I have never understood the mentality of teams, no matter what sport it is, as to why they go from what makes them successful during a game to going into a defensive shell.

As everyone likes to say, playing a prevent defense prevents you from winning the game.

Union had a golden opportunity to put sixth-ranked Yale away Saturday. The Dutchmen dominated the Bulldogs for two periods, outshooting them, 29-17, winning 37 of 54 faceoffs and taking a 3-1 lead into the third. The Dutchmen's third goal, scored by Kelly Zajac, came with 39.1 seconds left in the second. The Dutchmen had the momentum, and should have gone for the jugular.

Instead, they played tentatively. And it bit them in the butt.

When the Dutchmen go over the tape of the 3-3 tie, they will be wondering what team they are seeing in that third period, because it wasn't the same team that played the first two periods.

Union coach Nate Leaman wanted to know the same things as the reporters as to why the Dutchmen didn't have the same fire in the third period as it did in the first two.

"I'm not sure how we lost our intensity between the second and third period," Leaman said. "That's what happened in the game. We didn't finish it off because we lost our intensity between the second and third period. We had all the momentum. We were outworking them, we were outchancing them.

"But, for whatever reason, we didn't come out and move our feet in the third period, and they did."

I asked why do teams stop play with intensity when they have leads going into the final period.

"That's what I asked the team, because I was pushing our guys to attack," Leaman said. "I wanted us to make sure that we kept to our game plan. Part of it is maturity, though, I'll be real honest with you. Part of if is maturity and leadership of a team to go finish an opponent off. As a team, we're still struggling with that identity. We're still struggling to find our way a little bit."

Yale's two third-period goals came off faceoff wins by Andrew Miller. On the first one, he beat Kelly Zajac in Union's right circle and slipped it back to Broc Little, who fired it past Corey Milan with 11:11 left.

"I take [the blame] for that," said Zajac, who won 14 of 21 faceoffs in the game. "It's just a bad play. I thought I did well on faceoffs all game. It's disappointing to lose one like that."

Zajac actually said I take credit. But I knew what he meant.

On the tying goal, Miller won the faceoff against Jason Walters in the Union right circle. He got the puck back to Little, who slid it across to Sean Backman in the left circle. He ripped it past Milan 6.3 seconds to go.

So, what will the Dutchmen learn from a tie that should feel like a loss?

"The lesson I told the guys is that it's never going to be easy," Leaman said. "I don't know why we come out in the third period and think it's going to be easy. It's never going to be easy in this league. There's never going to be a five-minute span, a 10-minute span, a 20-minute span that it's going to be easy. For whatever reason, we lost our intensity in the third period."

And now, the North Country trip awaits.

Three stars
My three stars of the game:
1) Andrew Martin, Yale — Two big faceoff wins in the third period lead to two goals.
2) Sean Backman, Yale — Two goals, including game-tying one.
3) Kelly Zajac, Union — Two-goal effort.

That's all from Messa Rink. Look for my College Hockey Slap Schotts on Monday.

Good Night! Good Hockey!