It was the second-largest crowd in the history of Peter Barton Stadium but, despite the crowd noise, the sound of shots clanking of the goal cage posts could be heard around the stadium all game long. Both teams experienced painful near-misses but DU (5-1) had more than their fair share of post shots in the frustrating home loss. Yale seemed to have the upper hand most of the afternoon and Denver could never make the needed scoring run to catch the Bulldogs in the final quarter.

Yale opened the scoring in the first quarter but Denver’s Mic Kelly  and JJ Sillstrop matched Yale’s goals and both sides exited the first quarter with three goals each. Josua Carlson opened up the second quarter with a goal for Denver but the Bulldogs responded with three straight goals. Noah Manning and Michael Lampert evened up the score at 6-6 but Yale scored with 3:30 remaining in the quarter and went to the halftime break with a 7-6 edge.

At 6:38 of the third period, Manning would give Denver their only lead in the second half, 10-9, but Yale’s Peter Monihan responded with a goal one minute later to knot the score. Yale then followed Moyihan’s goal with three straight goals to take a 13-10 lead. Denver responded in the final quarter with three straight goals of their own by JJ Sillstrop with the man-up and Daniel Clark and Josua Carlson pulling the game even at 13-13. Yale reeled off another two goals with a little more than nine minutes to go, up 15-13, but Denver made critical turnovers, penalties and shots off the post down the stretch. Neither team could score over the final nine-plus minutes of play.

Yale showed Denver some dangerous, quick shots and elite passing. Yale outshot the Pioneers 57(26)-43(24). Yale got 11 more ground balls than Denver and 6 more faceoffs – more than enough to earn a two-goal advantage. Sillstrop and Manning finished the day with three goals each and Michael Lampert finished with a goal and three assists.