Yale Rink

The Yale Rink is a former indoor ice hockey rink located at Yale Field on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The rink would open on January 13, 1911 with Yale beating MIT. The arena would feature a 190' by 90' ice surface which was the largest in the United States at the time. Due to ground problems at the site the arena was only used for a total of six collegiate games plus a exhibition game against Yale Freshman team, the team would go a perfect 6-0-0 at the rink.

The rink was hoped to become the home for the team as they had played its' true home games on Lake Whitney which was on the New Haven-Hamden, Connecticut town line. Other games were held in New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1911-12
Yale began the season looking to recover from a poor showing in 1911. After opening with a win over St. Paul's School, Yale headed into their winter break with two 3-game series on the slate. They met Princeton in Cleveland and got their first look at one of the game's rising stars, Hobey Baker. Yale played admirably, winning the last game in overtime, but it was clear that the Bulldog defense had its hand's full with the Tiger rover. The Elis fared better in the series with Cornell, taking the first two games from the defending champions before the Big Red offense awoke for the third match.

The team returned home and had to wait more than a week for the next game. When it came the Elis welcomed MIT for the first game at their new on-campus rink. The facility was a temporary erection near Yale Field and the Bulldogs christened the venue with a 5–3 victory where they demonstrated a great deal of teamwork.

1912-13
After returning from the holiday break Yale scheduled 10 games for the remainder of their season, with a majority taking place at the Yale Rink. In their first game the Elis appeared to have righted the ship by downing Columbia 6–0, though the game had to be played on the road instead of New Haven. the Yale Rink did not provide the stable ice the team hoped it would; the match against MIT was called off due to no ice at the rink which also caused the first game against Princeton, originally scheduled for the 13th, to be pushed to later in the year. A third home game against Toronto was also cancelled.

Yale had to travel to the St. Nicholas Rink for their next game and despite missing out on three games, the Elis gave Princeton a tough fight. After opening the scoring, Yale found itself down by two goals early in the second half. A furious effort by Yale saw the team score four times in the span of four minutes and take a 5–4 lead late in the match. Unfortunately, 17 seconds before regulation ended, Princeton tied the game and then scored twice in overtime to take the first game of the series. A fifth home contest, this time versus Cornell, was cancelled and left the Elis without a home game for the entire month of January.

The team returned to the ice in February when they traveled to Boston for the first game against Harvard. Yale could not, however, field its normal lineup as several players were missing due to illness or injury. The result was that the Elis could hardly make a dent in the stout Harvard defense and fell 0–4 to the Crimson. The shot total of 34 to 6 in favor of Harvard demonstrates how lopsided the match was.

Two further home games were cancelled with the second being moved to the St. Nicholas Rink, where Yale fell to Dartmouth 2–3. The next day the Elis were finally able to play at home, defeating the Freshman team in an exhibition match. The second match against Princeton began well for the Bulldogs with Yale leading 1–0 at the half. The second half, however, was a nightmare for the Elis. Princeton scored 8 goals, four coming from Hobey Baker, as the defense was swamped and Yale was soundly beaten 8–2.

Yale was able to tack on a game against Massachusetts Agricultural College to give themselves one official home game before the rematch against Harvard. Yale scored first and led at the half but, similar to the Princeton game, Harvard scored three goals and dominated the period. The Elis closed the gap with less than a minute to play but they could not stop Harvard from claiming the Intercollegiate title.