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PITTSBURGH – The Yale Bulldogs have ultimate bragging rights after defeating Quinnipiac 4-0 for the Bulldogs’ first national championship. While the Bobcats won all three contests against Yale this season, the Elis won the most important one.

“We are devastated,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said, before taking a long pause. “It was a great year and this wasn’t the way it was supposed to end. I’m proud of my guys. I really couldn’t ask for a better group. We weren’t perfect through two periods but we played well enough. We had plenty of chances. We just couldn’t score.”

It is Yale’s first national championship, and the first for the ECAC since Harvard won the title in 1989.

“I came back to prove you could attend the best university in the world and compete in hockey at the highest level and this group proved it this year,” Yale coach Keith Allain said.

The Bobcats and the Bulldogs had chance after chance to jump ahead, but Eric Hartzell and Jeff Malcolm were stellar, keeping the game scoreless.

Malcolm finished the evening with 36 saves for the shutout.

Five minutes into the middle frame, Quinnipiac’s Jordan Samuels-Thomas found himself open through the slot. Samuels-Thomas skated in all alone and deked Malcolm to the right and moved back to the left where he wristed a shot off of Malcolm’s blocker.

Both teams had a two-man advantage about midway through the period, but neither could score.

Yale finally took the lead with just 3.5 seconds left in the second period. A Gus Young shot from the left point found its way to the left circle where Clinton Bourbonais tipped it through Eric Hartzell’s five hole for the 1-0 lead.

The Bulldogs took the two-goal lead 3:35 into the third period on a near perfect shot from Charles Orzetti. Orzetti carried the puck into the Bobcats’ end and fired a shot. Hartzell made the save but the rebound came right back to Orzetti at the bottom of the left circle. Orzetti fired again and beat Hartzell just inside the far post.

“It was tie game until late in the second period and we were stressing getting pucks and bodies to the net and [Bourbonais] tipped it in,” Allain said.

Yale added a third to make it 3-0 with just over ten minutes to play in the third period. Andrew Miller snuck through the neutral zone where Kenny Agostino fed Miller. Miller walked in and fired a shot through Hartzell’s five hole.

After matching minors, Quinnipiac opted to pull Hartzell for the extra attacker with more than seven minutes left to play in regulation.

The Bobcats generated a pair of shots off the advantage, but with just under seven minutes to play, Pittsburgh native Jesse Root fired a shot into the empty net to seal the win.

“[Quinnipiac] carried the banner for our league all year long, but I think tonight was our turn,” Allain said.

The magical and historic season ends for a Bobcats team that turned a lot of heads in the college hockey world.

“This wasn’t the way we wanted it to end,” Quinnipiac’s Zack Currie said. “It’s a hard pill to swallow. We would have liked to have it end differently but I’m excited to see where Quinnipiac hockey goes in the future.”

Quinnipiac will host a rally for the team Wednesday afternoon on the steps of the Arnold Bernhard Library.