The Engineers are officially on a roll. For the first time since February 2002 - in a stretch that included the immortal Freakout! victory over Clarkson - RPI has won five consecutive ECAC games. They kept things going in impressive fashion this weekend, completing the season sweep of Brown with their second shutout of the season on Friday, 3-0, ahead of the Big Red Freakout! matchup with top-ranked Yale, earning their first victory over the national #1 in 15 years (Vermont in 1995-96), 5-2 in front of a sold-out crowd.
Brown
Angers-Goulet/O'Grady/Brutlag
Cullen/Higgs/Rabbani
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Tinordi/Rogic/Malchuk
Bergin/Foss
Kennedy/Dolan
Leboeuf/Bailen
York
John Kennedy returned to the lineup after missing just one game, giving RPI a full complement of skaters to choose from again. There had been some drama during the week as to whether he'd play, with Appert deeming him "50-50" and Kennedy deeming himself "95 percent," but the captain did in fact return to the lineup.
Brown returned to Houston Field House for the first time since their upset 3-game playoff victory over RPI last March, but were playing against what was clearly a better RPI team than last season's.
The Bears came up shooting throughout the game, but the Engineers were first on the board for the fourth straight game. A kneeing call against Jeff Foss was canceled out by penalty to Brown's Harry Zolnierczyk for running Allen York about a minute into the Brown power play. Seconds later, Jack Maclellan was called for slashing York during the ensuing 4-on-4, giving RPI a 4-on-3 that eventually became a 5-on-3 when Foss exited the box. With time running down on Zolnierczyk's penalty, Chase Polacek scored his 15th goal of the season, stretching his goal-scoring streak to four in a row, making it 1-0 Engineers.
Zolnierczyk would get his team in trouble again just over three minutes later, this time with a tripping penalty, and again the Engineers responded. Bryan Brutlag scored just about 30 seconds into the penalty to give RPI a 2-0 edge heading into the second period.
The rest of the game was basically the Allen York show. After Brutlag's goal in the first period, Brown had four full power play opportunities, but could not score thanks to York, who made 36 saves on as many shots to preserve the shutout. Tyler Helfrich scored an empty netter with just over two minutes to play to seal the win. Notably, Zolnierczyk took a penalty at 19:59 of the third period, but the Engineers couldn't complete the hat-trick of goals with the Brown captain in the penalty box.
The win, coupled with Dartmouth's tie with Cornell, moved the Engineers into a tie for 4th place in the ECAC, a bye position, with RPI winning the tiebreaker with the Big Green thanks to their season sweep of Dartmouth that was completed the previous weekend.
Yale
Angers-Goulet/O'Grady/Brutlag
Cullen/Higgs/Rabbani
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Burgdoerfer/Rogic/Malchuk
Kennedy/Dolan
Bergin/Foss
Koudys/Bailen
York
It appears that Burgdoerfer and Tinordi are becoming somewhat interchangeable in the lineup and for good reason - they are fairly similar players.
Yale had already been upset on the weekend heading into Troy as they dropped a one-goal decision to Union in Schenectady on Friday. Conventional wisdom had it that Yale wasn't going to lose two games in a row, but the Engineers, straight out of the gate, had other plans.
Yale's Nick Jaskowiak took the game's first penalty just 1:44 in on a hooking call, and though it took RPI nearly the entire two minutes to score, they did with 10 seconds remaining on the penalty as Patrick Cullen scored to put the Engineers ahead 1-0.
From there, however, Yale displayed exactly why it was the #1 team in the country, maintaining excellent puck possession for basically the next 30 minutes of the game, and keeping RPI bottled up in its own end with an amazing forecheck that more often than not kept the Engineers from getting very far with the puck even when they did have it. But as amazing as the Yale forecheck was, Allen York was even more impressive. Totally dialed in, York made a number of instinctive saves and had tremendous puck awareness all night long.
He needed to be sharp in the second period, as the Engineers began a procession to the penalty box that included a stretch of nearly four straight minutes after consecutive penalties to C.J. Lee and Chase Polacek (with a 10 second overlap of 5x3). RPI killed those penalties, and also killed a delay of game call against Johnny Rogic after Rogic popped the net off its moorings during yet another feverish Yale rush.
Eventually, the penalties became a touch too much. Almost a minute-and-a-half into an elbowing call against Greg Burgdoerfer, Yale finally put one behind York, tying the game at one. From there, the Engineers could have broken, given how dominant Yale had been practically since Cullen's goal.
But that didn't happen. Instead, RPI turned things the other way, assisted by a Yale penalty. Josh Rabbani notched his third goal of the year on a nice deke move in front of the net on the ensuing power play, putting the Engineers back on top 2-1 heading into the third period, but with the game still very much in doubt as it was one of only 3 RPI shots during the middle frame, and they had only 9 through 40 minutes. Such was the puck domination of the Bulldogs.
A fortuitous sequence of events early in the third period put the Engineers in firm control of the scoreboard despite the play on the ice. With Allen York off the ice on a delayed holding penalty against Yale's Ken Trentowski, Brock Higgs scored his fifth goal of the season to give RPI a two-goal cushion. The new rule put in place this season requires penalties to be assessed even if a goal is scored in a delayed situation, so Trentowski went to the box for two minutes and RPI, fresh off their goal, went straight to the power play.
Not even a minute after Higgs had put RPI up by two, Polacek made it five straight with a goal, improbably putting the Engineers up 4-1 despite all of their struggles and required big defense throughout the game. The goal also chased Ryan Rondeau, who has been Yale's stalwart in net all year, after giving up four goals on 12 total shots.
Late in the game, York took offense to Yale's Chris Cahill operating around the net and dropped his stick to go after the Bulldog senior. That netted him an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, and the Bulldogs converted with 2:15 left in the game to cut the RPI lead to 4-2. That gave Yale the opening they needed to pull their backup goaltender, Nick Maricic, but 37 seconds after the net was vacated, C.J. Lee scored RPI's second empty netter of the weekend to put the seal on a 5-2 victory over the best team in the nation.
Allen York was nothing short of fantastic. He made 38 saves on 40 shots, making it an eye popping 74 saves on 76 shots for the weekend. The win snapped RPI's Freakout! losing streak at three, and ended the winless streak at four. It also represented RPI's third win in four tries against the Bulldogs, who saw their quest for a third consecutive Cleary Cup thrown into a little bit of doubt, as they now sit just one point ahead of Union in the ECAC standings.
The Engineers completed their big homestand 4-for-4, and now hit the road to face Quinnipiac and Princeton, the only two ECAC teams they have yet to see this year. The Bobcats have been all over the map but still could be a challenge, especially at home. Princeton, meanwhile, is surprising many of the experts and having a fantastic season, they currently sit in third in the ECAC and have been nationally ranked for three straight weeks. They present RPI's greatest remaining road challenge during the remainder of regular season.
Other junk - Five wins in a row will usually see you rising in the polls. Beating the reigning #1 does that too. The Engineers moved up to their highest position yet this season and are now ranked #9 in the country following their sweep. Yale being swept predictably moved them out of the #1 position, down to #3 in the nation with 2 first place votes. Other ranked teams are #11 Union (up two, swept Yale/Brown), #17 Dartmouth (up one, tied Cornell and beat Colgate), and #19 Princeton (no change, swept Clarkson/St. Lawrence). #14 Boston University (up two) and #20 Colorado College (no change) are also ranked this week. Also receiving votes were Northeastern (4), RIT (2), Niagara (1) and Quinnipiac (1).
Chase Polacek followed up his ECAC Player of the Week performance (in which he had 3 goals and 1 assist) with a 2 goal, 3 assist effort this week. His power play goal in the Freakout! made him the 21st Engineer to reach 150 points for his career, and his assist on Lee's empty-netter gives him 151 points. Barry Martinelli '76 currently occupies 20th with 155 points, followed by Larry Landon '81 in 19th with 157.
Chase is unlikely to catch Miami's Andy Miele (49) or Carter Camper (46) for the national point scoring lead (they feed off each other on the same line), but he is now 5th in the nation in points per game with 1.50, and is tied for 4th in the nation in points 39 for the year.
Allen York, meanwhile, also improved on his numbers from last week, when he was ECAC Goaltender of the Week. He earned his second shutout of the year against Brown, and didn't allow a single even-strength tally against the #1 team in the nation against Yale, making 38 saves on 40 shots.
The Engineers are currently 9th in the nation in KRACH and second in the ECAC, meaning that from this vantage point (that is, from right now), they would be favored in every remaining game they play for the remainder of the regular season.
ECAC Standings
1. Yale - 11-3-0 (22 pts)
2. Union - 10-3-1 (21 pts)
3. Princeton - 9-4-1 (19 pts)
4. RPI - 9-5-0 (18 pts)
5. Dartmouth - 8-4-2 (18 pts)
6. Cornell - 7-5-2 (16 pts)
7. Quinnipiac - 6-6-3 (15 pts)
8. Clarkson - 6-6-1 (13 pts)
9. Brown - 5-8-1 (11 pts)
10. St. Lawrence - 3-9-1 (7 pts)
11. Harvard - 3-12-0 (6 pts)
12. Colgate - 0-12-2 (2 pts)
Adjusted Standings
1. Yale (.786)
2. Union (.750)
3. Princeton (.679)
4. RPI (.643)
5. Dartmouth (.643)
6. Cornell (.571)
7. Clarkson (.500)
8. Quinnipiac (.500)
9. Brown (.393)
10. St. Lawrence (.269)
11. Harvard (.200)
12. Colgate (.071)
Brown at #10 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
1/28/11 - 7:00pm
RESULT: RPI 3, Brown 0
BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO
RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
VIDEO
RPI TV (full game)
YouTube (goals, no audio)
YouTube (post game press conference)
RECORD: 16-6-3 (8-5-0 ECAC, 16 pts)
Reale Deals
1. F Tyler Helfrich, 1 G, 2 A
2. G Allen York, 36 saves
3. F Chase Polacek, 1 G, 1 A
#1 Yale at #10 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
1/29/11 - 7:00pm
RESULT: RPI 5, Yale 2
BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO
RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
Yale Daily News
College Hockey News
VIDEO
YouTube (highlights, all goals plus big York saves, no audio)
YouTube (post game press-conference)
YouTube (York penalty)
YouTube (fan video)
YouTube (post-game celebration)
RECORD: 17-6-3 (9-5-0 ECAC, 18 pts)
Reale Deals
1. G Allen York, 38 saves
2. F Chase Polacek, 1 G, 2 A
3. F Josh Rabbani, 1 G, 1 A
Upcoming games
04 Feb - at Quinnipiac
05 Feb - at #19 Princeton
11 Feb - Colgate
12 Feb - Cornell
18 Feb - at St. Lawrence
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Women's Hockey - at Colgate & Cornell (28/29 Jan)
After suffering a sweep at the hands of Harvard and Dartmouth last weekend, RPI took to the road again looking to get back on track and at least manage two points at Colgate and Cornell. Instead, RPI suffered two more losses, falling 3-0 to Colgate (a team currently below the playoff cutoff), before becoming Cornell’s 22nd win on the season in a 6-0 blowout on Saturday afternoon. With the two additional shutouts, RPI has now gone over 190 minutes of game time without scoring a goal, and the Engineers have quickly fallen from the hunt for home ice to a battle just to make the playoffs.
Colgate
Smelker/Harrison/Vandegrift
O’Keefe/Horton/Vadner
Letuligasenoa/Dunlop/Mankey
Guillemette/Stapleton
Le Donne/Daniels
Castignetti/Marzario
Van der Bliek
The Engineers and Raiders took to the ice in front of over 1,000 fans and a regional TV audience on Friday as Colgate held the “Light Up Starr Rink Blue” event – a fundraiser to raise autism awareness. The home crowd did not leave disappointed as Colgate netminder Kimberly Sass picked up her fourth career shutout win in a 22-save effort.
RPI came out of the gate strong, outshooting the Raiders and applying good pressure in the opening minutes, but Colgate turned the tables as the period wore on. The Raiders took a 1-0 lead at the 12:42 mark when Amanda Kirwan received a pass from Jenna Klynstra and beat Sonja van der Bliek top shelf for the goal.
The second period saw Colgate pick up the majority of the scoring chances, but van der Bliek turned away twelve shots in the frame to keep Colgate’s lead to one. A pair of Engineer penalties late in the second set up a 5-on-3 opportunity for Colgate as Taylor Horton and Jill Vandegrift found themselves in the box. The 5-on-3 carried over into the third and it took Colgate just 29 seconds on fresh ice to double their lead to 2-0. Jessi Waters put a pass through the crease which Klynstra put past van der Bliek.
An RPI comeback attempt sparked by three consecutive Colgate penalties fell short, and hope of evening things up evaporated when Jordan Smelker took a penalty with 1:13 left in regulation. The Engineers ended up unable to manage a goal on 21 shots, marking the fifth time they were shutout on the season and second game in a row.
Cornell
Letuligasenoa/Harrison/Horton
Smelker/Dunlop/Mankey
Guillemette/O’Keefe/Vandegrift
Stapleton
Daniels/Vadner
Castignetti/Marzario
Van der Bliek
After a tough loss on Friday, the Engineers were treated to a rematch with the #2 Cornell Big Red, and Cornell wasted no time whatsoever in reminding the Engineers of the dominant performance they experienced just two weeks earlier. Cornell scored on four of their first six shots in the game, putting the Engineers in a 4-goal hole just past the midpoint of the first and killing any hopes of a competitive game for RPI before they even started.
Cornell’s first goal came shorthanded as Brianne Jenner broke in shorthanded and beat van der Bliek for the early lead at 6:04. Catherine White made it 2-0 at 9:45 as she converted a 2-on-1 opportunity. Just over a minute later, Jenner notched her second goal of the game, and Hayley Hughes capped off the disastrous 5:50 by taking a pass on a 3-on-2 and shooting it past a sprawling van der Bliek for the four-goal lead.
A minute of 5-on-3 power play time at the end of the period did little to bolster the Engineer offense, which managed just four shots on the period. An even paltrier two shots followed for the Engineers in the second period, however van der Bliek turned away 11 shots in the frame to keep the Cornell lead to 4-0.
The Big Red tacked on two more goals in the third period, as Karlee Overguard tipped in a shot on the power play to make it 5-0 before Hughes closed out the scoring with Cornell’s sixth goal, poking in a rebound off a Chelsea Karpenko wraparound bid.
The pair of losses dropped RPI into seventh place, just one point up on eighth-place SLU and two points on ninth-place Colgate. The Engineers now find themselves watching their backs as the teams behind look to make up ground and earn a spot in the playoffs with just three weekends remaining. The Engineers face a must-win game against a Brown squad which stole two points earlier in the season, and still have games against #10 Quinnipiac, Clarkson, and SLU on the schedule. RPI will look to get healthy in the meantime after playing with a depleted roster this weekend, and will need a strong push through the final six games in order to solidify a spot in the playoffs. With Cornell all but guaranteed to finish in first, RPI will need to finish in seventh place or better to avoid a near-guaranteed quick exit in the playoff quarterfinals.
Next weekend’s home games against Brown (7pm Friday) and Yale (4pm Saturday) will not be carried by WRPI, however live stats and video (pay-per-view) will be available via the Athletics website as usual.
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RPI at Colgate
ECAC Hockey Game – Starr Rink (Hamilton, NY)
1/28/11 – 7:00pm
Colgate 2, RPI 0
BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1011/boxes/wclgren1.j28
RECAPS:
RECORD: 9-11-6 (7-7-1 ECAC)
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RPI at Cornell
ECAC Hockey Game – Lynah Rink (Ithaca, NY)
1/29/11 – 4:00pm
Cornell 6, RPI 0
BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1011/boxes/wcorren1.j29
RECAPS:
RECORD: 9-12-6 (7-8-1 ECAC)
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ECAC Standings (by points, swap Quinnipiac and Clarkson to correct ranking by win percentage)
GP Pts ECAC All
Cornell 16 32 16-0 22-1
Harvard 16 24 11-3-2 12-7-2
Dartmouth 16 20 10-6 14-8
Quinnipiac 16 18 9-7 17-9-1
Clarkson 15 17 8-6-1 11-13-3
Princeton 16 17 8-7-1 11-11-1
Rensselaer 16 15 7-8-1 9-12-6
St. Lawrence 15 14 7-8 12-13-2
Colgate 16 13 6-9-1 9-16-2
Yale 14 9 4-9-1 5-14-2
Brown 14 5 1-10-3 3-16-3
Union 16 2 0-14-2 1-24-3
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Upcoming Games
Feb. 4 – Brown (7pm)
Feb. 5 – Yale (4pm)
Feb. 11 – Quinnipiac (7pm)
Feb. 12 – Princeton (4pm)
Feb. 18 – Clarkson (7pm)
Feb. 19 – SLU (4pm) (Senior Night)
Tentative 2011-12 Men's Schedule
Next year's men's schedule has been released on the season ticket brochures. Here's what we're looking at.
October
Sat. 1 - Exhibition Game
Fri. 7 - Minnesota State
Sat. 8 - Minnesota State
Fri. 14 - at Ferris State
Sat. 15 - at Ferris State
Fri. 21 - at Notre Dame
Fri. 28 - Colorado College
Sat. 29 - Colorado College
November
Fri. 4 - at Clarkson
Sat. 5 - at St. Lawrence
Fri. 11 - Brown (Black Friday)
Sat. 12 - Yale
Fri. 25 - at RIT
December
Fri. 2 - at Princeton
Sat. 3 - at Quinnipiac
Sat. 10 - Union
Thu. 29 - vs. UMass-Lowell (UConn Classic, Storrs, CT)
Fri. 30 - at UConn OR vs. Army (UConn Classic, Storrs, CT)
January
Fri. 6 - Dartmouth
Sat. 7 - Harvard
Sat. 14 - at Union
Fri. 20 - at Yale
Sat. 21 - at Brown
Fri. 28 - St. Lawrence
Sat. 29 - Clarkson (Whiteout)
February
Fri. 3 - Cornell
Sat. 4 - Colgate (Big Red Freakout!)
Fri. 10 - at Harvard
Sat. 11 - at Dartmouth
Fri. 17 - Quinnipiac
Sat. 18 - Princeton (Senior Night)
Fri. 24 - at Colgate
Sat. 25 - at Cornell
March
Fri-Sun 2-4 - ECAC First Round (campus sites)
Fri-Sun 9-11 - ECAC Quarterfinals (campus sites)
Fri. 16 - ECAC Semifinals (Atlantic City, NJ)
Sat. 17 - ECAC Championship (Atlantic City, NJ)
Fri-Sun 23-25 - NCAA Regionals (Worcester, MA; Bridgeport, CT; Green Bay, WI; St. Paul, MN)
April
Thu. 5 - NCAA Frozen Four (Tampa, FL)
Sat. 7 - NCAA Championship (Tampa, FL)
There are two other games that have yet to be firmly scheduled - a home game against Bentley, and a non-conference game (in Schenectady?) against Union.
October
Sat. 1 - Exhibition Game
Fri. 7 - Minnesota State
Sat. 8 - Minnesota State
Fri. 14 - at Ferris State
Sat. 15 - at Ferris State
Fri. 21 - at Notre Dame
Fri. 28 - Colorado College
Sat. 29 - Colorado College
November
Fri. 4 - at Clarkson
Sat. 5 - at St. Lawrence
Fri. 11 - Brown (Black Friday)
Sat. 12 - Yale
Fri. 25 - at RIT
December
Fri. 2 - at Princeton
Sat. 3 - at Quinnipiac
Sat. 10 - Union
Thu. 29 - vs. UMass-Lowell (UConn Classic, Storrs, CT)
Fri. 30 - at UConn OR vs. Army (UConn Classic, Storrs, CT)
January
Fri. 6 - Dartmouth
Sat. 7 - Harvard
Sat. 14 - at Union
Fri. 20 - at Yale
Sat. 21 - at Brown
Fri. 28 - St. Lawrence
Sat. 29 - Clarkson (Whiteout)
February
Fri. 3 - Cornell
Sat. 4 - Colgate (Big Red Freakout!)
Fri. 10 - at Harvard
Sat. 11 - at Dartmouth
Fri. 17 - Quinnipiac
Sat. 18 - Princeton (Senior Night)
Fri. 24 - at Colgate
Sat. 25 - at Cornell
March
Fri-Sun 2-4 - ECAC First Round (campus sites)
Fri-Sun 9-11 - ECAC Quarterfinals (campus sites)
Fri. 16 - ECAC Semifinals (Atlantic City, NJ)
Sat. 17 - ECAC Championship (Atlantic City, NJ)
Fri-Sun 23-25 - NCAA Regionals (Worcester, MA; Bridgeport, CT; Green Bay, WI; St. Paul, MN)
April
Thu. 5 - NCAA Frozen Four (Tampa, FL)
Sat. 7 - NCAA Championship (Tampa, FL)
There are two other games that have yet to be firmly scheduled - a home game against Bentley, and a non-conference game (in Schenectady?) against Union.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Thank You, Mr. Minor
Two minors from Harry Zolnierczyk led to RPI's two goals, and they added an empty netter to seal their fourth straight ECAC win. A third one, unfortunately, did not, meaning the Engineers missed out on the Zolniertrick.
Tonight is the big one. #1 Yale is not long for their designation after losing to Union last night, which might give them extra incentive to win. Union's certainly rooting for us, since they can pull within a point of Yale with a Bulldogs loss and a Union win. But forget all of that. This is Freakout.
It is time.
Tonight is the big one. #1 Yale is not long for their designation after losing to Union last night, which might give them extra incentive to win. Union's certainly rooting for us, since they can pull within a point of Yale with a Bulldogs loss and a Union win. But forget all of that. This is Freakout.
It is time.
Friday, January 28, 2011
"Hell on Ice"
We've got a special guest pump-up today. Joe Yerdon, the editor-in-chief of NBC Sports' ProHockeyTalk, has penned an awesome bit about the fan experience at Houston Field House on this big weekend. Read it all the way though, and think about it when you enter the hallowed grounds tonight.
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Amen, Joe. Amen.
Now, onto the task at hand.
Brown likes to play a physical game, and when other teams get goaded into taking stupid penalties because of it, that's when they pounce. If the opposition doesn't get rattled, they've got nowhere to turn to.
In light of the need for calm from our guys even while we reach a fever pitch in the stands, let's all relax and chill with a classic Phish jam. It just happens to be one that includes a relevant question for Brown's captain about two minutes in.
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Some of us RPI faithful that call the north side of Houston Field House our home during the season have long been critical of our fellow fans on the south side. We've given them pet names, it's true. They're the "boring side" or the "library side" or just rather plainly referred to as the "townie side" of the field house.
Fans that call that side of the old barn home get their dander up when it's referred to as such and with good reason for themselves because they've always been one of the few and proud that try to carry over the traditions of the student side to the traditionally older side of the building. In virtually every year anyone that tries to do that is either met with indifference or scowls of disapproval, each reaction being it's own brand of let down.
Things have changed this year though. Maybe it's the new paint job or Shirley's new party cabana where Section One used to be, or even the brighter lighting in the old house but whatever difference in reactions there used to be aren't as apparent anymore. Fans on both sides of the field house are boisterous now. The applause, the chants, the taunts... All of it are being heard in stereo by the opponents as opposed to the student side mono sound of the past.
What gives? How did this incredible change of events go down seemingly overnight? Is this what happens when you've got a team winning virtually all the time at home and enjoying one of their best seasons in recent memory? Perhaps that's the case, but I'm pinning this sea change in attitude on something else: Pride.
It's about pride in the team in how they've come together this season after an off-season that seemed remarkably bleak seeing two of the most talented players in recent memory leave after one year to start their professional careers.
It's about pride in a team with a storied program with a ton of history; history that now gets shown to those who are old school people with the program or who are new to everything RPI. Just look at that video they play before the team comes out for introductions and before the start of the third period.
RPI teams of old (well, 1985 at least) and RPI teams of modern times are represented in that video and so are the fans, fans who made the trip to Detroit both in 1985 and last season at the Great Lakes Invitational. RPI isn't just that little tech school in upstate New York, they're the school that brings a dedicated pack of fans who get as loud and supportive as any you'll find around all of NCAA hockey.
Most of all, it's the sudden development of new "traditions" amongst the fans. The standing ovation slow-clap call to arms that takes place before the team takes the ice before the game and before the star of each period. It's a simple but effective way for the fans to get themselves into the game and show the guys on the ice that they're as ready for the game as they are.
The rallying cries that come from Section 17 be it from folks in the First Church of RPI Hockey or the scattered members of the Collar City Madmen, they're all united under the same cause: Supporting RPI hockey as loudly and obnoxiously as possible and that's something that everyone has picked up on. Doesn't matter if the game is in Troy, Schenectady, Hanover, Cambridge, or Ithaca.
On the road, there's no north or south side there, there's just cherry and white. This season, that's something that's finally being adopted in the friendly confines of Houston Field House. There is no more "library side" vs. student side bickering. This time around, the fans are all united under Puckman so when the slow clap starts, and the cheers begin , it only means one thing for the opponents. It means everyone is ready to go and it's going to be hell on ice for the next 60 minutes.
Amen, Joe. Amen.
Now, onto the task at hand.
Brown likes to play a physical game, and when other teams get goaded into taking stupid penalties because of it, that's when they pounce. If the opposition doesn't get rattled, they've got nowhere to turn to.
In light of the need for calm from our guys even while we reach a fever pitch in the stands, let's all relax and chill with a classic Phish jam. It just happens to be one that includes a relevant question for Brown's captain about two minutes in.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Today's Podcast: John Burke
Joining us for today's podcast - which goes live at 1 p.m. Eastern - is women's head coach John Burke. We talked to Coach Burke at the beginning of the season, and today we'll ask him about some of what we've seen from the Engineers this season on the ice and how well the team is reaching expectations. With the team off to Central NY, we'll get his insight on Colgate and the beast of the ECAC, Cornell.
It's Freakout weekend, too, so we'll chit chat about the big matchup with #1 Yale on Saturday, and talk about the big weekend that was for both the men and the women last weekend.
Don't miss it - the podcast starts at 1 pm, but if you want, you can always listen to it on demand by clicking "Listen to Without a Peer" in the corner any time!
It's Freakout weekend, too, so we'll chit chat about the big matchup with #1 Yale on Saturday, and talk about the big weekend that was for both the men and the women last weekend.
Don't miss it - the podcast starts at 1 pm, but if you want, you can always listen to it on demand by clicking "Listen to Without a Peer" in the corner any time!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
ECAC Power Rankings (January)
Time for our next-to-last (yes, it's getting to be that time) edition of the ECAC Power Rankings. The ECAC standings are starting to congeal into place as schedules start to become more regular, but the power rankings don't go strictly by wins and losses. They play a role, but there's also the national scope to consider.
As we approach February, in a bizarre way it is actually starting to look like the pre-season rankings in some way. You've got the clearly defined top team, and then a number of "bands" in which you can pretty much mix and match the teams therein. Two through four, five/six, and seven through nine seem pretty interchangeable, don't you think? But hey, this is the ECAC.
1. Yale - This one's still a no-brainer, and it doesn't appear to be something that's going to change any time soon. The Bulldogs lost to Brown two weeks ago, and a week later had the most first-place votes they've received to date in the USCHO.com poll (all but four). That tells you just how good this team is. We project them to have locked up a first-round bye and will win the Cleary Cup for the third year in a row.
2. RPI - Call me a homer if you want. The fact of the matter is, the Engineers are 2nd in the league in KRACH, one of the best methods for comparing teams to each other. If you'd asked this two weeks ago or even last week, RPI's probably 3rd or 4th, but they've proven they've got the maturity to make it through bumps in the road.
3. Union - The Dutchmen are doing well in ECAC play and are extremely well positioned for the first-round bye, but need to do a little work to keep themselves in the national picture. Their route is the same as the route for RPI - just keep winning. That'll help them secure a second straight bye and potentially position them for their first ever NCAA tournament.
4. Dartmouth - KRACH would say I've underrated the Big Green, especially in light of their win over New Hampshire earlier this month and their winning streak which was only snapped by their loss at RPI. Dartmouth jumped on Union to win but was swept badly by RPI. Still, they're right there in the thick of things both nationally and in the fight for the bye.
5. Princeton - The Tigers are coming out of their exam period and will be looking to ensure that they stay part of the discussion for the first-round bye, a position many (this observer not included) didn't think they had a prayer for when the season started. Hobey is proud - this is a young team competing well. The challenge comes in having five games against Yale, RPI, and Union in February, however.
6. Brown - The Bears have usurped Quinnipiac as "the most Jekyll and Hyde team" in the league. One week, they're beating the #1 team in the country and giving Boston University fits. The next, they're being sore losers against Clarkson. Fitting, then, that the team that's either very good or horrifyingly cheap lands right in the middle.
7. Cornell - Just when you thought they were going to disappear into the background, the Big Red rattle off three wins in a row and are 4-1-1 for the month of January. The tie, however, was against last-place Colgate and the loss was a bad loss at home to Union. Still, the good month so far has re-positioned the Big Red to at least be in line for home ice and if they keep it up, back into the bye discussion.
8. Clarkson - The Golden Knights, as we predicted, are falling back to earth a bit thanks to their tough January schedule. They do have the one overtime win over RPI and the aforementioned victory at Brown, but they are 2-4-0 this month against some very good teams. They haven't completed their season series against anyone, and play each team in the ECAC one more time.
9. Quinnipiac - Perhaps it's telling about the strength of the ECAC this season when a team with a winning overall record is this far down in the list, but this does seem to be where the Bobcats fit in best. They swept Nebraska-Omaha at home to finish out the month of December, but have been hot and cold since, losing at home to Cornell and settling for a tie in the second game of a two game set at Canisius. Still an unpredictable team.
10. St. Lawrence - There's a pretty marked dividing line between the top nine and the bottom three, but the Saints are pretty firmly ahead of the bottom two as well. Just as we expected, the Saints are a young team that's struggling to survive, but the signs of future potential abound. Even though they'll likely be on the road in the first round of the playoffs, they're building the foundation for a solid team in the future.
11. Colgate - The Raiders are in the midst of a terrible season that was supposed to be exciting, but they've also proven themselves to be ridiculously snakebitten in the last month or so. They've lost an eye-popping 11 games by just one goal and while their special teams are indeed horrible, they've at least proven to be capable of being "in" the games that they play, even though they can't get the win.
12. Harvard - The same can't be said for the Crimson. Frequently, they display poor offense and defense and are simply not competing well within the ECAC. Hope lies on the horizon with a strong recruiting class incoming next year, but it appears to be a lost season in Cambridge. Since starting the season 2-1-0, the Crimson have just five one-goal losses in their current stretch of 13 losses in 14 games.
As we approach February, in a bizarre way it is actually starting to look like the pre-season rankings in some way. You've got the clearly defined top team, and then a number of "bands" in which you can pretty much mix and match the teams therein. Two through four, five/six, and seven through nine seem pretty interchangeable, don't you think? But hey, this is the ECAC.
1. Yale - This one's still a no-brainer, and it doesn't appear to be something that's going to change any time soon. The Bulldogs lost to Brown two weeks ago, and a week later had the most first-place votes they've received to date in the USCHO.com poll (all but four). That tells you just how good this team is. We project them to have locked up a first-round bye and will win the Cleary Cup for the third year in a row.
2. RPI - Call me a homer if you want. The fact of the matter is, the Engineers are 2nd in the league in KRACH, one of the best methods for comparing teams to each other. If you'd asked this two weeks ago or even last week, RPI's probably 3rd or 4th, but they've proven they've got the maturity to make it through bumps in the road.
3. Union - The Dutchmen are doing well in ECAC play and are extremely well positioned for the first-round bye, but need to do a little work to keep themselves in the national picture. Their route is the same as the route for RPI - just keep winning. That'll help them secure a second straight bye and potentially position them for their first ever NCAA tournament.
4. Dartmouth - KRACH would say I've underrated the Big Green, especially in light of their win over New Hampshire earlier this month and their winning streak which was only snapped by their loss at RPI. Dartmouth jumped on Union to win but was swept badly by RPI. Still, they're right there in the thick of things both nationally and in the fight for the bye.
5. Princeton - The Tigers are coming out of their exam period and will be looking to ensure that they stay part of the discussion for the first-round bye, a position many (this observer not included) didn't think they had a prayer for when the season started. Hobey is proud - this is a young team competing well. The challenge comes in having five games against Yale, RPI, and Union in February, however.
6. Brown - The Bears have usurped Quinnipiac as "the most Jekyll and Hyde team" in the league. One week, they're beating the #1 team in the country and giving Boston University fits. The next, they're being sore losers against Clarkson. Fitting, then, that the team that's either very good or horrifyingly cheap lands right in the middle.
7. Cornell - Just when you thought they were going to disappear into the background, the Big Red rattle off three wins in a row and are 4-1-1 for the month of January. The tie, however, was against last-place Colgate and the loss was a bad loss at home to Union. Still, the good month so far has re-positioned the Big Red to at least be in line for home ice and if they keep it up, back into the bye discussion.
8. Clarkson - The Golden Knights, as we predicted, are falling back to earth a bit thanks to their tough January schedule. They do have the one overtime win over RPI and the aforementioned victory at Brown, but they are 2-4-0 this month against some very good teams. They haven't completed their season series against anyone, and play each team in the ECAC one more time.
9. Quinnipiac - Perhaps it's telling about the strength of the ECAC this season when a team with a winning overall record is this far down in the list, but this does seem to be where the Bobcats fit in best. They swept Nebraska-Omaha at home to finish out the month of December, but have been hot and cold since, losing at home to Cornell and settling for a tie in the second game of a two game set at Canisius. Still an unpredictable team.
10. St. Lawrence - There's a pretty marked dividing line between the top nine and the bottom three, but the Saints are pretty firmly ahead of the bottom two as well. Just as we expected, the Saints are a young team that's struggling to survive, but the signs of future potential abound. Even though they'll likely be on the road in the first round of the playoffs, they're building the foundation for a solid team in the future.
11. Colgate - The Raiders are in the midst of a terrible season that was supposed to be exciting, but they've also proven themselves to be ridiculously snakebitten in the last month or so. They've lost an eye-popping 11 games by just one goal and while their special teams are indeed horrible, they've at least proven to be capable of being "in" the games that they play, even though they can't get the win.
12. Harvard - The same can't be said for the Crimson. Frequently, they display poor offense and defense and are simply not competing well within the ECAC. Hope lies on the horizon with a strong recruiting class incoming next year, but it appears to be a lost season in Cambridge. Since starting the season 2-1-0, the Crimson have just five one-goal losses in their current stretch of 13 losses in 14 games.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Engineer Bracketology: Week 3
We said last week that if the Engineers didn't keep winning, nothing else that happened in the Bracketology would really matter.
Want to see what happens when you win games? This is what happens when you win games.
1. Yale*
2. Minnesota-Duluth
3. North Dakota
4. Denver*
5. Boston College
6. Michigan*
7. Rensselaer
8. Wisconsin
9. Notre Dame
10. Western Michigan
11. New Hampshire*
12. Dartmouth
13. Nebraska-Omaha
14. Merrimack
15. Union
16. Miami
17. Colorado College
18. Maine
19. Boston University
20. Princeton
21. Minnesota
22. Alaska
23. Ohio State
24. Clarkson
25. St. Cloud State
26. Northern Michigan
27. Quinnipiac
28. Brown
29. Bemidji State
30. Minnesota State
31. Michigan State
32. Niagara
NR. RIT*
In: None
Out: None
TUCs
In: Niagara
Out: Robert Morris, Alaska-Anchorage, Ferris State
Now, it's worth mentioning that the Engineers' rise in the PairWise from 15th last week (after the TUC adjustment was made public) to 7th now (technically, tied for 7th with Wisconsin) is not 100% a function of their weekend sweep. It was partially a function of beating Dartmouth and getting a good amount of help from last week's Engineer Cheering Section - especially on Saturday, with BU's victory over UNH, North Dakota's victory over Nebraska-Omaha, and yes, even Niagara's weekend sweep of Sacred Heart (which made them a TUC) coming through big-time.
Here's the projected bracket as it currently stands.
Bridgeport
1. Yale
2. Rensselaer
3. Western Michigan
4. Nebraska-Omaha
Green Bay
1. Minnesota-Duluth
2. Wisconsin
3. Notre Dame
4. RIT
Manchester
1. North Dakota
2. Michigan
3. New Hampshire
4. Union
St. Louis
1. Denver
2. Boston College
3. Dartmouth
4. Merrimack
But wait, you say. If Rensselaer is the #7 overall seed, shouldn't they be matched up in the same bracket with the #2 overall seed, and therefore be in Green Bay? Normally, yes. But bear in mind that the Engineers and the Badgers are technically tied for 7th in the PWR, as both have 23 comparison wins. There are two ways to break that tie, and both have been used by the committee. The first, as makes sense in a two-way tie, is to look at who wins the comparison between the two teams. That would be Rensselaer (more on that later). The other way is simply to use RPI. That would be Wisconsin. Since both 7th and 8th are in the same "band," that is, both the Engineers and the Badgers are #2 seeds no matter which order you have them in, they're easy to interchange.
Strictly by overall rank if you use the first tie-break method, the Engineers should be in Green Bay with UMD and the Badgers should be in Bridgeport with Yale. But really, does it make sense to send UW from Wisconsin to Connecticut (remember, Michigan Tech is the host in Green Bay, not the Badgers), and the Engineers from New York to Wisconsin? Not really. For the sake of ticket sales and sanity, we can swap the two by breaking the tie using RPI instead of the comparison win - or we can simply swap both the 2nd and 3rd ranked teams in both regionals. That's been done before, too.
As with all projected brackets, there's always room for educated guesses. My educated guess leads me to believe that this PWR would produce a bracket like this, but I'd leave some possibility that the Engineers would face Notre Dame instead of Western Michigan.
Now then... the nitty gritty. Rensselaer currently wins all but eight of its comparisons with other TUCs. That's pretty good. Two of them, however, are to teams that are ranked lower in the PairWise. Normally, we should expect to win those. Let's have a look.
Western Michigan: The Broncos have been an odd team this year. A lot of their wins have been against good teams that are now TUCs. Most of their losses have been against non-TUCs. That's brings down their RPI considerably compared to other teams that have a lot of TUC wins. Right now, the COps are Union and SLU, since the Broncos haven't played BGSU yet, and they're 3-0-1 against the Dutchmen and Saints. That's a big deal in this comparison. So what we need right now is for Western Michigan to lose, especially to TUCs. We also can root for TUCs they've been successful against to fall under .5000 RPI, or for non-TUCs they've struggled against to get above .5000 RPI.
Union: This one's more challenging, but ultimately simpler. Union holds a 3-2 comparison edge. Both teams got one win in H2H, so that's a wash. That means it comes down to RPI, TUC, and COp, the latter of which can change wildly since every other ECAC team is a COp. Generally speaking, COp will go to whichever team is ahead of the other in the league standings (a few common non-conference opponents with different results notwithstanding, like UConn). Rensselaer is winning the TUC criteria, Union the RPI and COp, providing the difference. It's pretty simple here. If Union loses and Rensselaer wins (and keeps its "good" TUCs like Niagara and Brown) going forward, this will eventually flip. We just need Union to lose.
Those are the "flippable" comparisons, as most comparisons lost to teams ranked lower in the PWR will tend to be. The other six? Not so much. Rensselaer loses comparisions right now with Yale, Minnesota-Duluth, North Dakota, Denver, Boston College, and Michigan, and they lose those comparisons by a combined 18-0 (2-0 to UND since there are no COps until Friday, 4-0 to Yale with the H2H loss).
Therefore, with these teams, the Engineers will need some help to catch them. It's not a priority, which means that if one of those top six teams winning will help stabilize the Engineers in the tournament field, we want that to happen - like Yale at Union on Friday. When it's not, like UMass-Lowell at Boston College on Saturday, we root against them.
Now, let's look at some of the close comparisions Rensselaer is currently winning.
Wisconsin: This one still pivots on the UW/CC matchup in March, but right now is in the Engineers' favor on TUC/COp. We root against the Badgers for now to help lower their RPI as a hedge against that UW/CC series not going CC's way. Notably, every WCHA team save Michigan Tech and Alaska-Anchorage is a TUC right now, so most losses help twice as much going forward. Not this week, though, they play MTU.
Notre Dame: Actually the same as Wisconsin, but with the added benefit that the Engineers have clinched the COp comparision (BGSU/BU). Rensselaer wins TUC/COp, but is close on both RPI and TUC. Same as UW and WMU - we want the Irish to lose, especially to TUCs.
New Hampshire: Not going to repeat myself - same as the last two, UNH needs to keep losing to TUCs because it's TUC/COp for Rensselaer right now.
Dartmouth: OK, this one isn't that close anymore, but I want to illustrate why that is. The season sweep completed on Saturday is huge in this comparison. Typically, 3 points in a comparison will get you to a win, and the 2 H2H victories mean the Engineers just need one out of RPI, TUC, and COp. Right now, they have RPI. As long as Rensselaer keeps winning, we want Dartmouth to generally do the same, though dropping an ECAC matchup here or there wouldn't hurt so we can get that COp turned around, too.
Time for the TUC Cliff:
28. Brown (.5094)
29. Niagara (.5074)
30. Bemidji State (.5037)
31. Michigan State (.5026)
32. Quinnipiac (.5011)
---
33. Alaska-Anchorage (.4994)
34. Robert Morris (.4985)
35. Ferris State (.4979)
36. RIT (.4960)
We see a couple of "good" TUCs for the Engineers near the edge, those being Brown and Niagara. They currently represent 2 important wins (and could hopefully represent 3 after Friday). A win over Brown on Friday would probably drop the Bears a little, but it's unavoidable in the short term - the win is more important. If Rensselaer does beat Brown on Friday, we're going to be huge Brown fans for the rest of the year - especially on Saturday. RIT lingers there as a potential good TUC as well, we just need them to keep winning, their tie against Holy Cross on Saturday was a little disappointing.
* Wisconsin is 2-0 against Bemidji State and has a win over Michigan State. They are 1-1 against Alaska-Anchorage.
* Western Michigan is 2-0 against Michigan State, and 0-1-1 against Ferris State.
* Notre Dame is 2-0 against Michigan State, and haven't played Ferris State yet.
Based on these three main teams with whose TUC records we are concerned, we want Michigan State and Bemidji State NOT to be TUCs, and we want Ferris State and Alaska-Anchorage AS TUCs.
Before we get to the Cheering Section, I'd like to point out that the PWR is a very integrated system. The one thing putting the Engineers into a tie for 7th instead of just being straight 8th, besides their comparison win with Wisconsin, is Merrimack's comparison win over the Badgers. It would be nice going forward if that could stay in position as well, though it probably won't.
It's a big Cheering Section this week. Every game has at least some impact (in some cases, it's microscopic), but all of them with the exception of a handful of Atlantic Hockey games could have a discernable impact. Here they are.
Tonight
Bentley over UMass-Lowell
Princeton over Sacred Heart
Thursday
Ferris State over Michigan State
Friday
Rensselaer over Brown
Colgate over Harvard
Dartmouth over Cornell
Princeton over St. Lawrence
Quinnipiac over Clarkson
Yale over Union
Boston University over Maine
Northeastern over UMass
Providence over New Hampshire
Vermont over Merrimack
Bentley over Army
UConn over Holy Cross
Niagara over Robert Morris
Bowling Green over Lake Superior State
Ohio State over Alaska
Miami over Notre Dame
Northern Michigan over Western Michigan
Alaska-Anchorage over Minnesota
St. Cloud State over Minnesota State
Michigan Tech over Wisconsin
Colorado College over North Dakota
Alabama-Huntsville over Nebraska-Omaha
Saturday
Rensselaer over Yale
Princeton over Clarkson
Quinnipiac over St. Lawrence
Brown over Union
Dartmouth over Colgate
Harvard over Cornell
UMass-Lowell over Boston College
Boston University over Maine
Northeastern over UMass
Providence over New Hampshire
Vermont over Merrimack
Bentley over Army
UConn over Holy Cross
RIT over Mercyhurst
Niagara over Robert Morris
Miami over Notre Dame
Bowling Green over Lake Superior State
Ohio State over Alaska
Northern Michigan over Western Michigan
Michigan over Michigan State
Alaska-Anchorage over Minnesota
St. Cloud State over Minnesota State
Michigan Tech over Wisconsin
Colorado College over North Dakota
Alabama-Huntsville over Nebraska-Omaha
Notable explanations:
CC/UND series: A CC sweep could help put North Dakota's comparison with the Engineers up for grabs, given the effect it will have on RPI and COp. As it is, though, only a CC sweep would help because Rensselaer was 0-1-1 against the Tigers. A 3-point week for CC would make it a wash, and 2 or less points clinches the COp for UND unless the Sioux and Tigers meet in the playoffs. Basically, if UND gets a win this weekend, or two ties, the comparision with them will become practically unflippable.
WMU/NMU series: Big one for the Engineers here. WMU already has a loss and a tie to the Wildcats slightly dragging down their TUC record. If the Wildcats can do well in Kalamazoo this weekend with a split or better, it'll drag down the Broncos' TUC record.
Rensselaer/Brown: The Bears (1-0-0) are a common opponent with Yale (2-1-0), Union (1-0-0), UNH (0-0-1), Dartmouth (1-0-0), Boston University (0-1-1), Princeton (1-1-0), Minnesota State (1-0-0), Clarkson (1-0-0) and Quinnipiac (0-0-1).
Rensselaer/Yale: The Bulldogs (0-1-0) are a common opponent with Union (0-1-0), Dartmouth (0-2-0), Princeton (0-1-0), Colorado College (0-1-0), Brown (1-2-0), Clarkson (0-1-0), and Quinnipiac (0-1-0).
Dartmouth and Princeton: Remember, this Cheering Section pertains to PWR implications only. For the sake of the ECAC bye, these teams losing is a good thing. So there's a silver lining to basically any result with these teams right now.
Want to see what happens when you win games? This is what happens when you win games.
1. Yale*
2. Minnesota-Duluth
3. North Dakota
4. Denver*
5. Boston College
6. Michigan*
7. Rensselaer
8. Wisconsin
9. Notre Dame
10. Western Michigan
11. New Hampshire*
12. Dartmouth
13. Nebraska-Omaha
14. Merrimack
15. Union
16. Miami
17. Colorado College
18. Maine
19. Boston University
20. Princeton
21. Minnesota
22. Alaska
23. Ohio State
24. Clarkson
25. St. Cloud State
26. Northern Michigan
27. Quinnipiac
28. Brown
29. Bemidji State
30. Minnesota State
31. Michigan State
32. Niagara
NR. RIT*
In: None
Out: None
TUCs
In: Niagara
Out: Robert Morris, Alaska-Anchorage, Ferris State
Now, it's worth mentioning that the Engineers' rise in the PairWise from 15th last week (after the TUC adjustment was made public) to 7th now (technically, tied for 7th with Wisconsin) is not 100% a function of their weekend sweep. It was partially a function of beating Dartmouth and getting a good amount of help from last week's Engineer Cheering Section - especially on Saturday, with BU's victory over UNH, North Dakota's victory over Nebraska-Omaha, and yes, even Niagara's weekend sweep of Sacred Heart (which made them a TUC) coming through big-time.
Here's the projected bracket as it currently stands.
Bridgeport
1. Yale
2. Rensselaer
3. Western Michigan
4. Nebraska-Omaha
Green Bay
1. Minnesota-Duluth
2. Wisconsin
3. Notre Dame
4. RIT
Manchester
1. North Dakota
2. Michigan
3. New Hampshire
4. Union
St. Louis
1. Denver
2. Boston College
3. Dartmouth
4. Merrimack
But wait, you say. If Rensselaer is the #7 overall seed, shouldn't they be matched up in the same bracket with the #2 overall seed, and therefore be in Green Bay? Normally, yes. But bear in mind that the Engineers and the Badgers are technically tied for 7th in the PWR, as both have 23 comparison wins. There are two ways to break that tie, and both have been used by the committee. The first, as makes sense in a two-way tie, is to look at who wins the comparison between the two teams. That would be Rensselaer (more on that later). The other way is simply to use RPI. That would be Wisconsin. Since both 7th and 8th are in the same "band," that is, both the Engineers and the Badgers are #2 seeds no matter which order you have them in, they're easy to interchange.
Strictly by overall rank if you use the first tie-break method, the Engineers should be in Green Bay with UMD and the Badgers should be in Bridgeport with Yale. But really, does it make sense to send UW from Wisconsin to Connecticut (remember, Michigan Tech is the host in Green Bay, not the Badgers), and the Engineers from New York to Wisconsin? Not really. For the sake of ticket sales and sanity, we can swap the two by breaking the tie using RPI instead of the comparison win - or we can simply swap both the 2nd and 3rd ranked teams in both regionals. That's been done before, too.
As with all projected brackets, there's always room for educated guesses. My educated guess leads me to believe that this PWR would produce a bracket like this, but I'd leave some possibility that the Engineers would face Notre Dame instead of Western Michigan.
Now then... the nitty gritty. Rensselaer currently wins all but eight of its comparisons with other TUCs. That's pretty good. Two of them, however, are to teams that are ranked lower in the PairWise. Normally, we should expect to win those. Let's have a look.
Western Michigan: The Broncos have been an odd team this year. A lot of their wins have been against good teams that are now TUCs. Most of their losses have been against non-TUCs. That's brings down their RPI considerably compared to other teams that have a lot of TUC wins. Right now, the COps are Union and SLU, since the Broncos haven't played BGSU yet, and they're 3-0-1 against the Dutchmen and Saints. That's a big deal in this comparison. So what we need right now is for Western Michigan to lose, especially to TUCs. We also can root for TUCs they've been successful against to fall under .5000 RPI, or for non-TUCs they've struggled against to get above .5000 RPI.
Union: This one's more challenging, but ultimately simpler. Union holds a 3-2 comparison edge. Both teams got one win in H2H, so that's a wash. That means it comes down to RPI, TUC, and COp, the latter of which can change wildly since every other ECAC team is a COp. Generally speaking, COp will go to whichever team is ahead of the other in the league standings (a few common non-conference opponents with different results notwithstanding, like UConn). Rensselaer is winning the TUC criteria, Union the RPI and COp, providing the difference. It's pretty simple here. If Union loses and Rensselaer wins (and keeps its "good" TUCs like Niagara and Brown) going forward, this will eventually flip. We just need Union to lose.
Those are the "flippable" comparisons, as most comparisons lost to teams ranked lower in the PWR will tend to be. The other six? Not so much. Rensselaer loses comparisions right now with Yale, Minnesota-Duluth, North Dakota, Denver, Boston College, and Michigan, and they lose those comparisons by a combined 18-0 (2-0 to UND since there are no COps until Friday, 4-0 to Yale with the H2H loss).
Therefore, with these teams, the Engineers will need some help to catch them. It's not a priority, which means that if one of those top six teams winning will help stabilize the Engineers in the tournament field, we want that to happen - like Yale at Union on Friday. When it's not, like UMass-Lowell at Boston College on Saturday, we root against them.
Now, let's look at some of the close comparisions Rensselaer is currently winning.
Wisconsin: This one still pivots on the UW/CC matchup in March, but right now is in the Engineers' favor on TUC/COp. We root against the Badgers for now to help lower their RPI as a hedge against that UW/CC series not going CC's way. Notably, every WCHA team save Michigan Tech and Alaska-Anchorage is a TUC right now, so most losses help twice as much going forward. Not this week, though, they play MTU.
Notre Dame: Actually the same as Wisconsin, but with the added benefit that the Engineers have clinched the COp comparision (BGSU/BU). Rensselaer wins TUC/COp, but is close on both RPI and TUC. Same as UW and WMU - we want the Irish to lose, especially to TUCs.
New Hampshire: Not going to repeat myself - same as the last two, UNH needs to keep losing to TUCs because it's TUC/COp for Rensselaer right now.
Dartmouth: OK, this one isn't that close anymore, but I want to illustrate why that is. The season sweep completed on Saturday is huge in this comparison. Typically, 3 points in a comparison will get you to a win, and the 2 H2H victories mean the Engineers just need one out of RPI, TUC, and COp. Right now, they have RPI. As long as Rensselaer keeps winning, we want Dartmouth to generally do the same, though dropping an ECAC matchup here or there wouldn't hurt so we can get that COp turned around, too.
Time for the TUC Cliff:
28. Brown (.5094)
29. Niagara (.5074)
30. Bemidji State (.5037)
31. Michigan State (.5026)
32. Quinnipiac (.5011)
---
33. Alaska-Anchorage (.4994)
34. Robert Morris (.4985)
35. Ferris State (.4979)
36. RIT (.4960)
We see a couple of "good" TUCs for the Engineers near the edge, those being Brown and Niagara. They currently represent 2 important wins (and could hopefully represent 3 after Friday). A win over Brown on Friday would probably drop the Bears a little, but it's unavoidable in the short term - the win is more important. If Rensselaer does beat Brown on Friday, we're going to be huge Brown fans for the rest of the year - especially on Saturday. RIT lingers there as a potential good TUC as well, we just need them to keep winning, their tie against Holy Cross on Saturday was a little disappointing.
* Wisconsin is 2-0 against Bemidji State and has a win over Michigan State. They are 1-1 against Alaska-Anchorage.
* Western Michigan is 2-0 against Michigan State, and 0-1-1 against Ferris State.
* Notre Dame is 2-0 against Michigan State, and haven't played Ferris State yet.
Based on these three main teams with whose TUC records we are concerned, we want Michigan State and Bemidji State NOT to be TUCs, and we want Ferris State and Alaska-Anchorage AS TUCs.
Before we get to the Cheering Section, I'd like to point out that the PWR is a very integrated system. The one thing putting the Engineers into a tie for 7th instead of just being straight 8th, besides their comparison win with Wisconsin, is Merrimack's comparison win over the Badgers. It would be nice going forward if that could stay in position as well, though it probably won't.
It's a big Cheering Section this week. Every game has at least some impact (in some cases, it's microscopic), but all of them with the exception of a handful of Atlantic Hockey games could have a discernable impact. Here they are.
Tonight
Bentley over UMass-Lowell
Princeton over Sacred Heart
Thursday
Ferris State over Michigan State
Friday
Rensselaer over Brown
Colgate over Harvard
Dartmouth over Cornell
Princeton over St. Lawrence
Quinnipiac over Clarkson
Yale over Union
Boston University over Maine
Northeastern over UMass
Providence over New Hampshire
Vermont over Merrimack
Bentley over Army
UConn over Holy Cross
Niagara over Robert Morris
Bowling Green over Lake Superior State
Ohio State over Alaska
Miami over Notre Dame
Northern Michigan over Western Michigan
Alaska-Anchorage over Minnesota
St. Cloud State over Minnesota State
Michigan Tech over Wisconsin
Colorado College over North Dakota
Alabama-Huntsville over Nebraska-Omaha
Saturday
Rensselaer over Yale
Princeton over Clarkson
Quinnipiac over St. Lawrence
Brown over Union
Dartmouth over Colgate
Harvard over Cornell
UMass-Lowell over Boston College
Boston University over Maine
Northeastern over UMass
Providence over New Hampshire
Vermont over Merrimack
Bentley over Army
UConn over Holy Cross
RIT over Mercyhurst
Niagara over Robert Morris
Miami over Notre Dame
Bowling Green over Lake Superior State
Ohio State over Alaska
Northern Michigan over Western Michigan
Michigan over Michigan State
Alaska-Anchorage over Minnesota
St. Cloud State over Minnesota State
Michigan Tech over Wisconsin
Colorado College over North Dakota
Alabama-Huntsville over Nebraska-Omaha
Notable explanations:
CC/UND series: A CC sweep could help put North Dakota's comparison with the Engineers up for grabs, given the effect it will have on RPI and COp. As it is, though, only a CC sweep would help because Rensselaer was 0-1-1 against the Tigers. A 3-point week for CC would make it a wash, and 2 or less points clinches the COp for UND unless the Sioux and Tigers meet in the playoffs. Basically, if UND gets a win this weekend, or two ties, the comparision with them will become practically unflippable.
WMU/NMU series: Big one for the Engineers here. WMU already has a loss and a tie to the Wildcats slightly dragging down their TUC record. If the Wildcats can do well in Kalamazoo this weekend with a split or better, it'll drag down the Broncos' TUC record.
Rensselaer/Brown: The Bears (1-0-0) are a common opponent with Yale (2-1-0), Union (1-0-0), UNH (0-0-1), Dartmouth (1-0-0), Boston University (0-1-1), Princeton (1-1-0), Minnesota State (1-0-0), Clarkson (1-0-0) and Quinnipiac (0-0-1).
Rensselaer/Yale: The Bulldogs (0-1-0) are a common opponent with Union (0-1-0), Dartmouth (0-2-0), Princeton (0-1-0), Colorado College (0-1-0), Brown (1-2-0), Clarkson (0-1-0), and Quinnipiac (0-1-0).
Dartmouth and Princeton: Remember, this Cheering Section pertains to PWR implications only. For the sake of the ECAC bye, these teams losing is a good thing. So there's a silver lining to basically any result with these teams right now.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Men's Hockey - Harvard and Dartmouth (21/22 Jan)
Finally, the Engineers have a weekend sweep in the ECAC after six tries, but it didn't come down the way most people expected it would. The Engineers had to battle to get a 3-2 win over Harvard, but then dominated against #18 Dartmouth in what was probably the team's most complete game of the season to earn a 5-1 victory over the Big Green.
Harvard
Angers-Goulet/Malchuk/Brutlag
Cullen/Higgs/Rabbani
O'Grady/Polacek/Helfrich
Tinordi/Rogic/Smith
Bergin/Foss
Koudys/Dolan
Bailen/Kennedy
York
C.J. Lee's suspension and Scott Halpern's continuing ankle injury were the only major issues in crafting a lineup on Friday, as Marty O'Grady and Bryan Brutlag returned to the lineup - both missing only one game in the end after O'Grady volunteered to play relatively hurt against Colgate in place of Brutlag, who had no lingering effects of being knocked out against Cornell. Brock Higgs also made his valiant return to the lineup after being out for nearly a month with that scary throat cut.
Given what was to come, the first 10 minutes were pretty uninteresting. No goals, no penalties, not an awful lot of shots coming from either direction. The first notable event of the game came 13 minutes into the contest, when Patrick Cullen picked up the deflection from a weak pass by Josh Rabbani for his third goal of the season, giving RPI a 1-0 lead on a goal that Harvard's Kyle Richter is probably still kicking himself over.
Speaking of goals to kick yourself over, Allen York proceeded to give up an even worse one with less than 20 seconds left in the first period. Going behind the net to grab a loose puck, he misplayed it to the left side of his cage, where it was scooped up by Harvard's Michael Del Mauro, who promptly stuck it in the empty net to make it 1-1 going into the 1st intermission.
The beginning of the second period, however, became a showcase for the best player in Troy. Two minutes into the period during a 4-on-4, Brock Higgs stole the puck right in the middle of the Harvard zone while forechecking. Higgs promptly fed it to Polacek, who rifled it into the net in an impromptu 2-on-1 following a Harvard breakout attempt, making it 2-1 RPI. A minute and a half later, it basically happened again in a very similar fashion. The RPI forecheck managed to keep Harvard from clearing the zone, and this time it was Nick Bailen getting the steal after an excellent check by Alex Angers-Goulet. Bailen made a cross-ice pass to Polacek, who then used a screen by Angers-Goulet to score his second goal in 1:37 of game time, his 13th of the season, to put RPI up 3-2.
To that point in the game, there had been just three penalties called - one on RPI in the 1st, and matching minors early in the 2nd that created the 4-on-4 situation. But the remainder of the game would be marred by the penalties that were called - seven on RPI, and only one on Harvard (for too many men). The Engineers managed to get by on the two calls during the second period, but a number of questionable calls in the third period finally proved to be too much to handle. Shortly after killing an interference call against Joel Malchuk that was made just 10 seconds into the third, RPI found themselves in a tight spot with Angers-Goulet and Polacek, arguably the two best penalty killers on the team, called for penalties 9 seconds apart. The ensuing 5-on-3 was almost killed off, but there's only so much you can do when you've got three guys out there that have been killing penalties for most of the period. Pier-Oliver Michaud scored his first goal of the year with less than 15 seconds left on the 5-on-3 to bring Harvard within one.
The Harvard penalty for too many men gave RPI its only power play chance of the game, which they did not convert. True to form, Bryan Hicks gave Harvard a pair of opportunities to tie the game on the power play late, including one late enough for Ted Donato to pull Richter from the net to create a 6-on-4. The Engineers survived the late onslaught, and Allen York made 17 saves in the 3rd period alone to help preserve the win for RPI. The Engineers had only 3 shots of their own in the final 20 minutes.
Dartmouth
Angers-Goulet/O'Grady/Brutlag
Cullen/Higgs/Rabbani
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Burgdoerfer/Rogic/Malchuk
Bergin/Foss
Koudys/Dolan
Leboeuf/Bailen
York
The only real lineup differences for Saturday were C.J. Lee's reinsertion following the end of his suspension, Greg Burgdoerfer playing in place of Matt Tinordi, and John Kennedy, who suffered an ankle injury late in the Harvard game - his timetable for return is unknown. It could be this Friday, or he could be out for a while.
Immediately after the Harvard game, the players told the media that they knew they'd need to play better against Dartmouth, who jumped on Union for three goals in 10:10 on Friday night to issue the Dutchmen their first home loss of the season. That's essentially what happened for RPI, even right out of the gate. Just 2:20 into the 1st, the Engineers got themselves on the board first for the third straight game as Johnny Rogic zoomed up the left wing, taking a quick shot before going behind the net that was scooped up and put in the net by Joel Malchuk, scoring his fourth of the year to put RPI up 1-0.
Excellent puck control in the first period led to an 11-8 edge in shots for the Engineers after one period, and that generally carried over into the second period despite continued penalty issues that saw the Big Green getting four power play chances by the time the game was 28 minutes old. The RPI penalty kill held up throughout, allowing the Engineers the opportunity to go up two on their next power play chance.
A cross-ice feed through the slot from Nick Bailen to Chase Polacek was one-timed in just below the faceoff dot for another impressive goal from the senior assistant captain about a minute into RPI's third man advantage of the night, putting the Engineers up 2-0.
About four minutes later, it was Dartmouth's turn to start getting in penalty trouble, as the Engineers gained a 5-on-3 for over a minute that was eventually - after much patience - converted by Brock Higgs, scoring his first goal since his return to the ice with a one-timer on the doorstep from a pass by Polacek to give RPI a commanding 3-0 lead. That lead would increase just over two minutes later when Rabbani fed Angers-Goulet while the latter was crashing the net to make it 4-0 after two. James Mello, who had been a rock in net for Dartmouth, was pulled during the second intermission in favor of Jody O'Neill, who the Engineers had beaten in Hanover in November.
Dartmouth got one back early in the third period off an odd end-board bounce that left Allen York out of position, but it was the only goal they would get on the night. RPI got their 4-goal lead back midway through the third when Joel Malchuk, rushing out of the penalty box after a kill, reached the puck to get icing waved off and then poked it around O'Neill, who had wandered behind the net to go after it. O'Neill raced back to the crease, but couldn't position himself in time for Marty O'Grady's one-timer in the slot from Malchuk's pass.
Of the three goals York gave up on the weekend, the first was his fault but pretty fluky, the second was after a long 5-on-3, and the third was just a bad bounce in a game RPI had well in hand. Defensively, the Engineers did pretty well, and they broke out of their offensive shell with eight goals in two games. That'll help gain weekend sweeps more often than not.
The big homestand continues this weekend with another pair of huge games. Brown, an odd team with some very big wins (BU and Yale come to mind) and some head-scratching losses (they're still under .500 and got owned at home by RPI) comes into town in what is an important game for the Engineers to win for a number of reasons. That's followed by what could become one of the freakiest Freakouts in the history of Freakout, as the Engineers welcome the #1 team in this great nation of ours, the Yale Bulldogs. They have held that title ever since their 4-2 home victory over RPI in early December.
The Engineers are 10-1-0 at home this season, with the lone loss coming in overtime. It could be pretty wild - and another weekend sweep would position RPI perfectly for the last month of the season, not to mention open some eyes given the caliber of teams coming to Troy this week.
Remember, this year's senior class has lost their first three Freakouts, and no class has ever graduated without winning at least one. There are some talented names in this year's senior class, but they face a tough challenge. All of this is conspiring to make for what should be the biggest game of the year on the biggest stage of the year.
Other junk - Just a week after dropping four positions in the USCHO.com poll, the Engineers return to #10 in the nation by rising four spots with their weekend sweep. #1 Yale (swept Clarkson and St. Lawrence) earned 46 first place votes, their most to date. Other ranked ECAC teams are #13 Union (down one, lost to Dartmouth and beat Harvard), #18 Dartmouth (no change), and #19 Princeton (up one, idle). Also ranked this week are #16 Boston University (down one) and #20 Colorado College (re-entering the poll). Other teams earning votes this week were Niagara (16), RIT (4), and Clarkson (2).
Chase Polacek is now at 146 points for his career after his 3 goal, 1 assist weekend, moving him Ray Belasky '60 (142), Kevin Croxton '06 (143), Garry Kearns '58 (144), and Alain St. Hilaire '99 (145) to take sole possession of 22nd all time. Next on the ladder is Jim Josephson '62 in 21st with 148 career points. There's a bit of a gap to the Top 20, however, as Barry Martinelli '76 currently occupies 20th with 155 points.
Saturday's Freakout game will be televised live on Time Warner Cable Channel 3. Normally, we'd tell you to go to the game if you get TW3, but the Freakout is going to be sold out, so watching on TV is a viable alternative if you can't get a ticket.
ECAC Standings
1. Yale - 11-1-0 (22 pts)
2. Union - 8-3-1 (17 pts)
3. Dartmouth - 7-4-1 (15 pts)
4. Princeton - 7-4-1 (15 pts)
5. RPI - 7-5-0 (14 pts)
6. Clarkson - 6-4-1 (13 pts)
7. Cornell - 6-5-1 (13 pts)
8. Quinnipiac - 5-6-2 (12 pts)
9. Brown - 5-6-1 (11 pts)
10. St. Lawrence - 3-8-0 (6 pts)
11. Harvard - 2-11-0 (4 pts)
12. Colgate - 0-10-2 (2 pts)
Adjusted Standings
1. Yale (.917)
2. Union (.708)
3. Dartmouth (.625)
4. Princeton (.625)
5. Clarkson (.591)
6. RPI (.583)
6. Cornell (.542)
8. Quinnipiac (.462)
9. Brown (.458)
10. St. Lawrence (.273)
11. Harvard (.154)
12. Colgate (.083)
Harvard at #14 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
1/21/11 - 7:00pm
RESULT: RPI 3, Harvard 2
BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO
RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
VIDEO
RPI TV (whole game)
YouTube (goals, no audio)
YouTube (post-game press conference)
RECORD: 14-6-3 (6-5-0 ECAC, 12 pts)
Reale Deals
1. F Chase Polacek, 2 G
2. G Allen York, 36 saves
3. F Brock Higgs, 2 A
#18 Dartmouth at #14 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
1/22/11 - 7:00pm
RESULT: RPI 5, Dartmouth 1
BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO
RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
VIDEO
RPI TV (whole game)
YouTube (goals, no audio)
YouTube (post-game press conference)
RECORD: 15-6-3 (7-5-0 ECAC, 14 pts)
Reale Deals
1. F Joel Malchuk, 1 G, 1 A
2. F Chase Polacek, 1 G, 1 A
3. D Nick Bailen, 2 A
Upcoming games
28 Jan - Brown
29 Jan - #1 Yale (Big Red Freakout!)
04 Feb - at Quinnipiac
05 Feb - at #19 Princeton
11 Feb - Colgate
Harvard
Angers-Goulet/Malchuk/Brutlag
Cullen/Higgs/Rabbani
O'Grady/Polacek/Helfrich
Tinordi/Rogic/Smith
Bergin/Foss
Koudys/Dolan
Bailen/Kennedy
York
C.J. Lee's suspension and Scott Halpern's continuing ankle injury were the only major issues in crafting a lineup on Friday, as Marty O'Grady and Bryan Brutlag returned to the lineup - both missing only one game in the end after O'Grady volunteered to play relatively hurt against Colgate in place of Brutlag, who had no lingering effects of being knocked out against Cornell. Brock Higgs also made his valiant return to the lineup after being out for nearly a month with that scary throat cut.
Given what was to come, the first 10 minutes were pretty uninteresting. No goals, no penalties, not an awful lot of shots coming from either direction. The first notable event of the game came 13 minutes into the contest, when Patrick Cullen picked up the deflection from a weak pass by Josh Rabbani for his third goal of the season, giving RPI a 1-0 lead on a goal that Harvard's Kyle Richter is probably still kicking himself over.
Speaking of goals to kick yourself over, Allen York proceeded to give up an even worse one with less than 20 seconds left in the first period. Going behind the net to grab a loose puck, he misplayed it to the left side of his cage, where it was scooped up by Harvard's Michael Del Mauro, who promptly stuck it in the empty net to make it 1-1 going into the 1st intermission.
The beginning of the second period, however, became a showcase for the best player in Troy. Two minutes into the period during a 4-on-4, Brock Higgs stole the puck right in the middle of the Harvard zone while forechecking. Higgs promptly fed it to Polacek, who rifled it into the net in an impromptu 2-on-1 following a Harvard breakout attempt, making it 2-1 RPI. A minute and a half later, it basically happened again in a very similar fashion. The RPI forecheck managed to keep Harvard from clearing the zone, and this time it was Nick Bailen getting the steal after an excellent check by Alex Angers-Goulet. Bailen made a cross-ice pass to Polacek, who then used a screen by Angers-Goulet to score his second goal in 1:37 of game time, his 13th of the season, to put RPI up 3-2.
To that point in the game, there had been just three penalties called - one on RPI in the 1st, and matching minors early in the 2nd that created the 4-on-4 situation. But the remainder of the game would be marred by the penalties that were called - seven on RPI, and only one on Harvard (for too many men). The Engineers managed to get by on the two calls during the second period, but a number of questionable calls in the third period finally proved to be too much to handle. Shortly after killing an interference call against Joel Malchuk that was made just 10 seconds into the third, RPI found themselves in a tight spot with Angers-Goulet and Polacek, arguably the two best penalty killers on the team, called for penalties 9 seconds apart. The ensuing 5-on-3 was almost killed off, but there's only so much you can do when you've got three guys out there that have been killing penalties for most of the period. Pier-Oliver Michaud scored his first goal of the year with less than 15 seconds left on the 5-on-3 to bring Harvard within one.
The Harvard penalty for too many men gave RPI its only power play chance of the game, which they did not convert. True to form, Bryan Hicks gave Harvard a pair of opportunities to tie the game on the power play late, including one late enough for Ted Donato to pull Richter from the net to create a 6-on-4. The Engineers survived the late onslaught, and Allen York made 17 saves in the 3rd period alone to help preserve the win for RPI. The Engineers had only 3 shots of their own in the final 20 minutes.
Dartmouth
Angers-Goulet/O'Grady/Brutlag
Cullen/Higgs/Rabbani
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Burgdoerfer/Rogic/Malchuk
Bergin/Foss
Koudys/Dolan
Leboeuf/Bailen
York
The only real lineup differences for Saturday were C.J. Lee's reinsertion following the end of his suspension, Greg Burgdoerfer playing in place of Matt Tinordi, and John Kennedy, who suffered an ankle injury late in the Harvard game - his timetable for return is unknown. It could be this Friday, or he could be out for a while.
Immediately after the Harvard game, the players told the media that they knew they'd need to play better against Dartmouth, who jumped on Union for three goals in 10:10 on Friday night to issue the Dutchmen their first home loss of the season. That's essentially what happened for RPI, even right out of the gate. Just 2:20 into the 1st, the Engineers got themselves on the board first for the third straight game as Johnny Rogic zoomed up the left wing, taking a quick shot before going behind the net that was scooped up and put in the net by Joel Malchuk, scoring his fourth of the year to put RPI up 1-0.
Excellent puck control in the first period led to an 11-8 edge in shots for the Engineers after one period, and that generally carried over into the second period despite continued penalty issues that saw the Big Green getting four power play chances by the time the game was 28 minutes old. The RPI penalty kill held up throughout, allowing the Engineers the opportunity to go up two on their next power play chance.
A cross-ice feed through the slot from Nick Bailen to Chase Polacek was one-timed in just below the faceoff dot for another impressive goal from the senior assistant captain about a minute into RPI's third man advantage of the night, putting the Engineers up 2-0.
About four minutes later, it was Dartmouth's turn to start getting in penalty trouble, as the Engineers gained a 5-on-3 for over a minute that was eventually - after much patience - converted by Brock Higgs, scoring his first goal since his return to the ice with a one-timer on the doorstep from a pass by Polacek to give RPI a commanding 3-0 lead. That lead would increase just over two minutes later when Rabbani fed Angers-Goulet while the latter was crashing the net to make it 4-0 after two. James Mello, who had been a rock in net for Dartmouth, was pulled during the second intermission in favor of Jody O'Neill, who the Engineers had beaten in Hanover in November.
Dartmouth got one back early in the third period off an odd end-board bounce that left Allen York out of position, but it was the only goal they would get on the night. RPI got their 4-goal lead back midway through the third when Joel Malchuk, rushing out of the penalty box after a kill, reached the puck to get icing waved off and then poked it around O'Neill, who had wandered behind the net to go after it. O'Neill raced back to the crease, but couldn't position himself in time for Marty O'Grady's one-timer in the slot from Malchuk's pass.
Of the three goals York gave up on the weekend, the first was his fault but pretty fluky, the second was after a long 5-on-3, and the third was just a bad bounce in a game RPI had well in hand. Defensively, the Engineers did pretty well, and they broke out of their offensive shell with eight goals in two games. That'll help gain weekend sweeps more often than not.
The big homestand continues this weekend with another pair of huge games. Brown, an odd team with some very big wins (BU and Yale come to mind) and some head-scratching losses (they're still under .500 and got owned at home by RPI) comes into town in what is an important game for the Engineers to win for a number of reasons. That's followed by what could become one of the freakiest Freakouts in the history of Freakout, as the Engineers welcome the #1 team in this great nation of ours, the Yale Bulldogs. They have held that title ever since their 4-2 home victory over RPI in early December.
The Engineers are 10-1-0 at home this season, with the lone loss coming in overtime. It could be pretty wild - and another weekend sweep would position RPI perfectly for the last month of the season, not to mention open some eyes given the caliber of teams coming to Troy this week.
Remember, this year's senior class has lost their first three Freakouts, and no class has ever graduated without winning at least one. There are some talented names in this year's senior class, but they face a tough challenge. All of this is conspiring to make for what should be the biggest game of the year on the biggest stage of the year.
Other junk - Just a week after dropping four positions in the USCHO.com poll, the Engineers return to #10 in the nation by rising four spots with their weekend sweep. #1 Yale (swept Clarkson and St. Lawrence) earned 46 first place votes, their most to date. Other ranked ECAC teams are #13 Union (down one, lost to Dartmouth and beat Harvard), #18 Dartmouth (no change), and #19 Princeton (up one, idle). Also ranked this week are #16 Boston University (down one) and #20 Colorado College (re-entering the poll). Other teams earning votes this week were Niagara (16), RIT (4), and Clarkson (2).
Chase Polacek is now at 146 points for his career after his 3 goal, 1 assist weekend, moving him Ray Belasky '60 (142), Kevin Croxton '06 (143), Garry Kearns '58 (144), and Alain St. Hilaire '99 (145) to take sole possession of 22nd all time. Next on the ladder is Jim Josephson '62 in 21st with 148 career points. There's a bit of a gap to the Top 20, however, as Barry Martinelli '76 currently occupies 20th with 155 points.
Saturday's Freakout game will be televised live on Time Warner Cable Channel 3. Normally, we'd tell you to go to the game if you get TW3, but the Freakout is going to be sold out, so watching on TV is a viable alternative if you can't get a ticket.
ECAC Standings
1. Yale - 11-1-0 (22 pts)
2. Union - 8-3-1 (17 pts)
3. Dartmouth - 7-4-1 (15 pts)
4. Princeton - 7-4-1 (15 pts)
5. RPI - 7-5-0 (14 pts)
6. Clarkson - 6-4-1 (13 pts)
7. Cornell - 6-5-1 (13 pts)
8. Quinnipiac - 5-6-2 (12 pts)
9. Brown - 5-6-1 (11 pts)
10. St. Lawrence - 3-8-0 (6 pts)
11. Harvard - 2-11-0 (4 pts)
12. Colgate - 0-10-2 (2 pts)
Adjusted Standings
1. Yale (.917)
2. Union (.708)
3. Dartmouth (.625)
4. Princeton (.625)
5. Clarkson (.591)
6. RPI (.583)
6. Cornell (.542)
8. Quinnipiac (.462)
9. Brown (.458)
10. St. Lawrence (.273)
11. Harvard (.154)
12. Colgate (.083)
Harvard at #14 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
1/21/11 - 7:00pm
RESULT: RPI 3, Harvard 2
BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO
RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
VIDEO
RPI TV (whole game)
YouTube (goals, no audio)
YouTube (post-game press conference)
RECORD: 14-6-3 (6-5-0 ECAC, 12 pts)
Reale Deals
1. F Chase Polacek, 2 G
2. G Allen York, 36 saves
3. F Brock Higgs, 2 A
#18 Dartmouth at #14 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
1/22/11 - 7:00pm
RESULT: RPI 5, Dartmouth 1
BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO
RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
VIDEO
RPI TV (whole game)
YouTube (goals, no audio)
YouTube (post-game press conference)
RECORD: 15-6-3 (7-5-0 ECAC, 14 pts)
Reale Deals
1. F Joel Malchuk, 1 G, 1 A
2. F Chase Polacek, 1 G, 1 A
3. D Nick Bailen, 2 A
Upcoming games
28 Jan - Brown
29 Jan - #1 Yale (Big Red Freakout!)
04 Feb - at Quinnipiac
05 Feb - at #19 Princeton
11 Feb - Colgate
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Women's Hockey - at Harvard & Dartmouth (21/22 Jan)
RPI’s recent string of wins over Harvard and Dartmouth, which stretched back to the start of the 09-10 season, came to an end on the road this weekend as the Engineers dropped a pair of decisions just two weeks after sweeping the same teams. A comeback attempt fell short on Friday night, with the Engineers falling 2-1 to Harvard, while Saturday saw RPI manage just nine shots to Dartmouth’s 34, en route to a 3-0 shutout.
Harvard
Smelker/Harrison/Horton
Padmore/Sanders/O’Keefe
Dunlop/Vandegrift/Stapleton
Letuligasenoa/Guillemette/Mankey
Le Donne/Vadner
Castignetti/Marzario
Daniels
van der Bliek
Harvard got in penalty trouble early, earning the game’s first call at just the 2:50 mark of the first period. The Crimson had little trouble with the kill and built momentum through the first period, throwing twelve shots at Sonja van der Bliek, but did not find the back of the net. Momentum looked to turn in RPI’s favor late in the period as Harvard took two penalties in the final two minutes of the first, setting up a short 5-on-3 situation, but the Engineers found themselves unable to capitalize.
Shortly after the pair of penalties expired to start the second period, Harvard lit the lamp as Liza Ryabkina beat van der Bliek on a one-time feed from Jillian Dempsey, who had picked off an RPI pass at the blue line. A few minutes later, Harvard doubled its lead on another one-timer as Whitney Kennedy fed a pass through the crease to Kalley Armstrong for an easy goal and a 2-0 lead.
A timeout gave the Engineers some reprieve, but a pair of penalties in the latter half of the frame along with a 10-minute misconduct to Sierra Vadner left RPI on their heels and Harvard piling on the shots. RPI weathered the remainder of the second and found themselves the beneficiaries of the officiating in the third period, where three consecutive Harvard penalties gave the Engineers a chance to get back in the game. Jordan Smelker put home an Alisa Harrison rebound at 8:28 of the third to cut the Crimson lead to 2-1, but the RPI pressure late in the game was not enough to tie it up.
RPI outshot Harvard 10-4 in the final period but was outshot 29-20 on the game. The loss put an end to the Engineers’ 5-game winning streak over the Crimson which stretched back to March 2009 when the Engineers defeated the Crimson in the ECAC Semifinals despite being outshot 50-17.
Dartmouth
Smelker/Harrison/Horton
Padmore/Sanders/O’Keefe
Dunlop/Vandegrift/Stapleton
Letuligasenoa/Guillemette/Mankey
Le Donne/Vadner
Castignetti/Marzario
Daniels
van der Bliek
Moving on to Hanover, NH after Friday night’s loss, the Engineers looked to salvage some points from the weekend against Dartmouth, but the Big Green had something else in mind. Behind a pair of power play goals and an empty netter, Dartmouth never gave RPI a chance to get in the game.
Jenna Hobeika opened the scoring for Dartmouth just 4:40 into the game, as she beat van der Bliek over the glove side with a shot that hit the pipe and went into the net. A video review was called for, but the goal was deemed good and gave Dartmouth the only lead they would need – but the Big Green kept up the pressure throughout the game.
After being outshot by a 10-shot margin in the first, Jordan Smelker took a penalty late in the first which carried over to the second period, and Camille Dumais capitalized 26 seconds into the frame to extend the lead to 2-0. Dumais’ shot came on a rebound from Geneva Kliman which van der Bliek initially saved. The disparity in shots grew wider through the second period, seeing a 13-3 Dartmouth advantage in the frame.
The third period saw a complete dearth of offense for the Engineers, who managed just a single shot on goal through twenty minutes of play. An extended length of time with the net empty in favor of the extra attacker did no good for RPI as Dartmouth’s Amanda Trunzo put home an empty netter with 0:20 left on the clock to put the game away by its final 3-0 score.
The Engineers are still within striking distance of a top-four finish in league, but are going to need to step up the offense to accomplish that goal. With another game against a dominant Cornell squad next weekend, along with several other difficult games remaining, RPI needs to take points wherever they can get them to stay on pace for a decent playoff position.
RPI continues play on the road next weekend against Colgate (7pm Friday) and Cornell (4pm Saturday). Neither game will be carried by WRPI, however live stats and pay-per-view video will be available as usual, with links provided on the RPI Athletics website shortly before game time.
-----
RPI at Harvard
ECAC Hockey Game – Bright Hockey Center (Boston, MA)
1/21/11 – 7:00pm
Harvard 2, RPI 1
BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1011/boxes/wharren1.j21
RECAPS:
RECORD: 9-9-6 (7-5-1 ECAC)
-----
RPI at Dartmouth
ECAC Hockey Game – Thompson Arena (Hanover, NH)
1/22/11 – 4:00pm
Dartmouth 3, RPI 0
BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1011/boxes/wdarren1.j22
RECAPS:
Dartmouth: http://www.dartmouthsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205081358&DB_OEM_ID=11600
RECORD: 9-10-6 (7-6-1 ECAC)
-----
ECAC Standings (by points)
GP Pts ECAC AllECAC Standings (by winning percentage)
Cornell 14 28 14-0 20-1
Harvard 14 20 9-3-2 10-7-2
Quinnipiac 14 16 8-6 16-8-1
Dartmouth 14 16 8-6 12-8
Princeton 14 15 7-6-1 10-10-1
Rensselaer 14 15 7-6-1 9-10-6
St. Lawrence 13 14 7-6 12-11-2
Clarkson 13 13 6-6-1 9-13-3
Yale 12 9 4-7-1 5-12-2
Colgate 14 9 4-9-1 7-16-2
Brown 12 5 1-8-3 2-14-3
Union 14 2 0-12-2 1-22-3
GP ECAC Win%
Cornell 14 14-0 1.000
Harvard 14 9-3-2 .714
Quinnipiac 14 8-6 .571
Dartmouth 14 8-6 .571
St. Lawrence 13 7-6 .538
Princeton 14 7-6-1 .536
Rensselaer 14 7-6-1 .536
Clarkson 13 6-6-1 .500
Yale 12 4-7-1 .375
Colgate 14 4-9-1 .321
Brown 12 1-8-3 .208
Union 14 0-12-2 .071
-----
Upcoming Games
Jan. 28 – at Colgate (7pm)
Jan. 29 – at Cornell (4pm)
Feb. 4 – Brown (7pm)
Feb. 5 – Yale (4pm)
Feb. 11 – Quinnipiac (7pm)
Feb. 12 – Princeton (4pm)
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Sweep
I've been waiting for this one. Patiently.
RPI's third win in a row in ECAC play and the elusive weekend sweep. 10-1-0 at home. Four wins in the last five.
Stay pumped.
Mild content warning.
RPI's third win in a row in ECAC play and the elusive weekend sweep. 10-1-0 at home. Four wins in the last five.
Stay pumped.
Mild content warning.
Friday, January 21, 2011
It's a Long Way
We've still got six weeks left until the playoffs start (five for the women), but from this vantage point, the most important part of the regular season is now.
The women are essentially about to do a repeat of the last two weeks, starting tonight in Boston as they look to secure their fifth consecutive win over the Crimson. That seems almost too good to be true. But where the preseason expectations were that RPI would be fighting to simply make the playoffs, the reality now is that they are in a position to fight for a top four - home ice - position. Being paired with Union continues to be a drag, but as long as the Engineers beat Harvard and at least tie Dartmouth this weekend, they would be guaranteed to be sitting in second place on Sunday, the highest any team can possibly hope to attain given Cornell's rampage through the ECAC schedule this season. That positions them perfectly for what would be their first home ice playoff series in Division I.
For the men, eight of the final 12 games of the season are at home, and half of those come in the next two weeks - after this homestand, the home-ice advantage is leveled. That makes these next four games immensely important. After losing two points to the Crimson at the beginning of the ECAC schedule (accounting for precisely half of Harvard's points to date) despite thoroughly outplaying them, tonight is payback time. A good, solid win is necessary tonight. Then tomorrow comes a challenge from a very good Dartmouth team that is unquestionably better than the last time they faced RPI. They have a new goaltender in James Mello who has been outstanding this year, but make no mistake. A win over Dartmouth would go a very long way toward the twin goals of a bye and an NCAA tournament berth. It would mean a season sweep of the Big Green, something few teams are going to accomplish this year. That's like free points.
Both of our teams have lofty goals, and it's going to take a lot of hard work and determination to reach those goals, even though they're in sight. Today's pumpup serves as a little reminder.
The women are essentially about to do a repeat of the last two weeks, starting tonight in Boston as they look to secure their fifth consecutive win over the Crimson. That seems almost too good to be true. But where the preseason expectations were that RPI would be fighting to simply make the playoffs, the reality now is that they are in a position to fight for a top four - home ice - position. Being paired with Union continues to be a drag, but as long as the Engineers beat Harvard and at least tie Dartmouth this weekend, they would be guaranteed to be sitting in second place on Sunday, the highest any team can possibly hope to attain given Cornell's rampage through the ECAC schedule this season. That positions them perfectly for what would be their first home ice playoff series in Division I.
For the men, eight of the final 12 games of the season are at home, and half of those come in the next two weeks - after this homestand, the home-ice advantage is leveled. That makes these next four games immensely important. After losing two points to the Crimson at the beginning of the ECAC schedule (accounting for precisely half of Harvard's points to date) despite thoroughly outplaying them, tonight is payback time. A good, solid win is necessary tonight. Then tomorrow comes a challenge from a very good Dartmouth team that is unquestionably better than the last time they faced RPI. They have a new goaltender in James Mello who has been outstanding this year, but make no mistake. A win over Dartmouth would go a very long way toward the twin goals of a bye and an NCAA tournament berth. It would mean a season sweep of the Big Green, something few teams are going to accomplish this year. That's like free points.
Both of our teams have lofty goals, and it's going to take a lot of hard work and determination to reach those goals, even though they're in sight. Today's pumpup serves as a little reminder.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Today's Podcast: All By Myself
That was a song title, wasn't it? Eh. I had a great guest lined up to appear on today's show, but he had to back out at the last minute. That's a bummer. Ah well, these things happen, unfortunately.
So we'll just do the usual - talk about last week, talk about this week. Give you a feel for what's going on around the college hockey world, men's and women's. The podcast goes live at 1 pm Eastern, today.
I'll leave the phone lines open in case anyone has any questions they'd like answered about bracketology or the new recruits, or any of the other things we've talked about here at WaP in the recent past.
Last week, we talked to Ed Weaver and Joe Yerdon. Give a listen.
So we'll just do the usual - talk about last week, talk about this week. Give you a feel for what's going on around the college hockey world, men's and women's. The podcast goes live at 1 pm Eastern, today.
I'll leave the phone lines open in case anyone has any questions they'd like answered about bracketology or the new recruits, or any of the other things we've talked about here at WaP in the recent past.
Last week, we talked to Ed Weaver and Joe Yerdon. Give a listen.
Listen to internet radio with Without a Peer on Blog Talk Radio
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Engineer Bracketology 2.0
OK, so, remember that Bracketology column you read yesterday morning? Forget everything about it. Because everything you know is wrong.
So, with that in mind, this is how the PairWise now looks. The changes listed at the bottom are against what was listed in yesterday's Bracketology, plus the inclusion of last night's Merrimack victory over BU.
1. Yale*
2. North Dakota*
3. Minnesota-Duluth
4. Denver
5. Michigan*
6. New Hampshire*
7. Boston College
8. Notre Dame
9. Wisconsin
10. Merrimack
11. Western Michigan
12. Dartmouth
13. Union
14. Nebraska-Omaha
15. Rensselaer
16. Miami
17. Maine
18. Boston University
19. Alaska
20. Princeton
21. Colorado College
22. Bemidji State
23. Minnesota
24. Ohio State
25. Ferris State
26. Minnesota State
27. Alaska-Anchorage
28. Brown
29. Clarkson
30. Robert Morris
31. Northern Michigan
32. Quinnipiac
33. Michigan State
34. St. Cloud State
NR. RIT*
In: Rensselaer, Western Michigan
Out: Boston University, Maine
TUCs
In: Ferris State, Alaska-Anchorage, Brown, Clarkson, Robert Morris, Northern Michigan, Quinnipiac, Michigan State, St. Cloud State
Out: None
OK, so the Engineers are back in the tournament (barely) for the time being. What effect did this rule change have on the positioning? Why did Maine crash?
Well, the bottom line is, a lot of teams now have 10 games against TUCs under the new system, including Rensselaer for comparisons not involving teams they've played. The Engineers have exactly 10 games against TUCs and have a record of 4-4-2 in those games (0-1-0 against Yale, 1-0-0 against Dartmouth, 1-1-1 against Union, 1-0-0 against BU, 0-1-1 against CC, 1-0-0 against Brown, and 0-1-0 against Clarkson). So in every comparison against teams with 10 games against TUCs that isn't a past opponent, the TUC criteria now counts in the comparison.
The projected bracket:
Bridgeport
1. Yale
2. Notre Dame
3. Merrimack
4. Nebraska-Omaha
Green Bay
1. North Dakota
2. Boston College
3. Wisconsin
4. RIT
Manchester
1. Minnesota-Duluth
2. New Hampshire
3. Western Michigan
4. Rensselaer
St. Louis
1. Denver
2. Michigan
3. Dartmouth
4. Union
How about that for an interesting lineup? A relatively close trip to see a rematch of the infamous 1985 Frozen Four semifinal game.
OK, so how did we arrive here? For the answer, let's look at some suddenly interesting comparisons.
Wisconsin: Even though the Badgers are ranked 9th in the PWR, they lose the comparison to the 15th ranked Engineers... for now. Why? Because right now, the only COps are UAH and BU. Both teams swept the Chargers in two games, but the Badgers lost to BU, while the Engineers won. So until UW plays CC, Rensselaer's 0-1-1 record against the Tigers doesn't factor in yet. That doesn't happen until the first week of March, so we should be ready for that. When that matchup comes down, we'll need the Tigers to pick up at least one win. The flip really happens because of the TUC records - Wisconsin is 6-8-2 against TUCs, and now that the Engineers have 10 games (and a .500 record) against TUCs, they win that criteria and thus the comparison despite losing the RPI criteria.
Western Michigan: The Broncos soared not only into the tournament field with this change, but into a #3 seed (and flipped the comparison with Rensselaer). How? Well, it's all in the TUCs. The Broncos had a decent record against TUCs, but it wasn't counting because a lot of teams didn't have 10 games against TUCs. Now they do, and it's paying off in spades.
Maine: The Engineers lose the comparison with a team not currently in the field. Why? RPI and COp (the Black Bears have 3 wins combined over Northeastern and Cornell). Maine's fall was instead precipitated by their atrocious TUC record - they are losing no less than four comparisons against teams with weaker RPI (Miami, CC, Ohio State and Ferris State) because of it (combined with COp losses to each). And it's putting the Engineers in the NCAA field right now. Sure it doesn't mean anything right now. But that doesn't mean a similar scenario couldn't be beneficial in mid-March.
So what about the TUC cliff? Well, it still exists. It's just defined by teams that are hovering around .5000 in RPI. For now, we'll call it any team plus or minus .0100 from that mark.
27. Alaska-Anchorage (.5100)
28. Ferris State (.5099)
29. Clarkson (.5095)
30. Robert Morris (.5095)
31. St. Cloud State (.5050)
32. Northern Michigan (.5042)
33. Michigan State (.5020)
34. Quinnipiac (.5000)
----
35. Niagara (.4995)
36. RIT (.4919)
Oh, look at that! Two teams that the Engineers could really use as TUCs, where before they had to vault 10 and 11 other teams to get to that level, now only need to string together a couple of wins and they'll be right there. Niagara and RIT represent two potential TUC wins for Rensselaer, and those could go a long way in pushing them back up the PairWise. Time to get out those purple pom-poms and that orange megaphone! Thanks, NCAA!
And finally, the cheering section. We're not going to completely redo the cheering section, we're just going to make a few changes.
Cornell/Colgate series: Cornell's now within striking distance of becoming a TUC in the next couple of weeks if they keep winning. Given that the Engineers lost to them, that would not be preferable. We're no longer rooting for Cornell, we're rooting for Colgate.
Wisconsin/Minnesota State series: We had been rooting for the Badgers in order to drop the Mavericks out as a TUC to hurt Nebraska-Omaha. With this change, not only are the Mavericks unlikely to drop right away, as a TUC they could continue to harm the Badgers' TUC record and keep that comparison flipped the Engineers' way. We're no longer rooting for Wisconsin, we're rooting for Minnesota State.
BC/BU: We're not really worried about losing BU as a TUC anymore. And while normally we'd be inclined to take the Terriers outright as a former opponent, we also have to consider Rensselaer's comparison with BU, which is close right now. Since the Engineers probably are not going to be in a position to catch BC (i.e. where a BU victory could do them some COp damage), their victory doesn't hurt as much. Instead of a tie, take Boston College.
Everything else basically stays as is.
What does that mean? Well, put simply, it means the committee isn't going to limit itself to 25 TUCs. Instead, it will simply include every team that has an RPI of .5000 or better, which, right now, is 34 teams, more than half of the full complement of teams in the nation. It means the "TUC Cliff" is now more exaggerated - instead of being set at an arbitrary cutoff number, there can be more or less TUCs depending on how many teams are at .5000.The NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Committee has tweaked the Pairwise criteria, returning it to a previous state.
The committee has reverted its definition of "Team Under Consideration" back to an earlier one. Now, a TUC is one with a .500 or better RPI.
So, with that in mind, this is how the PairWise now looks. The changes listed at the bottom are against what was listed in yesterday's Bracketology, plus the inclusion of last night's Merrimack victory over BU.
1. Yale*
2. North Dakota*
3. Minnesota-Duluth
4. Denver
5. Michigan*
6. New Hampshire*
7. Boston College
8. Notre Dame
9. Wisconsin
10. Merrimack
11. Western Michigan
12. Dartmouth
13. Union
14. Nebraska-Omaha
15. Rensselaer
16. Miami
17. Maine
18. Boston University
19. Alaska
20. Princeton
21. Colorado College
22. Bemidji State
23. Minnesota
24. Ohio State
25. Ferris State
26. Minnesota State
27. Alaska-Anchorage
28. Brown
29. Clarkson
30. Robert Morris
31. Northern Michigan
32. Quinnipiac
33. Michigan State
34. St. Cloud State
NR. RIT*
In: Rensselaer, Western Michigan
Out: Boston University, Maine
TUCs
In: Ferris State, Alaska-Anchorage, Brown, Clarkson, Robert Morris, Northern Michigan, Quinnipiac, Michigan State, St. Cloud State
Out: None
OK, so the Engineers are back in the tournament (barely) for the time being. What effect did this rule change have on the positioning? Why did Maine crash?
Well, the bottom line is, a lot of teams now have 10 games against TUCs under the new system, including Rensselaer for comparisons not involving teams they've played. The Engineers have exactly 10 games against TUCs and have a record of 4-4-2 in those games (0-1-0 against Yale, 1-0-0 against Dartmouth, 1-1-1 against Union, 1-0-0 against BU, 0-1-1 against CC, 1-0-0 against Brown, and 0-1-0 against Clarkson). So in every comparison against teams with 10 games against TUCs that isn't a past opponent, the TUC criteria now counts in the comparison.
The projected bracket:
Bridgeport
1. Yale
2. Notre Dame
3. Merrimack
4. Nebraska-Omaha
Green Bay
1. North Dakota
2. Boston College
3. Wisconsin
4. RIT
Manchester
1. Minnesota-Duluth
2. New Hampshire
3. Western Michigan
4. Rensselaer
St. Louis
1. Denver
2. Michigan
3. Dartmouth
4. Union
How about that for an interesting lineup? A relatively close trip to see a rematch of the infamous 1985 Frozen Four semifinal game.
OK, so how did we arrive here? For the answer, let's look at some suddenly interesting comparisons.
Wisconsin: Even though the Badgers are ranked 9th in the PWR, they lose the comparison to the 15th ranked Engineers... for now. Why? Because right now, the only COps are UAH and BU. Both teams swept the Chargers in two games, but the Badgers lost to BU, while the Engineers won. So until UW plays CC, Rensselaer's 0-1-1 record against the Tigers doesn't factor in yet. That doesn't happen until the first week of March, so we should be ready for that. When that matchup comes down, we'll need the Tigers to pick up at least one win. The flip really happens because of the TUC records - Wisconsin is 6-8-2 against TUCs, and now that the Engineers have 10 games (and a .500 record) against TUCs, they win that criteria and thus the comparison despite losing the RPI criteria.
Western Michigan: The Broncos soared not only into the tournament field with this change, but into a #3 seed (and flipped the comparison with Rensselaer). How? Well, it's all in the TUCs. The Broncos had a decent record against TUCs, but it wasn't counting because a lot of teams didn't have 10 games against TUCs. Now they do, and it's paying off in spades.
Maine: The Engineers lose the comparison with a team not currently in the field. Why? RPI and COp (the Black Bears have 3 wins combined over Northeastern and Cornell). Maine's fall was instead precipitated by their atrocious TUC record - they are losing no less than four comparisons against teams with weaker RPI (Miami, CC, Ohio State and Ferris State) because of it (combined with COp losses to each). And it's putting the Engineers in the NCAA field right now. Sure it doesn't mean anything right now. But that doesn't mean a similar scenario couldn't be beneficial in mid-March.
So what about the TUC cliff? Well, it still exists. It's just defined by teams that are hovering around .5000 in RPI. For now, we'll call it any team plus or minus .0100 from that mark.
27. Alaska-Anchorage (.5100)
28. Ferris State (.5099)
29. Clarkson (.5095)
30. Robert Morris (.5095)
31. St. Cloud State (.5050)
32. Northern Michigan (.5042)
33. Michigan State (.5020)
34. Quinnipiac (.5000)
----
35. Niagara (.4995)
36. RIT (.4919)
Oh, look at that! Two teams that the Engineers could really use as TUCs, where before they had to vault 10 and 11 other teams to get to that level, now only need to string together a couple of wins and they'll be right there. Niagara and RIT represent two potential TUC wins for Rensselaer, and those could go a long way in pushing them back up the PairWise. Time to get out those purple pom-poms and that orange megaphone! Thanks, NCAA!
And finally, the cheering section. We're not going to completely redo the cheering section, we're just going to make a few changes.
Cornell/Colgate series: Cornell's now within striking distance of becoming a TUC in the next couple of weeks if they keep winning. Given that the Engineers lost to them, that would not be preferable. We're no longer rooting for Cornell, we're rooting for Colgate.
Wisconsin/Minnesota State series: We had been rooting for the Badgers in order to drop the Mavericks out as a TUC to hurt Nebraska-Omaha. With this change, not only are the Mavericks unlikely to drop right away, as a TUC they could continue to harm the Badgers' TUC record and keep that comparison flipped the Engineers' way. We're no longer rooting for Wisconsin, we're rooting for Minnesota State.
BC/BU: We're not really worried about losing BU as a TUC anymore. And while normally we'd be inclined to take the Terriers outright as a former opponent, we also have to consider Rensselaer's comparison with BU, which is close right now. Since the Engineers probably are not going to be in a position to catch BC (i.e. where a BU victory could do them some COp damage), their victory doesn't hurt as much. Instead of a tie, take Boston College.
Everything else basically stays as is.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Engineer Bracketology: Week 2
We said it at the very outset. Nothing else matters if the Engineers don't win games. Unfortunately, the game they won this week didn't mean much for the NCAA race, since Colgate's RPI is so pitifully bad.
It's just a fact of life in the ECAC as it pertains to the PairWise Rankings. No matter how good a season the league is having - and it's having a very good season - losses hurt more in the ECAC than they do in the WCHA or Hockey East, and it takes more wins to rise in the rankings than it does in the WCHA or Hockey East.
Case in point - the Engineers. Sitting in a #2 seed position two weeks ago, one loss to Clarkson moved them down to a #3 seed. Now, after losing to Cornell (and having a pretty lousy weekend in games they weren't playing in, as well)?
1. Yale*
2. North Dakota*
3. Denver
4. Minnesota-Duluth
5. Boston College
6. Michigan*
7. Notre Dame
8. Wisconsin
9. New Hampshire*
10. Maine
11. Dartmouth
12. Union
13. Boston University
14. Merrimack
15. Nebraska-Omaha
16. Western Michigan
17. Rensselaer
18. Miami
19. Alaska
20. Princeton
21. Minnesota
22. Bemidji State
23. Colorado College
24. Minnesota State
25. Ohio State
NR. RIT*
Since last week:
In: Dartmouth, Maine
Out: Rensselaer, Western Michigan
TUCs
In: Bemidji State
Out: Ferris State
Yup. As of right now, Rensselaer would be on the outside looking in - but not by much. An increase of .0002 RPI, and they would be back in business. And with four home games coming up, they've got the potential to be hanging around, especially with two big Saturday matchups against Dartmouth and Yale beckoning.
Rensselaer was actually still in the tournament field as of Sunday morning despite the Cornell loss, but fell out by the most razor-thin of RPI differences after the Brown upset over Yale. Yes, we did say that Brown beating Yale would be a good result, and we've got to stick by that despite this. More on that later. But it does at least go to show exactly how every single game can have an impact on the PWR.
Here's the bracket projection.
Bridgeport
1. Yale
2. Wisconsin
3. Maine
4. Nebraska-Omaha
Green Bay
1. North Dakota
2. Notre Dame
3. Dartmouth
4. RIT
St. Louis
1. Denver
2. Boston College
3. Union
4. Merrimack
Manchester
1. Minnesota-Duluth
2. Michigan
3. New Hampshire
4. Boston University
That's a straight up mess. Being forced to jam Yale in Bridgeport and UNH in Manchester, having three WCHA #1 seeds, and having UNO hanging in there as a #4 seed creates a really ugly and somewhat unbalanced bracket. Fortunately, we've still got two months to go, so this logjam's got plenty of time to clear.
Not much to talk about here, so let's go ahead and move on to the comparison analysis.
Western Michigan: Notably, the Engineers win the comparison with the Broncos right now, but still trail them in the PWR. That's in part because of those two WMU wins over Union. Even though the Dutchmen have a solid RPI lead over the Broncos, those two H2H wins give the Broncos the comparison win. WMU also has a quirky comparison win over Boston College due to their odd COp and TUC edges (which likely won't last). The RPI lead for Rensselaer over WMU is razor-thin, and that's the edge right now. The Engineers could use some losses by the Broncos.
Miami: The opportunity to get a definitive edge on the Redhawks fell by the wayside this past weekend when Bowling Green couldn't get the job done, falling to 0-4 against Miami this season and making the COp comparison between Rensselaer and Miami a wash, since both teams were 1.000 against the Falcons. The only way that could change would be for BGSU to face Miami in the playoffs and beat them. So this comparison, down the road, will likely be RPI and TUC records only, which really means that only the RPI comparison is important here, since it's the tie-breaker.
Alaska: The Nanooks went 1.000 against COps with Engineers, beating Union, CC, and BGSU (twice). UAF has clinched this criteria - even if Rensselaer sweeps Union in a playoff series and BGSU sweeps Alaska in a playoff series, the Nanooks will still have a better COp record. That means in order for the Engineers to win this comparison down the road, they must win both RPI and TUC comparisons. Or maybe it would be nice if the Nanooks just weren't a TUC at all, and therefore there'd be no comparision.
Boston University: The Engineers could really use some wins over Harvard and Brown in the next couple of weekends to help out the COp comparison here. A COp win, combined with the H2H win, could really give Rensselaer the edge here. As it is, BU currently has a 2-1 comparison win on RPI and COp, and a better record against TUCs, because the game between the two teams doesn't count for the sake of their TUC comparison.
The TUC cliff:
21. Minnesota
22. Colorado College
23. Minnesota State
24. Bemidji State
25. Ohio State
-----
26. Brown
27. Alaska-Anchorage
28. Ferris State
29. Clarkson
30. Robert Morris
Not much to see here either, other than Brown sitting at 26th, right on the edge. That's due in large part to their victory over Yale, which is why we wanted them to beat Yale at least once, despite the game's immediate effect of moving Rensselaer out of the NCAA field. At this point in time, we definitely want to see Brown as a TUC. If the Engineers can pick up a win next Friday at home over the Bears, they become huge, huge Bears fans for the rest of the season - and remember the ramifications for the BU comparison, too. Excuse me, I need to swish some mouthwash.
Also of note, a few WCHA teams that are currently TUCs near the edge, especially Colorado College. That 0-1-1 record that the Engineers have against the Tigers could be a hindrance down the line. We're projecting that Rensselaer will eventually have 10 games against TUCs regardless of whether or not CC is one of them even just among ECAC teams (Yale x2, Dartmouth x2, Princeton x2, Union x3, plus one other potential like Brown or Clarkson) but they've also got that win over BU in the back pocket, too. So they don't need CC, which means it would probably be best if CC weren't a TUC.
The other two teams to keep an eye on are Minnesota and Minnesota State. Nebraska-Omaha, which looks like it could be a key comparison, is helped by having both of those teams as TUCs.
Engineer Cheering Section
Tonight
Boston University over Merrimack
Tomorrow
Harvard over Northeastern
Friday
Rensselaer over Harvard
Yale over Clarkson
Cornell over Colgate
Dartmouth over Union
Brown over St. Lawrence
Providence over New Hampshire
UMass-Lowell over Merrimack
Boston College ties Boston University
UConn over Air Force
Bentley over Mercyhurst
RIT over Holy Cross
Niagara over Sacred Heart
Ohio State over Notre Dame
Michigan over Alaska
Michigan State over Miami
Lake Superior State over Western Michigan
Wisconsin over Minnesota State
North Dakota over Nebraska-Omaha
Alabama-Huntsville over Colorado College
Saturday
Rensselaer over Dartmouth
Brown over Clarkson
Cornell over Colgate
Harvard over Union
St. Lawrence over Yale
Boston University over New Hampshire
Northeastern over Maine
UMass-Lowell over Boston College
UConn over Air Force
Bentley over Mercyhurst
RIT over Holy Cross
Niagara over Sacred Heart
Michigan State over Miami
Ohio State over Notre Dame
Lake Superior State over Western Michigan
Michigan over Alaska
Wisconsin over Minnesota State
North Dakota over Nebraska-Omaha
Alabama-Huntsville over Colorado College
Explanations:
BU/Merrimack: Aren't the Engineers right behind the Terriers in the PWR right now? Yes. But they're also right behind Merrimack, too. There isn't really a "right answer," here, so we go with BU as a past opponent, partially because that'll help the COp with Merrimack.
Harvard/Northeastern: Another tricky "league opponent vs. non-league opponent" matchup. This one is actually probably pretty irrelevant given how bad both teams are, but since we play Harvard twice it's a good idea to get them at least as strong as they possibly can get.
Cornell/Colgate series: This one's hard to figure because neither of these teams are TUCs or are likely to become TUCs. The win over Colgate was meaningless, but there's often some credence in the idea that you want your losses to have been against good teams. These games are not overly important, but there's a slight edge to Cornell in them.
Dartmouth/Union: Tough call, especially given that the Engineers play the Big Green the next night. Both are teams Rensselaer should be looking to reel in on the PWR board. Either way this goes down, the Engineers are likely to pick up a COp edge against the loser, but if the 'Tute beats Dartmouth on Saturday, that's another H2H win and that makes the comparison a lot better there. So take Dartmouth here, as long as Rensselaer can get the job done on Saturday.
BC/BU: Rooting for a tie? Sure, why not. Remember, we do want BU to do well enough to stay a TUC, but we also want to catch them in the PWR. A tie would likely work to help both of those in the long run.
UAH/CC series: This is actually the most interesting series of the weekend from Rensselaer's perspective. If UAH can work anything on the weekend, i.e. not being swept, it'll help the Engineers considerably. Even one tie would put CC's place as a TUC in danger (and possibly drop out RPI's 0-1-1 record against them) and simultaneously give the Engineers a COp edge over the Tigers, since UAH and Yale are the only common opponents this season (and both have one loss to the Bulldogs).
BU/UNH: Ah, more BU. This one has a double purpose - BU as a TUC, and hopefully, dropping New Hampshire a bit more.
It's just a fact of life in the ECAC as it pertains to the PairWise Rankings. No matter how good a season the league is having - and it's having a very good season - losses hurt more in the ECAC than they do in the WCHA or Hockey East, and it takes more wins to rise in the rankings than it does in the WCHA or Hockey East.
Case in point - the Engineers. Sitting in a #2 seed position two weeks ago, one loss to Clarkson moved them down to a #3 seed. Now, after losing to Cornell (and having a pretty lousy weekend in games they weren't playing in, as well)?
1. Yale*
2. North Dakota*
3. Denver
4. Minnesota-Duluth
5. Boston College
6. Michigan*
7. Notre Dame
8. Wisconsin
9. New Hampshire*
10. Maine
11. Dartmouth
12. Union
13. Boston University
14. Merrimack
15. Nebraska-Omaha
16. Western Michigan
17. Rensselaer
18. Miami
19. Alaska
20. Princeton
21. Minnesota
22. Bemidji State
23. Colorado College
24. Minnesota State
25. Ohio State
NR. RIT*
Since last week:
In: Dartmouth, Maine
Out: Rensselaer, Western Michigan
TUCs
In: Bemidji State
Out: Ferris State
Yup. As of right now, Rensselaer would be on the outside looking in - but not by much. An increase of .0002 RPI, and they would be back in business. And with four home games coming up, they've got the potential to be hanging around, especially with two big Saturday matchups against Dartmouth and Yale beckoning.
Rensselaer was actually still in the tournament field as of Sunday morning despite the Cornell loss, but fell out by the most razor-thin of RPI differences after the Brown upset over Yale. Yes, we did say that Brown beating Yale would be a good result, and we've got to stick by that despite this. More on that later. But it does at least go to show exactly how every single game can have an impact on the PWR.
Here's the bracket projection.
Bridgeport
1. Yale
2. Wisconsin
3. Maine
4. Nebraska-Omaha
Green Bay
1. North Dakota
2. Notre Dame
3. Dartmouth
4. RIT
St. Louis
1. Denver
2. Boston College
3. Union
4. Merrimack
Manchester
1. Minnesota-Duluth
2. Michigan
3. New Hampshire
4. Boston University
That's a straight up mess. Being forced to jam Yale in Bridgeport and UNH in Manchester, having three WCHA #1 seeds, and having UNO hanging in there as a #4 seed creates a really ugly and somewhat unbalanced bracket. Fortunately, we've still got two months to go, so this logjam's got plenty of time to clear.
Not much to talk about here, so let's go ahead and move on to the comparison analysis.
Western Michigan: Notably, the Engineers win the comparison with the Broncos right now, but still trail them in the PWR. That's in part because of those two WMU wins over Union. Even though the Dutchmen have a solid RPI lead over the Broncos, those two H2H wins give the Broncos the comparison win. WMU also has a quirky comparison win over Boston College due to their odd COp and TUC edges (which likely won't last). The RPI lead for Rensselaer over WMU is razor-thin, and that's the edge right now. The Engineers could use some losses by the Broncos.
Miami: The opportunity to get a definitive edge on the Redhawks fell by the wayside this past weekend when Bowling Green couldn't get the job done, falling to 0-4 against Miami this season and making the COp comparison between Rensselaer and Miami a wash, since both teams were 1.000 against the Falcons. The only way that could change would be for BGSU to face Miami in the playoffs and beat them. So this comparison, down the road, will likely be RPI and TUC records only, which really means that only the RPI comparison is important here, since it's the tie-breaker.
Alaska: The Nanooks went 1.000 against COps with Engineers, beating Union, CC, and BGSU (twice). UAF has clinched this criteria - even if Rensselaer sweeps Union in a playoff series and BGSU sweeps Alaska in a playoff series, the Nanooks will still have a better COp record. That means in order for the Engineers to win this comparison down the road, they must win both RPI and TUC comparisons. Or maybe it would be nice if the Nanooks just weren't a TUC at all, and therefore there'd be no comparision.
Boston University: The Engineers could really use some wins over Harvard and Brown in the next couple of weekends to help out the COp comparison here. A COp win, combined with the H2H win, could really give Rensselaer the edge here. As it is, BU currently has a 2-1 comparison win on RPI and COp, and a better record against TUCs, because the game between the two teams doesn't count for the sake of their TUC comparison.
The TUC cliff:
21. Minnesota
22. Colorado College
23. Minnesota State
24. Bemidji State
25. Ohio State
-----
26. Brown
27. Alaska-Anchorage
28. Ferris State
29. Clarkson
30. Robert Morris
Not much to see here either, other than Brown sitting at 26th, right on the edge. That's due in large part to their victory over Yale, which is why we wanted them to beat Yale at least once, despite the game's immediate effect of moving Rensselaer out of the NCAA field. At this point in time, we definitely want to see Brown as a TUC. If the Engineers can pick up a win next Friday at home over the Bears, they become huge, huge Bears fans for the rest of the season - and remember the ramifications for the BU comparison, too. Excuse me, I need to swish some mouthwash.
Also of note, a few WCHA teams that are currently TUCs near the edge, especially Colorado College. That 0-1-1 record that the Engineers have against the Tigers could be a hindrance down the line. We're projecting that Rensselaer will eventually have 10 games against TUCs regardless of whether or not CC is one of them even just among ECAC teams (Yale x2, Dartmouth x2, Princeton x2, Union x3, plus one other potential like Brown or Clarkson) but they've also got that win over BU in the back pocket, too. So they don't need CC, which means it would probably be best if CC weren't a TUC.
The other two teams to keep an eye on are Minnesota and Minnesota State. Nebraska-Omaha, which looks like it could be a key comparison, is helped by having both of those teams as TUCs.
Engineer Cheering Section
Tonight
Boston University over Merrimack
Tomorrow
Harvard over Northeastern
Friday
Rensselaer over Harvard
Yale over Clarkson
Cornell over Colgate
Dartmouth over Union
Brown over St. Lawrence
Providence over New Hampshire
UMass-Lowell over Merrimack
Boston College ties Boston University
UConn over Air Force
Bentley over Mercyhurst
RIT over Holy Cross
Niagara over Sacred Heart
Ohio State over Notre Dame
Michigan over Alaska
Michigan State over Miami
Lake Superior State over Western Michigan
Wisconsin over Minnesota State
North Dakota over Nebraska-Omaha
Alabama-Huntsville over Colorado College
Saturday
Rensselaer over Dartmouth
Brown over Clarkson
Cornell over Colgate
Harvard over Union
St. Lawrence over Yale
Boston University over New Hampshire
Northeastern over Maine
UMass-Lowell over Boston College
UConn over Air Force
Bentley over Mercyhurst
RIT over Holy Cross
Niagara over Sacred Heart
Michigan State over Miami
Ohio State over Notre Dame
Lake Superior State over Western Michigan
Michigan over Alaska
Wisconsin over Minnesota State
North Dakota over Nebraska-Omaha
Alabama-Huntsville over Colorado College
Explanations:
BU/Merrimack: Aren't the Engineers right behind the Terriers in the PWR right now? Yes. But they're also right behind Merrimack, too. There isn't really a "right answer," here, so we go with BU as a past opponent, partially because that'll help the COp with Merrimack.
Harvard/Northeastern: Another tricky "league opponent vs. non-league opponent" matchup. This one is actually probably pretty irrelevant given how bad both teams are, but since we play Harvard twice it's a good idea to get them at least as strong as they possibly can get.
Cornell/Colgate series: This one's hard to figure because neither of these teams are TUCs or are likely to become TUCs. The win over Colgate was meaningless, but there's often some credence in the idea that you want your losses to have been against good teams. These games are not overly important, but there's a slight edge to Cornell in them.
Dartmouth/Union: Tough call, especially given that the Engineers play the Big Green the next night. Both are teams Rensselaer should be looking to reel in on the PWR board. Either way this goes down, the Engineers are likely to pick up a COp edge against the loser, but if the 'Tute beats Dartmouth on Saturday, that's another H2H win and that makes the comparison a lot better there. So take Dartmouth here, as long as Rensselaer can get the job done on Saturday.
BC/BU: Rooting for a tie? Sure, why not. Remember, we do want BU to do well enough to stay a TUC, but we also want to catch them in the PWR. A tie would likely work to help both of those in the long run.
UAH/CC series: This is actually the most interesting series of the weekend from Rensselaer's perspective. If UAH can work anything on the weekend, i.e. not being swept, it'll help the Engineers considerably. Even one tie would put CC's place as a TUC in danger (and possibly drop out RPI's 0-1-1 record against them) and simultaneously give the Engineers a COp edge over the Tigers, since UAH and Yale are the only common opponents this season (and both have one loss to the Bulldogs).
BU/UNH: Ah, more BU. This one has a double purpose - BU as a TUC, and hopefully, dropping New Hampshire a bit more.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Men's Hockey - at Cornell and Colgate (14/15 Jan)
Another weekend, another split for the Engineers. Normally, when you're talking about a road series, a split is something you can walk away with and be OK. The problem is, the team hasn't been sweeping home series either, and this particular road series came against a couple of teams which RPI, the way they've been playing for most of the season, should have been able to handle, and came perilously close to being a zero-point weekend. The Engineers skated to their worst result of the year thus far, a 5-1 loss at Cornell, before squeezing out an improbably 2-1 overtime win over last-place Colgate - improbable not only for the closeness of the affair but also for the bizarre fashion in which it ended.
Cornell
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Cullen/Malchuk/Angers-Goulet
Rabbani/Brutlag/Burgdoerfer
Tinordi/Rogic/Smith
Bergin/Foss
Bailen/Dolan
Koudys/Kennedy
York
Marty O'Grady hurt a chest muscle in the waning moments last Saturday against St. Lawrence, so he was kept out of this contest as a precaution. Brock Higgs is still dealing with the injury he picked up in Alabama - though he may be back this coming weekend - as is Scott Halpern. Also, since Cornell likes to use big guys for intimidation, it wasn't terribly unexpected to see Rabbani, Burgdoerfer, Tinordi, and Smith all suited up, although to some extent there just wasn't much of an option anyway.
By most accounts, the Engineers didn't play poorly in the first period with the exception of the even-strength they gave up about midway through to go down 1-0, which was the score after 20 minutes. They outshot the Big Red 8-7 and took only one penalty during the period, which was a definite improvement over previous games.
Most have also said that the second period wasn't that bad either. An early Cornell penalty produced a power play (which was actually a 4-on-3 thanks to matching minors at 20:00 of the 1st) that was converted eight seconds later by Tyler Helfrich, who netted his 11th goal of the season from Chase Polacek and Nick Bailen to tie the game at one. Unfortunately, that would be about where the good news would end. Even though there was still some optimism heading into the third period, the score would not still be tied by the time the game reached that point, as Cornell scored a 4-on-4 goal about 14 minutes into the second period to retake the lead.
The bigger issue in the second period was that Bryan Brutlag was, according to eyewitnesses, essentially run from behind despite the penalty issued being for "interference." The appropriateness of the penalty and the relative intent being mostly irrelevant in the end, Brutlag left the game and did not return, the understanding is that he is now the fourth Engineer to be sidelined with a concussion this season.
Even into the third, it was still a tight contest through the first half of the third period or so, but that's when things definitively started falling apart for RPI. A pair of goals scored less than a minute apart by the Big Red midway through the third took things from a one-goal game, still potentially in hand, to being a three-goal game, out of reach against a Cornell team even slightly versed in its own system.
Frustration began to get the better of the Engineers as Greg Burgdoerfer and C.J. Lee were called for roughing penalties in the aftermath of the goals, and Cornell converted at 5-on-3 to take a 5-1 lead. That goal ended York's night, his 3rd goal allowed on 9 shots in the period, but it may just have been an opportunity to get a little playing time for Bryce Merriam in a game that was out of reach. Merriam played just under seven minutes and stopped the only shot he saw.
More distressing was the offensive effort in the third period - down a goal for half of the period, they managed only 4 shots on goal for the entire 20 minutes, though some of that can probably be attributed to Cornell's gum-up-the-works-with-a-lead gameplan. It was the first game all season that the Engineers did not win, tie, lose by one, or lose with an empty netter given up. It also put the 10th ranked team in the nation under .500 in ECAC play 9 games into the conference schedule.
Colgate
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Cullen/O'Grady/Angers-Goulet
Rabbani/Malchuk/Burgdoerfer
Tinordi/Rogic/Smith
Bergin/Foss
Koudys/Bailen
Leboeuf/Kennedy
York
The poor result the previous night made the game against last place Colgate, by some standards one of the worst teams in the nation, doubly important. The problem is that Colgate really isn't as bad as they appear on paper, or even in the computer rankings. Their problem is that they've lost a whole slew of one-goal games (as they had the previous night against Union) and their only wins on the season happen to be against some of the worst teams in the nation, putting the Raiders on their level.
Brutlag's injury put the team in a tough spot. According to what we've heard, Marty O'Grady volunteered to play despite not being at 100%, given that Higgs' injury has the Engineers with only three natural centers right now. Guy Leboeuf rotated in as well as the freshman defenseman rotation looks to be back in place, replacing Bo Dolan in the lineup.
Both teams had early opportunities on the power play that were not converted, but finally, for the first time in six games, the Engineers struck first midway through the first period with Joel Malchuk scoring on a tip-in off a rip by Mike Bergin to put RPI up 1-0. It was his third of the season and his first that wasn't scored shorthanded.
The penalties started to pile up for RPI in the aftermath, however. Four consecutive penalties on the Engineers during the second half of the first period and into the second period gave Colgate five power plays by the time the game was 26 minutes old. Fortunately, the Colgate power play has been a major problem this year and the kills were relatively easy for the Engineers - more Colgate's problem than RPI's success, honestly, because the Engineers' play in the second period and well into the third was pretty putrid. It was in a situation where the Engineer defense was completely discombobulated about 15 minutes into the second that the Raiders got themselves on the board with a goal that one could see coming from about 30 seconds away, given the way RPI was playing in its own zone.
Meanwhile, RPI gave up another pair of power plays in the third period, and those were turned aside as well. But despite the dire situation of being tied with a team that had earned only one point in nine league games, the Engineers managed only five shots on goal for the entirety of the third period. Allen York made eight saves to give him 23 on 24 shots for regulation, but the game was destined for overtime, which is where things got weird.
Just 15 seconds into the extra period, C.J. Lee was called for a reckless hit from behind that was entirely justifiable, putting the Engineers down a man for the rest of overtime since he was assessed a five-minute major and ejected. A game disqualification, which would suspend him for the Harvard game, was announced and added to the box score, but the Times Union and WRPI reported that was in error and that it was merely a game misconduct. Still not sure of which is accurate.
At any rate, the penalty seemed to kill any hope the Engineers had of winning and seemed to put them in very real danger of becoming the first team to lose to Colgate in league play. The Raiders sensed it too, they put six shots on Allen York in the first three minutes of the extended power play, as many as they put on him in the entire first period. York stood on his head occasionally to keep the puck out of the net and preserve the tie.
After three minutes of the Lee penalty, the Engineers managed to clear the zone with a bounce off the boards toward the center ice circle, and seeing an opportunity with Colgate not in any rush to collect the puck, Chase Polacek burst forward and scooped it up, heading into the Colgate zone on a breakaway. He had an opportunity to score, but was definitely impeded from behind by Colgate's Kevin McNamara on his way to the net. With a minute and a half separating the Engineers from a potential tie or loss, referee Tim Kotyra, long reviled by the Engineer faithful, raised his arms over his head to signal a penalty shot.
After discussions with Kotyra (during which time the RPI section, situated right behind Colgate goaltender Eric Mihalik, spent time heckling him and trying to get in his head), Appert elected to give Polacek the opportunity to win the game rather than take the minor for hooking to even the odds. Polacek responded by casually skating in on Mihalik and floating one into the net after Mihalik committed early, ending the game 2-1 in favor of the Engineers in unbelievable fashion. It was the first penalty shot goal for RPI in over 11 years, dating back to Brad Tapper scoring on BU in October 1999. I'm probably not going out on a limb saying that it's the first time RPI has ever won a game on a penalty shot in overtime.
The win did put a happy ending on what otherwise was a miserable game and a miserable weekend for the Engineers. Ten games into the ECAC schedule, they are only at .500 and in danger of falling behind in the race for the bye. The saving grace is that with 12 games left, 8 are at home, including 4 in a row over the next two weeks that will be crucial in determining the team's fate not only for the ECAC playoffs but also as a potential NCAA team. They have split every single league weekend thus far - they need sweeps now.
If they were to start this coming weekend, the dividends would be great. Harvard is 1-11-0 in their last 12 games (though they play Wednesday against Northeastern before coming out to the Capital District), and completing a season sweep of Dartmouth would give the Engineers points few other teams will be getting this year. Bear in mind that RPI is 8-1-0 at the Field House this year, with the one loss coming in overtime against Clarkson. Anything's still possible.
Other junk - The big loss to Cornell predictably dropped the Engineers in the USCHO.com poll for the first time this season. RPI fell four spots to #14 in the nation this week. Five different ECAC teams are ranked this week, including #1 Yale (38 first place votes), which stays at the top of the poll despite its loss last night at the hands of Brown. #12 Union (up two, swept Colgate/Cornell), #18 Dartmouth (newly ranked, beat UNH), and #20 Princeton (newly ranked, idle) are the other three ECAC teams in the top 20 this week. #15 Boston University (up one) is the only other RPI opponent ranked this week, as Colorado College (28 votes) fell out of the rankings. Clarkson (4), RIT (2), Niagara (1), and Northeastern (1) also received votes this week.
Chase Polacek's penalty shot goal gave him 142 points for his career, moving him past George Servinis '85 and tying him with Ray Belasky '60 for 25th place in RPI history with 142 points. Next up is Kevin Croxton '06 (143), Garry Kearns '58 (144), and Alain St. Hilaire '99 (145).
With 87 assists, Polacek is alone in 19th all-time in the category in school history. Bruce Coles '91 is 18th with 90.
Tyler Helfrich is up to 88 points for his career, but his average has moved just below a point per game for the season. With a minimum of 14 games left in the season, he's still got an chance at 100.
Not that this is something you can really quantify until after his RPI career is over, but Allen York's career GAA of 2.48 currently has him number one all-time in that category in school history (minimum 540 minutes, York has over 4,000). His .912 save percentage is third behind Joel Laing '00 and Nathan Marsters '04. His next win, a more quantifiable statistic right now, will tie him with Gerry Fink '83 for 10th place in wins. If he plays all 120 minutes this coming weekend, he will move past Bobby Fox '55 for 6th in school history for time between the pipes. On the flip side, he is two losses away from tying Laing, Steve Duncan '90, and Mike Tamburro '96 for fifth place in career losses - partially a function of there being more games in a season today (as is the wins record).
ECAC Standings
1. Yale - 9-1-0 (18 pts)
2. Union - 7-2-1 (15 pts)
3. Princeton - 7-4-1 (15 pts)
4. Dartmouth - 6-3-1 (13 pts)
5. Quinnipiac - 5-6-2 (12 pts)
6. Clarkson - 5-3-1 (11 pts)
7. Cornell - 5-5-0 (10 pts)
8. RPI - 5-5-0 (10 pts)
9. Brown - 4-5-1 (9 pts)
10. St. Lawrence - 3-6-0 (6 pts)
11. Harvard - 2-9-0 (4 pts)
12. Colgate - 0-9-1 (1 pt)
Adjusted Standings
1. Yale (.900)
2. Union (.750)
3. Dartmouth (.650)
4. Princeton (.625)
5. Clarkson (.611)
6. Cornell (.500)
7. RPI (.500)
8. Quinnipiac (.462)
9. Brown (.450)
10. St. Lawrence (.333)
11. Harvard (.182)
12. Colgate (.050)
#10 RPI at Cornell
ECAC Game - Lynah Rink (Ithaca, NY)
1/14/11 - 7:00pm
RESULT: Cornell 5, RPI 1
BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO
RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
Ithaca Journal
RECORD: 12-6-3 (4-5-0 ECAC, 8 pts)
Reale Deals
1. F Tyler Helfrich, 1 G
2. D John Kennedy, E
3. D Pat Koudys, E
#10 RPI at Colgate
ECAC Game - Starr Rink (Hamilton, NY)
1/15/11 - 7:00pm
RESULT: RPI 2, Colgate 1 (OT)
BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO
RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
Madison County Courier
VIDEO
Polacek's penalty shot
RECORD: 13-6-3 (5-5-0 ECAC, 10 pts)
Reale Deals
1. F Chase Polacek, PSG
2. F Joel Malchuk, 1 G
3. G Allen York, 29 saves
Upcoming games
21 Jan - Harvard
22 Jan - #18 Dartmouth
28 Jan - Brown
29 Jan - #1 Yale
04 Feb - at Quinnipiac
Cornell
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Cullen/Malchuk/Angers-Goulet
Rabbani/Brutlag/Burgdoerfer
Tinordi/Rogic/Smith
Bergin/Foss
Bailen/Dolan
Koudys/Kennedy
York
Marty O'Grady hurt a chest muscle in the waning moments last Saturday against St. Lawrence, so he was kept out of this contest as a precaution. Brock Higgs is still dealing with the injury he picked up in Alabama - though he may be back this coming weekend - as is Scott Halpern. Also, since Cornell likes to use big guys for intimidation, it wasn't terribly unexpected to see Rabbani, Burgdoerfer, Tinordi, and Smith all suited up, although to some extent there just wasn't much of an option anyway.
By most accounts, the Engineers didn't play poorly in the first period with the exception of the even-strength they gave up about midway through to go down 1-0, which was the score after 20 minutes. They outshot the Big Red 8-7 and took only one penalty during the period, which was a definite improvement over previous games.
Most have also said that the second period wasn't that bad either. An early Cornell penalty produced a power play (which was actually a 4-on-3 thanks to matching minors at 20:00 of the 1st) that was converted eight seconds later by Tyler Helfrich, who netted his 11th goal of the season from Chase Polacek and Nick Bailen to tie the game at one. Unfortunately, that would be about where the good news would end. Even though there was still some optimism heading into the third period, the score would not still be tied by the time the game reached that point, as Cornell scored a 4-on-4 goal about 14 minutes into the second period to retake the lead.
The bigger issue in the second period was that Bryan Brutlag was, according to eyewitnesses, essentially run from behind despite the penalty issued being for "interference." The appropriateness of the penalty and the relative intent being mostly irrelevant in the end, Brutlag left the game and did not return, the understanding is that he is now the fourth Engineer to be sidelined with a concussion this season.
Even into the third, it was still a tight contest through the first half of the third period or so, but that's when things definitively started falling apart for RPI. A pair of goals scored less than a minute apart by the Big Red midway through the third took things from a one-goal game, still potentially in hand, to being a three-goal game, out of reach against a Cornell team even slightly versed in its own system.
Frustration began to get the better of the Engineers as Greg Burgdoerfer and C.J. Lee were called for roughing penalties in the aftermath of the goals, and Cornell converted at 5-on-3 to take a 5-1 lead. That goal ended York's night, his 3rd goal allowed on 9 shots in the period, but it may just have been an opportunity to get a little playing time for Bryce Merriam in a game that was out of reach. Merriam played just under seven minutes and stopped the only shot he saw.
More distressing was the offensive effort in the third period - down a goal for half of the period, they managed only 4 shots on goal for the entire 20 minutes, though some of that can probably be attributed to Cornell's gum-up-the-works-with-a-lead gameplan. It was the first game all season that the Engineers did not win, tie, lose by one, or lose with an empty netter given up. It also put the 10th ranked team in the nation under .500 in ECAC play 9 games into the conference schedule.
Colgate
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Cullen/O'Grady/Angers-Goulet
Rabbani/Malchuk/Burgdoerfer
Tinordi/Rogic/Smith
Bergin/Foss
Koudys/Bailen
Leboeuf/Kennedy
York
The poor result the previous night made the game against last place Colgate, by some standards one of the worst teams in the nation, doubly important. The problem is that Colgate really isn't as bad as they appear on paper, or even in the computer rankings. Their problem is that they've lost a whole slew of one-goal games (as they had the previous night against Union) and their only wins on the season happen to be against some of the worst teams in the nation, putting the Raiders on their level.
Brutlag's injury put the team in a tough spot. According to what we've heard, Marty O'Grady volunteered to play despite not being at 100%, given that Higgs' injury has the Engineers with only three natural centers right now. Guy Leboeuf rotated in as well as the freshman defenseman rotation looks to be back in place, replacing Bo Dolan in the lineup.
Both teams had early opportunities on the power play that were not converted, but finally, for the first time in six games, the Engineers struck first midway through the first period with Joel Malchuk scoring on a tip-in off a rip by Mike Bergin to put RPI up 1-0. It was his third of the season and his first that wasn't scored shorthanded.
The penalties started to pile up for RPI in the aftermath, however. Four consecutive penalties on the Engineers during the second half of the first period and into the second period gave Colgate five power plays by the time the game was 26 minutes old. Fortunately, the Colgate power play has been a major problem this year and the kills were relatively easy for the Engineers - more Colgate's problem than RPI's success, honestly, because the Engineers' play in the second period and well into the third was pretty putrid. It was in a situation where the Engineer defense was completely discombobulated about 15 minutes into the second that the Raiders got themselves on the board with a goal that one could see coming from about 30 seconds away, given the way RPI was playing in its own zone.
Meanwhile, RPI gave up another pair of power plays in the third period, and those were turned aside as well. But despite the dire situation of being tied with a team that had earned only one point in nine league games, the Engineers managed only five shots on goal for the entirety of the third period. Allen York made eight saves to give him 23 on 24 shots for regulation, but the game was destined for overtime, which is where things got weird.
Just 15 seconds into the extra period, C.J. Lee was called for a reckless hit from behind that was entirely justifiable, putting the Engineers down a man for the rest of overtime since he was assessed a five-minute major and ejected. A game disqualification, which would suspend him for the Harvard game, was announced and added to the box score, but the Times Union and WRPI reported that was in error and that it was merely a game misconduct. Still not sure of which is accurate.
At any rate, the penalty seemed to kill any hope the Engineers had of winning and seemed to put them in very real danger of becoming the first team to lose to Colgate in league play. The Raiders sensed it too, they put six shots on Allen York in the first three minutes of the extended power play, as many as they put on him in the entire first period. York stood on his head occasionally to keep the puck out of the net and preserve the tie.
After three minutes of the Lee penalty, the Engineers managed to clear the zone with a bounce off the boards toward the center ice circle, and seeing an opportunity with Colgate not in any rush to collect the puck, Chase Polacek burst forward and scooped it up, heading into the Colgate zone on a breakaway. He had an opportunity to score, but was definitely impeded from behind by Colgate's Kevin McNamara on his way to the net. With a minute and a half separating the Engineers from a potential tie or loss, referee Tim Kotyra, long reviled by the Engineer faithful, raised his arms over his head to signal a penalty shot.
After discussions with Kotyra (during which time the RPI section, situated right behind Colgate goaltender Eric Mihalik, spent time heckling him and trying to get in his head), Appert elected to give Polacek the opportunity to win the game rather than take the minor for hooking to even the odds. Polacek responded by casually skating in on Mihalik and floating one into the net after Mihalik committed early, ending the game 2-1 in favor of the Engineers in unbelievable fashion. It was the first penalty shot goal for RPI in over 11 years, dating back to Brad Tapper scoring on BU in October 1999. I'm probably not going out on a limb saying that it's the first time RPI has ever won a game on a penalty shot in overtime.
The win did put a happy ending on what otherwise was a miserable game and a miserable weekend for the Engineers. Ten games into the ECAC schedule, they are only at .500 and in danger of falling behind in the race for the bye. The saving grace is that with 12 games left, 8 are at home, including 4 in a row over the next two weeks that will be crucial in determining the team's fate not only for the ECAC playoffs but also as a potential NCAA team. They have split every single league weekend thus far - they need sweeps now.
If they were to start this coming weekend, the dividends would be great. Harvard is 1-11-0 in their last 12 games (though they play Wednesday against Northeastern before coming out to the Capital District), and completing a season sweep of Dartmouth would give the Engineers points few other teams will be getting this year. Bear in mind that RPI is 8-1-0 at the Field House this year, with the one loss coming in overtime against Clarkson. Anything's still possible.
Other junk - The big loss to Cornell predictably dropped the Engineers in the USCHO.com poll for the first time this season. RPI fell four spots to #14 in the nation this week. Five different ECAC teams are ranked this week, including #1 Yale (38 first place votes), which stays at the top of the poll despite its loss last night at the hands of Brown. #12 Union (up two, swept Colgate/Cornell), #18 Dartmouth (newly ranked, beat UNH), and #20 Princeton (newly ranked, idle) are the other three ECAC teams in the top 20 this week. #15 Boston University (up one) is the only other RPI opponent ranked this week, as Colorado College (28 votes) fell out of the rankings. Clarkson (4), RIT (2), Niagara (1), and Northeastern (1) also received votes this week.
Chase Polacek's penalty shot goal gave him 142 points for his career, moving him past George Servinis '85 and tying him with Ray Belasky '60 for 25th place in RPI history with 142 points. Next up is Kevin Croxton '06 (143), Garry Kearns '58 (144), and Alain St. Hilaire '99 (145).
With 87 assists, Polacek is alone in 19th all-time in the category in school history. Bruce Coles '91 is 18th with 90.
Tyler Helfrich is up to 88 points for his career, but his average has moved just below a point per game for the season. With a minimum of 14 games left in the season, he's still got an chance at 100.
Not that this is something you can really quantify until after his RPI career is over, but Allen York's career GAA of 2.48 currently has him number one all-time in that category in school history (minimum 540 minutes, York has over 4,000). His .912 save percentage is third behind Joel Laing '00 and Nathan Marsters '04. His next win, a more quantifiable statistic right now, will tie him with Gerry Fink '83 for 10th place in wins. If he plays all 120 minutes this coming weekend, he will move past Bobby Fox '55 for 6th in school history for time between the pipes. On the flip side, he is two losses away from tying Laing, Steve Duncan '90, and Mike Tamburro '96 for fifth place in career losses - partially a function of there being more games in a season today (as is the wins record).
ECAC Standings
1. Yale - 9-1-0 (18 pts)
2. Union - 7-2-1 (15 pts)
3. Princeton - 7-4-1 (15 pts)
4. Dartmouth - 6-3-1 (13 pts)
5. Quinnipiac - 5-6-2 (12 pts)
6. Clarkson - 5-3-1 (11 pts)
7. Cornell - 5-5-0 (10 pts)
8. RPI - 5-5-0 (10 pts)
9. Brown - 4-5-1 (9 pts)
10. St. Lawrence - 3-6-0 (6 pts)
11. Harvard - 2-9-0 (4 pts)
12. Colgate - 0-9-1 (1 pt)
Adjusted Standings
1. Yale (.900)
2. Union (.750)
3. Dartmouth (.650)
4. Princeton (.625)
5. Clarkson (.611)
6. Cornell (.500)
7. RPI (.500)
8. Quinnipiac (.462)
9. Brown (.450)
10. St. Lawrence (.333)
11. Harvard (.182)
12. Colgate (.050)
#10 RPI at Cornell
ECAC Game - Lynah Rink (Ithaca, NY)
1/14/11 - 7:00pm
RESULT: Cornell 5, RPI 1
BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO
RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
Ithaca Journal
RECORD: 12-6-3 (4-5-0 ECAC, 8 pts)
Reale Deals
1. F Tyler Helfrich, 1 G
2. D John Kennedy, E
3. D Pat Koudys, E
#10 RPI at Colgate
ECAC Game - Starr Rink (Hamilton, NY)
1/15/11 - 7:00pm
RESULT: RPI 2, Colgate 1 (OT)
BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO
RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
Madison County Courier
VIDEO
Polacek's penalty shot
RECORD: 13-6-3 (5-5-0 ECAC, 10 pts)
Reale Deals
1. F Chase Polacek, PSG
2. F Joel Malchuk, 1 G
3. G Allen York, 29 saves
Upcoming games
21 Jan - Harvard
22 Jan - #18 Dartmouth
28 Jan - Brown
29 Jan - #1 Yale
04 Feb - at Quinnipiac
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