Saturday, December 31, 2011

Lost in the Desert

The Army "juggernaut" rolls on. That's two losses in a row for RPI against the Black Knights.

Leet.


2011 can't end soon enough. The Engineers' total record this calendar year is 12-24-2, with fully half of those wins coming in January. Yeah.

Only three teams in the nation register worse in KRACH right now than RPI - American International, Alabama-Huntsville, and Sacred Heart. That means the Engineers, as of right now, are the underdog in every game they will play for the rest of the year, except for the AIC game in which they are slight favorites (at the moment).

Friday, December 30, 2011

In the Fetal Position

A gutsy move to sit some upperclassmen in favor of younger players didn't quite pay off yesterday, but a lot of credit to Lowell - they're a solid team. They perfectly exploited a serious problem we've been having.

What was the problem? I think we might have talked about it recently.



Oh well. On to Army this afternoon. And if we can't beat Army... yeah.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Oh. Hockey. Right!

Gosh... this was a first for us here at WaP. The last two winter breaks were full of RPI hockey goodness, what with Jerry D'Amigo playing in the World Junior Championships and, last year, the big exhibition against the US WJC team.

(For what it's worth, the Canadians are still cheering against whoever's playing the Stars and Stripes out of pure, unadulterated fear. They probably think D'Amigo will come back and squash them again.)

This year, with the team struggling and no one to dote on in the tournament... a little less going on. So we took a quick breather to recharge the batteries. But we're back, and the second half starts now.

There's great news to share - the team's finally at 100% injury wise, which is what we'd hoped to hear heading into the break. From Seth Appert's recent comments, it looks like the younger guys are going to get a bigger role going forward as well.

Hope springs eternal. Can the team wash away the stank of a horrible first three months? They can start this afternoon as they face nationally ranked UMass-Lowell in UConn's (almost literal) barn.

Let's get excited... nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

Friday, December 16, 2011

Reality Check?

Let's not mince words when it comes to the men's team. If the team continues on its current path, it will be the first season with fewer than 10 wins since 1982 (in which the team played 29 games), and the second worst winning percentage in the modern era of the program, following the 1966 season largely considered the worst in school history.

This is for a team that, coming into the season, had the pundits believing that despite the much ballyhooed losses of Chase Polacek and Allen York, RPI was going to vie for a first-round bye (4th in the coaches poll, 5th in the media poll). We weren't even that optimistic, but we thought sixth was a pretty strong likelihood.

A lot can change in two and a half months, but those pre-season projections don't lie - this should not be a team that could be considered one of the worst in program history. And at its base, that is what makes what has transpired to date all the more frustrating. In Seth Appert's first three years with the program, there was a lot of hemming and hawing over the Engineers' troubles (they were 31-68-14 in those years), but watching the games, it was apparent that the guys were just getting beat by better teams for the most part. Today, that isn't the case. 3/4 of this team has been on a 20-game winning NCAA tournament squad, many in integral roles.

There is a very recent comparison that can be made - Colgate, last year. The Raiders were chosen to finish 4th in the media poll (with 2 voters feeling they had the chops to finish first) and 5th in the coaches poll a year after a 4th place finish that ended with an ECAC tournament upset. They finished dead last, and for much of the season, it wasn't close. Their issue wasn't so much a problem scoring as much as it was keeping the puck out of their own net for much of the year, but the effect was the same. Colgate did salvage their season in March (requiring a pair of Game 3 overtime goals in the Capital District), but it was still mostly a lost season. That team had seven NHL draft picks, but was losing a star player in David McIntyre. As with Polacek and York, that absence alone certainly did not explain why a team with high expectations languished so miserably all year long, including a nine-game losing streak that was part of a 1-20-2 run from November to early February.

This year, while RPI has already matched their loss total from last season with 13 losses, Colgate has already matched their win total from last year before Christmas with 11 wins in 17 outings. Eight of the team's top nine scorers and both goaltenders were on last year's squad.

Fortunately, history isn't necessarily doomed to repeat itself. There's still time for the pendulum to swing in the opposite direction - but there's plenty of work to be done in order to achieve that.

Scoring - We've hashed this out pretty well, so let's just put this in historic context. The Engineers went 11 straight games without reaching what in college hockey is frequently the "magic" three goal mark - that is, if you can regularly pump three pucks to the back of the net, you're going to win more frequently than not. That's a school record for a single season. The last time they even went 5 straight games without reaching three was the dismal 2008-09 season (they did that twice), and they managed 9 straight in 2007-08, which had been the single season record before this year. The longest such streak in school history was a 12-game stretch between 1912 and 1916... but it was a very different game back then, of course.

There are absolute signs of improvement here, especially among the talented set of freshman forwards who appear to be adjusting well to the college game as the season goes along. Jacob Laliberte was hurt early on, but has been showing the ability that RPI fans have been waiting years to see over the last few games and has broken onto the scoresheet solidly. Ryan Haggerty was one of the earliest to "catch on" and is still the top goal-scoring forward on the team despite missing three games. Zach Schroeder and Mark McGowan potted their first career goals in the last two weeks after increasingly impressive performances.

Appert has frequently eschewed the use of the term "freshman" once the second half of the season begins, given that they have mostly gained the experience they need to be competitive by that point, so we'll have to see if the forwards are able to shoulder a heavier load going forward.

Finishing - Especially in October, it was apparent at times during the first half that the team wasn't playing all that poorly. We noted that they were basically doing everything right except for scoring goals. There were plenty of whiffs up and down on one-timer chances and rebound tries. That's certainly changing - the Haggerty goal at RIT was a great one-timed shot, and Schroeder and McGowan each put one home on textbook rebounders.

Including instances in which RPI allowed one or more empty net goals while being down by a single goal, the Engineers are 1-5 in one-goal games. With a little better finishing, we could have been looking at a team at least a little closer to .500.

Defensive breakdowns - The Engineers have only seven defensemen on their roster, and all but two are either freshmen or sophomores. Practically by definition, that's a young d-corps. Regardless, they have done a wonderful job for the most part of keeping the team in games, especially from the beginning of the season through late November. One or two times a weekend (and more frequently of late), however, we have seen defensive blunders creating odd-man rushes or straight up breakaway opportunities for the opponent, and those seem to be leading to goals more often than not. Worse, a worrisome number of these breakdowns have been from the two upperclassmen.

Goaltending - Bryce Merriam and Scott Diebold have done a fine job in net, all things considered. The one concern is on those defensive breakdowns, and perhaps this is the one area in which Allen York is missed. The goaltenders have typically been very solid when the defense is doing things right, but when hung out to dry we haven't seen a high number of "wow, he bailed them out there," type saves as York regularly made. Diebold is a freshman and has seen only four games in net. Merriam is a junior and could use a little more confidence in these situations.

Penalties - This, more than anything, may be the root of the team's current struggle. In interviews, Appert has said that the team must balance the physical game that they want to play with penalty discipline, and so far it seems that it's either one or the other. The penalty kill has been one of the shining lights on this team, and having a good penalty kill helps you maintain that physical presence by being a bit less apprehensive about dishing out that big hit, but when you spend too much time on the kill it keeps your offense from getting into a good rhythm and frequently keeps some of your better scorers off the ice.

RPI has been on the penalty kill an average of 5.5 times per game thus far. Although not all penalty kills last two minutes for whatever reason (some are majors, some start as an opponent comes out of the box, some end with a goal), that factors out to around 11 minutes of penalty kill per game, and it's not all at once. That's not good.

On the flip side, when the team isn't taking penalties, the physical aspect has not been as prevalent. A balance must be reached.

Upperclassmen - Gotta call out the juniors and seniors here. The top four forwards in scoring are all freshmen and sophomores. Not all of those juniors and seniors are supposed to be scorers - Alex Angers-Goulet and Joel Malchuk, for instance, have usually made their most important contributions defensively rather than offensively - but Appert has always pointed to his older players as the key leaders of the team. Some seem to be trying to do too much on their own, while others seem content to let others take the lead.

Injuries - It's worth mentioning that at no point during the season have the Engineers been at 100% healthwise which draws some comparison to Princeton two campaigns ago, who also underwhelmed despite strong pre-season expectations. Only eight players have played in all 16 contests - that compares to only four who made it through 38 games last season (Polacek, Helfrich, Bailen and Foss), but nine who made it through 39 games two years ago. Right now, the only known injuries are Ryan Haggerty (who we were told was sick but has missed the last three games) and Matt Neal (who's missed 11 straight with an ankle injury). Pat Cullen, Marty O'Grady, Brock Higgs, Jacob Laliberte, Mark McGowan, Greg Burgdoerfer, and Bryce Merriam have all missed at least one game due to injury this season.

Hopefully, the nearly three week layoff between Lake Placid and Storrs will help get this team to that elusive 100% readiness.

That's a lot to fix, but bear in mind - this team has the ability to fix it.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Men's Hockey - vs. Union (10 Dec)

On the big ice at Lake Placid, the Engineers had one last opportunity to gain a little bit of redemption before going into a nearly three-week winter break. For nearly 35 minutes, RPI looked like they were ready to give Union a run for their money in the annual non-conference matchup, but a slew of bad penalties and rough goals buried the team and doomed them to their 13th loss of the season - the same number as all of last year - before Christmas, falling 5-2.

Union
Angers-Goulet/Rogic/Malchuk
Lee/O'Grady/Schroeder
Higgs/Laliberte/Cullen
Tinordi/McGowan/Rabbani

Leboeuf/Bergin
Leonard/Bailen
Curadi/Dolan

Merriam

Not too many changes to the lineup from the Quinnipiac game - Merriam returned in net, Cullen returned to replace Burgdoerfer on the Laliberte line, and Guy Leboeuf returned in place of Pat Koudys, whose absence was not explained. Otherwise, basically the same lines. Ryan Haggerty remained out with what has been reported as a bout of the flu, missing his third straight game, while Matt Neal remained out for the 11th straight outing with an ankle injury.

For the fifth time in six games, the Engineers got the all important first goal. Following a very early penalty kill, RPI struck first just as their first power play of the game was expiring. A blast by Jacob Laliberte was redirected in front by C.J. Lee, the junior's first goal of the season (though it was originally noted as Laliberte's goal, which would have been his third in as many games).

While scoring the first goal hasn't been a problem lately, only once - in RPI's game against RIT, scoring twice on a major power play - have the Engineers been able to take control by going up 2-0. That was not to be on Saturday afternoon, either, as Union got the tying goal with just under five minutes left in the first period, depriving RPI of a much needed first intermission boost - the Engineers have never led after one period in 16 games thus far.

Union made it 2-1 four minutes into the second period, but the Engineers, to their credit, did not back off as they did after giving up the lead in Troy against the Dutchmen. On the counter attack, a shot by Matt Tinordi was initially saved, and Mark McGowan was there to rifle home the rebound, tying the game up at two with McGowan's first career goal.

As the period wore on and the Engineers killed another penalty, it was beginning to look like they had an opportunity to fight for a win in the third period, but then the specter of bad penalties came down and snuffed out any opportunity to stay in things.

A cross-checking penalty was called against Guy Leboeuf with about five and a half minutes left in the second period, and while arguing the call, Seth Appert was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that for some reason was served by Guy Leboeuf as part of a new double minor. Making matters worse, Alex Angers-Goulet, one of the team's most crucial penalty killers, was called for boarding less than a minute later, giving Union a long 5-on-3 power play. It took more than a minute, but the Dutchmen eventually capitalized on the two man advantage, and then made it 4-2 with a minute and a half left in the period after a blown defensive assignment by Mike Bergin left Union with a breakaway which they capitalized on.

RPI got a pair of power plays early in the third period, but neither were even remotely successful. The Dutchmen added a third straight goal midway through the third to lock things down tight. RPI managed a total of 25 shots on goal in the game, and the Engineers got 10 on net in the third, but by that time they were already facing a deep deficit. Bryce Merriam made 27 saves in the loss.

Other junk - Want further proof of RPI's fall from grace? Union's win was their only game of the week, and yet they fell one spot and are now only ranked #11. Also ranked this week: #6 Notre Dame (split with Ferris State, up one), #7 Colorado College (split with Alaska-Anchorage, down one), #10 Ferris State (down one), #12 Colgate (tied Merrimack, no change), #13 Cornell (idle, up three), #17 UMass-Lowell (beat BC, lost to Northeastern, up one), and #19 Yale (lost to UMass, down two). Also receiving votes, Quinnipiac (45), Harvard (9), Clarkson (4) and RIT (3).

With 9 goals in the last 4 games - at least 2 in each for the first time since doing it 7 times in a row late last year - the Engineers offense is slowly improving, but is still among the bottom five offenses in the nation, all scoring under two goals per game.

The Engineers started the season by falling behind 1-0 in their first seven games and understandably went 1-6 during that stretch. They have since gone up 1-0 in six of the nine games since, but are 2-3 in those games, with the two being shutouts. The Engineers still have given up only one goal in games they've won, the first goal of the game in the second Minnesota State outing.

Matt Neal, who has played only four games due to injury, is the only freshman forward who has yet to record his first career goal. Freshmen have scored 7 of the team's 15 goals by forwards.

ECAC Standings (by win% in parentheses)
1 (1). Cornell - 13 pts (6-1-1)
2 (2). Colgate - 12 pts (6-2-0)
3 (8). Quinnipiac - 9 pts (3-4-3)
4 (3). Yale - 8 pts (4-2-0)
5 (4). Union - 8 pts (3-2-2)
6 (7). Harvard - 8 pts (3-3-2)
7 (10). St. Lawrence - 8 pts (4-5-0)
8 (9). Clarkson - 8 pts (3-4-2)
9 (6). Dartmouth - 7 pts (3-3-1)
10 (11). Princeton - 7 pts (3-7-1)
11 (5). Brown - 6 pts (3-3-0)
12 (12). RPI - 2 pts (1-6-0)


#10 Union vs. RPI
Non-Conference Game - Herb Brooks Arena (Lake Placid, NY)
12/10/11 - 4:00pm
RESULT: Union 5, RPI 2


BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RECORD: 3-13-0 (1-6-0 ECAC, 2 pts)

Upcoming games
29 Dec - vs. #17 UMass-Lowell (Storrs, CT)
30 Dec - vs. Army OR at UConn (Storrs, CT)
06 Jan - Dartmouth
07 Jan - Harvard
10 Jan - American International

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Olympic Dreams

Same pumpup as last year. Hey, it fits.



Rumor has it that both of Union's top goaltenders are questionable for tonight. If neither can go, their untested third string gets his shot. Do you believe in miracles?

I don't, not anymore really.

Here's something harder if the brilliance of John Williams isn't enough to get your blood pumping. You're welcome. (Content Warning - language)

Friday, December 9, 2011

I Shall Call Him... Mini WaP

For your reading pleasure (or pain - we make no judgments here about your lifestyle), you can now take Without a Peer on the road with you.

We are delighted to announce that WaP can now be viewed with relative ease on your mobile device. Simply surf on over here with your smartphone and it'll automatically appear in a mobile friendly format.

Lookin' out for the little guy.

Also, not much has happened lately worth blogging about. Shoot us an email if you've got any ideas or news, or maybe if you're just bored... tomyousieve (at) gmail [dat] com.

Oh... one other thing... the podcast for yesterday's Slap Schotts (featuring WaP's Tom Reale) is available on demand at this link.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Spirit of Radio

In lieu of this week's podcast, tune in to Fox Sports 980 on Thursday at 11:05am as Without a Peer's Tom Reale joins Union radio man Brian Unger to discuss the Festivus Faceoff with the Daily Gazette's Ken Schott on "Slap Schotts," the weekly college hockey segment of Rodger Wyland's "Big Board Sportstalk."

Union is coming off a disappointing two tie weekend, which isn't horrible considering how beat up they were, but... they probably still should have picked up four points. And of course, we know RPI's troubles. Last year in Lake Placid, these teams had another classic, with Union scoring in the last 10 seconds of regulation to earn the tie. Then again, both teams were doing pretty well heading into that one.

Anyway, we'll be talking about that and I'm sure we'll probably talk a little bit about the Engineers' struggles to date as well.

If you're away from your computer, that's AM 980 on your radio dial - click here to see if it'll work where you are.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

No Joy in Mudville

Gordon Bombay: You think this is funny? You think losing is funny?
Les Averman: Well, not at first, but once you get the hang of it.
- The Mighty Ducks

There's honestly not much more to say about the last weekend. The women gave up 13 consecutive goals in four periods before (sort of) turning things around in the final two. The men took zero points from games that probably could have resulted in four points and managed to lose on Saturday almost literally at the last second.

They have a combined record of 7-24-4.

So hopefully, you'll excuse us if we are a little punch drunk at this point.

As self appointed court jesters, we're doing our best to find humor in all of this, even if it's dark humor. Gary and I both realized after the Quinnipiac game that as the season goes on, we get less and less annoyed at losing.

That's probably a bad thing.

Anyway, expect some more broader scoped stuff out of me in the coming weeks as we try to not sound like a broken record. Last year we were able to run a weekly feature on the PairWise Rankings. This year we're kind of... not. So expect some more "wide world of college hockey" if this trend continues. Which it probably will.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Men's Hockey - at Princeton & Quinnipiac (2/3 Dec)

Things are officially getting worse for RPI even as certain elements get better. The offense, given the output of the games this past weekend, is certainly beginning to awaken from its slumber, hitting one-timers and getting to rebounds where they had not been earlier in the season. However, just in time for the offense to start firing, the defense became lax as the Engineers dropped their 11th and 12th games of the season - in 15 total outings - to move within one of last year's final number in the loss column during the first weekend in December. On Friday, three goals was not enough to overcome Princeton (5-3), while a last-second goal for Quinnipiac doomed the Engineers on Saturday (3-2).

Princeton
Angers-Goulet/Rogic/Malchuk
Lee/O'Grady/Schroeder
Higgs/Laliberte/Cullen
Tinordi/McGowan/Rabbani

Leonard/Bergin
Koudys/Bailen
Curadi/Dolan

Merriam

Friday's lineup featured the same exact group sent out against RIT with two exceptions - Bryce Merriam returned between the pipes, and Patrick Cullen returned from injury, replacing leading scorer Ryan Haggerty, who missed the weekend with an undisclosed illness.

The even strength drought finally ended about six and a half minutes into the first period as Jacob Laliberte finally notched his first career goal, unassisted, to put RPI ahead 1-0. It was the fourth straight game in which the Engineers had struck first.

The lead lasted for about four minutes before Princeton struck back on a shot Bryce Merriam probably would like back. Jack Berger put it just over Merriam's glove and in to tie the game at one, and the Tigers struck quickly just over two minutes later on the power play, picking up a bad clearance by Nick Bailen and converting just 23 seconds into their first power play of the night to go up 2-1.

RPI fought back three minutes later as Matt Tinordi notched his first goal of the season and second of his career on a putback of a Josh Rabbani tip, knotting things up at two. Before the second period was over, it was already just the second RPI game of the season in which both teams reached two goals.

Last year's ECAC rookie of the year, Andrew Calof, made the score 3-2 seven minutes into the second period with a goal on another RPI turnover, but RPI again fought back to tie the game before the end of the middle frame. Marty O'Grady scored his first goal of the season from C.J. Lee and Zach Schroeder to square things once more.

That was as close as the Engineers could get in just their second time on the year reaching three goals. Calof scored again seven minutes into the third period to put Princeton up 4-3, and with the net empty, the Engineers could not convert despite a number of excellent opportunities. A bad move by Bailen to keep the puck in the zone ended up giving it to Princeton, and Berger scored into the empty net to finish the game at 5-3.

An offensive awakening coupled with a number of bad defensive turnovers that previously had been limited to only about one per week. Merriam did not fare terribly well in net - he faced only 23 shots on the evening but allowed four goals.


Quinnipiac

Angers-Goulet/Rogic/Malchuk
Lee/O'Grady/Schroeder
Higgs/Laliberte/Burgdoerfer
Tinordi/McGowan/Rabbani

Leonard/Bergin
Koudys/Bailen
Curadi/Dolan


Diebold

Haggerty was not ready to return on Saturday and Pat Cullen was removed from the lineup, possibly not ready to return from his injury suffered against Union. The only other change was in net as freshman Scott Diebold picked up his second start in three games.

The first period started out horribly for RPI. They were kept pinned in their own end for much of the first 20 minutes, and late in the period were being outshot by an eyepopping 12-3 tally. An early power play opportunity went nowhere, followed by a goal five minutes later by Quinnipiac freshman phenom Matthew Peca, who put a bouncing puck past Diebold to put the Bobcats ahead.

Despite the lousy start, the Engineers were fortunate to get into the locker room tied at one as Jacob Laliberte followed up his Friday goal with another one five minutes after RPI went down. Bailen and Higgs assisted to make the score 1-1 heading into the break.

The major event of the second period was certainly a serious contact to the head incident involving freshman Luke Curadi. He put a Quinnipiac player to the ice and the referees quickly issued a five minute penalty and a game misconduct. A retaliatory penalty on Quinnipiac meant that the Bobcat power play was reduced to three minutes, but RPI ended up down two men before the end of the kill with a cross-checking call against Bo Dolan. The Engineer penalty kill, long one of the few bright lights, hunkered down and got back to five a side with no damage.

The Engineers took their second lead of the weekend four minutes into the third quarter as a Brock Higgs shot was saved by Quinnipiac's Eric Hartzell but picked up in the slot by Zach Schroeder, who forcefully launched the rebound into the open net for his first career goal.

Unfortunately, that was when the defensive issues from Friday began to creep in. Two and a half minutes later, sustained pressure in the RPI zone led to a goal after the Engineers failed to clear the puck on two occasions. That tied the game at two, and RPI could not regain the lead despite some decent pressure late.

Despite some very sloppy defense throughout - and repeated bailouts by Diebold, who shined with 35 saves, including 14 in the final period - the game appeared to be heading into overtime before the Engineers iced the puck in the waning moments. They gained a clearance, but then seemed to stop playing with intensity and the Bobcats, playing to the horn, went for broke. A bad attempt at taking out the puck carrier, Ben Arnt, left him alone with Yuri Bouharevich, who placed the puck perfectly into the net with just 2.4 seconds remaining on the clock, giving the Bobcats a 3-2 victory.

Ultimately, the Engineers lost a game they probably deserved to lose due to generally bad play for long stretches, but it was still a game they were very much in until the very end. It's a tough loss to swallow and an especially tough sweep to have to swallow given that both games were not only well within reach, but were downright winnable thanks to the rejuvenated offense.


Other junk - The reigning national champions, Minnesota-Duluth, are the #1 team in the nation this week following Merrimack's first two losses of the season at the hands of Providence. Ranked ECAC teams are #10 Union (tied Quinnipiac/Princeton, down one), #12 Colgate (swept Clarkson/SLU, up three), #16 Cornell (beat Clarkson and tied SLU, up one), and #17 Yale (split home and home with Brown, down three). Also ranked this week are #6 Colorado College (beat Denver, up two), #7 Notre Dame (swept by Northeastern, down five with one first place vote), #9 Ferris State (swept by Western Michigan, down three), and #18 UMass-Lowell (swept UNH, previously unranked). Also receiving votes were Quinnipiac (17) and Harvard (3).

RPI ultimately went 446:48 without scoring an even strength goal between Patrick Cullen's goal late in the 2nd period against Colorado College on October 28 and Jacob Laliberte's first career goal in the 1st period against Princeton on December 2. All five RPI goals this weekend were even strength, which doubled the team total for the season as a whole. They went 0-for-3 on the power play. That's right, only three power plays in 120 minutes. The penalty kill did OK, going 6-for-7 including the big major kill.

The abyss gets deeper now: the Engineers are in last place, and the rest of the league is four points clear - which means RPI could sweep a weekend series and they'd still only possibly be tied for 9th at best. Another problem: The next chance to do that doesn't crop up until after the new year. Next up is another game against Union on the big sheet at Lake Placid. The Dutchmen are banged up right now, but if things go the way they did this past weekend (and in the last game between these teams) it probably isn't going to matter. Then comes a tournament at UConn that looked like a cakewalk at the beginning of the season and now looks like another tough order as UMass-Lowell has looked very good this year.

ECAC Standings
1. Cornell - 13 pts (6-1-1)
2. Colgate - 12 pts (6-2-0)
3. Yale - 8 pts (4-2-0)
4. Union - 8 pts (3-2-2)
5. St. Lawrence - 8 pts (4-4-0)
6. Dartmouth - 7 pts (3-3-1)

7. Princeton - 7 pts (3-5-1)
8. Quinnipiac - 7 pts (2-4-3)
9. Brown - 6 pts (3-3-0)
10. Harvard - 6 pts (2-3-2)

11. Clarkson - 6 pts (2-4-2)
12. RPI - 2 pts (1-6-0)


RPI at Princeton
ECAC Game - Hobey Baker Memorial Rink (Princeton, NJ)
12/2/11 - 7:00pm


RESULT: Princeton 5, RPI 3


BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RECORD: 3-11-0 (1-5-0 ECAC, 2 pts)





RPI at Quinnipiac
ECAC Game - TD Bank Sports Center (Hamden, CT)
12/3/11 - 7:00pm


RESULT: Quinnipiac 3, RPI 2


BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RECORD: 3-12-0 (1-6-0 ECAC, 2 pts)

Upcoming games
10 Dec - vs. #10 Union (Lake Placid, NY)
29 Dec - vs. #18 UMass-Lowell (Storrs, CT)
30 Dec - vs. Army OR at UConn (Storrs, CT)
06 Jan - Dartmouth
07 Jan - Harvard

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Women's Hockey - at Clarkson & St. Lawrence (2/3 Dec)

RPI needed a strong showing in the North Country to help get their season back on track prior to a long holiday layoff, but they certainly didn't get it this weekend in a pair of dismal losses, getting thrashed 10-0 by Clarkson on Friday night before watching a comeback attempt fall far short in a 6-3 loss to St. Lawrence on Saturday.

Clarkson

Mahoney/Harrison/Vandegrift
Smelker/Cox/Horton
Sanders/Guillemette/Svoboda
Letuligaseona/Mankey

Castignetti/Vadner
Le Donne/Schilter
Marzario

O'Brien/Piper

A hat trick by Jamie Lee Rattray and a 5-goal first period were among the highlights for the Golden Knights as they dominated the Engineers in a manner that even the top teams in the country have not historically been able to do. Even in their 8-2 loss to #1 Wisconsin, RPI managed 29 shots compared to just 11 against Clarkson. The 10-0 win for Clarkson is the second largest margin in the program's history, behind an 11-0 victory over Sacred Heart, in the Pioneers' first Division I season.

While Clarkson didn't open the scoring until near the midpoint of the first period, they had racked up a five goal lead by the first intermission, with Juana Baribeau opening the scoring by putting home her own rebound. Rattray notched the next two goals, less than two minutes apart, before Vanessa Gagnon picked up another just over a minute later when she deflected a puck past Kelly O'Brien to make it 4-0.

With Piper sent in to relieve O'Brien, the Engineers took their first penalty of the game, and Clarkson capitalized on the opportunity with Katelyn Ptolemy fired one in from the point for a power play goal and the 5-0 lead.

O'Brien returned to the net for the second period, which saw the Golden Knights notch another two tallies. Danielle Skirrow redirected a slapshot from Jennifer Shields at 8:13 to make it 6-0, and Rattray completed her first career hat trick, carrying the puck to the net and putting it past O'Brien for a 7-0 lead.

Christine Lambert picked up another power play goal early in the third, and the Golden Knights added a shorthanded marker at 10:03 by Baribeau along with one more goal by Brittany Styner at 15:29 to close out the scoring with a 10-goal advantage.

At the final buzzer, the Engineers had been outshot 37-11, and the 10-0 margin was the Engineers' worst defeat since an 11-0 loss at Harvard in October 2006. There was really nothing positive at all to take from this one, rather one can only hope that this was the definitive low point of the season and there is nowhere to go but up.

St. Lawrence

Smelker/Cox/Horton
Mahoney/Harrison/Vandegrift
Sanders/Guillemette/Svoboda
Letuligaseona/Mankey

Castignetti/Vadner
Le Donne/Schilter
Marzario

Piper

While the Engineers put forth a much stronger effort on Saturday than they did the night before, it wasn't enough to stop the offensive output of St. Lawrence, who doubled up RPI in a 6-3 victory despite a 24-24 tally in shots on goal.

The Saints dominated the opening frame much the same as Clarkson had the day before, jumping out to a 3-0 lead behind a 10-3 edge in shots. Rylee Smith scored unassisted on a breakaway at 7:50 for the game's first goal, while Kelly Sabatine and Mel Desrochers added a pair of goals just over two minutes apart in the tail end of the first period to make it 3-0 heading into the locker room.

A SLU penalty just 10 seconds into the second period gave RPI a chance to get on the board, and Andie Le Donne scored the Engineers' first goal on the weekend just 24 seconds later, with a slap shot that beat goalie Carmen MacDonald to cut the Saints' lead to 3-1.

SLU opened that lead back up later in the second period as Sabatine and Michelle Ng notched a pair of goals to make it 5-1. RPI held the edge in shots, 11-6 in the period, but was outscored 2-1 in the period as they couldn't catch a break on the weekend.

RPI tried desperately to get back into the game in the third period, picking up a pair of goals in the first five minutes from Jill Vandegrift and Alisa Harrison, with Vandegrift putting home a rebound and Harrison scoring on a breakaway to cut the Saints' lead to 5-3.

Just 18 seconds after pulling Piper in favor of the extra attacker late in the third, the Saints got an empty netter from Smith to make it 6-3, a score that held up through the final buzzer. The Engineers again outshot the Saints, 10-8 in the third, but the effort was not enough to recover from falling in the hole early.

With the pair of losses on the weekend, the Engineers fall to 4-12-4 on the season, and 1-5-2 in ECAC play, leaving them in 10th place as most of the league breaks for the holidays. All is not lost for the Engineers, who are just a point behind 8th place Colgate and Brown, but play will absolutely need to pick up after the new year to salvage a shot at making the playoffs - a potentially tall order given the Engineers have six games to be played against Cornell, Harvard, and Dartmouth among the remaining league schedule. It's possible nothing will be more important than the four games against Yale, Brown, and Union (twice), which will truly be must-win affairs to be able to push ahead of the rest of the pack in the fight to reach eighth place and secure a playoff spot.

RPI returns to action just over a month from now, with a home series against Colgate and Cornell on January 6th and 7th of the new year. Both games will be at 3pm as the men will also be home facing Dartmouth and Harvard at 7pm each evening.

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RPI at Clarkson
ECAC Hockey Game – Cheel Arena (Potsdam, NY)
12/2/11 – 7:00pm
Clarkson 10, RPI 0

BOX SCORES:

RECAPS:

RECORD: 4-11-4 (1-4-2 ECAC)

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RPI at St. Lawrence
ECAC Hockey Game – Appleton Arena (Canton, NY)
12/3/11 – 4:00pm
SLU 6, RPI 3

BOX SCORES:

RECAPS:

RECORD: 4-12-4 (1-5-2 ECAC)

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ECAC Standings
                GP    Pts     Conf    All
Quinnipiac 10 15 7-2-1 11-7-1
Clarkson 10 13 6-3-1 10-4-4
Cornell 7 12 6-1 10-2
Harvard 8 12 6-2 6-4
St. Lawrence 10 11 5-4-1 8-7-3
Princeton 10 11 5-4-1 6-7-1
Dartmouth 8 9 4-3-1 5-5-1
Colgate 7 5 2-4-1 6-10-1
Brown 8 5 1-4-3 3-5-5
RPI 8 4 1-5-2 4-12-4
Union 8 3 1-6-1 3-13-1
Yale 8 2 1-7 1-14
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Upcoming Games

Jan. 6 - Colgate (3pm)
Jan. 7 - Cornell (3pm)
Jan. 13 - at Dartmouth (7pm)
Jan. 14 - at Harvard (4pm)
Jan. 20 - Yale (7pm)
Jan. 21 - Brown (4pm)

Friday, December 2, 2011

Point of No Return

Every weekend is a big weekend in the ECAC, it seems, especially for RPI. This weekend, given the current state of the league standings, it's more of a "crossing the Rubicon" moment.

The men are in last place, there's not much that can sugar coat that, but they're playing a couple of teams are are not far away in 10th and 11th place Princeton and Quinnipiac, and a pair of wins would be enough to give them six points in seven games - the same tally as 7th place (and idle) Harvard. That's a move from last place to almost .500 and right back into the thick of things despite the horrid start, if they can grow on their offensive output from last week against RIT and actually bury some pucks at even strength.

The women, meanwhile, are finishing up the season series against the North Country in early December, a definite rarity. Right now, the Engineers sit in 10th place, out of a playoff spot, and while road games are always tougher to earn points than home games, they're practically a necessity now after picking up just one point in four ECAC home games to start the season. Two of those games were against Clarkson and St. Lawrence and while they didn't win or tie those games, they didn't exactly play poorly, either. The opportunity is out there to pull back into the hunt.

No special meaning for today's pump-up. Just a great song that'll get the blood pumping as both teams wrap their first semester league schedules.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

ECAC Power Rankings: November

OK, now that every team in the league has at least a month under their belts, it's time for the monthly power rankings, sponsored by... nobody.

The early season rankings take a team's entire body of work into account, not just ECAC games - so just because Cornell is in first in league standings doesn't necessarily mean they're first in the power rankings. These are generally weighted toward more recent results, meaning how the team fared in November is more important right now than how they did in October.

1. Cornell - They didn't have to be number one, but here they are. There's no other team in the league that has been not only consistently in every game they play, but for the most part winning all of those games quite like the Big Red. Only three losses on the year, each by just one goal. The offense has done enough by and large when the defense has struggled, and vice versa (evidenced by three straight shutouts before the loss to BU). That's a recipe for success.

2. Union - If not for one awful home weekend against Brown and Yale, the Dutchmen are probably tops here, especially given their road romp over Michigan last weekend that turned more than a few heads (although the Wolverines are in freefall right now). They pretty clearly have answered the questions they had in net and behind the bench from last season, and the offense hasn't missed much of a beat. This is a team ready to compete for ECAC hardware once again.

3. Colgate - While they've had a few bumps along the way, the Raiders have at least been fairly consistently in the win column all season. The offensive problems Colgate had last season have basically evaporated thanks to Austin Smith and Chris Wagner's breakout performances over the last two months, and the Raiders have bounced back from every single loss this season with a win in their next game. Currently, they're sporting a three-game winning streak with four wins in their last five, allowing just three goals in those wins.

4. Yale - I'm sorry, but if you claim to be one of the best programs in the country, allowing 7 goals against an 0-11-0 team (Sacred Heart) and then losing to boot is not something that's going to bolster that claim in the slightest. Easily the worst loss of the season for the ECAC in its entirety, and that's saying something. That one loss was enough to move them from contention from first or second down to here, but without it Yale has actually done very well thus far, to include a streak of slick goaltending with three straight shutouts. The Bulldogs are still a dangerous team.


5. St. Lawrence - The Saints have bounced back well from one of the worst starts you could imagine (including a 10-3 drubbing at Michigan) to pick up a whole bunch of league points with five wins in their last seven games. That's a serious turnaround from the 0-5 start, but it was a brutal early season schedule - two games against Ferris State (remember them?), at Michigan, at RIT in front of 10,000 fans, and then hosting Union. That's not to say that SLU has necessarily been overwhelming in the last seven, but they've at least found the winning edge.


6. Harvard - The Crimson have been pretty solid of late, a one-goal loss to St. Lawrence the team's only major blemish in the last five games (3-1-1). They have just two more games before going on break, and then comes the opportunity to truly prove themselves with two big non-conference games at the end of December at North Dakota. If they can stay consistent, they can be a threat, but Harvard's biggest problem right now is defense - they don't have much, and their offense may not have the chops to bail the team out with the same level of regularity in the future.


7. Quinnipiac - That the Bobcats are still ranked this high after the troubles they've had recently underscores just how much the bottom half of the ECAC is hurting right now, and how relatively close many of them are. A big pick-me up win at UMass last weekend brought a six-game winless streak to a halt and represented the first time in five games Quinnipiac had scored more than one goal (including a pair of shutouts). So why are they ranked this high? In October, much as they did two years ago, the Bobcats were practically unstoppable, both offensively and defensively. If we'd done an October power ranking, they'd have had a fair shot at number one.


8. Dartmouth - Now that the RPI power play is beginning to find life, attention is starting to focus within the league on just how terrible the Big Green are at scoring on the man advantage - truth be told, it's pretty much always been worse than RPI's, if only because it took them a very long time to notch their first power play goal of the season - they are almost dead last nationally on the power play and it's starting to take its toll. Dartmouth has just one win in their last six games, many of which they probably could have done better in with power play tallies, but the defense has been rough, too.


9. Clarkson - Man, the Golden Knights would be wasting the competition in Atlantic Hockey if that's where they called home. They're 6-0-1 against the conference. Outside? 2-5-2, their only wins coming against floundering Dartmouth and RPI. It's been that kind of night and day for Clarkson thus far. The defense has been relatively inconsistent, but the bigger problem is that outside of playing Atlantic Hockey teams, the offense and the defense just aren't always covering each other when one has a bad night. That's a sure setup for inconsistency, and that's what we've seen.


10. Princeton - Do the Tigers miss Guy Gadowsky? Probably. But they miss consistent goaltending and offense the most. It's Sean Bonar's team this year, and his numbers are down from last year's showing while in platoon with Mike Condon. That by itself probably wouldn't be that bad, except that there hasn't been an awful lot of growth when it comes to scoring, either. Like many other teams in the back end of the conference, Princeton has occasionally found goals very hard to come by, which tends to require the defense to be turning cartwheels to overcome and more often than not, it just isn't the case.


11. RPI - I was very tempted to put RPI last (where they are in the league standings), but some of Brown's more recent games make that really questionable. Let's be blatantly honest here. The Engineers, by the end of the season, may well have some of the most solid all around defensive numbers in the league. But the offense has been remarkably  bad on an epic level, and although most of their games have been low scoring, they still haven't been on the positive side of most of them.


12. Brown - While RPI at least is showing some signs of their offensive funk ending, Bruno is right smack in the middle of theirs - and displaying it against some pretty weak competition. RPI may have had their offensive woes going longer, but the Bears have back-to-back shutouts at the hands of American International and Holy Cross. Yeah. That's AIC's first shutout of a non-conference opponent since they returned to Division I in 1998 - and they played D-III teams early on.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Hockey East Watch: November Update

There hasn't been an awful lot to report on the Hockey East front since the league has been focusing on, well, playing hockey, but there have at least been additional rumblings since the beginning of the season that are worth reflecting on.

We first touched on most of these schools during Tsunami Watch, here. We'll try not to rehash what we said back in September.

And, for what it's worth, we've endorsed the concept of RPI moving to Hockey East, which you can read here.

Here's the score.

RPI: The school still hasn't said publicly that it's interested in Hockey East, but it's generally known that the Engineers have at least been inquiring behind the scenes and that there have been discussions within the Hockey East ranks about RPI. There's really not much more to talk about on this level until something moves (as engineers, that probably calls for a healthy dose of WD-40), but it is important to note the early success this season of Merrimack, the #1 team in the country. They're proving, at least for the time being, that it is possible to be successful in Hockey East even from outside of the big guns.

UConn: From practically every perspective of what tends to be important in college sports, UConn is still the school that makes the most sense for Hockey East. Given the school's size and importance in the broader spectrum, as well as being the most marketable name of any of the contenders, UConn would be the best fit if only the practical concerns were not so heavily in the way. According to the Eagle Tribune's Mike McMahon, the school has at least let Atlantic Hockey know that it is exploring the option of a Hockey East move, which could potentially be the first signal that the school is looking to upgrade its program. If it does, there's not an awful lot of discussion to be had here - presuming the school builds a new facility and starts offering scholarships (with the required Title IX offsets elsewhere), UConn would be the 12th school. The question now as the school undoubtedly begins the process of deciding whether it is worthwhile for them to outlay all that money is whether it's something they want from an institutional perspective. You may have read in the news that UConn may be looking to bolt the Big East - hockey might not exactly be in the foreground.

Holy Cross: The big news on the Crusaders' front is that the city of Worcester is keen on Holy Cross moving into Hockey East from a economic standpoint - 11 games a year bringing fans from around New England into the city for hockey. The city council, led by a Holy Cross hockey alum who sits on the council, is pushing for the 12,239-seat DCU Center (formerly the Spectrum) to be a home venue for the Crusaders, though that can be lowered to 7,230 with the Times Union Center-like curtain system they have. For their part, the school has done the same as UConn, according to McMahon, in alerting Atlantic Hockey that they are exploring the Hockey East option. It's worth mentioning that on our podcast last week, RIT's Chris Lerch mentioned that RIT and Holy Cross are both looking to move their D-III women's programs into Division I in the near future, so that could indicate some budding interest in the sport at Holy Cross. Just 40 miles from Boston, the school probably fits better into the league's wheel well than any other possible candidate, but whether the Crusaders are a good fit for Hockey East from a competition standpoint remains to be seen.

Quinnipiac: Nothing new to report on Quinnipiac really, either, but the rise of interest out of UConn and Holy Cross combined with the positives that RPI has going for it as a potential target in the first place (not to mention the Tute's already existing buzz) tends to lead one to believe that the Bobcats might be falling back in the likelihood category. They've still got the shiny new arena as its best selling point.

Syracuse: The "new program" option that recurs most frequently is one of two schools that has D-I women's hockey but not men's hockey (the other being Lindenwood - the teams coincidentally meeting this coming weekend). The assumption is always made that Syracuse, as a big name school in football, basketball and lacrosse, has a giant athletic department. Nope. Seven men's sports (two being cross-country and track) and 11 women's sports (again, including XC and track). That's it. Why the low number? Because those big time sports eat up most of the budget. Why the disparity? Title IX. Syracuse had to cut men's and women's swimming and diving in order to start the women's hockey program and come into compliance with Title IX. Throw in a likely increased travel budget with the school moving to the ACC in the near future and there's really no room for men's hockey.

Cornell and Harvard: The rumors just won't die about either of these Ivy League schools, but it's worth saying again - there's nothing to them. At all. The Ivies play together in every sport they participate in, and they're not breaking apart here, either. As we've said before, there's a better chance that the Ivies leave the ECAC to maintain their own conference than any of them joining Hockey East on their own (and Hockey East isn't taking on six new teams). That's actually an increased argument for RPI leaving - it's a sword of Damocles that has hung over the ECAC for decades.

Nobody: The possibility that Hockey East could be content to sit at 11 teams indefinitely has also been advanced over the last couple of months. Commissioner Joe Bertagna has been adamant at press conferences that the league won't bring on just anyone for the sake of reaching 12 teams, even though it's obvious the league would function better with 12 than 11. Still, if there's any shot at bringing a revamped UConn program aboard, there's little doubt the league would be willing to wait a year, or even a few years, operating with 11 than bring RPI, Holy Cross, or someone else on board to suddenly have UConn have a change of heart. They probably won't take this route unless they think something is in the cards for the Huskies in the near future. Otherwise, they do have decent options.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Men's Hockey - at RIT (25 Nov)

Ten days after a serious kick in the crotch at home against Union, RPI was afforded the opportunity to turn things around on the road in a non-conference game - not quite the same kind of bang that you'd get out of a  home league contest, but a lower-pressure situation to be sure. With a little creative changing to the lines, Seth Appert and the Engineers emerged winners from their first ever trip to RIT as freshman Scott Diebold picked up his first career win and shutout, 2-0.

RIT
Angers-Goulet/Rogic/Malchuk
Higgs/Laliberte/Haggerty
Lee/O'Grady/Schroeder
Tinordi/McGowan/Rabbani

Leonard/Bergin
Koudys/Bailen
Curadi/Dolan

Diebold

With Matt Neal still out with an ankle injury which now may see him sidelined through Christmas, RPI was dealt another blow on the injury front as Patrick Cullen sustained an injury against Union that kept him from making the trip to Rochester.

The only line to remain intact from the Union debacle was the line of Alex Angers-Goulet, Johnny Rogic, and Joel Malchuk. Brock Higgs was moved onto Jacob Laliberte's wing and paired with top forward scorer Ryan Haggerty, while Mark McGowan returned to the lineup in relief of Cullen. Also, Guy Leboeuf did not make an appearance, with Luke Curadi suiting up in his stead.

The Engineers got things going quickly, generating a number of good chances during the first 20 minutes and forcing RIT's Shane Madalora to make 9 stops in the opening period. The only power play of the period went to RIT as Mike Bergin was called for what would be the first of three minor penalties on the night, but the RPI penalty kill stopped the chance without too much hassle.

The game's turning point arrived just 28 seconds into the second period, as RIT's Brad McGowan was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for a borderline call of hitting Bergin from behind. That gave the Engineers their first - and ultimately, only - power play opportunity of the night, but they definitely made it count.

A little under a minute into the major, Nick Bailen took a shot off a pass from Jacob Laliberte that was well screened in front by Josh Rabbani. The big senior forward got right in Madalora's line of sight and then further distracted by leaping over Bailen's shot, which found the back of the net to put RPI up 1-0 on the junior defenseman's third goal of the year.

1:10 later, while still on the major power play, the Engineers struck again, this time with Ryan Haggerty notching his third of the campaign on a nicely timed alley-oop pass from Brock Higgs. The sophomore, who usually suits up at center, pushed a pass laterally through the slot that Haggerty found and immediately one-timed into the back of the net on a play that RPI has tried in practically every game, but as part of their difficulties finishing had generally been unable to convert.

That would do it for the scoring on the five minute advantage, and for much of the remainder of the period, it was penalty kill time for the Engineers. Bergin picked up practically back-to-back calls midway through the period to keep RPI down a man, and calls against Curadi for boarding and Curtis Leonard for cross-checking rounded out the second period. Diebold was called upon to make 11 saves in the middle frame, giving him 16 on 16 shots for the first 40 minutes.

RIT picked things up a little in the third, doing well on Leonard's penalty - the majority of which was held over into the period - and on Joel Malchuk's hooking call four and a half minutes in. During the last 20 minutes, RIT hit a pair of posts, but were unable to get any closer to beating Diebold, who finished with 25 saves in the shutout.

RPI also unleashed some good offense in the third, as they did throughout the game. Madalora finished with 28 shots, and several times in the third period the Engineers came close to increasing their lead. That bodes well for the team going forward as they continue to try to shake their offensive funk which, as we will note shortly, still has some important kinks to work out.

Other junk - Union's stunning destruction of Michigan at Yost Arena boosted the Dutchmen into the national top 10 this week, they pace the ECAC as the 9th ranked team (up four). Also ranked in the ECAC are #14 Yale (lost to Sacred Heart and Boston College, down six), #15 Colgate (beat Vermont, up one) and #17 Cornell (lost to BU, no change). #2 Notre Dame (split with Lake Superior, no change), #6 Ferris State (idle, up one) and #8 Colorado College (swept by North Dakota, down four) are also ranked. Receiving votes were UMass-Lowell (17), Clarkson (5), and Harvard (1).

RPI has gone 440:04 without scoring an even strength goal - that came on Patrick Cullen's first goal of the year, scored 10 seconds after a Colorado College goal in the first meeting between the two sides. That's 4 seconds more than 22 consecutive periods. No, you aren't reading that wrong.

In all but one RPI game this year - the 5-2 loss to Notre Dame - one team or the other (or both) have scored either 1 or 0 goals in the game. Frequently, that's been RPI, but across the Engineers' three wins, they've given up just one goal, underscoring the importance of defense on this team.

Slowly improving, the RPI power play is now up to 10.4% on the season, technically going 2-for-3 on the advantage against RIT. A 6-for-6 night on the penalty kill increased the Engineers' PK rating to 87.5%, 12th best in the country.

One final league weekend of the first semester is on tap for RPI next weekend as they travel to Princeton and Quinnipiac, and we'll find out there if the offensive improvements seen at RIT will be able to carry forward into the rest of the season.

ECAC Standings
1. Cornell - 10 pts (5-1-0)
2. Colgate - 8 pts (4-2-0, +7 GD)
3. St. Lawrence - 8 pts (4-2-0, +1 GD)
4. Dartmouth - 7 pts (3-3-1)
5. Yale - 6 pts (3-1-0)
6. Union - 6 pts (3-2-0)
7. Harvard - 6 pts (2-3-2, -1 GD)
8. Clarkson - 5 pts (2-3-1, +1 GD)
9. Brown - 4 pts (2-2-0)
10. Princeton - 4 pts (2-5-0)
11. Quinnipiac - 4 pts (1-4-2)
12. RPI - 2 pts (1-4-0)


RPI at RIT
Non-Conference Game - Frank Ritter Memorial Ice Arena (Henrietta, NY)
11/25/11 - 7:00pm


RESULT: RPI 2, RIT 0


BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS

RECORD: 3-10-0 (1-4-0 ECAC, 2 pts)

Upcoming games
02 Dec - at Princeton
03 Dec - at Quinnipiac
10 Dec - vs. #9 Union (Lake Placid, NY)
29 Dec - vs. UMass-Lowell (Storrs, CT)
30 Dec - vs. Army OR at UConn (Storrs, CT)

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Women's Hockey - Syracuse (25/26 Nov)

RPI closed out the year's nonconference schedule this weekend with a pair of games at home against Syracuse. Last week, we noted RPI's need to carry the level of intensity and quality of play shown against Wisconsin into their other games. It didn't show consistently on Friday as Syracuse skated to a 4-3 victory, but after a slow start Saturday, the Engineers picked up play and finished strong for a 2-1 victory over the Orange.

Friday

Smelker/Cox/Horton
Mahoney/Harrison/Vandegrift
Sanders/Guillemette/Svoboda
Letuligasenoa

Castignetti/Vadner
Le Donne/Schilter
Marzario

O'Brien/Piper

A furious comeback attempt by the Engineers in the game's final minutes and a 31-16 advantage in shots weren't enough to overcome a 3-goal second period from Syracuse as RPI fell 4-3 at Houston Field House on Friday.

The Engineers opened the scoring at 13:24 of the opening period when Jill Vandegrift took a pass from Kathryn Schilter, put a shot on Orange netminder Jenesica Drinkwater, and collected her own rebound for the goal.

A 1-0 first intermission lead quickly evaporated as the second period drew on, with Syracuse breaking out with three goals on just six shots. Holly Carrie-Mattimoe opened the scoring for the Orange with a goal on a quick cross-ice pass from Caitlin Roach. Julie Knerr gave Syracuse the lead at 10:46 when she snuck a shot past Kelly O'Brien despite heavy pressure from the RPI defense.

Megan Skelly made it a 3-1 game at 15:47 of the period when she picked up her own rebound and was left alone to skate it around the back of the Engineers' net for a wraparound goal as O'Brien scrambled to get back in position from the initial save.

O'Brien would be relieved by Brianna Piper near the midpoint of the third period when Syracuse extended their lead to 4-1. A slapshot from Kaillie Goodnough found its way through traffic from the point to beat O'Brien, making it a difficult shot to see.

RPI elected to pull Piper early in an attempt to dig out of the 3-goal hole, and the move paid off at 15:51 when Jordan Smelker buried a rebound with the extra attacker on to cut the Orange lead to 4-2.

The Engineers cut the lead to one with 1:13 remaining with a 6-on-4 power play, extra attacker goal by Andie Le Donne. Le Donne pinched in to fire a rocket slapshot on a rebound opportunity past Drinkwater to make it 4-3.

RPI was able to play the game's final minute with the extra attacker but could not come up with the equalizer, and the 4-1 hole early in the third was just a little too much to overcome so late in the game.

Saturday

Mahoney/Harrison/Vandegrift
Smelker/Cox/Horton
Sanders/Guillemette/Svoboda
Letuligasenoa

Castignetti/Vadner
Le Donne/Schilter
Marzario

Piper

A slow start didn't hold the Engineers back on Saturday as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the second period and held on to take a 2-1 victory and a split on the weekend.

After a very subdued first period which saw only five shots by each team, the Engineers had spent a lot of time on their heels (and on the penalty kill), although Syracuse could not generate any significant offense despite holding the edge in play early on.

RPI came out of the gate flying in the second period, however, and the Engineers got themselves on the scoreboard just 49 seconds into the middle frame. Breaking in 2-on-1, Eleeza Cox slid a perfect pass cross-ice to Jordan Smelker, who fired a laser past Drinkwater for the 1-0 lead.

Alisa Harrison made the lead 2-0 at 6:15 of the second, after Taylor Mahoney skated in against two defenders and put a shot on net. Jill Vandegrift had a look at the first rebound but couldn't put it home, and Harrison capitalized on another rebound chance as Drinkwater was unable to get the puck covered fast enough.

Syracuse launched their own third period comeback effort in Saturday's game, turning the momentum squarely in their favor in the final period, but RPI would manage to hold to Orange to a single goal by Jordyn Burns, scored from the point through traffic at 13:15 of the third period.

While Syracuse continued to pressure the Engineers after the goal, a penalty on the Orange's Julie Knerr at 15:25 took the wind out of their sails and helped RPI regain some composure and close out the game to earn the split in the weekend series.

The Engineers close out the 2011 portion of their season on the road next weekend at Clarkson (7pm Friday) and St. Lawrence (4pm Saturday), in a pair of ECAC matchups, before a month without a game over the holidays. Live stats and score updates via twitter will be available as usual, while the North Country schools will both have live video available for purchase at game time.

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RPI vs. Syracuse
Non-Conference Game – Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/25/11 – 7:00pm
Syracuse 4, RPI 3

BOX SCORES:

RECAPS:

RECORD: 3-10-4 (1-3-2 ECAC)

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RPI vs. Syracuse
Non-Conference Game – Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/26/11 – 4:00pm
RPI 2, Syracuse 1

BOX SCORES:

RECAPS:

RECORD: 4-10-4 (1-3-2 ECAC)

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Upcoming Games

Dec. 2 - at Clarkson (7pm)
Dec. 3 - at St. Lawrence (4pm)
Jan. 6 - Colgate (3pm)
Jan. 7 - Cornell (3pm)
Jan. 13 - at Dartmouth (7pm)
Jan. 14 - at Harvard (4pm)

Friday, November 25, 2011

Stop the Bleeding

It's off to RIT tonight for a single game weekend with another ECAC set looming next weekend. The problems are well documented. Something needs to be done.

The puck has got to go in the net.

We have a suggestion as to what we'd like to see more of tonight. Pump it up.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

On Empty Nets and Admiral Ackbar

This has been floating around in my head for the last week, and finally there's some time to talk about it... last Tuesday, while we were busy sleepwalking through the one and only Union home game of the season, Seth Appert decided to pull Bryce Merriam from the net with about eight minutes left to play, trying to light a fire  that could get the team back into the game while they were down 4-1 with practically zero offensive opportunities.

Directly behind me, there was an immediate reaction. "What the hell are you doing, Appert?" a fan shouted. "This is (expletive)!"

I just about buried my head in my hands, but I'd had about enough - given that there has been actual commentary on the Internet lately as to whether lifting the goaltender is really a good idea for RPI, given the number of empty netters that the Engineers have given up this season... a number that reached 8 (more than the last two seasons combined - 5) when Daniel Carr hit the net from behind the red line, sending the Union fans in attendance into a celebration that seemed more apt for an overtime win than an empty netter with three minutes left in a game in which they were up by three and dominating.

I turned around and shouted back. "What the hell is he supposed to do? Nothing else is working. Who cares if we allow an empty netter, what's the big deal?"

Quite frankly, it's not a big deal. Empty net goals are almost never worth getting excited over, and the practice of pulling the goaltender for an extra skater when you're down late - earlier if you're down more - is done by precisely everyone. It's standard operating procedure. The football equivalent is going for it on fourth down. The exception that proves the rule is probably the Soviet Union in 1980. They didn't pull Vladimir Myshkin when they trailed the Americans late in the Miracle on Ice game, but that team was so strong and powerful that they'd never really been in a situation where they were down late before. They never practiced or planned for playing with an extra attacker.

Here's the illustration of the point on why empty net goals are meaningless. RPI was losing 2-1 to Colorado College in the first game the teams played this year. CC scored two empty netters and 4-1 was the final. What is the difference? There isn't one, really. RPI was losing before and still lost. RPI was losing 2-0 to St. Lawrence up in Canton a week later. RPI pulled the goaltender, and didn't allow the empty netter. What was the difference? None. RPI still lost - and they were losing before they pulled the goalie, too.

Now think back to last year's Black Friday... or Saturday or whenever it was. RPI on the power play. Down 3-2. Allen York gets pulled - he's out of the net for almost two full minutes of gameplay. Marty O'Grady scores with 0.2 seconds left on the clock, and RPI wins in OT. What happened there? A game the Engineers were losing turned into a tie, then a victory.

Bottom line, empty net goals are given up when the team is losing anyway and is going all out to either get back in the game or tie it, depending on how far down they are.

But, you say, what about tiebreakers?

Well, what about them? Here they are in ECAC play.

1. Comparison of game results between tied teams (head to head). -- This is an argument for winning as many games as you can against as many teams as you can, and therefore, pulling the goaltender.
2. League wins. -- This is an argument for winning as many games as you can against as many teams as you can, and therefore, pulling the goaltender.
3. Comparison of results of games against the top four teams. -- This is an argument for winning as many games as you can against as many teams as you can, and therefore, pulling the goaltender.
4. Comparison of results of games against the top eight teams. -- This is an argument for winning as many games as you can against as many teams as you can, and therefore, pulling the goaltender.
5. Goal differential in head-to-head competition. -- AHA! Perhaps we shouldn't pull the goaltender after all. Oh wait... this is the FIFTH tiebreaker, and it only has to do with goal differential with ONE OTHER TEAM.

When you're down, you pull the goaltender. When you're getting killed at home and nothing else is working, pull the goaltender. It was a sound plan, and it actually worked, too. RPI kept Union in their own zone for much of the five minutes it took Carr to send out a wing and a prayer from the neutral zone.

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That honestly could have been the end of this, but for no apparent reason, after I snapped at this guy behind me about the empty net, he then sent me into orbit: "We should be playing the trap. 1-3-1."

Holy. Cow.

I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just start with this. Trap hockey is some of the most boring hockey you will ever watch. It is focused not on moving the puck and scoring goals, but rather on gumming up the neutral zone to keep the other team from transitioning and creating offense. Forechecking becomes practically non-existent, which leads to fewer offensive opportunities.

Yeah, that's just what a team struggling to score goals needs right now.

His excuse? "Oh, well the Lightning do it. New Jersey's played the trap for years."

Yeah, that would be the 12th place Lightning and 10th place Devils.

I mean, look how exciting 1-3-1 can be:



Amazing. How can we get this kind of fast paced play in Troy?

Listen, I love my school and I love hockey - real hockey, the way it is meant to be played, fast paced, with hard hitting, quick action, and puck battles. Fortunately, that's the way we've pretty much always played. But if we suddenly switched to some kind of trap or clutch and grab scheme, I'd stop coming to games - and this is coming from a person devoted enough to run a fan blog.

Why do you watch hockey? To see who can put more pucks in the net at any cost? Why'd you get interested in the sport in the first place?

Say RPI had an exceptionally good... oh, cricket team, for instance. Now, I'd be fairly proud of this team if they were national contenders on a regular basis. But would I go to watch them? I would not. Why? For the life of me, I just am not into cricket. Can't get excited about a sport that takes even longer than baseball to play.

When I go to watch hockey, I want to see good hockey. Over the years, there have been a number of games we've lost by more than a little that I at least enjoyed because it was good back and forth. There have been close games (last year's Cornell home game rings a bell) that was nauseatingly sleep inducing because of the clutch and grab the Big Red plays.

Bottom line? If boring hockey is acceptable to you, why not stare at the scoreboard for 60 minutes and forget about what's happening on the ice? It's almost as riveting.

My retort to the trap fan? "The trap is bull(stuff) hockey." Which I repeated over and over again until he got the point and clammed up. The trap may be a legitimate hockey scheme, but it comes at a cost of the game's very soul. Most real hockey fans don't enjoy it and I personally would never support a team that used it.

We may be struggling, but at least we've got a coach and a team that plays real hockey. I can live with that at the end of the day.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Today's Podcast: Chris Lerch

We are happy to welcome back to Without a Peer Radio USCHO's Chris Lerch, who covers Atlantic Hockey for the longest-running college hockey website on the information superhighway. He also does play-by-play for RIT hockey on WITR-FM and is a fantastic resource for all things RIT.

We'll talk to Chris about RPI's first ever trip to Rochester, a game featuring a couple of teams that seem to be going in opposite directions. The Tigers have scored more goals in the last four games (all Atlantic Hockey wins) than the Engineers have scored all year - is this RIT's year to pick up their first D-I victory over RPI, and their second all time? We'll also ask about goings on in Atlantic Hockey and the underlying issues with conference realignment - including RIT's relatively well-known deigns on ECAC membership, which may hinge on a 12th member of Hockey East.

Today's podcast gets underway at 4pm Eastern. You can listen live by clicking "Listen to Without a Peer" on the right hand side of the page at the appropriate hour, or you can listen on demand by doing the same after the show.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Men's Hockey - Union (15 Nov)

The hole keeps getting bigger for the Engineers, and this time it gets much worse. A mid-week game, at home, on Greek Night, against Union - the opposite side of a rivalry that has produced heart-stopper after heart-stopper over the last three years. The setting was right for RPI to break out and finally get themselves out of first gear offensively, but instead of more of the same that we've seen from RPI-Union, we got more of the same that we've seen from RPI 2011-12: a relatively silent offense, and a loss, this time by a 5-1 margin.

Union
Cullen/Laliberte/Rabbani
Tinordi/O'Grady/Haggerty
Lee/Higgs/Schroeder
Angers-Goulet/Rogic/Malchuk

Koudys/Bailen
Leboeuf/Bergin
Leonard/Dolan

Merriam

Coming just three days after the Engineers' first win of the ECAC schedule against Brown - albeit of a less-than-inspiring 1-0 variety - Seth Appert went to war with the same exact lines that produced the victory, with no changes whatsoever to personnel, lines, pairings, or the crease.

Early on, the Field House was electric. The combination of Greek Night adding a solid number of rowdy students in attendance and the rivalry aspect helped contribute to an excellent start for RPI. The Engineers controlled the puck well and got a good number of early opportunities to score, cashing in with a power play goal on the first advantage of the night as Nick Bailen scored his second goal of the year from Jacob Laliberte and Ryan Haggerty - two freshmen playing on the power play - to put RPI up 1-0 for the second game in a row and the third time this season. It was also by far the earliest in a game the Engineers had put the puck in the net, notching a goal in the first period for only the fourth time all season.

Now, one thing Union certainly has going for it is its offense, so it was pretty obvious that the Engineers weren't going to be able to pull off a 1-0 victory for the second time in a row. After the Bailen goal, RPI went right back to work and continued to control play for another couple of minutes, again getting some good opportunities, especially a mini-breakaway by Alex Angers-Goulet that could have been a solid scoring opportunity, but a perfect backcheck poked the puck away from him, and he didn't get a shot off.

Union counter-attacked quickly, and on a defensive breakdown in transition, the Dutchmen ended up with a 2-on-1 that ended with Merriam committing to a shot that ended up being a pass that was one-timed to the back of the net, tying the game at one.

That became the moment of truth for RPI, and the Engineers did not answer the bell. After Union converted on their first power play opportunity of the game in relatively short order four minutes later, it seemed apparent that RPI was not going to put up much of a fight given the way they were playing - lethargic in chasing after pucks, lazy in the neutral zone, and predictable in the increasingly rare opportunities they were getting in the Union end.

A heads up play by Johnny Rogic to dump the net and take a delay of game penalty rather than risk what probably would have been a Union goal early in the second period could be counted as one of the best plays the Engineers put up in the final 40 minutes of the game, and that's saying a lot. Union didn't score on that man advantage, but they did just a few minutes later in a four-on-four situation, and then again before the period was halfway in the books on the power play to make it 4-1. Whatever atmosphere was left at the Field House at that point was pretty much gone.

Union went into lockdown mode after going up by three, but the way RPI was playing it wouldn't have mattered if they decided to continue to push the envelope. The Engineers got a pair of power play opportunities in the third period, practically back to back, that they never came close to threatening with. Out of realistic options, Seth Appert pulled Bryce Merriam with about eight minutes left in the game, desperate to park something - anything - that would get RPI going. The move did help the Engineers bottle Union up in their own end for nearly five minutes, but eventually Union did get the puck moving and finished things off with an empty netter.

The offensive woes have now reached epic proportions: RPI's tally in the last seven games can be submitted in binary: 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1. Since the 100-001 victory over Minnesota State on the first night of the season (see what I did there?), the Engineers have scored more than one goal in just one game out of ten.

RPI now is in the middle of a 10 day break between games, ending this coming Friday with a visit to RIT. We'll see then if the time off has been what they've needed to get unstuck, or whether this season is likely to be one of the longest on memory. That game will be broadcast live on Time Warner Cable, if you dare to watch.

Other junk - An interesting turn of events in the USCHO.com poll as Merrimack, the last remaining team without a loss in the nation, is the #1 team in the nation for the first time. Three years ago, this would have been a joke - something to keep in mind. Ranked ECAC teams this week are #8 Yale (up one), #13 Union (no change), #16 Colgate (up one), and #17 Cornell (up one). Also ranked are #2 Notre Dame (up two, with 10 first place votes), #4 Colorado College (up one, with one first place vote), and #7 Ferris State (down one). Also receiving votes were UMass-Lowell (15), Clarkson (10), and RIT (2).

RPI has a total of 27 points as a team this season - 11 goals, 16 assists. Their opponents have put up 84 against them. Only Alabama Huntsville has a worse offense - they have just 10 goals in 12 games, so it's a matter of one goal.

Most embarrassing of all? No fewer than five individual players - Colgate's Austin Smith, Minnesota's Nick Bjugstad, Notre Dame's Anders Lee, Minnesota-Duluth's Travis Oleksuk, and Nebraska-Omaha's Terry Broadhurst - have more goals so far this year than RPI does combined. Notre Dame's T.J. Tynan has more assists than RPI does combined, which is even more impressive when you consider that a team can pick up two assists on the same goal.

Not helping matters are the penalties for the Engineers - they're averaging 17 per game, good for 8th in the nation.

Green Bay certainly seems like a very long time ago.

ECAC Standings
1. Cornell - 10 pts (5-1-0)
2. Colgate - 8 pts (4-2-0, +7 GD)
3. St. Lawrence - 8 pts (4-2-0, +1 GD)
4. Yale - 6 pts (3-1-0)
5. Union - 6 pts (3-2-0)
6. Dartmouth - 6 pts (3-3-0)
7. Clarkson - 5 pts (2-3-1, +1 GD)
8. Harvard - 5 pts (2-3-1, -1 GD)
9. Brown - 4 pts (2-2-0)
10. Princeton - 4 pts (2-5-0)
11. Quinnipiac - 4 pts (1-4-2)
12. RPI - 2 pts (1-4-0)


#13 Union at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/15/11 - 7:00pm


RESULT: Union 5, RPI 1


BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS

RECORD: 2-10-0 (1-4-0 ECAC, 2 pts)

Upcoming games
25 Nov - at RIT
02 Dec - at Princeton
03 Dec - at Quinnipiac
10 Dec - vs. #13 Union (Lake Placid, NY)
29 Dec - vs. UMass-Lowell (Storrs, CT)

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Women's Hockey - Wisconsin (18/19 Nov)

Last year, the Engineers opened their season with a road trip to Madison, WI, where the Badgers thoroughly dismantled RPI en route to 7-0 and 6-0 blowouts. In those games last year, there were few positives to be had, and it looked like RPI was playing shorthanded nearly the entire game.

This year, with nearly half the season gone before the teams met in Troy for a rematch, RPI was much better prepared to take on the #1 team in the country. While the Engineers again suffered two losses, Friday's game was a very close 4-3 contest in which RPI led twice, and Saturday's 8-2 final - while looking extremely lopsided - still offered more than a few positives and learning opportunities for the Engineers.

Friday

Cox/Smelker/Horton
Vandegrift/Guillemette/Harrison
Sanders/Mahoney/Svoboda
Letuligasenoa

Castignetti/Vadner
Le Donne/Marzario
Schilter/Walsh

O'Brien

Whether it was the result of a week off for the Badgers, the long trip to Troy, or a case of underestimating their opponent, Wisconsin looked a little off their game on Friday night, and all the Engineers had to do to get into the game was weather a few minutes of very strong Badger pressure to open the game.

In the opening four minutes of Friday's contest, Wisconsin had racked up a 10-0 shot advantage, but the Engineers did a good job of blocking shots from the front and limiting opportunities to sharp angles, giving Kelly O'Brien a good chance at each one.

Five minutes into the opening frame, RPI made it clear to the visitors that they weren't going to just sit back and take a beating, as Jordan Smelker and Eleeza Cox capitalized on a Wisconsin turnover at their own blue line to make it 1-0. Smelker broke past the backchecking Badger defense and fed Cox across the crease who beat netminder Alex Rigsby for the early lead.

The goal gave the Engineers life and for the next several minutes the play was remarkably close, with several opportunities each way, but the momentum shifted back in the Badgers' favor past the midpoint of the period when Jill Vandegrift was sent off on a hooking call. Less than a minute into the penalty kill, Amanda Castignetti tripped up a Badger skater and Carolyne Prevost beat O'Brien on the delayed penalty off a pass from Brooke Ammerman to tie the game at one - and send the Engineers back to the penalty kill for another two minutes.

RPI killed the ensuing penalty and held off Wisconsin's pressure for the remainder of the period, which saw a an 18-7 advantage in shots for the Badgers - relatively even once RPI held off the first 10 shots in the game's opening minutes.

Wisconsin struck again near the midpoint of the second period, after several more minutes of solid play from the Engineers, when a faceoff win sprung Brooke Ammerman and Carolyne Prevost on a 2-on-1 for the Badgers. Prevost fed Ammerman with a quick pass for an easy tap-in past O'Brien - a shot which the RPI netminder never had a chance at stopping.

By this point in the game RPI had been shorthanded four times, but shortly after Wisconsin's second goal RPI finally got their first power play opportunity, and they made good on it. With Alev Kelter off for hooking, Jill Vandegrift picked up a rebound in front of Rigsby and put it home to tie the game at two.

RPI made it 2-for-2 on the power play later in the period when Andie Le Donne was tripped by UW's Stefanie McKeough. Smelker and Cox again broke in 2-on-1, and when the Wisconsin defender dropped to the ice to prevent the pass, smelker fired a laser past Rigsby to take a 3-2 lead, which the Engineers held into the intermission. RPI actually held a 13-11 shot advantage in the period, which was one of the best played by the Engineers this year.

If not for one bad minute in the third period, the Engineers had every chance to win the game. However, a pair of ill-advised penalties taken by RPI set them up to be shorthanded for most of the opening five minutes of the third, and Wisconsin made quick work of getting back on top, with a power play goal by Brianna Decker followed up by a quick Blayre Turnbull goal just 42 seconds later to flip the score from 3-2 to 4-3 in what seemed like an instant.

Despite RPI's efforts to tie the game back up, including two power play opportunities, Wisconsin's conditioning got the best of the Engineers, who were unable to mount any sustained pressure even during the man advantage, and Wisconsin took a little-too-close-for-comfort 4-3 win heading into Saturday's rematch.

Saturday

Cox/Smelker/Horton
Guillemette/Harrison/Vandegrift
Sanders/Mahoney/Svoboda
Letuligasenoa

Castignetti/Vadner
Schilter/Walsh
Le Donne/Marzario

Piper/O'Brien

Several of those in attendance for Friday's game looked at RPI's performance and predicted a much different flow to the game on Saturday; that RPI would not have as much left in the tank as Wisconsin and would face a much tougher game than they did on Friday. Those predictions turned out to be pretty accurate.

Despite another great effort from the Engineers, Wisconsin's top scorers were too much to contain, with the Badgers' top line combining for seven goals and 15 points en route to a 8-2 victory for the visitors.

The Badgers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half of the opening frame, with Hilary Knight poking home a rebound and Brianna Decker picking up another from close range, beating Brianna Piper with a nifty move to double the lead.

RPI answered back with a power play goal on their first opportunity of the game, with Sierra Vadner sliding a shot in from the point which was tipped past Rigsby by Ali Svoboda. Wisconsin regained their two-goal lead before the period ended, on yet another play off a rebound, this time by Prevost.

The second period saw Wisconsin and RPI trade goals in the opening two minutes, with Brooke Ammerman scoring on the power play for the Badgers before Taylor Horton fed Eleeza Cox for a quick tap-in less than a minute later.

That would mark the end of the Engineers' scoring as Wisconsin never let up through the remainder of the game, picking up goals by Prevost and Brooke Ammerman later in the second, while Decker notched the Badgers' final two goals in the third period to complete her sixth career hat trick. Decker also saw her point-scoring streak extend to 24 straight games on Saturday.

After playing the first two periods, Piper was replaced in net by O'Brien for the third period. Although the numbers may not reflect it, both netminders played well on the weekend, with more than a few of Wisconsin's goals coming on tic-tac-toe passing plays that left the goalie no chance at making a save.

While the Engineers dropped both games, the level of play RPI brought to the ice this weekend beat anything seen thusfar in the season. Friday's game in particular was marked by extremely smart hockey - short shifts, a lot of blocked shots (20 to be exact), and good use of turnovers and mistakes by Wisconsin to create opportunities. If RPI can carry this weekend's level of play back into the remainder of the ECAC schedule, there's not a game on the schedule they wouldn't have a fair shot at winning. The key will be to see if the Engineers can bring their A-game when they're not playing the top-ranked team in the country.

RPI is home again next weekend for a non-conference pair against Syracuse before facing Clarkson and SLU on the road before the holiday break. The games against Syracuse are extremely winnable and would give the Engineers a chance to get some momentum going into the remainder of the ECAC schedule. With the men playing at RIT on Friday, the only potential radio coverage would be Saturday's game, although nothing has been confirmed by WRPI as of yet. As usual, video and live stats will be available from the RPI Athletics website, along with tweets from WaP at twitter.com/without_a_peer.

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RPI vs. Wisconsin
Non-Conference Game – Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/18/11 – 7:00pm
Wisconsin 4, RPI 3

BOX SCORES:

RECAPS:
Video Highlights (no audio): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_rakImhUt0

RECORD: 3-8-4 (1-3-2 ECAC)

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RPI vs. Wisconsin
Non-Conference Game – Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/19/11 – 4:00pm
Wisconsin 8, RPI 2

BOX SCORES:

RECAPS:
Video Highlights (no audio): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tolFHChov5E

RECORD: 3-9-4 (1-3-2 ECAC)

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Upcoming Games

Nov. 25 - Syracuse (7pm)
Nov. 26 - Syracuse (4pm)
Dec. 2 - at Clarkson (7pm)
Dec. 3 - at St. Lawrence (4pm)
Jan. 6 - Colgate (3pm)
Jan. 7 - Cornell (3pm)