a little more looser than usual.”
Kearney took a pass from Kevin Lambert at the bottom of the left circle,shifted quickly from right to left and slipped a shot behind goalie BradEidsness to make it 2-0 at 12:49 of the second.
The Bulldogs, the Eastern College Athletic Conference regular-seasonchampions, made it 3-0 when Arcobello collected a rebound off the backboards andslipped a shot inside the right post.
“We got off to a slow start the first two periods and they took advantageof it and got up 3-0,” North Dakota defenseman Derrick LaPoint said. “Youcan’t really put a finger on it. Some days you have it and some days youdon’t.”
The Fighting Sioux, making their eighth straight NCAA appearance and 25thoverall, scored twice in the opening 6 minutes of the third to get close.
Yale coach Keith Allain called timeout to settle his team down.
“We reminded our guys that if they wanted to be champions they’d have to gothrough tough times,” he said.
North Dakota’s Darcy Zajac fired a shot off the left post on a penalty shotlate in the second period.
The Fighting Sioux won 12 of their final 13 games heading into the NCAAtourney.
