Friday, October 31, 2014

The Men in Black

Not sure what happened to last week's pumpup. Given the way the weekend went for the men, perhaps it's better to keep that one in the chamber anyway.

This isn't likely to be a fun weekend for RPI on the scoreboard. The women are at Harvard and Dartmouth, to start off their ECAC schedule, while the men have the opportunity to seize first place in the ECAC with a win tonight at home against Union.

Yes, that last part was tongue-in-cheek. The Route 7 Rivalry has provided some memorable games even at wide disparities (going both ways) over the last decade plus, but that disparity hasn't been this wide in a long time. We've said it twice before and it's worth repeating - if RPI doesn't pull themselves out of the tailspin they've been in the last two weeks, tonight and tomorrow will be ugly with a capital U. See what I did there?

But it's when things look darkest that improvement begins. If there's a reversal, perhaps one day we'll look back on this weekend as the moment things turned. We're not holding our breath. But everything that has a beginning has an end. Union's had a good run. It's been a long run. It may not be over. But it will end, given enough time. Perhaps that time is now.

Here's a reminder from a fitting source - the Man in Black.


Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Save It

There's no way around it - the Engineers have been terrible in their last three games. Just beyond bad.

RPI turned heads by beating Notre Dame. They looked respectable in losses to Minnesota and Denver (at least, the first night against Denver) despite failing to score goals. The basic understanding was that the team was taking its lumps against some of the best in the nation and that the offense was eventually going to be better off for having worked against tough defenses (although you still wanted to see a breakthrough goal), and that the Engineers' defense, considered a strong point, hadn't been embarrassed against strong attacks.

Then came the Saturday night game against Denver, where RPI looked absolutely abysmal in all facets and probably deserved to get shut out for a third time in a row for the first time in 18 years. That only served as a prelude for what may have been one of the worst weekends in the history of the program.

That's not meant to denigrate Bentley at all. They won 19 games last season and they're one of the better teams in Atlantic Hockey. We pointed out during the offseason that they weren't complete pushovers by any stretch of the imagination. But they're not Minnesota, and they're not Denver, and RPI should not be dropping a pair of games to them by a combined tally of 9-2.

Atlantic Hockey has come a very long way from 2003, when it was considered a point of absolute shame for the Engineers to lose a game to Mercyhurst. But it hasn't progressed past the point where being dominated on the scoreboard, two nights in a row, at home, is something that's something that can be shrugged off. Last weekend was the first time that RPI has ever lost consecutive games in a weekend against AHA opponents.

It's hopefully a bottoming out, especially heading into the ECAC schedule and against Union. There's very little that didn't look terrible in the last three games, including the previously somewhat vaunted defense. All of it looked subpar.

Predictably, many in the RPI fanbase (and even some outside of it) have prepared the long knives for Seth Appert over this weekend. It's a tired refrain that never seems to end from some quarters.

A sizable chunk of the alumni never seemed to forgive him for the three very bad years that started his tenure in Troy despite the fact that anyone who knew the score realized that it was a process of blowing up what was in place in order to rebuild from the bottom up.

The voices got quieter, yet never seemed to go away, after the Pirri/D'Amigo season of 2009-10 and through the beginning of last year, when it appeared possible that the Engineers were over the hump. But a highly disappointing season of high expectations last year is followed by a terrible start to this year, and the lynch mob is fired up again.

If you're one of the people beating the drum, holding the torch, or sharpening the pitchfork, ask yourself this question: what's the point? It's October. Ignoring completely the logistical point that the Institute has Appert on the books through the end of the decade, what's gained by all the whining and moaning and calling for his head? Is the team supposed to magically improve with some spur-of-the-moment interim coach?

In 2010, UNC Wilmington men's basketball coach Benny Moss was fired in the middle of the Seahawks' season. He commented that the "decision to relieve me of my duties... in mid-season does nothing to benefit the program. It serves only as a mechanism to chastise and embarrass me personally."

The Seahawks, 7-14 under Moss, went 2-8 the rest of the season without him.

Is that what the lynch mob is trying to achieve?

This isn't professional sports. Let's let the season develop and see what happens. We all know about the four Game 3 losses at home. We all realize last year was disappointing. It's not hard to see that the last three games have been awful. We can all look down Route 7 and see the local rivals achieving everything anyone could want - not that it's anything that anyone in Troy is responsible for, of course, but it just makes the panic even more heightened for those who are quick to forget the successes and dwell on the difficulties.

Take a deep breath. Relax. The Engineers have at least 32 more games left before the book is closed on this season. Let's see what they can do with them. And in the meantime, quit wasting your breath about the coaching staff. Make your evaluations in April, and if you still feel the need to vent, by all means, go for it.

That said, if RPI continues to play the way they have played for the last three games running now, they will be four-goal underdogs in both games this weekend and they'll be completely run out of the building - and if you don't think everyone in that locker room already knows that, you're probably not smart as you think you are anyway.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Men's Hockey - Bentley (24/25 Oct)

RPI opened their home schedule with what most observers thought would be an opportunity for a battle-tested team to finally break out with some scoring against a not-so-strong defense on familiar ice, facing Bentley in a two-game set. What observers got instead was a complete disaster from the Engineers' perspective - a continued inability to put the puck in the net, coupled with a breakdown of what had previously been considered something of a strong point in the team's defensive capabilities. A weekend that was expected to be a preparation for bigger and better things instead has thrown the entire season into question as Bentley rolled to a 5-2 and 4-0 sweep of an exceptionally lethargic RPI squad.

Friday
Neal-Liljegren-DeVito
Laliberte-Bubela-Schroeder
Melanson-Miller-Nanne
McGowan-Wood-Bourbonnais

Leonard-Prapavessis
Curadi-Wilson
Bradley-Bokenfohr

Kasdorf

A shakeup of lines, plus the return of Milos Bubela, punctuated the Engineers' Friday night lineup as RPI sought to shake what had been a terrible outing on the previous Saturday against Denver.

The necessary offensive spark was clearly missing from the opening puck drop. Although Bentley, as they would do all weekend, committed to blocking shots, they didn't have many to block throughout the first period, and the Engineers managed to get only four shots on net in the entire first 20 minutes.

It was Bentley striking first seven-and-a-half minutes into the second period as Kyle Schmidt beat Jason Kasdorf to give the Falcons the 1-0 lead. It was part of a middle frame in which the Engineers continued to look uninterested in pursuing offense, and in which RPI was again outshot by the visitors. Fortunately, the second would not end without the Engineers finally putting one in the net, as freshman Lou Nanne scored his first collegiate goal on a nice pass from a fellow freshman speedster in Drew Melanson, making the score 1-1 with less than two minutes to play in the second period.

Truly, the defensive collapse for RPI began late in the second period. Although the Falcons put only six shots on net in the game's final 25 minutes, four of those six shots would end up putting points on the board for Bentley. The Falcons regained the lead nine minutes into the third with a goal by Alex Grieve, and then took a two-goal edge on the power play four minutes later with Curtis Leonard off on a slashing call.

RPI didn't show any quit - or at least, the Miller line showed no quit off the ensuing faceoff. Miller earned the primary assist on Nanne's second goal of the game just 13 seconds after Bentley's power play goal, cutting Bentley's lead back down to one.

From there, the RPI offense began to come alive once again, but try as they might, they simply could not find the equalizer. Bentley netminder Gabe Antoni ultimately stopped nine of 10 shots from the Engineers in the third period to preserve the victory, eventually iced by a pair of empty net goals from Max French and Kyle Schmidt to make the final scoreline appear worse than RPI's chances late, though Bentley's overall performance, especially in the first two periods, made the scoreline seem apt.

Saturday
Neal-Liljegren-McGowan
Laliberte-Bubela-Schroeder
Melanson-Miller-Nanne
Fulton-Hampton-Bourbonnais

Leonard-Prapavessis
Bradley-Bell
Curadi-Reno

Diebold

The embarrassing defeat on Friday, led to another jumble of lines, with only two lines staying intact, including the Mark Miller line, which had created both of the previous night's goals through Nanne. Scott Diebold, in all likelihood, was destined to start this game regardless of the previous night's result.

Unfortunately, while Friday had been an embarrassment, it paled in comparison to what was in store on Saturday. RPI came out of the gate with a little more intensity than they had on Friday, but it didn't matter much and it quickly trailed off. In the meantime, late in the period, Bentley scored a pair of quick goals off of colossal defensive breakdowns - one on the power play and one shorthanded - to nab a 2-0 lead heading into the second period.

It did not take long to establish during the middle frame that Bentley's two-goal lead was looking fairly iron-clad. The Falcons continued to block shots, which were few and far between for the Engineers anyway. Bentley again struck twice late in the period, and again scored on massive defensive blunders, making it 4-0 by the end of the period, a hole far too deep for a team that had only scored six goals all season to climb out.

As with Friday, the Engineers showed some pep in the third period, but by then Bentley had a good defensive rhythm going and easily stymied pretty much everything RPI had to throw at them, which still wasn't a whole lot. Bentley's second-string netminder, senior Blake Dougherty, needed only 19 saves to earn his first collegiate win and shutout.

The Engineers have now lost five consecutive games, and have scored a grand total of three goals in those five games (0.60 GPG) while allowing 20 (4.00 GAA) the other way. They are 1-for-23 (4.3%) on the power play (with a short-handed goal given up) and 15-for-23 (65.2%) on the penalty kill during this losing streak.

Making matters infinitely worse, not only does the ECAC schedule begin next weekend, the annual home-and-home against Union is what kicks off that schedule. The Dutchmen just ended a 17-game winning streak on Saturday night with a one-goal loss to now #7 St. Cloud State while their backup goaltender played. They're slightly better than Bentley.


Bentley at RPI
Non-conference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
10/24/14 - 9:30pm

RESULT: Bentley 5, RPI 2


RECORD: 1-4-0

Bentley at RPI
Non-conference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
10/25/14 - 9:00pm

RESULT: Bentley 4, RPI 0


RECORD: 1-5-0

Upcoming games
31 Oct - #2 Union
1 Nov - at #2 Union
7 Nov - Harvard
8 Nov - Dartmouth
14 Nov - Princeton

Women's Hockey - UConn (25/26 Oct)

It took from January to the end of October, but the Engineers finally put a tally back in the win column with a 4-1 victory over UConn on Saturday at Houston Field House. Sunday's game was perhaps more tilted in favor of the Engineers, but a strong performance by UConn goalie Annie Belanger helped the Huskies hold on for a 2-2 tie.

Saturday

Mahoney/Gruschow/Tomlinson
Horwood/Wash/Renn
Rooney/Mankey/Svoboda
Walsh/Hylwa/Raspa

Schilter/Godin
Middlebrook/Behounek
Kimmerle/Banks

O'Brien

Alexa Gruschow had two goals, an assist, and eight shots on goal Saturday to lead RPI to a 4-1 win over UConn at Houston Field House.

Kathryn Schilter added a goal and an assist and Kelly O'Brien held the Huskies to one goal on 27 shots in net for the Engineers.

UConn wrecked its chances in the game by running a constant parade to the penalty box, and RPI broke a power play drought with two quick power play goals early in the second period.

Gruschow picked up the game's first goal on the man advantage at 2:22 of the second, with assists from Ali Svoboda and Schilter.

UConn took another penalty at 5:43 and RPI wasted no time, with Schilter scoring five seconds later to take a 2-0 lead on a blast from the point.

Gruschow's second at 12:23 of the middle frame put the Engineers up by three, but a power play goal for UConn finally got the Huskies on the board near the midpoint of the third.

Taylor Mahoney added an empty net goal in the game's waning minutes, pushing the RPI lead to 4-1 just 11 seconds after UConn netminder Elaine Chuli headed to the bench.

Despite spending 20 minutes in the penalty box, UConn managed to hold RPI to a 29-27 edge in shots. That would be more lopsided on Sunday, yet the result wouldn't be as good for the Engineers.

Sunday

Mahoney/Gruschow/Tomlinson
Horwood/Wash/Renn
Rooney/Mankey/Svoboda
Walsh/Hylwa/Raspa

Kimmerle/Schilter
Behounek/Banks
Middlebrook

Piper

RPI outshot UConn 32-20 but the Huskies won the special teams battle, scoring a shorthanded goal and a power play goal which ended up enough to hold RPI to a 2-2 tie on Sunday afternoon.

Sarah MacDonnell scored shorthanded at 4:23 of the opening period, breaking down ice on  a 2-on-1, taking a pass from Leah Buress and putting it past Brianna Piper for a 1-0 lead.

RPI tied the game later in the first when Shayna Tomlinson scored. Three UConn penalties in a row in the early second period weren't enough to let RPI grab the lead, and instead it was UConn's Kelly Harris capitalizing on a 4-on-3 power play opportunity to put the Huskies up 2-1.

Laura Horwood would notch the game-tying goal for the Engineers in the third period, just moments after an apparent RPI goal had been waved off for a player interfering with UConn goalie Annie Belanger in the crease.

Another power play later in the third plus a short opportunity at the tail end of overtime proved fruitless for the Engineers and they had to settle for the 2-2 tie.

ECAC action starts for the Engineers next week as they face Harvard (7pm Fri) and Dartmouth (4pm Sat) on the road. It's hard to say much about the pair of Ivies at this point - each has beaten McGill in an exhibition, while Dartmouth soundly defeated New Hampshire on Sunday, hinting that perhaps there may be some improvement in Hanover as compared to last year's team which went 9-20-1.

-----

RPI vs. Connecticut
Non-Conference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
10/25/14 - 3:00pm
RPI 4, UConn 1

BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1415/boxes/wconren1.o25
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=4428

RECAPS:
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/news/2014/10/25/WICE_1025143105.aspx
UConn: http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/102514aaa.html
Complete Game Video: http://rpitv.org/productions/827-womens-hockey-vs-uconn-game-1

RECORD: 1-4-1 (0-0-0 ECAC)

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RPI vs. Connecticut
Non-Conference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
10/26/14 - 2:00pm
RPI 2, UConn 2 (OT)

BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1415/boxes/wconren1.o26
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=4429

RECAPS:
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/news/2014/10/26/WICE_1026144959.aspx
UConn: http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/102614aaa.html
Complete Game Video: http://rpitv.org/productions/829-womens-hockey-vs-uconn-game-2

RECORD: 1-4-2 (0-0-0 ECAC)

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Upcoming Schedule

Oct. 31 - at Harvard (7pm)
Nov. 1 - at Dartmouth (4pm)
Nov. 7 - St. Cloud State (3pm)
Nov. 8 - St. Cloud State (3pm)

Friday, October 24, 2014

Dust or Gold

Yeah, we didn't have anything this week, unfortunately. Gotta struggle for the legal tender sometimes.

But here's the gist of what would have been said anyway - wait a few weeks before you panic on the Engineers.

Minnesota and Denver are two of the best defenses in the country. It's too early to use stats to back this up, because 50% of Minnesota and 100% of Denver stats come from games against RPI, but coming into the season, that was part of the expectation on both teams. They'd do a pretty good job of keeping the puck out of the net.

Add a team that knew coming in that it had to find ways to score goals, and it's a recipe for the way the last three games played out - although to be very fair, the Engineers were awful on Saturday in Denver.

That said, the defense looks very good. Observers of the Minnesota game and the first Denver game saw a lot to like in Jason Kasdorf's play. But the goals have to come. Hopefully, that starts tonight against the first team in the RPI schedule that they should be favored to beat.

The rationale is that when you play difficult teams, it makes other teams feel a little easier by comparison. For years and years, though, we've become used to seeing RPI teams play at the level of their opponent no matter what, rarely a metric for success, especially against weaker teams.

If the RPI offense treats Bentley's defense as though it were Denver's, they'll find their opportunities to score, That can be nothing but helpful moving forward. If they don't... settle in, this one could be a long one.

Speaking of long ones, the RPI women had a lead last week for all of three-and-a-half minutes. It's a start, but it's still 15 games in a row without a win. Two more chances to snap that schneid starting tomorrow at home against UConn in the first full home weekend.

Get yourself to the Field House all weekend long, hockey has come home.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Men's Hockey - at Denver (17/18 Oct)

RPI's grueling early season schedule continued over the weekend with a second consecutive long trip west to faceoff against the Denver Pioneers, a matchup that featured a pair of teams with multiple links to one another. The Engineers have never had an awful lot of success traveling to Denver, that that lack of success continued as they were soundly defeated in 3-0 and 4-1 results. Both nights, RPI did themselves in with a relatively early major and game misconduct that created a short bench in the thin Colorado air, and offense, for a second and third straight game, was hard to come by.

Friday
Neal-Liljegren-Bourbonnais
Nanne-Miller-Schroeder
Fulton-Laliberte-Melanson
Wood-McGowan-DeVito

Leonard-Prapavessis
Curadi-Bradley
Wilson-Bokenfohr

Kasdorf

After the offensive power outage against the Golden Gophers, Seth Appert toyed with lines a little bit. With Milos Bubela out with an injury, Travis Fulton got his first start of the year, and the team's two strongest scorers, Matt Neal and Jacob Laliberte, were put on different lines. Freshman Viktor Liljegren, who's shown quite a bit of promise, graduated to first-line center.

The intended effect clearly wasn't met from the very start. Setting the tone for the entire weekend, Denver came out blazing in the first period, throwing a remarkable 20 shots on net. RPI's defense, which has been as strong as the offense has struggled, managed to keep every single one of them from reaching the back of the net, led by junior goaltender Jason Kasdorf.

Going the other way, the Engineers struggled to get decent shots off, much as they did against Minnesota. They managed only 9 shots in the first period, and then only 6 in the second.

The crack in the defense started 4:30 into the second period as Luke Curadi was assessed a checking from behind major and a game misconduct, leaving RPI with only five defenders for the remainder of the game. The Engineers escaped from the major penalty kill without giving up a goal, but three minutes later Quentin Shore scored for the home team on a turnover in the RPI zone to make it 1-0. Exactly three minutes after that, Zac Larraza's goal on a power play (created by only the third penalty of Jacob Laliberte's college career) made the score 2-0.

That was essentially the entire meaningful scoring of the game, as Kasdorf remained strong in net throughout the contest. RPI managed more shots in the third period as they sought to cut the Pioneers lead in half, but they were unable to solve DU netminder Evan Cowley. Ty Loney scored an empty-netter in the final minute to ice the game for a 3-0 victory, but it was Kasdorf, who made 39 saves on 41 shots, who was made the game's third star for the second time in as many games.

Saturday
Neal-Liljegren-Laliberte
Nanne-Miller-DeVito
McGowan-Schroeder-Bourbonnais
Wood-Bokenfohr-Hampton

Leonard-Prapavessis
Curadi-Wilson
Bradley-Bell

Kasdorf

Having been shut out in consecutive games, the line juggling intensified for Saturday night. All of the top producers were put on one scoring line, Fulton and Drew Melanson were removed from the lineup, and oddly enough, Craig Bokenfohr and Phil Hampton were moved onto the fourth line. Hampton played at forward in the Engineers' exhibition game, but Bokenfohr as a forward was quite a surprise. Bradley Bell replaced Bokenfohr on the blue line.

Penalties got the Engineers in trouble quickly on Saturday. Curtis Leonard picked up a slashing call in the game's first minute, and a goaltender interference call on Zach Schroeder (for a hit that saw DU's starter, Tanner Jaillet, pulled from his first collegiate game after only 2 minutes, with Cowley returning in net) gave Denver a short 5-on-3, but RPI managed to kill both of those penalties.

However, as with Friday night, it was a major penalty that helped get the scoring underway. Bokenfohr was given a major and a game misconduct for kneeing just 5:38 into the game, and unlike the major on Friday, Denver cashed in. The Pioneers scored twice on the major, with power play goals by Trevor Moore and Matt Marcinew to make it 2-0 before the Engineers returned to full strength.

An interference penalty to Curadi minutes after RPI got their fifth skater back led to a third power play goal for DU as Larraza scored his second of the weekend to make it 3-0. RPI, who had managed two shots on Jaillet in the first two minutes, did not muster a single shot on Cowley in the final 18 or so, and were outshot 18-2 in the first period, an even more lopsided tally than from the first night.

Larraza's second goal of the night and third of the weekend came 3:05 into the second period, making the score 4-0, and at that point, although he could hardly be blamed for much of the carnage, Seth Appert lifted Kasdorf from the net - perhaps more to save his psyche than anything else - and inserted senior Scott Diebold for his first game action of the year.

Diebold performed admirably in relief, stopping all 16 shots that he saw in 36:55 of ice time, but it was not enough to spark the RPI offense back into life. Five minutes after Larraza's second goal, Jake Wood, who had a great game drawing penalties (instead of taking them as he frequently does), drew a penalty shot for being hauled down on the breakaway. In line with RPI's luck offensively, Wood lost control of the puck while advancing on the net and never even got a shot off.

Denver took a number of penalties following the Wood penalty shot, giving the Engineers six distinct opportunities on the power play during the second half of the game, but it wasn't until a shot from the point by Chris Bradley with 35 seconds left in the game that the Engineers cashed in on the man advantage. His first goal of the season came with assists to Schroeder and Lou Nanne, the latter's first collegiate point. That broke up the shutout and by the skin of their teeth, RPI managed to avoid being shut out in three consecutive games for the first time since November 1996.

Finally, the Engineers return to Troy to open their home schedule next weekend against decidedly softer competition than they faced in their first four games - 1-2 Bentley, who allowed six goals against Sacred Heart last time out. RPI needs to put points on the board against the Falcons with the Union home-and-home waiting on the horizon.

RPI at #16 Denver
Non-conference Game - Magness Arena (Denver, CO)
10/17/14 - 9:30pm

RESULT: Denver 3, RPI 0


RECORD: 1-2-0

RPI at #16 Denver
Non-conference Game - Magness Arena (Denver, CO)
10/18/14 - 9:00pm

RESULT: Denver 4, RPI 1


RECORD: 1-3-0

Upcoming games
24 Oct - Bentley
25 Oct - Bentley
31 Oct - #2 Union
1 Nov - at #2 Union
7 Nov - Harvard

Monday, October 20, 2014

Women's Hockey - at New Hampshire (17 Oct)

RPI had just one game on the schedule this weekend, a Friday night matchup against New Hampshire. The Engineers failed to convert on five power play opportunities including a long 5-on-3 in the third period and ended up falling to the Wildcats 2-1.

New Hampshire

Horwood/Wash/Renn
Mahoney/Gruschow/Svoboda
Rooney/Mankey/Walsh
Tomlinson/Hylwa/Raspa

Schilter/Godin
Behounek/Banks
Middlebrook/Kimmerle

Piper

Alexa Gruschow scored a first period goal, but UNH scored two more in the opening frame then held the lead for a 2-1 victory over RPI Friday night at Whittemore Center.

Gruschow's goal came at 5:05 on a great individual effort. Winning an offensive zone draw, the RPI forward took a pass from Brandi Banks and circled the offensive zone, faking toward the front of the net before sweeping around the back and tucking in a wraparound.

Heather Kashman scored at 8:34 to tie the game at one, after a failed clearing attempt by RPI left the puck with Haley Breedlove who fired it on net. While Brianna Piper made the initial save, Kashman was able to poke the puck past her on a rebound.

Breedlove put UNH ahead at 13:16 on another defensive zone turnover by the Engineers. Kayla Mork took the puck away from Delaney Middlebrook and fed it to Breedlove in the slot who fired it off an RPI player and past Piper for a 2-1 lead.

The Engineers had several chances to tie things up including four power play chances, two of which were bench minors for too many players on the ice. Nearly a minute and a half of 5-on-3 time wasn't enough to find the equalizer in the third period and the 2-1 score held up, running the Engineers' season-spanning winless streak to 15 games.

RPI returns home next weekend for a pair of games against UConn on Saturday (3pm) and Sunday (2pm). Saturday's game is currently scheduled to be broadcast on WRPI

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RPI at New Hampshire
Non-Conference Game - Whittemore Center (Durham, NH)
10/17/14 - 7:00pm
UNH 2, RPI 1

BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1415/boxes/wrenunh1.o17
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=4427

RECAPS:
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/news/2014/10/17/WICE_1017142857.aspx
UNH: http://unhwildcats.com/sports/wice/2014-15/releases/201410174bpbg9
Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk0d1BEgOK8

RECORD: 0-4-1 (0-0-0 ECAC)

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Upcoming Schedule

Oct. 25 - UConn (3pm)
Oct. 26 - UConn (2pm)
Oct. 31 - at Harvard (7pm)
Nov. 1 - at Dartmouth (4pm)

Friday, October 17, 2014

Losing the Streaks

For the RPI women, their school-record winless streak, dating back to last season, is now at 14 games  (0-12-2) - the Engineers haven't won since a 3-0 victory at Union on January 18.

Their opponent tonight, the UNH Wildcats, know a little something about losing streaks. They finished last season by losing their last 11 straight games, then tacked on three more to start this season to make it an even 14 in a row in the loss column. They snapped out of it last weekend with a 1-0 win at RIT and a 2-2 tie at Syracuse. Tonight is the home opener for UNH, who are a long way from their salad days in Hockey East from 2004 to 2010, when they were virtually unbeatable. Can the Engineers finally get themselves back in the win column in their only game of the weekend?

For the men, the losing streak is more of a historical one than anything else. Denver, their opponents in a pair of games this weekend in Colorado, won the first 10 games against the Engineers, and they've won 12 out of 14 all time. It's a tough task to score at Magness as both teams boast solid defensive fronts. Can RPI solve yet another early season test?

Let's find out.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

First Impressions

Now that we've had a couple of weeks and three games - one exhibition, two competitive - to get a look at this year's Engineers, here are a few first impressions on what's been seen.

1. Jason Kasdorf is back, and he's still the best goaltender in the ECAC.

Nowdays, everybody wanna talk, but nothing comes out when they move their lips, just a bunch of gibberish, and everybody acts like they forgot about Kaz.

He's baaaaaaaack. Last year's Engineers were picked to be one of the best teams in the league in part based on the strength of their goaltending, and they didn't end up having the source of that confidence for basically the entire year. Now he's back, and because of the (correct) concerns about where the offense is going to come from, they're supposed to be a bottom four team? Excuse our guffaws. 62 saves on 67 shots to start the season against some of the best teams in the nation.

When was the last time a team with the best goaltender in the conference finished in the bottom four? For starters, the last four teams that featured the Dryden Award winner also finished first in the league standings. You have to go all the way back to 1997, back to when Union was still Union, to find the only time since the award began that the best goaltender in the ECAC didn't finish in the top four. That year, Trevor Koenig almost singlehandedly guided the Skating Dutchmen to a 5th place finish.

We're a long way from the awards ceremony in Lake Placid, but Jason Kasdorf, much as in his freshman year, looks ready to singlehandedly win more than a few games for RPI this season. He doesn't make the Engineers the best team in the league on his own, but... child, please.

2. The sophomores are vastly improved from last season.

There was much consternation last season about the lack of impact that the freshman class was exerting on the team's fortunes. Jake Wood and Jimmy DeVito were in and out of the lineup even when they were healthy (Wood lost time to a knee injury), and ice time was very scarce for Riley Bourbonnais. The only freshman to get a serious amount of playing time was Parker Reno, and he frequently became a healthy scratch down the stretch.

Reno may yet have trouble breaking the lineup with frequency (more on that later), but after what we've seen from Wood, DeVito, and especially Bourbonnais in the exhibition and the two Icebreaker games, all three look to play far greater roles this season. Bourbonnais may well be benefiting from playing on the clear top scoring line with two seniors who need to be key propellants for the RPI scoring scheme this year in Matt Neal and Jacob Laliberte, but he certainly looks like he belongs on that line the way he's played, and it's unlikely that Seth Appert would put him there for the sole purpose of making him look good.

Meanwhile, Wood and DeVito have proven to be more of an offensive threat while maintaining their physical play. Wood especially seems fit to serve as the team's physical pest.

3. Mike Prapavessis and Viktor Liljegren are ready to be impact players as freshmen.

One a highly-touted NHL draft pick, the other committed to RPI just this past April. Both already look as though they're ready to play serious roles for the Engineers.

Prapavessis looks like the kind of two-way defenseman that RPI was lacking last season, the one to fill the role Nick Bailen played two seasons ago. Appert has made no mistake about his desire to have at least one player to fill that position, and with the addition of Prapavessis, he's got a very talented one to lead a number of options that can attack from anywhere in the zone and provide an important boost to Kasdorf's defensive efforts.

Liljegren, meanwhile, may prove to be a diamond in the rough considering how late in the game he made his college commitment. The way he's played the in the three outings we've seen thus far, he may well be a vital element on RPI's second or third lines, which at the end of the day are going to make or break the offensive structure based on how well they're able to convert scoring opportunities. He already looks solid playing between Wood and Drew Melanson.

The rest of the freshman class that we've seen so far - Kenny Gillespie is the only skater who has yet to dress in any of the three games - also shows some promise. Melanson has played on Liljegren's wing so far and he generated offensive opportunities in the exhibition game especially. Lou Nanne scored a nice put-back in the exhibition and appears comfortable on the fourth line. Both Melanson and Nanne have a tremendous amount of speed, and both could be exciting to watch in the near future as they adapt their games to the college level.

4. The defensive corps is deep.

We knew there would be a lot of experience on the blue line this season, especially with Luke Curadi, Curtis Leonard, and Chris Bradley as three of the stalwarts, but the addition of Prapavessis, and the breakthrough late last year of Craig Bokenfohr that looks to be for real early on this year leaves the Engineers with five fairly firmly established defensemen that are likely to be regular parts of the lineup. That leaves three more-than-capable players for the sixth spot in Reno, Jared Wilson, and Bradley Bell. 

Early returns suggest that Wilson is a step ahead of the others right now, but Bell dressed as a seventh defenseman against Minnesota - and based on what we know about Reno from last season and how he looked in the exhibition, he's far from a throw-in or simply an injury replacement. The RPI faithful can be confident that RPI's eight-deep defensive set (nine if you include Phil Hampton, who's converting to a reserve center position) is among the best in the league.

5. The penalty kill looks sharp.

8-for-9 in the Icebreaker, with the one blemish basically a function of a faceoff loss and about the only mistake Kasdorf made all weekend. During the flow of the penalty kill, with the other team set up in the RPI zone, the penalty killers did a tremendous job of shutting down shooting lanes, keeping the puck to the outside, clearing, and forechecking down a man. Their efforts against Notre Dame were especially crucial to the Engineers' victory. A good penalty kill is an important compliment to strong, physical play. If it keeps up, it's another feather in the cap.

6. Scoring by committee is going to be a necessity, and there's some work still to be done there.

Bear in mind that RPI was taking on top-level competition last weekend, especially on Sunday, but it's very apparent that there isn't going to be a player like Ryan Haggerty last season who takes the team on his back and scores an inordinate number of goals himself. There's no question that upperclassmen like Neal, Laliberte, and Zach Schroeder are going to need to shoulder more of the burden than others, but consistent scoring from the second, third, and even fourth lines are going to be necessary if the Engineers are going to contend.

That said, while the seeds of committee are clearly being sown, there's a lot more that needs to be seen from the first and second lines in terms of attack. Even Liljegren's third line will need to be improved in the coming weeks. When RPI had the puck in the attacking zone, there was an increased feeling that the team wasn't relying specifically on one line, but at times they didn't exactly look dangerous. The first line still needs to lead the way, and the production needs to pick up below it.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Men's Hockey - Icebreaker Tournament (10-12 Oct)

The Engineers got their season out of the gates with a difficult assignment - the annual Icebreaker tournament, which always features some of the top teams in the nation. The way it played out was probably one of the toughest paths possible, featuring a game against the homestanding Notre Dame Fighting Irish followed by the consensus favorites for the national championship, the Minnesota Golden Gophers. RPI picked up an upset victory in the first round by knocking off the Irish, 3-2, but learned they have a long way to go to challenge the very best in the nation, playing well but falling 3-0 to Minnesota.

Notre Dame
Neal-Laliberte-Bourbonnais
McGowan-Bubela-Schroeder
Wood-Liljegren-Melanson
Nanne-Miller-DeVito

Leonard-Bokenfohr
Curadi-Prapavessis
Wilson-Bradley

Kasdorf

Lines and pairings for the Engineers against Notre Dame were similar to the ones put forward for the exhibition matchup the previous weekend. Milos Bubela was reinserted into the lineup on the second line, moving Lou Nanne to the fourth line.

After a back-and-forth, fast-paced 10 minutes to start the game as both teams got their competitive legs underneath them, a penalty to Jared Wilson was the first item of note on the box score, producing a penalty kill that RPI got behind them with little fuss. Notre Dame would, however, score the game's first goal shortly after killing a penalty of their own with very little problem, getting a tally from Mario Lucia to take a 1-0 lead with just under three minutes left in the game.

RPI wasted very little game time getting the goal back. After a cross-checking call against the Irish with 11 seconds left in the first period, freshman Viktor Liljegren scored the Engineers' first goal of the season, and the first of his career, on the power play just 42 seconds into the second period to knot the game up at one.

Five minutes later, it was Jacob Laliberte scoring his first of the year on a redirection of a shot by Matt Neal to put RPI ahead for the first time. After that, it was the Engineers' penalty kill that saved the day, scotching power play opportunities for Notre Dame off penalties to Drew Melanson and Jake Wood.

Another penalty by Wood in the early third period looked to give the Irish their fifth power-play chance of the game, but a penalty to Lucia six seconds later ended it before it even began. Notre Dame did end up making the most of the ensuing 4-on-4, tying the game at two with a goal by Jordan Gross. But as the 4-on-4 continued, and with Wood about to exit the penalty box, RPI earned what would eventually be the game winning goal from junior Mark Miller, who put back a shot by Zach Schroeder to put the Engineers ahead for good.

Jason Kasdorf, in his first official game for RPI in almost a full calendar year, stopped 14 of 15 Notre Dame shots in the third period to seal the victory, as the Irish spent much of the last 10 minutes of the game with the puck down in the Engineers zone. He made 31 saves on 33 shots overall.

The victory set up an early Sunday championship game against #1 Minnesota, who had been 4-3 winners over Minnesota-Duluth earlier on Friday. There were no games played on Saturday due to the Notre Dame football game taking place on campus that day, which would have completely dominated the tournament's conclusion otherwise.

Minnesota
Neal-Laliberte-Bourbonnais
McGowan-Miller-Schroeder
Wood-Liljegren-Melanson
Nanne, DeVito

Leonard-Bokenfohr
Curadi-Prapavessis
Wilson-Bradley
Bell

Kasdorf

Bubela, who didn't see an awful lot of ice time on Friday, was pulled out of the RPI lineup against the Golden Gophers. The Engineers dressed just 11 forwards, two of which (Nanne and Schroeder) are from families with Minnesota hockey alums in their ranks. In Bubela's place, Bradley Bell suited up for his first official action as an RPI Engineer, skating as a seventh defenseman.

From the very outset of the game, it was apparent that Minnesota was the dominant team. The Golden Gophers controlled basically every aspect of the game from start to finish, and it was a testament to how well RPI played in response that the final score was not worse than it ended up becoming. Some observers said the Engineers looked like they were a step behind the #1 ranked team in the country, it was probably more accurate to say that Minnesota was a step ahead.

The Gophers collected just one goal in each of the three periods, getting points from Seth Ambroz in the first, tournament MVP Hudson Fasching in the second, and Connor Reilly in the third. The first two goals were on redirects in front that were primarily a function of Minnesota's superior puck control, the third was a power play goal immediately after the first faceoff of the man advantage, a booming shot from the point that Kasdorf probably would have preferred a second chance at, quite possibly the only goal of the weekend that he gave up that he could have done better with.

The Engineers took their chances throughout the game and put a respectable 22 shots on Minnesota goaltender Adam Wilcox, but many of their opportunities were not high-percentage chances, and Wilcox gave up few rebounds. Despite Wilcox's shutout, it was Kasdorf who was named the game's third star after a second consecutive 31-save effort, this time making 31 saves on 34 shots, including a couple of breakaway saves against some of the best shooters in the country.

For the next three weekends, the Engineers will have only a single opponent in a weekend series. It starts with another long road trip, this one to the NCHC's Denver, and follows with the home openers against Bentley and the annual home-and-home against Union.

RPI at #12 Notre Dame
Icebreaker Game - Compton Family Ice Arena (South Bend, IN)
10/10/14 - 7:30pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Notre Dame 2


RECORD: 1-0-0

RPI vs. #1 Minnesota
Icebreaker Game - Compton Family Ice Arena (South Bend, IN)
10/12/14 - 12:00pm

RESULT: Minnesota 3, RPI 0


RECORD: 1-1-0

Upcoming games
17 Oct - at #16 Denver
18 Oct - at #16 Denver
24 Oct - Bentley
25 Oct - Bentley
31 Oct - #2 Union

Women's Hockey - Vermont Home-and-Home (11/12 Oct)

After a rough start to the season against North Dakota and Bemidji State, RPI looked to rebound in a home-and-home series against the Vermont Catamounts. The Engineers gave up a 2-1 lead, allowing three goals in the third period to fall 4-2 on Saturday, but managed to salvage a 2-2 tie out of the weekend on Sunday.

With another winless weekend, the Engineers have not picked up a win in an NCAA contest since January 18 (14 games), when they beat Union 3-0.

Saturday

Mahoney/Gruschow/Svoboda
Horwood/Wash/Renn
Rooney/Mankey/Walsh
Raspa/Hylwa

Behounek/Banks
Middlebrook/Schilter
Kimmerle/Godin

O'Brien

Two goals in less than two minutes flipped the lead from RPI to Vermont, and a total of three goals in the third period led the Catamounts to a 4-2 victory over RPI in Troy Frday night.

Brittany Zuback scored on a 3-on-1 rush in the first period to open up the scoring. RPI erased the deficit in the second with a goal by Ali Svoboda, then later in the frame took a 2-1 lead behind a Mariana Walsh goal out of a scrum in the Vermont crease.

The positives were not long-lasting for the Engineers, as back to back power play goals by Zuback and Amanda Pelkey flipped the 2-1 RPI lead to a 3-2 Vermont lead before the 3:30 mark of the third. Pelkey notched another goal later in the third, soundly beating several RPI players on her march down ice to turn the 3-2 lead into a 4-2 lead which held up through the end of regulation.

RPI finished the afternoon with 33 shots, while the Catamounts put 38 shots on net.

Sunday

Mahoney/Gruschow/Svoboda
Horwood/Wash/Renn
Rooney/Mankey/Walsh
Raspa/Hylwa

Behounek/Banks
Middlebrook/Schilter
Kimmerle/Godin

Piper

Whitney Renn and Lauren Wash scored for the Engineers, but another pair of power play goals by Vermont's Bridget Baker cost the Engineers a chance at a win in another game in which they were outshot by Vermont.

Once again, Vermont scored first, with Baker picking up a rebound on the power play and putting it past Brianna Piper to give the Catamounts a 1-0 lead.

Renn evened things up a few minutes later, with a little confusion and controversy after what started as an inconclusive play was ruled a goal when the officials declared that a Vermont defender had pushed Renn into Vermont goalie Madison Litchfield, sliding Litchfield and the puck into the net.

After a scoreless second period which saw the teams trade several penalties, Wash gave RPI its first lead of the season at 3:54 of the third, putting a backhand shot past Litchfield to make it 2-1.

That lead too would evaporate later in the third when Baker scored her second power play goal of the afternoon, picking up another rebound much like her first goal.

The Engineers were outshot every period on Sunday, including 14-4 in the first period and 36-20 overall on the afternoon. They will look to turn things around next Friday in Durham against a New Hampshire squad that has had it's share of difficulties over the past season.

-----

RPI vs. Vermont
Non-Conference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
10/11/14 - 3:00pm
Vermont 4, RPI 2

BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1415/boxes/wrenver1.o11
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=4425

RECAPS:
Vermont: http://uvmathletics.com/news/2014/10/11/WHOCKEY_1011140121.aspx

RECORD: 0-3-0 (0-0-0 ECAC)

-----

RPI at Vermont
Non-Conference Game - Gutterson Fieldhouse (Burlington, VT)
10/12/14 - 2:00pm
RPI 2, Vermont 2 (OT)

BOX SCORES:
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=4426
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1415/boxes/wrenver1.o12

RECAPS:
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/news/2014/10/12/WICE_1012142605.aspx
Vermont: http://uvmathletics.com/news/2014/10/12/WHOCKEY_1012144051.aspx

RECORD: 0-3-1 (0-0-0 ECAC)

-----

Upcoming Schedule

Oct. 18 - at New Hampshire (2pm)
Oct. 25 - UConn (3pm)
Oct. 26 - UConn (2pm)
Oct. 31 - at Harvard (7pm)
Nov. 1 - at Dartmouth (4pm)

Friday, October 10, 2014

The Boys are Back

It's on.

The men's grueling start to the season begins tonight, as they take on #12 Notre Dame in the annual Icebreaker Tournament, straight outta Compton Family Ice Arena in South Bend. On Sunday, they get either Minnesota-Duluth, a team that was just barely outside of the first USCHO poll (by a single vote) or the #1 team in all the land and the pretty clear favorites for the national championship, Minnesota.

The women get their first home game on Saturday when they take on Vermont, and then they turn around and head up to Burlington on Sunday for the back-end of a home-and-home series. That makes for an even more rare men/women doubleheader on a Sunday.

Hockey is fully back, and it's time to get flying.


No Comment

Here's the worst thing that happened on Tuesday when Union head coach Rick Bennett was addressing the media on the semi-lengthy suspensions handed out to three Union upperclassmen.

From a video shot by the Daily Gazette:

Reporter: Is this a legal matter involved here?

Bennett: No comment.

There's no worse response to a request for a statement of fact - or worse, a yes or no question - than "no comment." None. All it does is make everyone wonder why you won't say yes or no.

If it wasn't a legal matter, it would be easy enough to simply say so. Therefore, if it's not something that can be immediately denied, there's obviously some truth to it.

Saying "no comment" is always a comment - the comment is that you don't want to answer the question. Depending on the nature of the question being responded to, it can quickly lead to some obvious assumptions as to what the answer is.

Let's look at a couple of examples from the recent ECAC past.

A few years ago, Brown head coach Brendan Whittet was being asked about the officiating in an RPI-Brown game at Houston Field House - during the playoffs, I believe. There was a question about the validity of a goal that the Engineers scored, and Whittet responded with "no comment."

It was a response that made sense for everyone. Reporters understood immediately that Whittet was really saying. "Yeah, I thought that goal was nonsense, but I'm not going to complain about it here because coaches get suspended by the league for showing up referees." Whittet gets his point across without having to sit out a game.

The difference here is that Whittet was being asked for a statement of opinion, not a statement of fact.

Even Bennett himself has properly used "no comment." Last year after the Mayor's Cup brawl (popularly known in the Secret Underwater Lair as the "FU at the TU"), Bennett was asked why he went after Seth Appert in the post-game press conference, and he said "no comment."

It works here because he was being asked to divulge information that, unless he's already told someone else, no one else would know. If someone decides not to bear personal knowledge for public scrutiny, "no comment" ends up shutting down the only path to that knowledge.

Whether the suspended Union players are involved in a legal matter is not something that would be limited in that fashion. They either are, or they aren't, and if one can't answer a binary question, anyone with any degree of curiosity about the situation (like, say, reporters) will immediately consider why either answer would draw stonewalling. If they aren't, why would that be something that would be covered up? The opposite question, of course, is easy to answer.

Here's the way Bennett should have handled things if he didn't want to tip his hand here.

Reporter: Is this a legal matter involved here?

Bennett: This is a matter of three players that did something that was in violation of team rules and they have been assessed consequences for their violations, which they fully understand was detrimental to the entire program. They're taking accountability for what they have done and as a program we're moving on from what they did.

Assuming that a legal matter was indeed involved, and getting involved in legal matters is indeed a violation of team rules, this response isn't untrue. If you look closely, you'll notice it doesn't answer the question, but it looks and sounds far less evasive.

Bottom line, if you can't (or don't want to) flatly state the truth, dazzle them with BS. Don't ever look like you're dodging a simple question.

Instead, the response of "no comment" just fans the flames even more, and makes reporters want to dig under the wall - and when they find out what's going on, whether it's a big deal or not, suddenly it's not just the incident in question that is a problem. The cover-up becomes just as important.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Our Ballot - Men's Preseason ECAC

We've got a vote in the ECAC media poll. Every year we release our ballot so people can know what our mindset is on things. This year was far more belabored than most - lots of times, there's a pretty clear-cut #1, a pretty clear-cut #2, and then a murky middle. True for 2014-15, but the murky middle has rarely been this murky.

1. Colgate - When it comes to laying out who the top team in the league is, the driving force has got to be deciding which team has the fewest question marks coming into the season. That has to be the Raiders. They've got an outstanding young netminder in Charlie Finn, a talented core of juniors on offense, excellent leadership, and a veteran coaching staff. This is a team primed for great things this season not just in the ECAC, but as a dark horse contender to make the rest of the college hockey world continue to pay attention to the league.

2. Quinnipiac - We're starting to get to the point where Rand Pecknold and company are just reloading every year instead of rebuilding, and once again, the Bobcats continue to find ways to finish their season on a higher level than most thought possible at the beginning of years. The young talent that came in last year following the Q's trip to the Frozen Four supplemented the returning veterans nicely, and they've got another good group of youngsters joining the fray. Michael Gartieg is legit, so as long as the blueliners do an acceptable job in front of him, this is a team that still has very few flaws and could only get better in the coming years.

3. Union - The first team to sweep the ECAC regular season, ECAC tournament, and national championship since RPI in 1985, the Dutchmen still have plenty in the tank. While some would demand that Union has top be at the top until proven otherwise because of their accolades last season, we'd prefer to look at what they've got instead of what they had. That said, Union's still full of outstanding talent and will be pretty good on both sides of the puck still, so they aren't sliding very far.

4. Cornell - In some ways, this is just a "you can't ever pick Cornell too low" selection, but there's a good reason for that meme in the first place. The Big Red do need to get more out of their offense than they've produced in the last couple of seasons, but no matter who the personnel are in Ithaca, you can rest assured that the defense, 14 times out of 15, is going to get the job done - and they do have the talent on their roster to get that much needed offensive bump.

5. RPI - Is this optimistic? It might be. It could also be pessimistic from our perspective. Getting Jason Kasdorf back in the net is likely to be huge for the Engineers, and his presence during the 2012-13 season had a "rising tide raises all ships" effect on other parts of RPI's game. The Engineers should have a very solid defense, and if that rising tide comes back this year to help out the questionable but capable offense. That said, this is also a team capable of sliding quickly to the very bottom if they don't establish a good rhythm.

6. Dartmouth - The Big Green should be at least better than their miserable finish in last year's ECAC table, especially given the glimpse of excellence they displayed from February on to becoming the only road team to win a league playoff series. They lose practically nobody from a team that began hitting its stride late, but the real question is whether Dartmouth was showing massive improvement or simply was getting on a roll at the right time. The answer's probably somewhere in the middle, which helps lead them to the middle of the league on this ballot.

7. Yale - This feels far too low, and yet I can't find a better place to put the Bulldogs. Bearing in mind that the separation between three or four spots in the final standings is often razor-thin, I'm putting Yale 7th in part because their season last year was almost as frustratingly difficult as the Engineers' campaign. Many of their very best players are now on the underclass side of things after graduating some of the most important elements of their national championship run, and it's hard to put a lot of stock in those guys carrying the team to bigger and better things without a known rock between the pipes.

8. Clarkson - The Knights are another team that has the potential to do a lot of damage, and they're very comparable in a lot of ways to the Engineers - a good, solid defensive core, but a definite need to find scoring somewhere. They're here in part because I'm not as big on Clarkson's goaltending duo as I am with RPI's, and the Engineers have more potential answers to the offensive question than the Golden Knights have. But much like RPI, this is a team that has the ability to finish a lot higher in the standings if they can get themselves into a groove and stay there, especially if they can spread the scoring out among a number of players.

9. Harvard - Hard to place a team that has this much talent this far down the chart, but the startling lack of consistency across the board with the Crimson for the last couple of seasons makes it difficult to trust Harvard. Based on the recent track record alone, this could well be a team that should be even lower than this, and this ranking is more of a belief in the individual abilities of players like Jimmy Vesey, Alexander Kerfoot, and Kyle Criscuolo, but until they get themselves situated like a team out on the ice, their climb up the rankings from their recent dismal showings isn't going far.

10. Brown - Taking a "show me first" attitude with Brown. It's hard to find a single scoring line in the league that compares with Lorito-Naclerio-Lappin, but outside of that trio, the Bears haven't proven that they have the chops to run with the rest of the league. I maintain that this team is just one or two players away from being among the very best in the entire ECAC, and those players may well be coming in the near future, but for now Brown still looks too one-dimensional to play a major role in the way things will shake out this season.

11. St. Lawrence - This seems to have all the makings of a "start over" season for the Saints. A lot of good young players but growing pains definitely appear to be in the offing. It's very difficult for any team to lose the core of its scoring prowess, but the Saints had pretty much everything that was good about last year's team leave, and everything that was bad about last year's team return. They've got a new goaltender and there's almost no way their offense can be as strong as it was with the Carey brothers.

12. Princeton - Buh. There's really not much of anything to like here. The sole source of optimism seems to be the addition of Ron Fogarty behind the bench, but much as with Brown, the one bright light, by itself, isn't enough to warrant anything higher than the bottom third of the league, and in the Tigers' case, the absolute cellar. Some teams do a lot of things well, and some teams even have one or two bright spots. There really isn't that with Princeton - what little they had going for them last season (basically, Andrew Calof) is gone, and it's not a sure thing that what they have is ready for prime time.

We were asked to select an all-ECAC team as well, and these were my picks:

G - Jason Kasdorf, RPI: Go ahead. Call it a homer pick. Rant and rave about how last year's top goaltender is back. I don't care. Jason Kasdorf, in his freshman year, played better and lifted his team more than any returning netminder in the league from last season. He doesn't lose that status because he got hurt last season - he only loses it if someone rises to a level above him.

D - Gavin Bayreuther, SLU: If I could take any one player from around the league and put him on the Engineers, it would be Bayreuther. His season last year was quite an eye-opener, coming practically from out of nowhere, playing well enough right out of the gate to almost earn a spot on the US World Junior team. Now, in only his sophomore season, he's already a player opposing teams have to account for and plan around on both sides of the ice.

D - Spiro Goulakos, COL: There are few players in the league who can match the defensive ability on the ice that Goulakos has with the leadership he also brings to the table. As the captain for a second season on this year's best team in the league (on paper, anyway), he's an important asset for the Raiders defensively, giving the team's very talented offense the ability to perform with the knowledge that he's back there on patrol. That he does all this after beating lymphoma is even more impressive.

F - Matthew Peca, QU: The league's top returning scorer has to be a part of this list practically by default, but in Peca's case he's been one of the driving elements of the Bobcats offense since he arrived in Hamden, and is one of the last remaining stars from Quinnipiac's Frozen Four team two seasons ago. With the departure of the Carey brothers, he's officially the league's most dangerous attacker.

F - Daniel Ciampini, UC: Here's a guy who has frequently gotten lost in the mix in terms of accolades at Union these last couple of years, but he's always been more than just a cog in the machine. Playing a vital role in the Dutchmen's offensive prowess basically since he arrived in Schenectady, he's now the man offensively and he's a big reason why Union will still be one of the league's best teams.

F - Matt Lorito, BRN: Possibly the best overall forward in the league, and he gets overlooked by a lot of people because the team around him is relatively weak, making his numbers less gaudy than they could be because the opposition can get away with devoting a significant chunk of its defensive strategy to keeping him out of the net.

Even though there wasn't a second team, here's a second team, because these are all guys who warrant first-team looks as well (and some of them were on the actual first-team).

G - Colin Stevens, UC
D - Joakim Ryan, COR
D - Gus Young, YU
F - Sam Anas, QU
F - Eric Neiley, DC
F - Tylor Spink, COL

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Men's Hockey - UPEI (4 Oct)

As usual, the Engineers got their season started with an exhibition contest against a Canadian team, and as usual, there were a number of things that can be said about the game. It was physical. It was sloppy. It was full of encouraging signs. It was meaningless in the end. There are no conclusions to be drawn from RPI's 5-2 victory over the University of Prince Edward Island, but there are certainly some highlights worth mentioning.

UPEI
Neal-Laliberte-Bourbonnais
Nanne-McGowan-Schroeder
Wood-Liljegren-Melanson
Fulton-Miller-DeVito
Hampton

Leonard-Bokenfohr
Curadi-Prapavessis
Wilson-Bradley
Bell-Reno

Kasdorf

The only players who didn't suit up for this game were Milos Bubela and Kenny Gillespie. Tough to say if there are any issues there, as you can only fit so many players on a bench - the only real limitation to who dresses for an exhibition. There was also one change in position, as Phil Hampton participated in the game as a center, a departure from his position as a defenseman during his first two seasons in Troy.

After a sloppy opening 10 minutes to the game that featured quite a lot of missed passes and blown opportunities by both teams, PEI was first on the board with a goal scored at point blank range by Tyler Brown, one of two Americans on the Panthers. He capitalized on a pass from behind the RPI net from Darcy Ashley, who had picked an Engineer's pocket in order to create the opportunity.

The Engineers finished the first period with a bang, however, as Lou Nanne scored six minutes later to tie the game, and then a goal by Matt Neal picking up a rebound from a shot by a coast-to-coast moving Riley Bourbonnais with about 40 seconds left in the first to send the teams back to the locker room at 2-1.

RPI continued the momentum early in the second period, as freshman Viktor Liljegren scored just 11 seconds into the game's first power play for either team to make it 3-1, a scoreline that was maintained throughout much of the middle frame.

With about six minutes left to play in the second, an open ice hit by Jake Wood on Spencer Metcalfe set in motion events that would have lasting reprecussions on the rest of the game. Wood's hit completely upended Metcalfe and created a huge cheer from the crowd. Metcalfe then sought out Wood for retribution, and got a minor penalty for charging for his trouble.

The Engineers didn't score on that power play opportunity, but as the period drew to a close, Curtis Leonard scored on a blistering slapshot from the point to make the score 4-1.

PEI's Brock Beukeboom, about a minute later, decided to take his own run at Wood, delivering a vicious elbow that earned him a five minute major with 9 seconds left in the second period. Wood skated back to the locker room, but would return in the third. The major carried over into the final period, and late in RPI's power play is when all hell broke loose.

In the corner behind the PEI net, Panthers defenseman Nelson Armstrong fell down on the puck, and multiple RPI forwards tried to pry it loose. That led to a serious scuffle and some wrestling on the ice that quickly included PEI goaltender Mavric Parks, as the Panthers, down a man, sought to even things up. Parks would be thrown out of the game for facemasking, while Bourbonnais picked up a double minor for slashing and roughing and Jimmy DeVito was given a minor for roughing.

The Parks penalty brought with it another five minute major, and late in that penalty - only one minute of which the Engineers actually had a power play, due to the Bourbonnais penalty - Leonard scored again on a long slapper, this one from a little closer to the net at the top of a faceoff circle, putting RPI ahead 5-1.

A minute and a half later, the Wood/Metcalfe saga came to an end when, after more pushing and shoving between the two, the referees simply awarded both 10-minute misconducts, effectively ending their night.

PEI pulled one back minutes later, beating Scott Diebold (who played the second half of the game) to make it 5-2, but that was as close as they would get. Overall, both goaltenders played well for the Engineers, and after the first 10 minutes were over, RPI's defensive corps produced some strong two-way play, which is expected to be part of their gameplan this season.

Next up for the Engineers is a trip to Notre Dame for the annual Icebreaker tournament. This will be RPI's third time playing in the Icebreaker. They'll face the home team on Friday, then either Minnesota - the top ranked team in the nation - or Minnesota-Duluth on Sunday.

UPEI at RPI
Exhibition Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
10/4/14 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 5, UPEI 2


RECORD: 0-0-0

Upcoming games
10 Oct - at #12 Notre Dame
12 Oct - vs. #1 Minnesota/Minnesota-Duluth (South Bend, IN)
17 Oct - at #18 Denver
18 Oct - at #18 Denver
24 Oct - Bentley

Monday, October 6, 2014

Women's Hockey - at North Dakota & Bemidji State (3/4 Oct)

After opening up the season with a 2-0 exhibition win over the Ottawa Jr. Senators, RPI hit the road and headed west to launch the regular season against North Dakota and Bemidji State. The long trip didn't do the Engineers any favors as they got whalloped by a 7-1 margin in Grand Forks before suffering a 4-0 shutout the next night in Bemidji.

North Dakota

Rooney/Gruschow/Renn
Horwood/Tomlinson/Svoboda
Mahoney/Mankey/Walsh
Raspa/Hylwa

Huhtamaki/Banks
Kimmerle/Godin
Schilter/Behounek

O'Brien

The Engineers faced as many shots in the third period as they put on net the entire game Friday night, and North Dakota roared to a 7-1 victory over RPI behind a hat trick from Becca Kohler and four assists from Meghan Dufault.

The Engineers went 0-for-11 on the power play in their regular-season opener, including four chances on the 5-on-3, while UND put home two power play tallies and a shorthanded goal to soundly win the special teams battle.

Kohler scored the only goal of the first period, left wide open to rush down the right wing on the power play and take a pass from Dufault with only Kelly O'Brien left to beat.

UND added three goals in the second period, with Josephine Jakobsen and Marissa Salo each notching one while Kohler picked up her second of the night, also on the power play.

After a penalty for too many players early in the third, Andrea Dalen made it a 5-0 lead for UND with a wrist shot on a shorthanded rush down ice.

Kohler completed the hat trick midway through the third, with another feed from Dufault on a 2-on-1 opportunity. Salo made it 7-0 in the final five minutes, picking up her own rebound on another 2-on-1 chance to sneak the shot past O'Brien.

Shayna Tomlinson allowed RPI to avoid the shutout less than a minute after Salo's goal, intercepting a UND pass and putting it in the back of the net for an unassisted tally to make it 7-1.

O'Brien faced 39 shots in the contest, turning 32 aside, while UND's Shelby Amsley-Benzie stopped 20 of 21 on the night.

Bemidji State

Horwood/Tomlinson/Svoboda
Rooney/Gruschow/Renn
Mahoney/Mankey/Walsh
Raspa/Hylwa

Schilter/Behounek
Huhtamaki/Banks
Kimmerle/Godin
Middlebrook

Piper

With Bemidji State tabbed to finish seventh in the eight-team WCHA this season, the Engineers might have been hoping for a better result after Friday night's showing at UND, but Saturday did not go any better, With a 40-15 shot disparity in favor of the Beavers and the Engineers suffering a 4-0 shutout.

BSU jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead as Kristin Huber scored just 16 seconds into the game. Summer Thibodeau made it 2-0 late in the second, then handed RPI a 5-on-3 opportunity before the period ended which was cut short by an RPI penalty.

The Beavers tacked on two more goals in the span of 39 seconds near the middle of the third, with Rachael Kelly notching a power play goal followed shortly by Megan Lushanko's second of the season to make it a 4-0 game.

Brianna Piper finished with 36 saves on 40 shots, while Erin Deters earned her first shutout of the season for BSU.

RPI returns home next Saturday (3pm) for a single game against Vermont before heading to Burlington on Sunday (2pm) to make it a home-and-home series.

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RPI at #7/#8 North Dakota
Non-Conference Game - Ralph Engelstad Arena (Grand Forks, ND)
10/3/14 - 8:07pm
UND 7, RPI 1

BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1415/boxes/wndkren1.o03
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=4423

RECAPS:
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/news/2014/10/3/WICE_1003140540.aspx
UND: http://www.undsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=209695687

RECORD: 0-1-0 (0-0-0 ECAC)

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RPI at Bemidji State
Non-Conference Game - Sanford Center (Bemidji, MN)
10/4/14 - 8:07pm
BSU 4, RPI 0

BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1415/boxes/wbmjren1.o04

RECAPS:
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/news/2014/10/4/WICE_1004140335.aspx
BSU: http://www.bsubeavers.com/whockey/news/2014-15/7713/bemidji-state-shuts-out-rpi-4-0-and-remain-unbeaten-this-season/

RECORD: 0-2-0 (0-0-0 ECAC)

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Upcoming Schedule

Oct. 11 - Vermont (3pm)
Oct. 12 - at Vermont (2pm)
Oct. 18 - at New Hampshire (2pm
Oct. 25 - UConn (3pm)
Oct. 26 - UConn (2pm)

Friday, October 3, 2014

The Ecstasy of Gold

It may be 70 degrees outside, but summer is over. Let winter's icy grip commence... inside, at least.

The women got their unofficial start last week with a 2-0 victory over the Ottawa Jr. Senators, and they get things started for real this evening at North Dakota... listen to the action on WRPI tonight with Perry Laskaris.

Club hockey kicks off its home schedule tonight against Marist (I'll be on the call from the Houston Field House on RPITV), and the varsity gets their exhibition legs tomorrow night against Prince Edward Island).

Rejoice. Hockey season is here.


Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Know Thyself: RPI

The start of the season is upon us, and it's time once again to apply the "Know Your Enemy" treatment to our own team and see just how well the Engineers stack up. Last year was one of the most disappointing in recent memory for RPI, in part because expectations were so high coming into the season. A team that was expected to possibly top the ECAC standings for the first time since 1985 instead limped through much of the season, struggled late in games, and were once again beaten at home in three games in a playoff series. This year's Engineers have some challenges to overcome, but remain full of potential.

RPI
Nickname: Engineers
Location: Troy, NY
Founded: 1824
Conference: ECAC
National Championships: 2 (1954, 1985)
Last NCAA Appearance: 2011
Last Frozen Four: 1985
Coach: Seth Appert (9th season)
2012-13 Record: 15-16-6 (8-9-5 ECAC, 7th place)
All-Time Record: 1012-897-125 (987-824-119 in the modern era)
First Game: January 25, 1902 (Cohoes, NY)
First Win: February 26, 1904 (Albany, NY)
First Modern Era game: January 7, 1950 (Clinton, NY)
First Modern Era win: February 3, 1950 (Plattsburgh, NY)

Key players: D Luke Curadi, sr.; G Scott Diebold, sr.; F Jacob Laliberte, sr.; D Curtis Leonard, sr.; F Mark McGowan, sr.; F Matt Neal, sr.; D Chris Bradley, jr.; F Milos Bubela, jr.; F Mark Miller, jr.; F Zach Schroeder, jr.; G Jason Kasdorf, so.; D Parker Reno, so.; D Bradley Bell, fr.; F Kenny Gillespie, fr.; F Drew Melanson, fr.; F Louis Nanne, fr.; D Michael Prapavessis, fr.

Key losses: F Ryan Haggerty, F Brock Higgs, F Mike Zalewski, F Matt Tinordi, D Bo Dolan, D Guy Leboeuf, F Johnny Rogic

(I know, I know, I'm missing this potential impact freshman or that upperclassman primed to break out... I only assembled it the way I assembled the KYE teams, just to be fair. I'm sure I've left out some of the same for other teams.)

Any team with a player being whispered in the same breath as "Hobey Baker" in September that loses that player for the season in October is bound to be drastically changed by the loss - and such was the case for the Engineers when Kasdorf was sidelined for the year with what was, in all honesty, a freak accident off the ice.

But that alone was not what doomed the Engineers to a mid-table finish instead of the summit for which they'd been pegged. Offense quickly became a concern for RPI once they got into the ECAC schedule. Even without Kasdorf, they'd looked good against teams like BU and UNH in October, but if you remove the savage beatings the Engineers put on poor old Sacred Heart, the Engineers were at a -8 goal differential for the season. Against some of the best teams in the nation in January, the offense appeared non-existent, and for large stretches of the season, the only offense came from too few people.

The bad news coming into the season is that a good chunk of those "too few people" are now gone. The names that repeatedly appeared on the scoresheet in the middle of the season were Haggerty, Higgs, Laliberte, and Neal. From a goal scored by McGowan against Colgate on November 9th through a Bubela goal against Ferris State on January 3rd, those four forwards were the only ones able to score goals for the Engineers, an 8-game stretch that relied on only four of 12 forwards starting on any given night to put the puck in the net, a dry-spell of 551:38. RPI went 2-4-2 in that stretch.

Neal (27 points) and Laliberte (26) are indeed back as the team's top returning scorers, the only two from the top six that are back. Bradley, Schroeder, and Leonard are tied for the third highest scorers from last year with 12 points each, two of them being defensemen (and not exactly offensive-minded defensemen, either).

The key to success on offense this year: three to four guys are going to need to step up and help Neal and Laliberte. Schroeder, Bubela, and McGowan are high on this list, but freshmen like Melanson and Gillespie are probably going to need to be part of that mix as well.

Defensively, the Engineers do look strong. Leonard, Curadi, and Bradley are upperclass anchors for what should be a talented blueline, especially with the addition of Prapavessis to add some offensive spark from up top that used to be provided by Nick Bailen but was sorely missing last season.

How Kasdorf plays behind them coming back from his injury will play a big role on defense. If he's back to where he was as a freshman this year, it'll give the Engineers a huge boost. The offense, two seasons ago, was stronger when he was in net - partially because it gave the team the opportunity to take more chances on offense when they knew Kasdorf was on top of his game. If he can have a similar effect on this year's team, the forwards are experienced enough to take this team to the coveted top-four. If he struggles and the offense doesn't find people to step up, it's going to be a very long season.