After defeating arch-rival Harvard at Madison Square Gardens they got up to #8 in the national polls, but the team began slipping afterwards.

From the third week of January on, Yale wasn't able to sweep a single weekend for the remainder of the regular season.

When the ECAC Tournament began, Yale had gone 1–6–2 against ranked teams, which put them on the bubble for an at-large bid.

The Bulldogs needed a strong performance in the conference playoff to have any chance at a postseason bid and began their run with two solid wins in the First Round.

Their quarterfinal match against Quinnipiac would decide whether or not Yale could perform against good teams and if it had more hockey yet to play.