Saturday, November 30, 2013

In the Clouds

So... this was due yesterday, and it's late. A thousand apologies. Busy as can be on Thanksgiving weekend.

Yesterday afternoon, the Engineers defeated St. Cloud 4-1 in a game you should have been able to hear on WRPI, except for the fact that Public Safety apparently wouldn't let anyone into the station to turn the transmitter on and start broadcasting. What you missed were two point efforts from Lauren Wash, Jordan Smelker, and Alexa Gruschow as RPI defeated the Huskies, although the Tute did need a goal with just over two minutes left, followed by an empty netter, to sew things up tight.

St. Cloud is a struggling team, but they're by no means pushovers. They managed a one-goal loss to a then-still unbeaten Minnesota, and they took three points out of four from Minnesota-Duluth in their best weekend of the season, a decent accomplishment even if the Bulldogs aren't world-beaters right now.

RPI, as well, has had their own struggles completing a full weekend. It's been nearly a full calendar year since the Engineers swept a weekend that wasn't Union - when they hosted Brown and Yale on December 7 and 8, 2012. For the last road weekend swept, go all the way back to January 22 and 23, 2010, against Harvard and Dartmouth, and the last non-conference road weekend swept was November 17/18, 2006 at Sacred Heart.

So when you consider that it was still a one-goal game late in the affair yesterday afternoon, the repeat showing this afternoon could be a real... dogfight? Wow, that was lame. But anyway, this time, you've got a pumpup to get you motivated for hopefully being able to actually listen to the game on WRPI - a treat, since most women's road games aren't broadcast, especially not from Minnesota (we can thank Minnesota native Perry Laskaris, home for the holiday, for this).

Puck drop, eastern time, is about 4:07pm. Let's pump it up with a short one from the mid-90s, quick enough to get the blood flowing in the short time we've got left this weekend.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving from WaP

From all of us here at Without a Peer, have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!


Monday, November 25, 2013

Men's Hockey - at Mercyhurst (22/23 Nov)

Road splits are usually acceptable, especially in league play, where averaging a split on the road and better at home is usually going to be enough to finish a team in the top four in the ECAC. A road split against an Atlantic Hockey team, if you're going to be one of those teams in the top four at least, is a lot less desirable, especially when you play especially poorly in the game where you lose. Mercyhurst may be expected to be one of the best teams in Atlantic Hockey this season, but the split the Engineers picked up in Erie still stings. Even though two of the goals on Friday night were empty-netters to account for the 5-2 loss, it was still a very rough game for the Engineers, even with their mirror-like 5-2 bounceback the next night.

Friday
Tinordi-Higgs-Rogic
Neal-Laliberte-Schroeder
Zalewski-Miller-Bubela
Fulton-McGowan-Bourbonnais

Leonard-Bradley
Curadi-Reno
Hampton-Dolan

Diebold

A number of changes came to the RPI lineup on Friday night, not all of them based on injury or poor play. Jake Wood and Guy Leboeuf, both of whom picked up bad penalties against Union on Saturday night the previous week, were out of the lineup, while Ryan Haggerty had a legitimate excuse for not being in the lineup - a death in the family had him home in Connecticut, and his flight to Erie was canceled, so he did not arrive in time to suit up.

Regardless of the lineup, RPI certainly came out of the gate flat and paid for it four-and-a-half minutes in by giving up the first goal of the contest to the homestanding Lakers. The Engineers got things straightened out enough to take the lead into the first intermission, however, as the first collegiate goals for defensemen Phil Hampton and Chris Bradley, coming at 8:08 and 17:30 respectively, put RPI ahead. Hampton's goal came just one second after RPI's first power play of the game had expired.

Unfortunately, the Engineers' flat play that started the first period would return in the second period, and it never seemed to go away. Despite gaining the first power play of the second period, RPI managed just five shots on goal in the middle stanza. Meanwhile, Mercyhurst scored the tying goal about 13 minutes into the second on one of 15 shots they took during that same period.

Despite the rough play from a lethargic Engineers squad, the score remained tied until there were just five minutes left in the game. As a hooking penalty to Bo Dolan expired, Mercyhurst took the lead back, putting RPI in a hole that would only get worse with the extra skater, as the Lakers added empty net goals at 18:41 and 19:42 to ice things up, 5-2. Although RPI was certainly in the game on the scoreboard until very late, this was one of those rare occasions where the inflated final tally from the empty netters may have actually better described the flow of the game.

Saturday
Neal-Higgs-Haggerty
Wood-Rogic-Tinordi
Zalewski-Miller-Bubela
Laliberte, Bourbonnais

Leboeuf-Leonard
Curadi-Hampton
Bradley-Dolan
Bokenfohr

Diebold

RPI rolled an unusual 11-forward, 7-defenseman look on Saturday, with Zach Schroeder, Mark McGowan, Travis Fulton, and Parker Reno coming out of the lineup and Ryan Haggerty, Jake Wood, Guy Leboeuf, and Craig Bokenfohr entering.

The returning players wasted no time in making up for their absences, as Leboeuf notched his third goal of the year three minutes into the game to put RPI up 1-0, then later in the period Haggerty upped his national goal scoring lead with his 14th of the year to make it 2-0 heading into the first break.

The lethargy looked like it was coming back in the second, as the Engineers registered just three shots on goal in the period, against 13 for Mercyhurst. The Lakers did score twice in the second period, bookending Haggerty's second of the night and 15th of the year (on the power play), the latter of which came in the waning moments of the second to cut the RPI lead to 3-2, a goal that looked like it could be a momentum swinger given the Engineers' difficulties and the Lakers' opportunism.

An early penalty to Mercyhurst allowed the Engineers to settle back in, however, and they turned the offense back on, peppering 15 shots in the third, two of which hit paydirt as Curtis Leonard notched his first goal of the year at 8:05 and Jacob Laliberte hitting his 3rd of the season at 13:50, both at even strength, to make it a 5-2 RPI edge. Scott Diebold made 23 saves on 25 shots in the game to pick up his 6th win of the season and salvage the weekend split for a team still striving to put together a complete 60 minutes of top-level hockey.

Other junk - For the second straight week, the Engineers dropped in the USCHO poll by four spaces, moving this time from #14 to #18 ahead of their idle week, where they are tied with Minnesota-Duluth. Other ranked ECAC teams this week are #5 Quinnipiac (split with Princeton, down one), #9 Yale (beat Colgate, lost to Cornell, no change), #10 Clarkson (idle, up one), #14 Cornell (swept Brown/Yale, up four), and #15 Union (idle, up two). St. Lawrence (3) also received votes. Other ranked teams on the RPI schedule include #1 Minnesota (no change, with just 22 first-place votes, fewer than #2 St. Cloud State, who they beat for the top spot by 1 vote), #6 Ferris State (up four, with one first place vote), #7 Boston College (no change), and #20 New Hampshire (no change). Boston University (14) and Denver (13) also received votes.

With two more goals on the weekend, Ryan Haggerty extends his national lead in total goals to 15, his nearest competitor for that title is Boston College junior Johnny Gaudreau, who has 12. Although Haggerty's goals per game total has slipped a bit - as was to be expected - he still leads the nation there with 1.15 per contest, Robert Morris junior Cody Wydo is the only other player in the nation with at least one goal per game with 11 in 11 games. Haggerty's 7 power play goals is also tops in the country, he is trailed by Northern Michigan senior Stephan Vigier with 6, then a whole slew of players who are tied for third with 4.

Haggerty is 4th in the nation in points per game at 1.54, Brock Higgs is tied for 27th in that category with 1.21. Haggerty's 20 points is tied for third nationally, trailing Gaudreau and SLU senior Greg Carey, tied with Quinnipiac freshman Sam Anas.

The Engineers are idle for Thanksgiving weekend, they return to ECAC play in two weeks hosting national runners-up Quinnipiac and then Princeton in a pair of key league matchups, the final two of the 2013 calendar year for the Engineers, who are in need of league points after dropping five of the last eight of them.

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

By winning percentage
1. Union - .833
2. Quinnipiac - .812
3. Clarkson - .667
4. Yale - .667
5. Colgate - .625
6. Cornell - .562
7. St. Lawrence - .500
8. RPI - .429
9. Harvard - .357
10. Princeton - .250
11. Brown - .250
12. Dartmouth - .000

#14 RPI at Mercyhurst
Non-Conference Game - Mercyhurst Ice Center (Erie, PA)
11/22/13 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Mercyhurst 5, RPI 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECORD: 6-5-2 (2-3-2 ECAC, 6 pts)

#14 RPI at Mercyhurst
Non-Conference Game - Mercyhurst Ice Center (Erie, PA)
11/23/13 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 5, Mercyhurst 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECORD: 7-5-2 (2-3-2 ECAC, 6 pts)

Upcoming games
06 Dec - #5 Quinnipiac
07 Dec - Princeton
13 Dec - Denver
14 Dec - Denver
15 Dec - US Under-18 Team (exhibition)

Friday, November 22, 2013

Show No Mercy

Last year's series against Mercyhurst came when RPI was at absolute rock bottom. They'd lost five games in a row and were winless in seven. Two of them were bad losses to Union. The last two were win 4-0 losses on the road to Dartmouth and Harvard, the latter of which included a "message sending" game in which a number of players were healthy scratches.

Then, the Lakers. A weekend before Thanksgiving. Two wins heading into a two week break for the holiday. It was the start of a 5-2-2 stretch through New Year's, the start of a fire that eventually led to a 2nd place finish in the ECAC for a team that was 0-4-0 in league play at that point. The Saturday game against Mercyhurst was the first start for a young goaltender named Jason Kasdorf, who made 30 saves on 31 shots.

Let us hope that, for this year's version of the Engineers, their rock bottom is now - because where they are now, as rough as last weekend was, is quite far ahead of where they were this time last year.

If nothing else, the hijinks that ended Saturday's game against Union did reveal one key fact about RPI. They're ticked off. Woe be to the team that has the misfortune to go up against a team that has shown at minimum, a competent defense, and an offense that has had the ability to score in bunches, that's PO'd to boot.

That team happens to be Mercyhurst once again. This time, it's on their ice, and this time, they come into this game as one of the favorites in Atlantic Hockey. There are always teams in that conference that are pushovers, but the top teams now invariably present a solid challenge to most teams from the more established conferences.

Nonetheless, for a team ranked in the Top 20 looking for a response to last weekend, these games are important - for the soul as much as for the national jockeying for position.

If this team is going to reach its goals for the year, last weekend needs to be a hiccup instead of a trend. Getting back to it and picking up wins right away is important for that to be true. Let's get to it.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Monkeys Trying to Hump Footballs

Thought about posting this on Wednesday. Wrote most of it then, but wanted to sleep on it to see if it was still feeling right - and it does, so here it is.

The hockey that we saw for the first 55 minutes or so on Saturday night was tremendous. Two teams with a healthy dislike of each other going at it, toe to toe, without an awful lot of give. The first period featured no scoring but a helluva good 20 minutes of hockey from both sides. RPI deserved credit for staying in a game where they weren't getting a lot of good looks. It was a point of pride, at least, that the same 2-1 deficit wasn't ballooned early in the third period as it had the night before, not before getting plenty of chances to tie things up first.

Union, to their great credit, found the seams they needed to lock things up. If you were a neutral observer as a fan of the game, you'd have stood and applauded for both of Shayne Gostisbehere's goals on Saturday. Both were just outstanding. The first was an impressive fake-out that fooled basically the entire RPI defense. He'd tried it a couple of times before without finding the back of the net. That was NHL-level good, and other than the fact that it was coming against RPI and for Union, was amazing to see. The second goal had impressive pinpoint accuracy from the blue line, making its way from basically the farthest point you could shoot it and still be in the zone, crossing the crease in the process, without hitting the ice or touching anyone in front on its way in, top-shelf. That's incredible. Hopefully, Philadelphia was watching - heck, if they want to take him now, no one in Troy's going to argue.

But after that, neither team had anything whatsoever to be proud of. Both squads should be ashamed of themselves for the way things transpired once the game was out of hand. They should know how fortunate they are that none of their players are suspended for tomorrow night's games, and know equally as much that both deserve to have players suspended.

There's a big difference between playing with pride and being sore. When Ryan Haggerty launched himself at Mat Bodie behind the Union net shortly after Gostisbehere's second goal, there was no purpose behind it. It was a frustrated player taking his frustrations out on the captain of the team that has had RPI's number in the last couple of seasons.

But it crossed the line. You want to beat someone, you do it on the scoreboard. If you can't, you take your licks and you move on, as difficult as that can be sometimes. We're tired of losing to Union too. But there's going to be a next time, as much as we wanted this time to be that win we're looking for.

That was the prime example of a team that couldn't lose with magnanimity, and there were others that would be guilty of it in the game's final minute. But unfortunately, Union couldn't manage to find a way to win with any grace, either. Again, you can understand Bodie's frustration with being hit in such a dangerous way - there should have been an immediate whistle. There wasn't any. He chose the wrong option too - by immediately pursuing Haggerty and jumping him from behind. His response to a cheapshot was a bigger cheapshot.

The two rained blows upon each other. That wasn't hockey.

Beyond Bodie jumping Haggerty, Union's further retaliation continued later with Matt Krug and Kevin Sullivan blowing up Mark Miller, followed quickly by Matt Wilkins shoving Jake Wood hard into the boards after words between the two well after play had ended, with Wood retaliating with his own cheapshot. Wilkins, for good measure, grabbed his crotch in the direction of the RPI bench on his way into the penalty box.

By the last 10 seconds, even legal hip-checks were cause for starting things, as Charlie Vasaturo dumped Mike Zalewski after an open-ice check on Nick Cruice, then gave the crowd a "salute" as he departed.

Rodger Wyland, before the weekend series started, commented that the RPI-Union rivalry was the most heated in the Capital District, and he was certainly right about that. Siena-Albany in basketball gets talked about with some frequency, but there's no fire on the court when the teams play. They're friendly with each other away from the game. There's none of that between RPI and Union. It's just pure, unadulterated hate. And that's OK.

But at the end of the day, there's still winning the right way, and losing the right way. Both teams, through their late game actions on Saturday, proved that they didn't know how to handle their assigned roles of the evening. That's sad. Union, you would think after winning so many games in a row against their rivals, should have known how to act like they've been there before. RPI, despite the continued frustration, is old enough as a team to know better than to goon it up.

And so as a hockey fan, I have just one thing to say to both teams.

Grow up.

As for the Engineers... well, perhaps instead of a pumpup, they could use a climbdown instead. So here's a little something to react to the weekend with in preparation for a non-conference series on the road...



Monday, November 18, 2013

Men's Hockey - Union (15/16 Nov)

The frustration continues to mount for RPI fans when it comes to their rivals from Union - no matter how promising the outlook, no matter who's hot and what the stats are, the Dutchmen continue to find ways to win games in the rivalry series. Although both games were closely played on the ice, once again RPI fell twice, 4-3 and 4-1, to fall behind in the race for the top of the ECAC.

Friday
Tinordi-Higgs-Rogic
Zalewski-Neal-Haggerty
Laliberte-McGowan-Schroeder
DeVito-Miller-Bubela

Leonard-Bradley
Leboeuf-Hampton
Curadi-Reno

Diebold

Milos Bubela returned to the lineup on Friday, replacing Jake Wood. Otherwise, the Engineers went with the same lineup that had smoked Colgate on the previous Saturday.

If you're a believer in omens, Friday's game in Schenectady started off pretty well. With Luke Curadi in the penalty box on an interference call, Brock Higgs scored a shorthanded goal that was quite reminiscent of the double shorty slayings by Ben Barr on Union goaltender Kris Mayotte in the 2003 playoffs. After a clearance, the Union netminder played the puck basically into Higgs, who shot it into an open net to kick off the scoring for the Engineers and give them a 1-0 lead five minutes in.

That was the only lead the Engineers would ultimately enjoy on the weekend, as Union scored on their second power play opportunity of the evening about nine minutes later to tie the score. The Engineers took three penalties in the first period against none for Union, eventually being assessed the game's first four minor penalties in a row.

Union grabbed the lead a little over midway through the second period of what had been a very evenly played contest, then jumped on a lax RPI team in the first two minutes of the third period to build a commanding 4-1 lead, notching two goals in 44 seconds to take full advantage of an Engineer squad that came out for the final period very flat.

RPI did not back down, but they would be unable to overcome the three-goal deficit in full. Matt Neal scored a pair of goals, one coming two minutes after the Dutchmen had gained the three-goal edge, and a second coming with about eight minutes left in the third period, certainly giving RPI the time and the opportunity they needed to tie the score. A late power play for RPI was not converted, and despite some good opportunities with Diebold out of the net for the last two minutes of the game, the tying goal was not to be had.

Saturday
Tinordi-Higgs-Rogic
Zalewski-Neal-Haggerty
Laliberte-McGowan-Bubela
Wood-Miller-Schroeder

Leonard-Bradley
Leboeuf-Dolan
Curadi-Reno

Diebold

Bo Dolan and Jake Wood returned to the lineup on Saturday night, replacing Phil Hampton and Jimmy DeVito respectively, the latter of which sustained an undisclosed injury on Friday night.

The first period on Saturday was some of the finest back and forth hockey you'll see. Neither team broke onto the scoring sheet, but there was plenty of action both at even strength and on special teams, as both squads failed to score with two power plays in the opening 20 minutes. Shots were even at 8-8 in what was shaping up to be a tremendous game between a pair of heavyweight contenders.

If there was a major letdown for RPI in this game, it was on penalties early in the second period, as Union took advantage of a holding call against Parker Reno a minute and a half into the period to score the first goal, then scored almost right off the faceoff for a penalty to Milos Bubela two minutes later.

Brock Higgs scored his second goal of the weekend with just over five minutes left in the period to cut Union's lead to 2-1. The goal came at even strength, but was in part generated by a Union penalty since the Engineers kept the puck in the Union zone after their penalty had expired, and the Union goaltender was missing his stick. Ultimately, a scrum in front of the crease ended with the puck in the back of the net.

The 2-1 Union edge heading into the third set up the possibility for another classic finish. as the same scoreline had carried into the third period the previous evening. RPI even got two power play opportunities during the first half of the third, but both chances were abysmal. The Dutchmen then took advantage of a couple of bad penalties by Guy Leboeuf, both holding calls, to take a 4-1 lead in the third period for the second straight night. The major difference this time was when the 4-1 lead came - on Friday, it was early in the period, on Saturday, it was quite late, both goals by Shayne Gostisbehere on some very nice work at the blue line with under five minutes to play and just over a minute apart.

From there, things got very, very ugly. An uncalled charge behind the Union net by Ryan Haggerty led to Haggerty being clotheslined from behind by Union's captain, causing a scrum that saw Haggerty, Higgs, and two Dutchmen essentially tossed from the game with misconducts. In the game's final minute, two different scrums led to a further six players being given misconducts or game misconducts. A total of 151 penalty minutes were doled out in the final 3:13 of game time, as neither team finished the contest with really any drop of honor or respectability - Union proved to be less than humble in victory, the Engineers far from gracious in defeat.

Other junk - After three straight weeks at #10, being swept naturally caused a drop in the USCHO rankings for the Engineers, now down to #14. Also ranked from the ECAC this week are #4 Quinnipiac (swept Harvard/Dartmouth, up two with two first place votes), #9 Yale (beat Sacred Heart, no change), #11 Clarkson (beat Cornell and lost to Colgate, no change), #17 Union (previously unranked), and #18 Cornell (lost to Clarkson and beat St. Lawrence, up one). St. Lawrence (53 votes, ex-#17), and Colgate (4) also received votes. Ranked teams on RPI's schedule include #1 Minnesota (no change, up to 47 first place votes), #7 Boston College (no change), #10 Ferris State (up four), and #20 New Hampshire (previously unranked). Denver (11) and Boston University (4) also received votes.

Despite failing to register a goal on the weekend, Ryan Haggerty's 13 goals continues to lead the nation, with four players in second with 10 each. He has, however, been overtaken in total goals per game by Robert Morris junior Cody Wydo, who has 10 goals in 9 games to Haggerty's 13 in 12. His 6 power play goals is tied for most in the nation with Northern Michigan's Stephan Vigier.

Brock Higgs, meanwhile, is tied with four other players for 6th in the nation with 9 goals on the campaign, and tied for 7th in goals per game at 0.75.

RPI's team defense has plummeted from 10th to 20th at 2.25 GAA, and in a complete reversal of fortunes aided in part by the hijinks late on Saturday night, the Engineers, in the span of two weeks, have gone from the 2nd least penalized team in the nation to the 7th most penalized.

The Engineers have two weeks to lick their wounds before getting back into ECAC play - this week they travel to Mercyhurst for the first time in school history, an opportunity to bounce back from a difficult weekend before taking Thanksgiving weekend off and then welcoming one of the best teams in the nation to Houston Field House, undefeated in league play Quinnipiac.

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

#10 RPI at Union
ECAC Game - Messa Rink (Schenectady, NY)
11/15/13 - 7:30pm

RESULT: Union 4, RPI 3

BOX SCORES

RECORD: 6-3-2 (2-2-2 ECAC, 6 pts)

Union at #10 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/16/13 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Union 4, RPI 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECORD: 6-4-2 (2-3-2 ECAC, 6 pts)

Upcoming games
22 Nov - at Mercyhurst
23 Nov - at Mercyhurst
06 Dec - #4 Quinnipiac
07 Dec - Princeton
13 Dec - Denver

Women's Hockey - Yale & Brown (15/16 Nov)

RPI remained a difficult team to pin down this weekend, as they once again failed to defeat a thoroughly-outplayed opponent on Friday in a 2-1 loss to then-winless Yale, before turning things around and handily defeating Brown by a 4-1 margin on Saturday.

While these should have been two winnable games for the Engineers, they will settle for the split and head into a short break with a 3-3 record in the ECAC.

Yale

Horwood/Gruschow/Smelker
Mahoney/Wash/Rooney
Sanders/Mari Mankey/Svoboda
Missy Mankey/Walsh/Hylwa

Banks/Schilter
Huhtamaki/Marzario
Behounek/Godin

O'Brien

RPI outshot Yale 40-12, but went 0-6 on the power play and ended up losing 2-1 after being unable to put a second puck past goalie Jaimie Leonoff on Friday night at Houston Field House.

The Engineers fell behind early when Yale's Taylor Marchin scored her first goal of the season on a Bulldog 4-on-3 power play.

After winning the faceoff in the RPI zone, Yale controlled the puck and cycled for about 20 seconds, slowly collapsing toward the RPI net until Marchin fired a shot through traffic from between the faceoff dots to beat O'Brien for a 1-0 lead.

Marchin's goal would come on one of just two Yale shots in the first period. RPI went on to pick up a 12-2 edge in shots in that opening frame, but it wasn't until just a few minutes into the second period that Toni Sanders would knot the score 1-1.

Sanders' goal was certainly an odd one, as it featured Leonoff standing outside the crease watching hopelessly as the puck was fired through a big jumble of players who had fallen in and around the goal mouth.

Despite throwing another 16 shots at Leonoff in the middle period, another goal would not come for RPI, and instead Yale retook their one-goal lead at 14:16 of the second.

The goal came after a long period of sustained pressure by RPI when Yale was able to break into the RPI zone 2-on-1 with Krista Yip-Chuck and Janelle Ferrara. After a bit of back-and forth passing, Yip-Chuck pulled the puck around a sprawling O'Brien and tucked it past her for the 2-1 lead.

The 2-1 lead held for Yale through the remainder of regulation, although the Engineers once again outshot the Bulldogs in the third by a 12-5 margin. Several penalties limited RPI's comeback effort, including a late penalty on Ali Svoboda for shooting the puck after the whistle.

Svoboda had crossed into the zone and the whistle was blown on an offside call, but she then flipped the puck toward the Yale net, earning herself a minor and misconduct which put RPI on the penalty kill for most of the final three minutes of the game.

Brown

Sanders/Mahoney/Wash
Smelker/Mari Mankey/Svoboda
Rooney/Gruschow/Hylwa
Letuligasenoa/Horwood/Walsh

Huhtamaki/Marzario
Banks/Schilter
Middlebrook/Behounek

O'Brien

Coach Burke scrambled most of the lineup after Friday's disappointing loss, and the result was noticeable as RPI struck three times in he first period, scored three power play goals on RPI's first three power plays of the game, and rode the momentum to a 4-1 victory that was never very much in doubt.

Taylor Mahoney and Alexa Gruschow scored 55 seconds apart at 7:17 and 8:12 of the first period to put the Engineers out to an early 2-0 lead. Mahoney picked up a rebound off a Svoboda shot for the first goal before Gruschow scored the eventual game winner off an assist from Katie Rooney.

Jordan Smelker, who had surprisingly been held without a goal through the season to date, finally broke through with a rebound on the Engineers' second power play late in the first to extend the lead to 3-0.

Sarah Robson cut RPI's lead to two at 2:47 of the second period, managing to beat O'Brien at close range to put the Bears on the board.

Mahoney notched her second of the game (fourth of the season) at 15:28 of the middle frame, keeping the Engineers perfect on the power play at 3-for-3 to that point.

The teams traded power play opportunities in the third, including what should have been a long Brown 5-on-3 but was cut short by a slashing call on Robson just over 30 seconds into the 2-man advantage.

In the end, the Engineers outshot the Bears 24-16, went 3-for-6 on the power play and were perfect while shorthanded en route to the 4-1 victory. It sends the Engineers into a short break on a positive note; they will not play next weekend, then will head to St. Cloud after Thanksgiving for a weekend non-conference series against the Huskies. Those games, on the 29th and 30th of November, will both feature 4:07pm start times.

-----

RPI vs. Yale
ECAC Hockey Game – Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/15/13 - 4:00pm
Yale 2, RPI 1

BOX SCORES: 

RECAPS:

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

-----

RPI vs. Brown
ECAC Hockey Game – Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/16/13 - 3:00pm
RPI 4, Brown 1

BOX SCORES: 

RECAPS:

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

-----

Upcoming Games

Nov. 29 - at St. Cloud State (4:07pm)
Nov. 30 - at St. Cloud State (4:07pm)
Dec. 6 - at Princeton (7pm)
Dec. 7 - at Quinnipiac (4pm)

Friday, November 15, 2013

And the Cracks Begin to Show...

RPI is outpacing Union in both offense and defense this season. Their power play and penalty kill numbers are better. The Engineers' starting goaltender has put up better numbers than the Dutchmen's starter.

Union's no slouch, not yet. They're not your father's Union, we've said that before. But they're not your sister's Union, either. Forget the past - they're overdue for a whuppin, and Daddy's home...

For the women, it's four points or bust this weekend. Yale and Brown have a whopping two points between them in eight total games played. These are points other teams are coming up with - and while the Engineers are the only team to take points from Harvard this year so far, so too are they the only team to give up points to Dartmouth.

They're sitting in seventh place, a position they could shore up with a much needed home sweep this weekend.

It's a big one for both squads. Find those cracks... and exploit them.


Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Where'd Our Tough Schedule Go?

Before the season started, the conventional wisdom on RPI's schedule was that it was heavy with tough games. Outside of four games against Sacred Heart and Mercyhurst - and at the very least, Mercyhurst was at least considered to be among the tougher teams from Atlantic Hockey - the RPI non-conference haul is indeed chock full of traditional power teams.

Unfortunately, a schedule is only as strong as how those teams play in subsequent games, and from the way some of those opponents have started off the season... it hasn't been an awful lot of help. New Hampshire and Boston University have sub-.500 records, as does Denver. In fact, only two known non-conference opponents right now have winning records, and that's Boston College and Ferris State (RPI may or may not face Minnesota in January).

The short version? Unless some of the teams the Engineers are playing this year up their game a little bit, it's going to make for tough sailing later in the season when we're hoping that RPI is shooting for an NCAA spot - and hopefully aiming for a higher one rather than just making the tournament.

Don't bother looking for the Engineers' current position in the Pairwise Rankings for a number of reasons: 1) It's November and the Pairwise doesn't tell you a thing in November, and 2) The Pairwise method has changed significantly over last year, and there isn't a reliable calculator up and running yet on any of the major sites.

Fortunately, there's always KRACH. Here's where KRACH ranks the 19 different teams that are on the Engineers' schedule this season (and RPI themselves, for comparison), along with their current records (and RPI's record against them second, if they've played).

1. Minnesota (6-1-1)
2. Boston College (6-2-1, 0-1-0)
6. Quinnipiac (9-1-1)
9. St. Lawrence (6-2-2)
11. Ferris State (7-2-0)
13. Yale (3-1-2)
16. RPI (6-2-2)
18. New Hampshire (4-5-1, 1-0-0)
19. Boston University (4-5-0, 1-0-0)
22. Union (4-3-2)
23. Clarkson (9-2-1)
24. Cornell (3-2-1, 0-0-1)
25. Colgate (4-6-1, 1-0-0)
28. Brown (3-3-1)
33. Harvard (2-3-1, 0-1-1)
43. Mercyhurst (3-6-1)
44. Denver (4-5-1)
55. Sacred Heart (2-7-0, 2-0-0)
57. Princeton (1-6-0)
58. Dartmouth (0-6-0, 1-0-0)

So as it turns out, UNH and BU are probably a little better than they've been given credit for thus far - KRACH says they've had the 4th and 6th most difficult schedule in the nation thus far.

By comparison, RPI has the 28th most difficult schedule according to KRACH. Don't forget, fully half of RPI's victories this year to date are against Sacred Heart and Dartmouth, both in the bottom five in KRACH, and they've lost to the only team they've played that's currently ahead of them in KRACH (although that's not uncommon this early, given the index's retrodictive nature), which pegs the Engineers as only the 16th best team in the nation, six places below the USCHO poll's voters. That Harvard has generally done rather poorly when not playing RPI doesn't help things either, considering the issues the Engineers had against the Crimson.

KRACH also suggests that Clarkson is being highly overrated, while their arch-rivals from Canton and RPI's first opponent of 2014, Ferris State, are actually being pretty severely underrated by the human voters in the polls. At the end of the day, neither the polls nor KRACH really matter, but this does show us one thing that will be important down the road - not only are we hoping for the Engineers to do well in every game they play, so too would we like to see their non-conference opponents do well, and so far... the jury's certainly out on that.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

We're Low on Frozen Fours

Anyone else notice that after the Frozen Four in Philadelphia at the end of this season... we're going to plum out of Frozen Four locations? We don't know where it's going to be held next year. By comparison, during the 2005-06 season, we were aware of where the next seven in a row would be.

Well, fear not. Word is that the NCAA is going to be awarding the 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 Frozen Fours in December. But where will they be? Given the 10 cities that are finalists, odds are pretty good that they'll be in places that we've seen in the recent past - 8 of the 10 have hosted the event at some point in the last 12 seasons.

In 2009, during the last bidding round, I did a thorough run-through of possible 2013-15 Frozen Four sites for College Hockey News. The NCAA ultimately awarded only the 2013 and 2014 Frozen Fours, to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia respectively, making me look like an idiot for suggesting that they wouldn't both get 2 out of 3 when they ended up getting 2 of 2.

Boston (1960, 1963†, 1972-74, 1998, 2004): More and more, Beantown is expected to be a heavy favorite for the 2015 gig, and it's with good reason. Already one of what most would consider the four metropolitan meccas of college hockey (we'll get to the other three down the list), Boston hasn't hosted in 10 years and they're about ready for another one. They are considered to have the infrastructure and experience needed to host the event with the 18 months advance notice, and it's actually a bit shocking that they apparently didn't put in a bid to host last time around. The TD Garden has a bid in for this next round, and it would be foolish not to expect Boston to be one of the host cities, if not in 2015 then in 2016 for sure. The entirety of their bid packet should be "Hi. We're Boston."

Buffalo (2003): The Buffalo Sabres are backing a bid to host the Frozen Four at the First Niagara Center for the second time (along with Niagara and Canisius), and the bid does seem to have a lot going for it. The strong backing from the local NHL team should probably be seen as a good sign, as the 2009 and 2013 affairs in Washington and Pittsburgh had very strong support from the Capitals and Penguins, and Buffalo is the center of a significant hotbed of hockey action. The 2003 event didn't go off very well, but the support by Terry Pegula, who owns the Sabres and got varsity hockey going at Penn State, could be a deal clincher.

Columbus (2005): The last time the Frozen Four was held in Columbus, it was noteworthy for a few reasons. First off, the event featured four teams from the WCHA (none of which are still in that conference), which became a major turnoff for basically the rest of the country, and it was also held on the Ohio State campus, away from downtown Columbus. The Buckeyes' home arena is usually full of lots of empty seats (RPI draws twice as many fans on a regular basis in a building three times smaller), but it's still a touch small for a Frozen Four spot. This time around, the bid comes instead from the Blue Jackets' home, Nationwide Arena. It's bigger and closer to the action, but the location as a hockey destination may leave something to be desired. Not only do the Buckeyes not draw to their own games, the Blue Jackets have routinely been near the bottom of the NHL's attendance figures for years.

Washington (2009): It's hard to find anyone who disliked the Washington Frozen Four. It had thrilling games and was very well organized from top to bottom. At the time the bid was awarded, Washington was still considered something of a hockey backwater, in part due to a history of underachieving Capitals teams that the locals just never got excited about. Alex Ovechkin changed all that, and by the time the Frozen Four was hosted there, attendance had already begun picking up dramatically. Caps tickets are now in hot demand in the nation's capital. On top of that, long time Caps general manager George McPhee is a strong supporter of college hockey, which makes complete sense considering that he won the 1982 Hobey Baker Award while at Bowling Green. And of course, Adam Oates needs no introduction, either. It's not a shoo-in since Boston will be hosting at least over 10 years following its last gig, but it's a very strong contender. The arena's right on a subway line, which makes it easily accessible from lodging all over the area.

St. Paul (1958‡, 1966‡, 1989, 1991, 1994, 2002, 2011): Pretty much everything that was said about Boston could be said about the Twin Cities with one major exception - they hosted the event just three years ago, and while it was absolutely tremendous (speaking from personal experience), it's probably too soon to turn around and go back right away. If not for the Boston bid, the St. Paul bid would probably be the logical choice for a quick hosting job for 2015, but as it is it's probably too soon to bring the event back to Minnesota even in any of the other three years being awarded at this point. As one of the meccas of college hockey, the Twin Cities area can put on a true hockey show without even really trying, so any hockey fan should be hopeful that there will be another Frozen Four at the Xcel Energy Center in the future, it probably just won't be happening until 2019 at the earliest. If we're wrong about that, it would be quite OK.

Tampa (2012): Talk about a rehabilitation. When Tampa was announced as a surprise choice for 2012 back in 2005 (surprise partially because they were only expected to announce the '09, '10, and '11 sites), there was much caterwauling from the college hockey community. When the Tampa Bay Lightning canceled the mid-season tournament that they had been holding there in preparation, there was more howling. Too far from college hockey's footprint, they said. Non-traditional. Well, by the time 2012 rolled around, and even despite having a couple of difficult draws in Ferris State and Union, most people's tune had changed dramatically. Everyone who went seemed to love Tampa as a host and some even jokingly asked if they could just have it there every year. The bidding school? Wisconsin, of course. (Of course.) Two problems, though. First, the 2012 event, as fun as it was for attendees, did not sell out. Second, it's probably too soon to return to Tampa, given the NCAA's seeming preference for spreading the event around the country a little.

Pittsburgh (2013): By most accounts, last year's Frozen Four went very well, and had a lot of push from the Penguins. Things could have been downright disastrous given that all four of last year's participants were, shall we say, "non-traditional," given that only one (Yale) had ever been to the Frozen Four in the past, and it had been decades prior. But, like with Tampa, it's certainly too soon to turn back to the Iron City right away, not with some bigger hotbeds of the college game waiting their turn.

Philadelphia (2014): Yes, this year's event hasn't even taken place yet and the City of Brotherly Love is already hungry for more. See also Tampa, Pittsburgh, and then apply the fact that it would be even sooner. Not even really certain why they're putting forward the effort to bid again before they even know how the event is going to play out this year - if things turn out poorly it's not like they'd want to be hosting the event so quickly.

Chicago (never): The time might be just about right for a Frozen Four in the Second City. The Blackhawks have won two of the last four Stanley Cups, and in doing so, have vaulted themselves to the top of the NHL's attendance sheet five years running. The United Center holds a ton of people for hockey, and that's got to look attractive from the NCAA's standpoint. Considering the general lack of "non-traditional" college hockey markets besides Tampa, it would be a good move for college hockey in general to get some exposure in a large city that at least has Notre Dame somewhat nearby (and the Irish have played a few regular-season games in the city as well). The United Center isn't really that close to the most happening spots in Chicago, though, and a bit more troubling is that a few years ago, the area around the arena was deemed the most dangerous neighborhood in America.

Brooklyn (never): For years fans have talked about the possibility of hosting the Frozen Four on the grandest stage of them all, New York City. Even though there's no college team located in the five boroughs, there seems to always be interest for bringing the event to the City that Never Sleeps. Three hockey playing schools, Yale, Quinnipiac, and Army, are in the metropolitan footprint, and two of those schools just did battle for the national championship. But it's not Madison Square Garden that is the focus of this year's bid, instead, it's the newer, hipper Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the future home of the New York Islanders which is the center of an entertainment revolution in the most populated of the boroughs. The bid does have some serious problems with it, first and foremost, the small capacity for hockey (15,813, which isn't far off from what Albany holds), and the fact that New York City's a very expensive city to stay in. Still, it would be pretty nice to finally have the event in NYC.

A number of bids either never materialized or were left off the list of the Top 10, including the other two college hockey meccas, Detroit and Denver (which should probably be considered the shock of this round that Denver apparently didn't bid), Milwaukee, Kansas City, Orlando, Cleveland, San Jose, and Nashville.

There used to be a significant east-west balance in Frozen Fours, but that has died out recently - the 2005-09 Frozen Fours were all in college hockey's "west," while the 2012-14 editions have all been in the "east," and seven of the ten bids are in the east. That seems to be pretty much out the window, although you'd have to think at least one western locale will get to host.

So what are we going with? Let's try this on for size.

2015 - Boston: Really, a no-brainer here.
2016 - Chicago: The dangerous neighborhood aside, it makes complete sense for the NCAA to hit a burgeoning hockey hotspot.
2017 - Buffalo: Think the Pegula factor will come into play here - his bucks spent on Penn State and the Sabres.
2018 - Washington: The 2009 event went over well enough for this to be a good spot to bring it back.

† - Chestnut Hill, MA
‡ - Minneapolis, MN

Monday, November 11, 2013

Men's Hockey - Cornell and Colgate (8/9 Nov)

With the first full league home weekend on deck, the Engineers basically got done what they needed to get done by picking up three points to keep pace in the league table, but they got there in bizarre fashion against the Central New York travel pairing. Jumping out to a 3-1 lead against Cornell before giving back a point in the final minutes of regulation and settling for a 3-3 tie on Friday, the Engineers then had to kill not one, not two, but three major penalties in the first two periods on Saturday against Colgate but still won comfortably, 6-2.

Cornell
Tinordi-Higgs-Rogic
Zalewski-Neal-Haggerty
Laliberte-McGowan-Schroeder
Bourbonnais-Miller-DeVito

Leonard-Bradley
Leboeuf-Dolan
Curadi-Reno

Diebold

RPI's main plan of attack has been to get out of the gate quickly, but that was not in the cards against the Big Red. The Engineers were shut out in the first period for only the second time all season, failing to find the back of the net on 7 shots in the first 20 minutes. Instead, it was Cornell opening the scoring eight minutes into the contest on a screened shot from the blueline that made it 1-0 heading into the 1st intermission.

As the waning seconds ticked away in the first period, the Engineers had six men on the ice for at least 15 to 20 seconds before the referees noticed and blew the whistle, giving Cornell 1:54 of power play time to start the second period. However, despite the fresh ice, it was the Engineers who would get the goal during the penalty, as Guy Leboeuf rocketed a shot from the blueline 1:11 into the second to tie the score.

Gradually during the second period, the Engineers began taking the momentum, and on a roughing call with just over five minutes left in the period, they took the lead on Ryan Haggerty's 11th goal of the season, making it 2-1.

Matt Neal scored an insurance goal eight minutes into the third period to make it 3-1, and as time ticked down, it looked like the Engineers had things well in hand, especially after Johnny Rogic was checked from behind into the boards with about seven-and-a-half minutes left to play. The Big Red, fortunate not to be called for a major penalty on the play, killed the penalty and began looking for a goal to cut the RPI lead.

They would not get it until pulling their goaltender with just over 90 seconds left in regulation, as another blueline blast that was screened got past Diebold, making it 3-2. The killer for RPI, however, was that Haggerty was called for a foolish charging penalty just after the goal was scored, immediately putting Cornell on the power play. With the goaltender pulled and an effective two-man advantage on the ice, the Big Red scored the equalizer with 30 seconds left in regulation, and just like that, the Engineer lead had evaporated.

RPI got the lion's share of the opportunities in the extra session, but could not salvage the win despite 5 shots on goal in overtime. It was a tie that most certainly felt like a loss, given how close the Engineers were to finishing up an otherwise solid game with a two-goal edge.

Colgate
Tinordi-Higgs-Rogic
Zalewski-Neal-Haggerty
Laliberte-McGowan-Schroeder
Wood-Miller-DeVito

Curadi-Reno
Leboeuf-Hampton
Leonard-Bradley

Diebold

The only changes to the lineup from the previous night were Jake Wood coming in to replace Riley Bourbonnais, and Phil Hampton coming into the lineup for the second time on the season in place of Bo Dolan.

Brock Higgs broke the Engineers out in their more usual style with a quick goal, scoring seven minutes into the game on a wraparound to give RPI the early 1-0 lead on his 7th goal of the year. But shortly thereafter, a five-minute boarding call on Luke Curadi put the Engineers on a long penalty kill. His offense did not result in a game misconduct, which would prove crucial for RPI down the road.

It was the Engineers who got the offense out of the long power play, but it came in a strange play. Shortly after a two-on-one shorthanded opportunity was broken up in the Colgate zone, the Engineers sent the puck back down to their own zone to kill more time. Guy Leboeuf scooped up the puck behind his own blueline and powered it down in a clearance attempt as RPI went to change lines. However, the puck bounced a couple of times on its way down the ice, and after being misplayed by the Colgate goalkeeper, found the back of the net instead of the end boards, a bizarre goal giving RPI a 2-0 lead.

After killing the Curadi penalty and taking a 2-0 lead into the first intermission, things looked pretty good for the home team. It got even better with Mark McGowan's first goal of the year just 1:46 into the second period to make it 3-0, but from there things started getting even more bizarre. A kneeing call against Mark Miller five minutes later went down as another major penalty, this time bringing with it a game misconduct as well, forcing the RPI penalty kill back on another long effort. This time, Colgate broke through a little over three minutes into the major, cutting the RPI lead to 3-1. That was as far as they would get by the time Miller's penalty expired, but they would soon have another big opportunity with the man advantage.

Less than a minute after the Miller major ended, Zach Schroeder was called for boarding next to the Colgate bench and wouldn't you know it, his penalty was a major as well, and it too carried a game misconduct. By the time the second period was over, the Engineers had spent 15 of the game's 40 minutes killing off major penalties, with no intervening Colgate penalties to lighten the burden. However, the goal on the Miller penalty was the only one Colgate would manage on the three.

Ryan Haggerty atoned for his penalty on Friday with a goal 4:21 into the third period that gave RPI its three-goal edge back, and Jacob Laliberte scored his 2nd of the year just over a minute later to make it 5-1 RPI, and despite the strange nature of the penalties in the first two periods, the Engineers were cruising. Haggerty would later add a second goal on the power play to give him 3 for the weekend and 13 for the year. Colgate got a consolation tally just over a minute after Haggerty's second goal, and the junior winger just missed a couple of opportunities late to complete his second hat trick of the season as RPI rolled to a 6-2 victory.

Other junk - For the third week running, the Engineers are the #10 team in the country. This week, they accrued a total of 535 votes as one of six ranked teams from the ECAC, which is more than any other conference in the nation. The other five are #6 Quinnipiac (beat Brown and tied Yale, down 1 with 2 first place votes), #9 Yale (beat Princeton and tied Quinnipiac, no change), #11 Clarkson (swept Dartmouth/Harvard, up five), #17 St. Lawrence (swept Harvard/Dartmouth, previously unranked), and #19 Cornell (tied RPI and lost to Union, down four). Union (24 votes), Brown (2), and Harvard (2) all received votes as well. Others on the RPI schedule this season ranked this week are #1 Minnesota (no change, but only 38 first place votes after all 50 last week), #7 Boston College (up one), and #14 Ferris State (up five). Boston University (39) and New Hampshire (1) also received votes.

Ryan Haggerty's 13 goals are still tops in the nation, his closest competition right now comes from Robert Morris' Cody Wydo and Northern Michigan's Stephan Vigier who each have 10. His 1.3 goals per game is also tops in the nation. He is tied with Vigier on the national lead in power play goals with 6.

Brock Higgs is tied for 15th in the nation in goals per game at 0.70. He's also one of 20 finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award.

Guy Leboeuf is one of six players in the nation that has netted two shorthanded goals so far this year, and the only defenseman.

Scott Diebold's 1.78 GAA is good enough for 8th in the nation, down from 5th last weekend. At .933 his save percentage is now only 12th.

With 4.10 goals per game, the RPI offense is currently 4th best in the nation, trailing Boston College (5.00), Minnesota (4.38), and Northeastern (4.33). The defense is tied for 10th best in the country (2.20). RPI and Providence are the only schools in the Top 10 in both offense and defense.

The penalty-fest on Saturday pushed the Engineers from 58th in the nation in penalties per game to 46th.

The Route 7 Rivalry is renewed this coming weekend, with the first half on Friday in Schenectady and the second on Saturday in Troy. Both teams are sitting on 6 points just a point out of first in a log-jam at the top of the ECAC, so this weekend certainly sets the tone going forward for chasing the league lead.

ECAC Standings
1. Quinnipiac - 7 points (3-0-1)
2. Union - 6 points (3-1-0, +8 GD)
3. Clarkson - 6 points (3-1-0, 0 GD)
4. Yale - 6 points (2-0-2, +6 GD)
5. St. Lawrence - 6 points (2-0-2, +5 GD)
6. RPI - 6 points (2-1-2, +4 GD)
7. Colgate - 4 points (2-2-0)
8. Brown - 3 points (1-2-1, -1 GD)
9. Cornell - 3 points (1-2-1, -4 GD)
10. Harvard - 3 points (1-3-1)
11. Princeton - 0 points (0-4-0, -10 GD)
12. Dartmouth - 0 points (0-4-0, -15 GD)

#15 Cornell at #10 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/8/13 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Cornell 3

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECORD: 5-2-2 (1-1-2 ECAC, 4 pts)

Colgate at #10 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/9/13 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 6, Colgate 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECORD: 6-2-2 (2-1-2 ECAC, 6 pts)

Upcoming games
15 Nov - at Union
16 Nov - Union
22 Nov - at Mercyhurst
23 Nov - at Mercyhurst
06 Dec - #6 Quinnipiac

Women's Hockey - at Cornell & Colgate (8/9 Nov)

League play continued for RPI this weekend as they headed for central NY and games at Cornell and Colgate.

Third-ranked Cornell lived up to their ranking on Friday, beating the Engineers 3-1 and holding a solid edge in shots, but RPI turned it around on Saturday and Kelly O'Brien picked up her second shutout of the season in a 3-0 victory over Colgate.

Cornell

Horwood/Gruschow/Smelker
Mahoney/Wash/Rooney
Sanders/Mari Mankey/Svoboda
Letuligasenoa/Missy Mankey/Hylwa

Banks/Schilter
Huhtamaki/Marzario
Behounek/Godin

O'Brien

Madison Marzario scored her first goal of the season to cut a 2-0 Cornell lead to 2-1, but it was Jillian Saulnier who led the #3 Big Red to a 3-1 victory over the Engineers with two goals of her own.

Saulnier scored the game's first goal at 15:40 of the first period with Jenn Godin in the box on an interference call. O'Brien had little chance on Saulnier's shot from the point, with a number of bodies in front screening the shot.

Cornell doubled that lead on a tally by Hannah Bunton with just a tenth of a second left in the first period. Bunton redirected a shot by Alyssa Gagliardi to put the puck past O'Brien as the buzzer sounded.

After a scoreless second period which saw the Engineers hold Cornell to seven shots but be unable to score on a 5-on-3 power play, Marzario scored 8:58 into the third to cut the Big Red lead in half. Receiving a pass from Jordan Smelker, Marzario one-timed it past Lauren Slebodnick for the goal.

Saulnier scored her second of the night a little over four minutes later, extending Cornell's lead to 3-1 and that score held up. O'Brien finished with 23 saves in the loss, while Slebodnick picked up the win in a 14-save effort.

Colgate

Horwood/Gruschow/Smelker
Mahoney/Wash/Rooney
Sanders/Mari Mankey/Svoboda
Letuligasenoa/Missy Mankey/Hylwa

Banks/Schilter
Huhtamaki/Marzario
Middlebrook/Godin

O'Brien

After Friday night's loss, RPI was outshot 28-21 by Colgate on Saturday, but Kelly O'Brien turned them all aside to help RPI to a 3-0 shutout at Starr Rink.

Freshman Lindsey Hylwa notched both her first goal and first assist in the game, and RPI's other goals were picked up by Laura Horwood and Mari Mankey in a game which saw the teams combine for 15 penalties.

Horwood scored a power play goal at 12:02 of the first period, with assists coming from Jordan Smelker and Kathryn Schilter.

Hylwa's goal came early in the second period as she was able to find the puck in a scrum in front of netminder Brittney Brooks to make it a 2-0 game.

Mankey scored later in the period to extend the RPI lead to 3-0, closing out the scoring for the evening.

After a relatively even first period, Colgate outshot RPI 10-7 in the second and 11-6 in the third, but it didn't make a difference with O'Brien turning away all the Raiders' attempts.

With the win, the Engineers are .500 in early league play with four games behind them, and have a chance to position themselves well before Thanksgiving with games against Yale and Brown coming up at the Field House next weekend. The games against the Bulldogs (Friday) and Bears (Saturday) will both be 4pm starts.

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RPI at Cornell
ECAC Hockey Game – Lynah Rink (Ithaca, NY)
11/8/13 - 7:00pm
Cornell 3, RPI 1

BOX SCORES: 

RECAPS:

RECORD: 2-7-1 (1-2 ECAC)

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RPI at Colgate
ECAC Hockey Game – Starr Rink (Hamilton, NY)
11/9/13 - 4:00pm
RPI 3, Colgate 0

BOX SCORES: 

RECAPS:

RECORD: 3-7-1 (2-2 ECAC)

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Upcoming Games

Nov. 15 - Yale (4pm)
Nov. 16 - Brown (4pm)
Nov. 29 - at St. Cloud State (4:07pm)
Nov. 30 - at St. Cloud State (4:07pm)