Monday, November 30, 2015

Women's Hockey - New Hampshire (27/28 Nov)

After a disappointing exhibition outing in Montreal that saw RPI beaten 4-0 by McGill, the Engineers returned home for a Thanksgiving weekend non-conference pair against New Hampshire.

Alexa Gruschow provided all the offense for RPI on the weekend, notching a hat trick in Friday's 3-3 tie and another goal on Saturday in a 2-1 loss.

Friday

Schwalbe/Mankey/Gruschow
Wash/Tomlinson/Rooney
Grigsby/Raspa/Thomas
Tremblay/Hylwa/Orzechowski

Kimmerle/Godin
Behounek/Banks
Hansen

Selander

Alexa Gruschow scored two goals in three minutes late in the game to complete a hat trick and lead RPI's comeback to a 3-3 tie against New Hampshire at Houston Field House Friday night.

After Gruschow's first goal - the first of the game - was matched by UNH 23 seconds later, the Wildcats scored two more to take a 3-1 lead, necessitating Gruschow's late-game heroics.

The senior's first goal started through her own hard work along the boards to gain control of a puck which she fed to Mari Mankey behind the UNH net. Mankey slipped the puck back to the top of the crease where a charging Gruschow put it past Kyra Smith for the 1-0 lead.

Jonna Curtis ensured the RPI lead was short-lived, blowing past Hannah Behounek on a breakaway to beat Lovisa Selander and tie the game at one just 23 seconds later.

UNH took the lead later in the first period when a botched RPI pass at their own blue line gave the Wildcats a 2-on-1 which Cassandra Vilgrain finished off to make it 2-1.

The Wildcat lead grew to 3-1 at 2:46 of the middle frame, when Amy Schlagel scored a power play goal on a nice one-timer off a pass across the slot by Jonna Curtis.

RPI couldn't capitalize on a couple UNH penalties, leaving it to Gruschow's late-game tallies in the third to tie things up. She drew the Engineers to within one at 15:47, making a couple quick moves to get around the defense and throw a sharp angle shot at the net which found its way through.

Three minutes later she tied the game, parking at the side of the net with the extra attacker on and taking a feed from the slot which she quickly snapped past Smith.

The hat trick was the first of Gruschow's career, in a game which saw her put a team-leading six shots on net. Mari Mankey had two assists.

Saturday

Schwalbe/Mankey/Gruschow
Tremblay/Tomlinson/Rooney
Grigsby/Raspa/Thomas
Hylwa/Orzechowski

Hansen/Godin
Behounek/Banks
Kimmerle

Selander

After scoring a hat trick on Friday, Alexa Gruschow added another goal on Saturday, but it would be the Engineers' only goal on the afternoon and would not be enough as RPI fell 2-1 to UNH.

Amy Boucher scored for the Wildcats in the first period, deflecting a point shot from Amy Schlagel past Selander for a 1-0 lead.

Gruschow tied the game at 6:37 of the third period, putting home a loose puck after a shot from Josefine Hansen was blocked on its way to the net.

Amy Boucher put the Wildcats back on top at 11:41 with a power play tally, capitalizing on a failed RPI clearing attempt to take the lead.

RPI pushed for the tying goal as the clock ran down, pulling Selander for a minute and a half of extra attacker time, but the Wildcats held on to the lead for a win and a tie over the Engineers on the weekend.

The Engineers now return home for one more weekend of league play against Yale and Brown before a month-long winter break.

-----

RPI vs. New Hampshire
Non-Conference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/27/15 - 7pm
RPI 3, UNH 3 (OT)

BOX SCORES:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=5191
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1516/boxes/wrenunh1.n27

RECAPS:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/news/2015/11/27/WICE_1127151008.aspx?path=whock
UNH: http://unhwildcats.com/news/2015/11/27/WHOCKEY_1127153556.aspx?path=whockey
Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPjJ30KUUzI
Complete Game Video: http://rpitv.org/productions/1013-womens-hockey-vs-unh-game-1

RECORD: 4-7-2 (2-3-1 ECAC)

-----

RPI vs. New Hampshire
Non-Conference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/28/15 - 4pm
UNH 2, RPI 1

BOX SCORES:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=5192
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1516/boxes/wrenunh1.n28

RECAPS:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/news/2015/11/28/WICE_1128151302.aspx?path=whock
UNH: http://unhwildcats.com/news/2015/11/28/WHOCKEY_1128155834.aspx?path=whockey
Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua2ck7Nxf0o
Complete Game Video: http://rpitv.org/productions/1014-womens-hockey-vs-unh-game-2

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

-----

Upcoming Schedule

Dec. 4 - Yale (3pm)
Dec. 5 - Brown (3pm)
Jan. 2 - at Mercyhurst (3pm)
Jan. 3 - at Mercyhurst (1pm)

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Men's Hockey - at Bentley/New Hampshire (20/24 Nov)

Another weekend, another couple of wins for an RPI team that is certainly on more than a little bit of a roll - although neither win came easy. On the road against Bentley and at home against New Hampshire on Friday and Tuesday nights respectively, the Engineers jumped out to 3-0 leads twice but ultimately needed to rally in the third period twice as well on their way to 3-2 and 4-3 victories that extended their unbeaten streak to eight in a row - their longest unbeaten streak since the 1998-99 season.

Bentley
Liljegren-Bourbonnais-Wood
Melanson-Miller-Nanne
Fulton-Schroeder-Gillespie
Ohrvall, Rodriguez

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Reno
Moore-Hampton
Grant

Hackett

Alex Rodriguez made his collegiate debut on Friday at one of the smallest rinks in all of college hockey, replacing Lonnie Clary in the lineup. As with the previous weekend, Jason Kasdorf was available as a potential injury backup for Cam Hackett, but he ultimately did not play in either game the Engineers had over the five day period.

RPI's increasingly vaunted "M-N-M" line of Mark Miller, Lou Nanne, and Drew Melanson provided the spark and energy for the Engineers' offense throughout their first visit to Bentley, but specifically powered things during the first period, picking up two big goals to give the visitors the early edge. Nanne scored his third goal of the season with a helper from Melanson at 8:41 to put RPI ahead 1-0, and Miller added to that lead with a tally from Melanson at 17:44 of the period, his fourth goal of the year.

Meanwhile, the RPI penalty kill kept the Falcons held down during the opening 20 minutes, successfully killing off a pair of penalties to preserve the 2-0 lead. Then, midway through the second, Mike Prapavessis struck with his first goal of the season, putting back a rebound off a shot by Zach Schroeder, giving the Engineers a crucial 3-0 edge.

That's roughly the time when the tide began to shift in Bentley's favor. The home side, led by a line of Andrew Gladiuk, Max French, and Kyle Schmidt, pushed back fiercely. Hackett held up for much of the middle period, making a game-high 13 saves, but did let one by during a 4-on-4 counter-attack from the Falcons as Jake Ahlgren's goal got Bentley on the board.

Bentley's top line converted for a tally at 6:44 of the third period to really tighten the game up, but that was as close as the Falcons would get. Another 11 saves by Hackett in the third contributed to a 31-for-33 night for the freshman netminder, and RPI's defense dug deep late to come away with the victory against a very tenacious Bentley squad.

Riley Bourbonnais had a six-game point scoring streak snapped by missing the scoresheet against the Falcons, but he remained in the team lead for goals and points.

New Hampshire
Liljegren-Bubela-Bourbonnais
Melanson-Miller-Nanne
Wood-Schroeder-Gillespie
Ohrvall-Fulton-Rodriguez

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Reno
Moore-Hampton

Hackette

Milos Bubela returned to the lineup for the first time in nearly a month since suffering an injury against Union, allowing RPI to field the usual 12x6 lineup that most teams roll with. Functionally, he replaced Tommy Grant in the lineup, and three of the four forward lines were juggled a bit to accommodate for his return.

Prapavessis got the Engineers off to a quick start with his second goal of the year, second in as many games, and second RPI goal in a row by getting a shot from the point through everyone at 2:54 of the first period, just after intercepting a weak clearance attempt by UNH. The unassisted goal made it 1-0 RPI for the sixth time in the last eight contests.

Early in the second period, Melanson scored his second goal of the year by slamming home a rebound off a shots by both of his linemates, beating UNH netminder Danny Tirone into an open net for the 2-0 edge at 5:49 of the second. Just over three minutes later, shortly after killing off a dangerous UNH power play, Bourbonnais got himself back onto the scoresheet. With the Wildcats playing relatively lax defense and Bourbonnais himself fresh out of the penalty box, he slipped behind the UNH D and took a feed from Jake Wood, pounding it home for his team-leading 7th goal of the season and putting the Engineers ahead 3-0 for the second time in as many contests.

But that edge did not last long - much of it evaporated minutes later due to a poor hit by senior Milos Bubela, who was called for elbowing in the defensive zone. On the delayed call, UNH's Andrew Poturalski went to work. tipping home a shot from the point to put the Wildcats on the board before going back on the power play. Poturalski scored again on the ensuing man advantage less than a minute later, and just like that, the 3-0 lead was only 3-2.

Poturalski completed the natural hat trick just 1:04 into the third period, tying things up with his nation-leading 11th goal of the season, almost single-handedly knotting things back up with three goals in less than 10 minutes of game time. But as we've seen with RPI this season, losing a lead in the third period was not a time for giving up, and the Engineers fought valiantly in the final period, eventually cashing in with just 4:01 remaining in regulation. A good forecheck by Alex Rodriguez, playing in just his second collegiate game, provided a measure for Parker Reno to move up and keep the puck in the attacking zone. A quick feed to Travis Fulton produced a shot that Rodriguez deftly deflected past Tirone to give RPI a 4-3 lead.

From there, UNH looked for opportunities to give themselves that crucial 6-on-5 edge, but the Engineers displayed calm, level-headed defense by maintaining puck possession to an extent that the Wildcats were really never able to pull Tirone from the net, and the game ended with the puck down in the UNH end, where it had been for much of the final two minutes of the game, and the Engineers prevailed, skating off without being on the losing side for the eighth consecutive contest.

The emergence of Rodriguez on the fourth-line tempers slightly the loss of Evan Tironese, who on Monday underwent shoulder surgery and will be lost for the rest of the season. The freshman appeared in only six games this year, and as we have yet to reach the midway point of the season, he should be eligible for a medical redshirt, which will make him a redshirt freshman next year, a silver lining to some bad news for the Engineers.

The eight-game unbeaten streak is now the longest of the Appert era, and the longest overall since a nine-game winning streak in the 1998-99 season. They will look to extend that streak this coming weekend as they travel to Notre Dame for the annual Shillelagh Tournament. On Friday, they take on Ben Barr and the Western Michigan Broncos, a team that has struggled at times to keep the puck out of the net. On Saturday, they face off with a nationally-ranked team no matter who it ends up being, as #18 Notre Dame or #8 Harvard will be the opponent.

In ECAC play while RPI was in non-conference action, much of the league played the games in hand they had over the Engineers (except for Clarkson and St. Lawrence, which still have one game in hand), and RPI remains in first place, albeit now tied with Quinnipiac, who drew with the Golden Knights and Saints for their first blemishes on their record (though still undefeated). RPI returns to ECAC play in two weeks' time against Dartmouth and Harvard at home, closing out the 2015 portion of their league schedule.

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

By winning percentage
1. Quinnipiac (.833)
2. RPI (.833)
3. Harvard (.750)
4. Cornell (.750)
5. St. Lawrence (.700)
6. Yale (.667)
7. Brown (.333)
8. Dartmouth (.333)
9. Colgate (.250)
10. Clarkson (.200)
11. Union (.167)
12. Princeton (.167)

RPI at Bentley
Non-conference Game - John A. Ryan Skating Arena (Watertown, MA)
11/20/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Bentley 2

RECORD: 6-4-2 (4-0-2 ECAC, 10 pts)

New Hampshire at RPI
Non-conference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/24/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 4, New Hampshire 3


RECORD: 7-4-2 (4-0-2 ECAC, 10 pts)

Upcoming games
27 Nov - vs. Western Michigan (South Bend, IN)
28 Nov - at #18 Notre Dame/vs. #8 Harvard (South Bend, IN)
04 Dec - Dartmouth
05 Dec - #8 Harvard
11 Dec - Arizona State

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

A Rigged Game

College hockey has a remarkable ebb and flow to it, historically. Ten years ago, it seemed like nothing could ever stop the WCHA. From 2000 to 2006, the conference won the national title six times. From 1994 through 2010, there were no first-time national champions.

And now look at things. Since 2007, just one WCHA crown (and in modern terms, one Big Ten and one NCHC national championship). Since 2011, four of five national champions have been first-timers. And they're from places you wouldn't expect. Yale. Union. Providence. Your last three in a row, none of which were highly fancied at the beginning of their seasons.

Welcome to the new landscape of college hockey. It's all part and parcel of a history that created nationally recognizable programs in places like Colorado College and Clarkson and, until a couple of years ago, a highly insular structure with no national conferences to speak of.

And then along came the Big Ten.

"Men’s ice hockey is slightly more important to the Big Ten Network’s revenue stream than women’s field hockey, yet the conference was willing to blow up college hockey for a few hours of auxiliary programming," writes Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune this week. It's a perfect breakdown of why the hockey version of the Big Ten came into being, and what it did to the college hockey landscape. It was about programming for a conference television network focused on football and basketball, but needing other attractions to really make it tick. And it completely unraveled the long-standing order of things, especially out west.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Big Ten bigfooting the rest of college hockey. It didn't.

For a small conference - the smallest member-wise in college hockey - the Big Ten outpunches its size. Its six member schools have combined to win 23 national championships, more than any other conference (17 for the NCHC, 13 for Hockey East, 8 for the WCHA, 7 for the ECAC). But that's an accounting of the past, and this is now.

In its first season, the Big Ten did earn two of the #1 seedings in the NCAA tournament. But last year, its champion - Minnesota - could only manage a #3 seed, and the Gophers were the only Big Ten entrant, unceremoniously dumped by Minnesota-Duluth in the first round. Wisconsin labored last season as one of the worst teams in the nation, and this year, the entire conference outside of Michigan and Penn State is slouching out of the gate with pretty rough records.

So where's the problem? How did big money Minnesota, with its 10,000 seat arena and regional TV contract get embarrassed on national television in 2014 by a small liberal arts school in Upstate New York that plays its home games in a tea cup?

The answer lies heavily in the difference in the way Union and many small schools have been recruiting. If you've been paying close enough attention, the recent Frozen Four appearances by Bemidji State, RIT, Ferris State, and Union should not be blowing your mind. They're instructive instead. These schools don't grab the blue-chip prospects ready for college hockey when they turn 18. Those players go to Boston University (like Jack Eichel), or Michigan (like Dylan Larkin), or Wisconsin (like Nic Kerdiles). And they don't go there very long. Eichel and Larkin left after their freshman years, Kerdiles after his sophomore year.

No, Union built a national championship on the backs of older players who developed longer in junior hockey. Guys that were more experienced as freshmen at the age of 20 or 21 than even those blue-chippers. The next first-round draft pick may not be coming to play for Quinnipiac, but they'll gladly live with bringing in an older player who's going to be around for four years - and potentially playing as seniors at the age of 24 and 25. It's a great equalizer.

And the Big Ten has decided that it isn't fair.  (If you haven't read the story yet, click the link. Adam Wodon of College Hockey News breaks it down very well.)

Their solution? Without consulting the rest of the college hockey world at the annual meeting in Naples, FL, they decided instead to unilaterally submit legislation to be voted on by the NCAA - which they can do because they're the only "all sports conference" in college hockey - that would reduce the age limit before recruits will lose eligibility from 21 to 20.

The big, bad Big Ten needs the playing field leveled against those piteous little upstarts in Canton, NY and Duluth, MN, don't you see? It's just not fair.

Now, hockey does differ from most NCAA sports in the average age of freshmen, but it differs from most NCAA sports in a lot of other ways, too. Major league draftees don't lose eligibility. The aforementioned lack of "all sports conferences." The season length is longer. And of course, the sheer number of "play-up" teams. These are all by-products of college hockey's long-term niche presence and the nature of youth and junior hockey structures.

The Big Ten's excuse for all of this is that they're simply trying to bring hockey closer to being in line with the rest of the NCAA, even though it would be completely unacceptable to require recruits to be on campus immediately after they graduate high school. And why is that? What's the rationale?

We wrote five years ago about the recruiting game and how the NHL was changing things. The NCAA is becoming an ever increasing route for players to reach the pros - more than 30% of NHL players are NCAA alums now, as opposed to just over 20% a decade ago, and far less a decade before that. There was a time that even the very best players would stay for their entire four-year college career before jumping to the NHL. Today, pro contracts can frequently be in the offing even for guys that aren't likely to get a whole lot of ice time at the highest level, to say nothing of the blue-chip prospects.

Ironically, when we wrote that, we were expecting Brandon Pirri and Jerry D'Amigo to return to Troy for their sophomore seasons - and they didn't. So schools like RPI aren't looking for the Pirris and D'Amigos anymore. They're looking for the Chase Polaceks and Nick Bailens. It's the Mat Bodies and Jesse Roots of the world that are winning national championships. It's guys that are staying in college, finishing their education, and playing for four years that are powering the best teams in the country.

Most players who are playing in juniors into their early 20s aren't going to be NHL prospects - if they were, they'd have been pushed to college already, or headed off to major junior. But these players are also far more likely to graduate one day - which is supposed to be the point first and foremost.

Now, does this proposal explode the system? Not entirely. Players are still going to be able to mature in juniors for a couple of seasons before coming to college. But it stinks for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the underhanded way the Big Ten went about doing this. They are trying to ram it through with a vote among college administrators of whom a majority doesn't care a lick about hockey (which should sound familiar if you remember the Prop 65 battle a decade ago). They're doing it over the protestations of the vast majority of college hockey coaches (who opposed the measure 49-11 in a straw poll of all 60 of them), and probably worst of all, it skews things more in the favor of the schools that already have a lot of the advantages when it comes to recruiting in the first place.

Yes, these same institutions who don't bat an eye at accepting the commitment of players not even old enough to drive - and sometimes not even old enough to be in high school - have a problem with RIT stocking their roster with 21-year-old Canadian freshmen. Hear that? That's the sound of the world's tiniest violin. Getting beat by 24 and 25 year olds? Why don't you recruit some 20 and 21 year old freshmen yourself? Seems reasonable enough. Instead of adapting, however, these schools just want to rig the game in their favor instead.

College hockey continues to change. Beyond the Big Ten, it started changing again last year when Arizona State decided to go varsity, a move which could well encourage more big money schools to do the same in parts of the country previously untouched by college hockey. It's good for the sport. But it brings with it the challenge of maintaining traditions. I always love to point out the 1996 national championship game between Michigan and Colorado College as a perfect example of what makes college hockey special - in any other sport, the Wolverines would easily crush the Tigers, but in hockey, the titan and the minnow can meet on equal terms. Perhaps the 2014 title game is an even better example - the minnow won.

But we risk losing that if legislation like this is allowed to go through, especially in the manner that the power schools are trying to accomplish it. And that would be a complete shame.

Friday, November 20, 2015

An Odd Weekend

Yes, it's an odd weekend of hockey. Non-conference stuff in the middle of November tends to be that way.

Tonight, it's a one-night stand for the men in the Boston suburbs as they get ready for a payback game with Bentley. Let's be honest. Bentley didn't just beat the Engineers twice in Troy last year. They embarrassed them - although some of that was on RPI for embarrassing themselves in their own building. What better time to head down to give the Falcons a home game than to show off how much has changed in the last year-plus since these teams last met? RPI rides a six-game unbeaten streak heading into this weekend, and as mentioned last week, this is a game that a team that fancies itself a contender in the ECAC needs to win. Bentley's certainly not a pushover, though, so bear that in mind.

On Sunday afternoon, the women head north of the border for the first time to clash with the McGill Martinets. It's an exhibition till, so the results are ultimately irrelevant, but hopefully it's a great experience for the Engineers, an opportunity to try out new ideas and new line combinations in a competitive game before they head back into a four-game homestand, including the last chunk of their ECAC schedule for 2015.

Finally, on Tuesday, it's New Hampshire for the men. Tuesday games are old hat for the Wildcats (they usually play a few of them in Hockey East play), but they're more infrequent for RPI. UNH isn't off to a great start and they're having a hard time keeping the puck out of the net. At home, the Engineers might even be the favorites. So there it is. Another pair of games ripe for the picking for an RPI team that is starting to get a little healthier, too. Can they extend the unbeaten streak to seven and eight?

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Brown Experiences the Tute Screw

So this is what it feels like to be on the other end of the screwjob.

As we said on Sunday morning, it still feels kind of hollow, but doesn't hurt nearly as much. Go ahead. You can admit it to yourselves. RPI got away with one, stealing a point from Brown like a thief in the night, due to a bad call and perhaps divine intervention - a malfunctioning replay system.

We're not going to sit here and dissect this one. We did this last year at this time, and it was directly related to how the use of replay and breaking down replay. Getting the call wrong when you've got access to replay is simply ridiculous.

But the referees on Saturday night, for whatever reason, did not have access to replay. They got the call wrong - but not egregiously wrong, even though a look at the overhead pretty quickly confirms that it was a goal. Nobody interfering with the netminder. Nobody in the crease. Net was on its moorings when the puck crossed the line, and clearly it was in well before the whistle. It would have been kind of an "own goal" if it had counted, but those are still good goals.

A lot was happening all at once. A player ended up in the net and the net was dislodged as a number of players were crashing. The puck was clearly not in sight of the officials. Plays like that, sometimes, you're going to get the call wrong on the ice. That's all that happened. And under normal circumstances, you'd just go to the replay and get the call right.

There's still plenty that the league needs to do on officiating - the seemingly arbitrary nature of what constitutes a penalty at times is maddening, and it even reared its ugly head during the overtime period against Brown. Seconds before Riley Bourbonnais was called for a seriously weak elbowing call in the extra session, the Bears arguably got away with an interference call that created a 2-on-1 and a scoring opportunity when Parker Reno was taken down between his man and the puck. Not calling it because it's overtime? That's fine. That's possibly even preferable. So why was the call made on Bourbonnais (as seen in the same link)?

Bourbonnais, as time was about to expire in regulation, laid a nice open-ice check on Tyler Bird along the Brown blueline that left the Bears defenseman resting on one knee for a short time. I'd bet anything that the weak call on Bourbonnais in overtime was because Bird didn't pop back up right away, even on a pretty clearly legal hit. This whole "carry over" or "make up" call thing has got to stop. Mess a call up? Move on.

And let's be real for a moment here, too. If this replay malfunction had happened at practically any other rink in the ECAC, the game's post mortem would have read something like this: "RPI argued that they had scored in the extra session, but a malfunction of the replay system in Providence made it unclear whether they had scored or not, and the officials stuck with their initial call on the ice."

It's only because RPI TV does a superior job with their broadcasts and their camera work - which now includes in-net cameras - that we know for a fact that the Bears were screwed over. Brown goaltender Tim Ernst wouldn't have been making sarcastic tweets at the ECAC (since, wisely, deleted) about the play if RPI TV didn't have a high-definition camera over the goal that they could use to let the rest of the world see the replay. That should be a point of pride - and even more so that it's free to the public to watch this outstanding broadcast. If you watch this broadcast regularly, please, make a donation to their cause.

Yeah, if the shoe was on the other foot, we'd be livid, and Brown has every right to be livid. But this is something out of everyone's control. Technology is great when it works, but it's not foolproof. The officials did the right thing. They went to the video tape. It wasn't there. So they huddled. And they got the call wrong. We can be as upset as we want at bad officiating, but there's an allowance for human error, especially when the technology fails.

Some have used this incident to complain that there needs to be a backup available. How? And more importantly, why? When was the last time we heard about this being an issue? 99 times out of 100, they go to the video system, and it's there ready to be used. It's the officials' job before games to make sure that the replay system is functioning. If it was working before the game and they checked, it's a blameless problem. If it wasn't and they didn't check, it's totally on them. But this doesn't happen frequently enough to require schools that have already had to invest in a replay system to also invest in something additional - like having something like RPI TV ready and able to show a replay.

It sucks to lose a point this way, yes. But from our perspective, it sucks to gain a point this way, too. If you want everything to be above board, you have to admit when you've been the beneficiary of the screwjob just as much as you'd complain about it when you're in Brown's position. But we were the beneficiaries.

And now, we move on - the screwjob balance tipped slightly back in our favor for a change. Sorry, Bears. We may not be elephants, but we have a long memory.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Men's Hockey - Yale & Brown (13/14 Nov)

The Engineers are continuing to find ways to pick up league points even without some of their most important players. Sometimes, as with their 3-2 overtime win over nationally-ranked Yale on Friday, it came down to grit, determination, and some superb individual efforts. Others, as with their 3-3 draw with Brown on Saturday, it could be chalked up to refusing to quit and a bit of just plain old dumb luck.

Yale
Liljegren-Bourbonnais-Wood
Melanson-Miller-Nanne
Fulton-Schroeder-Gillespie
Ohrvall, Clary

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Reno
Moore-Hampton
Grant

Hackett

With Milos Bubela and Evan Tironese still out, RPI rolled with the same 11x7 lineup they had put out against St. Lawrence. Jason Kasdorf remained sidelined with the injury he picked up against Clarkson the previous weekend, but he did dress and was available in an emergency capacity, suggesting that his injury should not have him on the shelf for much longer.

RPI had to be the ones setting the tone if they were to have any hope of ending their four-game losing streak against the Bulldogs, and they did that with a goal on their second shift of the game. Mark Miller, fresh off the OT winner against St. Lawrence, notched his third of the year on a shot from the top of the slot to give RPI the early 1-0 advantage as the "M-N-M" line showed flashes of the efficiency that they would show throughout the contest as the top line for the Engineers on the evening.

Yale tied things up five and a half minutes later on a goal by Ryan Hitchcock during a delayed penalty to Meirs Moore as Hitchcock pulled the puck free off the trip by Moore and just worked it straight toward the net and hammered it to Cam Hackett's right.

The Engineers regained the lead in the second period, seconds after a penalty to Jake Wood expired. Riley Bourbonnais picked the puck out of the corner of the Yale zone and zipped it up to Parker Reno, who had plenty of space at the point. Reno ripped a shot that was deflected by Lou Nanne in front, beating Alex Lyon top shelf, giving RPI a 2-1 lead.

That lead held up well into the third period, when Yale evened things once again, this time on the power play. With just under 10 minutes left in regulation, freshman Andrew Gaus netted his first collegiate goal by picking up a rebound behind Hackett from a shot by Stu Wilson, knotting the game at two. Both teams had power play opportunities late, but neither were able to capitalize, and it was off to overtime once again for RPI.

Yale put together a fairly dominating performance early in overtime, forcing Hackett to make one quality save to keep the Engineers in the game, and keeping the RPI defense on its toes for much of the extra period. But a strong counter-attack started by a diving stab by Reno to not only clear the puck but get it to Viktor Liljegren allowed the Swedish sophomore to make a rush up the boards, finishing it with a cut to the net and a lofted shot up over Lyon's shoulder, securing a 3-2 victory for the Engineers.

Hackett finished with 41 saves for the Engineers, giving him 78 across his first two games, both wins, combined - certainly a phenomenal start to his collegiate career.

Brown
Liljegren-Bourbonnais-Wood
Melanson-Miller-Nanne
Fulton-Schroeder-Gillespie
Ohrvall, Clary

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Reno
Moore-Hampton
Grant

Hackett

For the third straight outing, RPI fielded the same 11x7 lineup with Hackett between the pipes. Brown was coming off their first positive result of the season, a 3-2 come-from-behind overtime victory at Union the previous night.

As has frequently been the case for the Engineers across the last couple of decades, a bit of a letdown was in order off a big win as RPI again seemed to play to the level of their competition, especially in the first period which has frequently been a strong period for them. Outside of a single power play opportunity against which the Engineers unleashed 7 shots in two minutes against a hapless (this is actually a correct usage of the word hapless) Brown penalty kill which was dead last in the nation coming into the game, RPI mustered just five shots in the opening period.

Brown cashed in on their own power play opportunity late in the first, as freshman Tommy Marchin scored with 36 seconds left to make it 1-0 Brown at the first intermission.

The Engineers got two more power play chances in the second period, and again, they produced plenty of scoring opportunities but no goals throughout their second and most of their third power play chances, but Bourbonnais finally broke through late in the third power play to put RPI on the board 12:06 into the second period. RPI looked close to scoring again late in the second, but couldn't put one home.

Any thoughts that the Engineers could take their late-period momentum and turn it into an advantage in the third went out the window almost immediately. Nick Lappin scored just 27 seconds into the third to put Brown up 2-1, and then Lappin scored again on the power play just 2:02 later to put the Bears up 3-1 and put RPI into a serious hole.

But RPI did not back down, digging in for a second straight Saturday and finding a way to pull back into things. A shot by Jared Wilson three minutes later was redirected in by Kenny Gillespie, halving the Brown lead, and RPI was all the way back four minutes after that with a goal by Zach Schroeder while Bears netminder Tim Ernst was being screened by his own man, tying the game at three.

A lackluster finish led into RPI's fourth consecutive overtime game - the first time that's happened since five in a row in February 1992. That period featured some good end-to-end action until a fairly weak elbowing call against Bourbonnais - possibly called as a make-up call after a strong hit at the end of regulation went (reasonably) uncalled - put Brown on an overtime power play that with 2:21 left.

In the final minute of the game, a Brown shot from the slot was saved by Hackett, but the rebound trickled behind him into the crease. Schroeder rushed over to try and clear it, but his poke-check sent the puck caroming off Hackett and toward the net, which Schroeder was crashing into. Waved off on the ice, the puck was found under Schroeder and in the net once play was stopped. The referees went to have it reviewed, but the replay system malfunctioned, and the initial call on the ice of no goal was upheld despite RPI TV replays fairly clearly showing what should have been a good goal.

Let off the hook by crook, RPI killed the remaining power play time and even had a good possession in the Brown end to conclude the game, but they were unable to pull off the ultimate robbery by putting one in on the other end, and the contest ended in a 3-3 tie. Regardless of the controversial ending, it was the sixth straight game without a loss for the Engineers, representing the team's best unbeaten streak to start the ECAC schedule since the early 1970s, and it leaves them in first place three weeks into the season - although most teams will play their games in hand this coming weekend while RPI heads back into non-conference mode.

Cam Hackett picked up ECAC Rookie of the Week honors for his heroics in leading RPI to their second-straight three point weekend.

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

By winning percentage
1. Quinnipiac (1.000)
2. RPI (.833)
3. Cornell (.750)
4. Harvard (.750)
5. St. Lawrence (.667)
6. Yale (.625)
7. Brown (.375)
8. Dartmouth (.333)
9. Colgate (.250)
10. Clarkson (.167)
11. Union (.167)
12. Princeton (.000)


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

RESULT: RPI 3, Yale 2 (OT)


RECORD: 5-4-1 (4-0-1 ECAC, 9 pts)

Brown at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/14/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Brown 3 (OT)

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RECORD: 5-4-2 (4-0-2 ECAC, 10 pts)

Upcoming games
20 Nov - at Bentley
24 Nov - New Hampshire
27 Nov - vs. Western Michigan (South Bend, IN)
28 Nov - at #16 Notre Dame/vs. #8 Harvard (South Bend, IN)
04 Dec - Dartmouth

Monday, November 16, 2015

Women's Hockey - at Dartmouth & Harvard (13/14 Nov)

Coming off a big upset over #4 Clarkson, RPI faced another tough challenge on the road against Dartmouth and #9 Harvard. The trip was not kind to the Engineers, as they were shutout 4-0 by Dartmouth on Friday before dropping a 2-1 decision to Harvard in a hard-fought game Saturday afternoon.

Dartmouth

Wash/Gruschow/Tomlinson
Rooney/Mankey/Raspa
Grigsby/Schwalbe/Thomas
Tremblay/Hylwa/Orzechowski

Behounek/Banks
Hansen/Godin
Kimmerle/Renn

Selander

Four different players scored for Dartmouth Friday night as the Big Green shutout RPI 4-0 and outshot the Engineers 39-21. Lovisa Selander made 30 saves for RPI, while Kira Bombay made five more in relief in the game's final minutes.

Lindsey Allen got Dartmouth on the board with a power play tally late in the first, perfectly tipping a point shot from Eleni Tebano past Selander into the top corner of the net.

Kennedy Ottenbreit doubled the lead to 2-0 with Dartmouth's first shorthanded goal of the season in the second period, just 13 seconds into the penalty kill. Ottenbreit broke out 2-on-1 and went wide, electing to keep the puck and fire a shot past Selander.

The Big Green tacked on two more goals in the third period, with Ailish Forfar putting home a rebound off a shot by Allen at 5:19, and Brooke Ahbe redirecting Ottenbreit's pass at the goal mouth to make it 4-0 at 13:53.

Kira Bombay came into the game after the fourth goal for a few mintues in the RPI net, stopping five shots in 6:07 of relief.

Harvard

Grigsby/Thomas/Raspa
Rooney/Mankey/Tomlinson
Wash/Gruschow/Orzechowski
Tremblay/Schwalbe/Hylwa

Kimmerle/Godin
Hansen/Banks
Behounek/Renn

Selander

After a less than stellar result on Friday, RPI battled Harvard on Saturday with a much better effort but again came up short as Harvard scored the go-ahead goal late in the third to defeat the Engineers 2-1. RPI outshot Harvard 33-27 on the afternoon, but could only solve Emerance Maschmeyer once.

That goal came near the midpoint of the second period, when Taylor Schwalbe poked home a rebound in traffic to put the Engineers up 1-0.

The lead was short-lived as Jessica Harvey tied the game less than two minutes later, redirecting a Briana Mastel shot past Selander.

The teams went into the third period tied at one, but Miye D'Oench put the Crimson on top at 12:51 of the third period after being given a little too much space to work at the top of the crease and picking up a feed from Haley Mullins which she snuck past Selander to make it 2-1.

Selander made a number of big stops in the RPI net, finishing with 25 saves, but in the end was outdueled by Maschmeyer's 32, including a whopping 20 saves in the second period to help stave off an RPI onslaught.

The Engineers have just one game next weekend, a Sunday matinee exhibition against McGill in Montreal, then will return home for a non-conference pair against New Hampshire the weekend after Thanksgiving before one more weekend of league play closes out the 2015 portion of the season.

-----

RPI at Dartmouth
ECAC Hockey Game - Thompson Arena (Hanover, NH)
11/13/15 - 7pm
Dartmouth 4, RPI 0

BOX SCORES:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=5188
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1516/boxes/wdarren1.n13

RECAPS:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/news/2015/11/13/WICE_1113154642.aspx?path=whock
Dartmouth: http://www.dartmouthsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=210496494&DB_OEM_ID=11600
Video Highlights: http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/dartmouth/video/dartmouth-highlights-dartmouth-womens-hockey-vs-rpi,-nov-13,-2015

RECORD: 4-6-1 (2-2-1 ECAC)

-----

RPI vs. #9 Harvard
ECAC Hockey Game - Bright-Landry Hockey Center
11/14/15 - 4pm
Harvard 2, RPI 1

BOX SCORES:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=5189
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1516/boxes/wharren1.n14

RECAPS:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/news/2015/11/14/WICE_1114151301.aspx?path=whock
Harvard: http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/wice/2015-16/releases/20151114rqvi2h
Video Highlights: http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/wice/2015-16/videos/20151114-f3u6mg8u

RECORD: 4-7-1 (2-3-1 ECAC)

-----

Upcoming Schedule

Nov. 22 - at McGill (2pm)
Nov. 27 - New Hampshire (7pm)
Nov. 28 - New Hampshire (4pm)
Dec. 4 - Yale (3pm)
Dec. 5 - Brown (3pm)

Friday, November 13, 2015

Prove It Again

Well, another week has passed, and the Engineers are still tied for first place in the ECAC on the men's side. Huzzah. Now comes the real test on whether they can stay.

Yale is 1-0-1 on the young ECAC season - the RPI has two games in hand over them, but they won both of those games. But the Engineers aren't part of the real discussion just yet. That's because Yale is still unbeaten overall as well (3-0-1) and have looked very good while doing it. The one blemish against the Bulldogs is a tie against Harvard, another team that has looked very, very good (and is in fact tied with RPI for first place). You see the issue by now. Yale and Harvard tying each other, that's no knock on either of them. The Engineers, meanwhile, still need a signature win to join the conversation.

The opportunity presents itself tonight as the #10 Bulldogs come to Troy. When it comes to upsets in the Appert era, Yale has provided more than their share, although the Bulldogs have certainly had RPI's number of late. Yale swept by a combined 9-3 score last year, and 8-2 a year before that. In 2012-13, though, it was 10-2 RPI. The Bulldogs frequently seem to avoid having to face off against Jason Kasdorf - over the last two seasons, only the most recent game came against the Engineers' top netminder. They're likely to avoid him again tonight, although Cam Hackett showed off some skill over the weekend in the North Country. This shouldn't be as easy as it's been in the last couple of seasons.

Tonight's game is a tough one, but Saturday's against Brown has to be one where RPI takes points - probably both - if they want to be taken seriously. Last year, they were swept by the Bears for the first time in almost 20 years. That's a stain that needs to be washed away if they are to prove they're a better team than they were last season. Brown is 0-3 to start the season and they've given up 19 goals in three games - by comparison, RPI has given up 25 in 9. Get it done.

The women face an even more daunting challenge this weekend as they travel to face probably the most difficult back-to-back pairing in the ECAC this season, Dartmouth and Harvard. Their upset win over Clarkson on Saturday last weekend made the loss to St. Lawrence tough to swallow, but it did prove that good goaltending can keep any team in any game long enough to do some damage, and that's exactly what the Engineers got from ECAC Goalie of the Week Lovisa Selander. If she can build on her outstanding weekend, good things are in store going forward for this team. It may not be this weekend, but it'll be soon.

Dropping the beat for this weekend's pumpup.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Throwback

Last week, Cornell did a pretty cool thing - they paid tribute to their past with a special throwback sweater that included the names of famous Big Red alums who wore the numbers of each current player. The sweaters shown in the link above recognize Brian Ferlin, Brian Cornell, David LeNeveu, Matt Moulson, Colin Greening, and Doug Murray, names which should be well known to anyone with more than a passing knowledge of ECAC history. The sweaters, along with sweaters for Ken Dryden and Joe Nieuwendyk (who couldn't be honored on the ice because their numbers are, in fact, retired) will be auctioned off at a later date to benefit the team's off-season mission trip to the Dominican Republic - certainly a worthy cause.

And hey, look. We've never been above ripping off good ideas from elsewhere (as long as you give props to the people you're ripping them off from - looking at you, Union), so here's the part where we say: this would be really cool to bring to RPI. The team did something like this last season for Black Friday, where the sweaters had the names of all team alums printed in microprint - but it would be very, very awesome to see the names from heroes of yesteryear on the backs of the Engineers of today for one game.

And as far as throwbacks are concerned... well, the 1985 design is so classic that it became the athletic logo for the entire school once that ill-begotten "Redhawks" thing was tossed in the dustbin. So how about using the simple design of the '54 champs instead?

(RPI Library)
Simple sweaters that would require only very simple nameplates and numbers (readable numbers, white on red, for those poor suffering WRPI announcers who couldn't read the numbers on this year's Black Saturday sweaters). And yes, they'd be red, so this would look a lot like Cornell's current sweater, but so what? We wouldn't have this against Cornell anyway. How about... Clarkson? Too Freakout! for this year? Hey, we've had Freakout! sweaters auctioned off in the past. Besides, check out one of the (likely apocryphal) stories, as related in Cornell's alumni magazine some years ago, as to why Cornell wears the color in the first place: Some give credit to legendary hockey and lacrosse coach Ned Harkness, who came to the Hill in 1963. He changed the color of the hockey uniforms to bright red (perhaps because that was what he was accustomed to, after eighteen years at RPI); other Cornell sports teams followed suit. So there you go. Maybe we invented it.

What names go on the back, though? There are, essentially, five categories that make things easier in drawing names for each number:

* All-Americans - There have been 22.
* Olympians - There have been four.
* NHL alums - There have been 13 that were not All-Americans.
* All-ECAC honorees - There have been 17 that do not fall into a category above - 16 of which are alumni.
* Folk heroes - A category that can run the gamut. From fan favorites for one reason or another, guys that played 4 years and racked up games and points but not honors, to notable captains, to names who established themselves off the ice, to rarely-used backups who the students loved, to guys who performed individual feats that will be hard to forget.

And so, without further ado, a quick trip into RPI history to pinpoint the top names to wear each active number, and who we'd want to honor with a throwback sweater. Feel free to tweet at us with your severe and vehement disagreements.

Cam Hackett #1 - Right off the bat, we've got a tricky one. The number 1 has traditionally been reserved for goaltenders, and frequently it was used by the team's top goaltender across much of the team's history - although, since Bryan Masotta left the program in 1996, only Jordan Alford '08 and Jake Soffer have worn #1. Still, prior to its falling into disuse, some of the best netminders in RPI hockey history wore the number: Bob Fox '55 backstopped the team's first national championship. Bill Sack '65 and Ian Harrison '79 made All-ECAC teams. Daren Puppa '87 was an All-American and was in net for the team's second national championship, and Neil Little '94 was an All-American and a Hobey Baker finalist. Tough choice here. Give it to Puppa on the back of his NHL career.

Parker Reno #2 - This choice is a little easier. While Bill Grisdale '66 was All-ECAC and Tim Friday '85 won a national championship and had a cup of coffee in the NHL, Brian Pothier '00 was an All-American his senior year and went on to enjoy a long career in the NHL. There's your #2.

Tommy Grant #4 - This number hasn't had too many top names associated with it. Only one, in fact, can claim one of the honors listed above - Brad Layzell '94, who was named All-ECAC as a junior. There's another player who might qualify in the folk-hero category: Pierre Langevin '85, who was one of the bruisers on the national championship team his senior year. It was told during the 25th anniversary celebrations that Langevin, in the Frozen Four against Minnesota-Duluth, put Hobey Baker winner Bill Watson hard into the boards while telling him Adam Oates should have been the winner. A fun story, but there will be plenty of representatives of the mid-80s on this list, so we'll stick with Layzell, a sometimes forgotten hero from the mid-90s.

Phil Hampton #6 - Another tough choice among unheralded names. Fred Kitchen '65 and Scott Basiuk '04 were both All-ECAC selections. We'll give the edge to Basiuk, who was a team captain his senior year and still lives in the Capital District after getting his Master's from the London School of Economics.

Zach Schroeder #7 - Here's where things get even more difficult. Number 7 was worn by Abbie Moore '54, All-American, most outstanding player of the 1954 NCAA tournament, and the leading scorer on the 1954 national championship team. It was also worn by Paul Midghall '59, twice an All-American, by All-ECAC selection Jim Josephson '62 and by NHL veteran Steve Stoyanovich '80. Really, the choice is between Moore and Midghall. Let's break it down to a function over form argument for the coin-flip. There's already a Moore (no relation) on the team this year. So to avoid confusion between alumni and active names, let's give the nod to Midghall.

Kenny Gillespie #8 - A hard choice if only for the caliber of player that has to be left off. Frank Chiarelli '55 was, arguably, the first RPI superstar. A three-time All-American, he scored 55 goals in 18 games in 1952, setting an NCAA record for goals per game that will never be broken. He's the obvious choice, even though Bob Brinkworth '64 is a true RPI legend himself, twice an All-American. Both men are in the Ring of Honor. At almost any other number, he'd probably be the top choice, but it's hard to pick him over Chiarelli.

Meirs Moore #9 - This one's probably the easiest so far. While George Servinis '86 played in the NHL and scored the game winning goal in the 1985 national championship game, and Jerry D'Amigo '13 wore the sweater for his one season in Troy before jumping to the NHL, neither can compare to Joe Juneau '91 in terms of their RPI, NHL, and international careers. Juneau led the team in scoring for four seasons (the only Engineer to accomplish the feat), had a long NHL career, was a two-time All-American and Hobey Baker finalist, and represented Canada in the 1992 Olympics. The only oddity? Seeing Juneau's name on the blue line.

Evan Tironese #11 - Believe it or not, the number 11 isn't associated with a great number of legends at RPI. Kraig Nienhuis '86 is the only player in that number to fall into one of the above categories, with his few seasons in the NHL. But perhaps we can think outside the box a little on this one. Let's go instead with Dino Macaluso '82 in the folk-hero category. A team captain his senior year, Macaluso is one of the most involved alumni in the program today, and even is a team sponsor this year through his wealth management company in Albany. Perfect sponsorship tie-in! But also a super guy, and no slight meant to Nienhuis - plenty of his contemporaries are on our list.

Viktor Liljegren #12 - No explanation needed here. While Bryan Price '63 was an All-ECAC selection and Graeme Townshend '89 enjoyed an NHL career in the early-90s, Adam Oates '86 is a Hobey Baker finalist, All-American, NHL legend, and a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee. If anything more needs to be said, you're at the wrong blog.

Jared Wilson #13 - Two Olympians have worn this number for RPI - Marty Dallman '84 (Austria 1994) and Mo Mansi '88 (Italy 1994 and 1998), as did All-ECAC selection Danny Riva '99 and team captain and cancer survivor Kirk MacDonald '07. Dallman had a few games in the NHL, which helps makes this pick pretty difficult all around. It's not an easy choice really at all. In looking at the two Olympians, Dallman was a major scoring threat from his sophomore year on, that plus his NHL experience probably makes him the choice here.

Riley Bourbonnais #14 - Hard to believe that there isn't a single player who's worn number 14 regularly who qualifies in one of the above categories. So let's move outside the box again. Rich Scammell '69 was not only a team captain who led the team in scoring twice, he is at the Institute today as the director of research administration, and is the father of Heather Scammell '98 and Jennifer Scammell '02, both standouts with the women's program.

Milos Bubela #17 - Another number that isn't rich in national, NHL, or ECAC honors. A few team captains have worn the number, most recently Danny Eberly '03, but there's really not anyone who sticks out as an obvious choice. So it's time for another folk-hero option. Chuck Rancourt '70 grew up in Troy, playing in the city's pee-wee ranks and graduating up to playing for the Engineers. He's still very well associated with the program, and not only taught business statistics at RPI, he served as director of technology commercialization at the Institute from 1987 to 2008. He's currently an adjunct professor at Siena, and as with Macaluso and Scammell, proof positive that Engineer alumni succeed off the ice as well.

Travis Fulton #18 - As we get into the higher numbers, the options decrease, because earlier in college hockey history, higher numbers simply weren't used. But there are two very good options at number 18 in Jerry Knightley '65 and Nathan Marsters '04. Knightley was twice an All-American and an inductee to the Ring of Honor, while Marsters was an All-ECAC selection who put up some of the best numbers in net ever seen at RPI, his life tragically cut short in a car accident in 2009 at age 29. We'll give the nod to Knightley here on accolades, but not easily.

Mike Prapavessis #19 - This one's pretty easy. Matt Murley '02 was an All-American, in the top two on the team in scoring all four seasons in Troy, played in the NHL, was captain in his senior season, and grew up in Troy to boot - where he still works out with the team in pre-seasons. Mike Zalewski '16 is the only other 19 to have reached the NHL, but so far it has only been a cup of coffee with the Canucks. Other sentimental options include Dick Chiarelli '57, who once scored 7 goals in a game, and Doug Hearns '71, who arguably scored one of the most important goals in RPI history when he beat Ken Dryden of Cornell in overtime, a goal that may have saved RPI as a D-I program. But Murley's local roots and high honors give him the nod.

Jimmy DeVito #20 - This one's also a cinch. While Adam Bartell '95 was an All-ECAC choice and captained the team to the 1995 ECAC title, it's hard to overlook Joel Laing '00. The first and only Engineer to win the ECAC's Dryden Award as the league's top goaltender (first awarded in 1996), Laing was an All-American and Hobey Baker finalist in his senior season, setting numerous RPI records between the pipes. Another oddity - Murley and Juneau on the blue line, and Laing playing a physical forward position.

Bradley Bell #22 - Only really one option here. Mike Dark '86 was not only a captain his senior year and part of the '85 title team, he was also an All-American in 1986 and appeared in 43 games over the following two seasons with the St. Louis Blues in the NHL. No other 22 can claim that kind of resume.

Lou Nanne #23 - Now it starts to get really difficult. Several different players have worn 23, but few really stand out. So for this choice, let's go with a fairly recent sentimental favorite - Nanne's predecessor. Brock Higgs '14 would be, if nothing else, a connection with the very recent past. But he's also deserving of the honor for the number. A top four scorer in three of his four seasons, Higgs also was a crucial part of the 2011 team that went to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 16 years. He's also an inspirational story, returning to the ice after suffering a life-threatening injury as a freshman when he took a skate blade to his throat.

Chris Bradley #24 - Another obvious choice is this number, worn by the only Engineer to date with his name on the Stanley Cup - Mike McPhee '82, a former captain who won the Cup with Montreal in 1986 as part of an 11-season run in the NHL, one of the longest among RPI alums. His immediate predecessor in the number, Don Armstrong '78, was also a captain and was a top four scorer on the team in his final three seasons, but it's hard to overlook McPhee's pro career.

Drew Melanson #25 - Melanson has an opportunity to stamp himself as the best 25 ever at RPI, because the options for best alum with the number are paltry. The best known 25 is undoubtedly Kevin Constantine '81. He spent three seasons at RPI, starting in net as a junior before becoming known in the pro ranks as a head coach in San Jose and Pittsburgh. But there are two problems with Constantine. He wore 25 only as a backup, and he didn't exactly leave school under the best of circumstances. Bryan Tapper '98 was the first player to wear 25 for four seasons, and he had a pretty decent career, while the 25 after him, Steve Munn '02, was captain for two years. So here's an idea. Let's go with Tapper not only to recognize the defenseman, but also his younger brother Brad '01, the first and only Engineer to wear number 52 (25 backwards). Brad was an All-American who led the nation in scoring as a junior and appeared in 55 NHL games for the Atlanta Thrashers. There's a unique solution.

Mark Miller #26 - Another open and shut case for this one. Ken Hammond '85 not only was part of the national championship team his senior year, he also went on to play in the NHL as a journeyman, logging time in the pros for nearly a decade and suiting up for eight different teams. Along with Dark, Hammond was a captain of the '84 Engineers which was a pretty powerful team itself.

Jake Wood #27 - Time for a little more creativity. The 27 has only been worn full-time by a few Engineers. Jak Bestle '83, a Troy native and fan favorite, was the first, followed by Tim Regan '96, Mark Murphy '99, Mikael Hammarstrom '04, Andrei Uryadov '09, and Marty O'Grady '13. That's more or less it - solid players all, but not much distinction. An argument could be made for Hammarstrom or Uryadov to represent the handful and growing number of European alums, but here's another outside the box moment. Marc Cavosie '03 was an All-American and a Hobey Baker finalist as a junior before he signed a pro contract - not to mention a local hero, having grown up in Cohoes and a current assistant coach. Thing is, he wore three different numbers during his three seasons: 27 as a freshman, 11 as a sophomore, and 21 as a junior. It was in the 21 that he earned most of his accolades, but there's no #21 at the moment, and it's hard to say that two-time Hobey Baker finalist and All-American Chase Polacek '11 wouldn't be a more well-rounded choice for 21. So how about Cavosie at 27? It would help honor the entire Cavosie clan, including Marc's brother Eric, who played four years for the Engineers and later coached at Albany Academy, and their father Tom, who was a cherished part of the RPI family - close enough that his untimely loss in 2003 spawned a memorial patch on the RPI sweater the following season.

Jesper Ohrvall #28 - Another tough choice for lack of options here. There have been only a few full time 28s - Jeff Prendergast '86 was the first. Dave Casalena '91 the second, followed by Carson Butterwick '03 and Matt Tinordi '14, and that's the entire list. Prendergast won a national championship, and Tinordi served as team captain, and Butterwick an assistant captain, and that's about it. The best option? Probably Tinordi, slightly over Butterwick. Give him the nod for earning the C, and maybe some extra points for being part of a hockey family, with his father and brother both with NHL service to their names. That might be thin, but it's thin to start with.

Jason Kasdorf #33 - Almost impossible to make the argument that the best 33 in RPI history isn't wearing it right now. The only other players to wear it? Phil Kenner '91, currently awaiting sentencing on six federal felony fraud charges, Kevin Kurk '04, who backed up Nathan Marsters throughout his college career, and Jordan Watts '12, who left RPI after his sophomore season, transferring to D-III Adrian. Kasdorf is already an All-ECAC selection. Time for another fudge factor moment here. Rather than the number, perhaps celebrate the position. With Daren Puppa and the '85 crown already accounted for, why not honor Bob Fox as the backstop of the '54 Engineers?

Sam Goodman #35 - Very lightly used. In fact, the only Engineers that have ever worn 35 in a game are Will Neubert '08, Joey Harkenrider '12, and Jeremy Coupal '12 - like Goodman, third netminders all. Two options here. Coupal, a nod to the fact that both he and Goodman graduated to the varsity squad from the club team (that Coupal helped start). Or perhaps in a different nod to the practice netminder position, take perhaps the most well known third-string in RPI history. Bobby Farrelly '81 played in one game as an Engineer. He came on in relief of either Ian Harrison or Kevin Constantine, and saw 11:13 of game time. Allowed more goals (4) than he had saves (2) in that time. But he turned out OK. With his brother Peter, he's directed movies like Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, There's Something About Mary, and Shallow Hal. He's getting by without hockey. Farrelly wore #31 in that game, but as with the 33, it's the spirit of the thing that counts here.

Lonnie Clary #37 - Clary is the first player to wear number 37 in RPI history. Options? Well, if he's allowed to change his number for a night, perhaps that might allow for the best player with an unused number to be honored - or we could just use the name. That would have to be a serious tossup between Garry Kearns '58 and his #10 - All-American, Ring of Honor inductee, and the only former player to become coach - or John Carter '86 and his #15 (basically, ditto Kearns, just with an NHL career in place of being an RPI coach). This one's almost a very literal coin flip. Kearns arguably helped save the program as coach, and that might be the extra push.

Alex Rodriguez #39 - Aha! This one's the easiest of them all! The only other 39 in RPI history is actually a player who falls perfectly into a category to be honored. Ryan Haggerty '14 was an All-American as a junior, leading the nation in goal scoring that season before signing a pro contract. Perfect! No fuss!

And, for the record, some of our choices for top numbers not currently in use.
0 - Don Cutts '74 (first Engineer in the NHL)
3 - Herb LaFontaine '53 (All-American gets the nod over the Kummu brothers, Ryan and Allen, who wore the number continuously for 8 seasons in a row from 1985 through 1993)
5 - Stephane Robitaille '92 (All-ECAC choice, 18-year career in Europe, chosen over fellow All-ECAC Brian Robins '62, far more honorees back then)
10 - Garry Kearns '58 (over Gordie Peterkin '55, who scored the OT winner against Minnesota for the '54 crown)
15 - John Carter '86 (beats out All-ECAC Ron Pasco '94 and twice All-American and once Hobey finalist Eric Healey '98)
16 - Dale Watson '69 (three seasons as captain, over NHLers Larry Landon '81 and Brandon Pirri '13)
21 - Chase Polacek '11 (as mentioned above, two time Hobey finalist and two-time All-American, over All-ECAC Patrick Rochon '96 and '85 captain Mike Sadeghpour '85)
29 - Nick Bailen '13 (twice an All-American, currently a KHL All-Star and possible future Olympian for Belarus)
30 - Allen York '12 (All-ECAC, NHL experience, led the Engineers back to the NCAA tournament)
31 - Mathias Lange '09 (Olympian for his native Austria in 2014, earned a win in net against Norway)
52 - Brad Tapper '01 (as mentioned above)

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Men's Hockey - at Clarkson/St. Lawrence (6/7 Nov)

Adversity has arrived in Troy, and one week into said adversity, the Engineers are holding up pretty well. Losing two of their top centermen in the Halloween night game against Union, heading on a long road trip, losing their netminder during Friday's game, blowing a two-goal lead, picking up penalty after penalty on Saturday, and allowing late goals in both the first and second periods, one would be forgiven for expecting that the outcome for RPI was pretty bad. Instead, the Engineers returned home from the North Country with three big points, holding on after an injury to Jason Kasdorf on Saturday for a distasteful but acceptable 2-2 draw with Clarkson, followed by a gutsy, come-from-behind and never-say-die effort in Canton that resulted in a 4-3 overtime win.

Clarkson
Liljegren-Bourbonnais-Wood
Melanson-Miller-Nanne
Fulton-Schroeder-Gillespie
Ohrvall, Clary

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Reno
Moore-Hampton
Grant

Kasdorf

Evan Tironese and Milos Bubela both sustained injuries against Union on Black Saturday that would keep them out for the weekend road-trip to the North Country. Combined with the injuries to Jimmy DeVito and Alex Rodriguez that have kept the junior from making his season debut and the freshman from making his collegiate debut, and the Engineers have 11 healthy forwards. All of them dressed against Clarkson. While Meirs Moore has played forward this season when pressed into it, Seth Appert chose to keep him on the blue line and dress seven defensemen instead.

RPI struck first for the fourth time in five games as Travis Fulton scored his second goal of the season at 7:12 of the first period, the lone assist going to Moore as the Engineers took a 1-0 lead against the Golden Knights. On the other side of the ice in the first period, Kasdorf made 13 saves on as many shots to preserve the lead into the first intermission.

Early in the second period, Riley Bourbonnais fed Jake Wood to create a breakaway opportunity that the resurgent junior pairing cashed in with to put the Engineers ahead 2-0, Wood's third goal of the year five minutes into the period. But that cushion did not last long as Clarkson's Brett Gervais put one past Kasdorf three and a half minutes later to cut the RPI lead in half at 2-1.

The momentum gradually shifted in Clarkson's direction, and the RPI penalty kill had a big moment at the start of the third period by killing off a penalty to Bourbonnais that had been assessed at 20:00 of the second period. The Golden Knights kept up the pressure, and the turning point came at 7:05 of the third - not on a goal, and not even on a penalty, although one was called on the play.

Near the end of an RPI power play, Clarkson's Jeff DiNallo attempted a counter-attack. Holding the puck, DiNallo went straight in on net and plowed into Kasdorf full force. DiNallo would come out of the game immediately, although he would return. A minute later, after trying to play through, Kasdorf too would come out of the game. No penalty was called on DiNallo for goaltender interference or charging the goaltender, but a penalty was assessed to Bourbonnais instead for slashing.

RPI, now being backed by freshman Cam Hackett making his collegiate debut in relief, killed the ensuing penalty and a questionable matching minor call moments later, but the Clarkson momentum continued to build. Hackett made the first eight saves he was called upon to make in the period, but the ninth shot eluded him, a blast from the point by Clarkson's Terrance Amorosa that he was just out of position to nab with 1:56 left in the third period. That tied the game at two.

Hackett and the Engineers managed to escape from Cheel with a solid point after holding up during the overtime period, but there was certainly a feeling of a bad tie despite the circumstances, as RPI did briefly hold a two-goal edge and the tying goal was widely seen as one that Kasdorf (or any other goaltender who wasn't coming into the game cold) likely would have been able to stop. The allowed goal was hardly a knock on Hackett, however, who looked very good despite the pressure point at which he made his debut.

After the game was over, DiNallo was issued a one-game suspension - to be served against Union the following night - for running Kasdorf.

St. Lawrence
Liljegren-Bourbonnais-Wood
Melanson-Miller-Nanne
Fulton-Schroeder-Gillespie
Ohrvall, Clary

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Reno
Moore-Hampton
Grant

Hackett

Kasdorf would go on to be listed on the next night's lineup chart with the hope that he could at least skate during warmups and see if he was ready to go, but that skate did not end up taking place and from the very start, it was Hackett ready to make his first collegiate start, with Sam Goodman as the backup for the evening.

While Friday's game featured relatively few penalties being called, Saturday night's officials began getting involved very quickly and frequently. For the second time in four games, Jake Wood was called for a penalty in the opening 30 seconds of the game, this time taking a boarding call 20 seconds in. St. Lawrence would ultimately pick up three power plays, and the Engineers two, during the game's first 16 minutes, leading to a relatively total lack of momentum build in the first 20 minutes.

St. Lawrence would, however, open the game's scoring in the waning seconds of the period as Jacob Pritchard scored with 7.5 seconds remaining on the clock to give SLU the 1-0 edge heading into the locker room. But the late goal didn't keep RPI in a funk as was so often the case last season. After killing yet another penalty early in the period, the Engineers struck twice in the span of 1:03 to turn the tables. 13 minutes into the period, Jared Wilson's second goal of the season tied the game, and shortly thereafter, Drew Melanson finally snapped a very long scoreless drought - 12 games - by scoring on a rebound to make it 2-1 Engineers.

Once again, a late goal threatened to derail RPI - St. Lawrence's Michael Ederer tied the score with 1:02 left in the period, and it got worse as SLU took the lead about six minutes into the third period on a goal by Drew Smolcynski. But as in the second period, the late goal and the trailing score did not put RPI away as in the recent past. With just under seven minutes left in regulation, Riley Bourbonnais struck for the Engineers, knotting the game back up at three.

Meanwhile, Hackett especially coming up especially big for the Engineers throughout the second and third periods. In the final 40 minutes alone, Hackett made 29 saves on 31 shots, finishing the night with a solid 37 saves, more than doing his part to not only keep RPI alive, but well in the game.

Both teams had individual power play opportunities late in the third period following the Bourbonnais goal, but neither were able to convert. For the second night running, the Engineers were off to overtime, this time as the team tying the game rather than the team losing the lead. A second draw surely would have led to a relatively successful conclusion to a very trying weekend, but just a minute into the extra time, the local boy stepped up again for RPI.

Mark Miller, a native of nearby Massena who has frequently had some outstanding moments in the North Country, added another memorable one by shoveling home a shot by Drew Melanson, giving RPI a 4-3 victory and, against all expectation coming into the weekend and given what happened over the course of the weekend, three ECAC points in two road games.

Kasdorf's availability (along with that of Bubela and Tironese) isn't known for sure for the upcoming home weekend against Yale and Brown. One report by the Troy Record suggests that he's unlikely to play against Yale, but a report from Canton had it that Kasdorf could have played against St. Lawrence if it had been a playoff game. Both could be accurate.

At any rate, Yale represents the biggest challenge to the Engineers in terms of a power team since they welcomed Boston College to the Field House. The Bulldogs have opened the season with solid offensive numbers and have yet to allow three goals in a game. But RPI is at least playing closer to their potential than their more frequently expected floor, and they're starting to turn a couple of heads. Another strong ECAC weekend, especially on Friday, and expectations change.

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

By winning percentage
1. Quinnipiac (1.000)
2. Harvard (.875)
3. RPI (.875)
4. Yale (.750)
5. St. Lawrence (.500)
6. Cornell (.500)
7. Colgate (.500)
8. Clarkson (.250)
9. Union (.250)
10. Dartmouth (.250)
11. Princeton (.000)
12. Brown (.000)


RPI at #17 Clarkson
ECAC Game - Cheel Arena (Potsdam, NY)
11/6/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 2, Clarkson 2 (OT)


RECORD: 3-4-1 (2-0-1 ECAC, 5 pts)

RPI at #15 St. Lawrence
ECAC Game - Appleton Arena (Canton, NY)
11/7/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 4, St. Lawrence 3 (OT)

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RECORD:4-4-1 (3-0-1 ECAC, 7 pts)

Upcoming games
13 Nov - #10 Yale
14 Nov - Brown
20 Nov - at Bentley
24 Nov - New Hampshire
27 Nov - vs. Western Michigan (South Bend, IN)

Monday, November 9, 2015

Women's Hockey - St. Lawrence & Clarkson (6/7 Nov)

After taking three points from Cornell and Colgate, RPI returned home to face their biggest challenge of the early season as St. Lawrence and fourth-ranked Clarkson came to town.

After falling short in a 2-0 loss to the Saints on Friday, the Engineers clawed out a 2-1 win over Clarkson on Saturday behind a spectacular effort from freshman netminder Lovisa Selander.

St. Lawrence

Rooney/Mankey/Raspa
Wash/Gruschow/Thomas
Grigsby/Schwalbe/Tomlinson
Tremblay/Hylwa/Orzechowski

Hansen/Godin
Behounek/Banks
Kimmerle/Renn

Selander

The weekend opened on a tough note as RPI struggled against St. Lawrence, getting shut out 2-0 by the visiting Saints. Selander finished with 31 saves but it was not enough for an Engineer squad that couldn't get one past Saints goalie Sonjia Shelly.

The first period flew by without scoring or penalties, and it wasn't until after the midpoint of the second period that SLU tallied the game's first goal. Taking advantage of a turnover at the RPI blue line, Kailee Heidersbach fed the puck to Kennedy Marchment at the top of the RPI crease, then Marchment gave it right back to Heidersbach across the crease for an easy tap-in past Selander.

Brooke Webster added a second goal for the Saints early in the third period, poking home a loose puck after a shot from Amanda Boulier made it past Selander to settle in the crease. The RPI defense tried to swipe it clear of the crease but couldn't get to it before the charging Webster had it in the back of the net.

The Engineers finished the game having been outshot 33-16 by a SLU squad that, despite a mixed bag of results early on due to playing a tough early schedule, looks poised to be one of the league's better teams.

Clarkson

Wash/Gruschow/Thomas
Rooney/Mankey/Raspa
Grigsby/Schwalbe/Tomlinson
Tremblay/Hylwa/Orzechowski

Behounek/Banks
Hansen/Godin
Kimmerle/Renn

Selander

While Saturday's game threatened to be an even tougher matchup for the Engineers than Friday's, with fourth-ranked Clarkson visiting Houston Field House, RPI took advantage of a great outing from Lovisa Selander coupled with some opportune penalty calls to pull a big upset and hand the Golden Knights their first loss of the season, 13 games in.

It was Clarkson scoring first, with Cayley Mercer giving the Golden Knights a 1-0 edge in a first period which saw the visitors outshoot RPI 15-3. Mercer's goal was a quick redirect in front of the net which came just moments after the Engineers broke up a 3-on-2 opportunity.

Lindsey Hylwa drew the Engineers even midway through the middle frame, putting just enough of a tip on a Mari Mankey shot coming on the rush to sneak it past Shea Tiley.

Mankey would then go on to tally the go-ahead goal on the Engineers' seventh power play chance of the game, at 12:49 of the third. Jenn Godin set up the goal with a slapshot from the point which Tiley stopped, but the puck dropped at the top of the crease and Mankey was able to slide it underneath the Clarkson goalie before she could get a glove on it.

The Engineers then held on as Clarkson fought hard to tie the game back up, with Selander making several big stops and finishing the game with an excellent 45 saves, making her 76 for 79 on the weekend.

RPI now travels to Dartmouth and Harvard before taking a couple weeks off from conference play for an exhibition at McGill and home set against New Hampshire.

-----

RPI vs. St. Lawrence
ECAC Hockey Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/6/15 - 7pm
SLU 2, RPI 0

BOX SCORES:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=5186
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1516/boxes/wrenstl1.n06

RECAPS:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/news/2015/11/6/WICE_1106153848.aspx?path=whock
SLU: http://www.saintsathletics.com/news/2015/11/6/WHOCKEY_1106152655.aspx?path=whockey
Complete Game Video: http://rpitv.org/productions/998-womens-hockey-vs-st-lawrence

RECORD: 3-5-1 (1-1-1 ECAC)

-----

RPI vs. #4 Clarkson
ECAC Hockey Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/7/15 - 4pm
RPI 2, Clarkson 1

BOX SCORES:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=5187
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1516/boxes/wclkren1.n07

RECAPS:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/news/2015/11/7/WICE_1107152112.aspx?path=whock
Clarkson: http://clarksonathletics.com/news/2015/11/7/WHOCK_1107154740.aspx?path=whock
Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P1axL7eDJ0
Complete Game Video: http://rpitv.org/productions/1000-womens-hockey-vs-clarkson

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

-----

Upcoming Schedule

Nov. 13 - at Dartmouth (7pm)
Nov. 14 - at Harvard (4pm)
Nov. 22 - at McGill (2pm)
Nov. 27 - New Hampshire (7pm)
Nov. 28 - New Hampshire (4pm)

Friday, November 6, 2015

Small Sample Sizes

Hey, look! The women are in 2nd place in the ECAC! Tied for second, technically, with Harvard and Dartmouth, but they've got a game in hand over both teams, so... yeah!


And wow! Just like last year, the men are in 1st place! Tied for first, technically, with Harvard (freakin' Harvard), but hey, better than the alternative!




OK, so it's really not that impressive just yet for either team. But the road has to start somewhere, and it's started very well for both squads - unbeaten last weekend. That's the first time that's happened since December 7-8. 2012, when the men won at Yale and tied at Brown while the women swept those teams at home.

There's only way to stay on the perch - keep it up. The women have a difficult task in front of them at home against the North Country. The better bet is tonight against St. Lawrence, but the Saints don't seem to be that big of a slouch. Sure, they're 4-6-1, but four of those losses were to Clarkson and Boston College. No shame there. And then tomorrow is Clarkson... and Clarkson's a wrecking ball so far this year (no, that's not the pumpup).

The men get to return to the North Country for the fourth time in calendar year 2015 to take on nationally ranked Clarkson tonight and nationally ranked St. Lawrence tomorrow. This weekend marks the ECAC debuts for both teams and is never easy for the Engineers, but they could well be without leading scorer Evan Tironese, who took a hit that was a five-minute boarding call in most leagues but apparently a legal hit in the ECAC against Union last Saturday, and also without Milos Bubela, who is frequently a dangerous scoring threat.

In honor of this weekend's games against the North Country, here's a reach back to the past for an ode to alien landings, which wouldn't be the strangest thing to ever happen up there.


PROGRAMMING NOTE: In case you missed it on Twitter, WRPI won't be in the North Country this weekend. It was pretty much the perfect storm in terms of announcers being unavailable, and one that hopefully won't happen again, but it's pretty much the risk you run when you have a broadcast that's basically unpaid (we get reimbursed for travel expenses and that's it) and entirely produced by working professionals. However, the good news is that the women's hockey game tonight and hopefully tomorrow afternoon as well will be broadcast. Huzzah!

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Men's Hockey - Union Home-and-Home (30/31 Oct)

The Route 7 Rivalry was renewed once more last weekend, and it continued the trend that has been ongoing since 2014 began - the matchups continue to be dominated by one side, only now, that side is certainly RPI. For the fourth and fifth times in the last six meetings between the Engineers and the Dutchmen, RPI skated off with victories this past weekend, sweeping the ECAC series between the rivals for the second time in as many seasons with a 5-1 victory in Schenectady followed by a 3-2 win in Troy.

Friday
Liljegren-Bubela-Wood
Nanne-Tironese-Bourbonnais
Fulton-Schroeder-Gillespie
Ohrvall, Miller

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Hampton
Moore-Reno
Grant

Kasdorf

Sophomore Drew Melanson was a healthy scratch in the first game of the series, with freshman Tommy Grant getting his collegiate debut in his place. That led to a tiny bit of line juggling heading into the first ECAC weekend of the regular season.

It took the referees exactly six seconds to inject themselves into the game, calling a cross-checking penalty against Jake Wood off the opening faceoff, creating for Union what would be the first of nine power play opportunities on the evening. The Dutchmen, however, have been brutal on the power play all month long and that would continue for much of the weekend as well. RPI killed the Wood penalty with relative ease, and were unable to score on a power play of their own that came along about two and a half minutes later.

Midway through the first period, the Engineers struck first blood as Travis Fulton notched his first goal of the season with a tight-angle shot from along the goal line, sneaking one past Alex Sakellaropoulos after a neutral zone takeaway from Wood to make it 1-0 RPI. Five minutes later, a Phil Hampton blast from the point was redirected in front by Lou Nanne for the sophomore's first goal of the year to make it 2-0, the first in an outright volley of goals by the Engineers. 58 seconds after Nanne's goal, Kenny Gillespie scored the first goal of his collegiate career by picking up a drop pass from Fulton and blasting it from along the boards near the blue line, a bad goal for Sakellaropoulos to let in, and the Union junior was chased from the net.

Sakellaropoulos' replacement, freshman Jake Kupsky, couldn't initialy staunch the blood-letting. Just under two minutes later, Riley Bourbonnais one-timed a drop pass from Viktor Liljegren to the back of the net, making it 4-0 RPI just 18:12 into the contest. The Engineers outshot the Dutchmen 15-4 in the first period.

From there, things quieted down considerably, turning instead into the RPI march to the penalty box. Four separate penalties, including two to Milos Bubela, were called on the Engineers during the middle frame, but Union's rough power play abilities kept RPI ahead 4-0 after two periods. Over the first 40 minutes, Jason Kasdorf required only 11 saves to keep Union off the scoreboard.

Liljegren picked up a five-minute major for boarding just seconds after Bubela's second minor expired early in the third period, a penalty that had the potential to allow Union to creep back into contention. However, Bubela himself broke Union's back mere moments after the major began, jumping on a bad pass to create a shorthanded breakway that he buried to make it 5-0 Engineers. The remainder of the Liljegren penalty expired without too much of a problem for the visitors.

The penalties would not end there. Penalties to Evan Tironese, Mark Miller, and Jared Wilson would ensue, with Union finally breaking through for a goal on the Wilson penalty, their ninth and final power play of the evening, keeping Kasdorf from his first shutout of the season.

After that, it was all over but the requisite pushing and shoving that rears its head in any RPI-Union affair. Union captain Matt Wilkins was the first to go, getting hit with a contact-to-the-head penalty with about 90 seconds left. That was followed in the waning seconds with misconducts for Bourbonnais, Bubela, Eli Lichtenwald, and Connor Light for a general dustup, and a charging penalty to Nick Cruice as time expired.

Saturday
Liljegren-Bubela-Wood
Nanne-Tironese-Bourbonnais
Fulton-Schroeder-Gillespie
Melanson, Miller

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Hampton
Moore-Reno
Grant

Kasdorf

Melanson returned to the lineup for the Black Saturday game, replacing Jesper Ohrvall, who was a healthy scratch. Otherwise, the lineup remained exactly the same.

Union looked slightly better to start the game on Saturday, but it was not difficult for the visitors to look better than they had on Friday following a performance their coach described as the worst he'd ever seen since his arrival in Schenectady. Nonetheless, the opening 20 minutes were mostly controlled by the Engineers, especially late in the period as they peppered Sakellaropoulos with shots to emerge from the first with a 17-6 edge in shots. But unlike on Friday, that lopsided tally did not accompany a lopsided score, as the teams skated to a scoreless draw in the first period.

Wilson's first goal of the season ignited the scoring early in the second period, as his blast from the point 3:29 gave teeth to RPI's dominant early play, and Hampton's first of the year - on a similar play three and a half minutes later - put RPI up 2-0.

The third period is when the officiating - widely reviled from the previous night - reared its ugly head. Union cut the RPI lead in half on a power play goal 4:03 into the third as Sebastien Gingras scored following a behind-the-play interference call on Mike Prapavessis. A fairly weak slashing call against Union's Jeff Taylor midway through the period evened things out, however, as Mark Miller put together his first goal of the year on the ensuing power play, rifling one through traffic to put RPI up 3-1.

Both teams appeared lifeless after the Miller goal, but a terrible diving call against Melanson after a very clear takedown by Union's Brendan Taylor led to a 4-on-4 that got the Dutchmen back into the game once again as Ryan Scarfo scored on a rebound to make it 3-2.

Minutes later, a rough charge by Wilkins on Evan Tironese into the boards was not called, and Tironese was lost for the remainder of the game - and potentially longer - after injuring his wrist on the play. With the whistles swallowed, Union pushed for the tying goal late, pulling the goaltender and getting some decent looks, but Kasdorf stood up tall in the end to preserve the weekend sweep for the Engineers, who begin the season 2-0-0 in league play for the second consecutive season.

The road forward for the Engineers is one in which they'll be forced to prove themselves repeatedly - the next three games in a row are all against nationally ranked teams. If they are to prove that their start to the ECAC season was no fluke, they'll have to get some results on the road against a Clarkson team that is off to its best start in nearly a quarter-century and a St. Lawrence team that appears to be just as good as they were last season.

Current ECAC Standings
1. Harvard - 4 pts (2-0-0)
2. RPI - 4 pts (2-0-0)
3. Brown - 0 pts (0-0-0)
3. Clarkson - 0 pts (0-0-0)
3. Colgate - 0 pts (0-0-0)
3. Cornell - 0 pts (0-0-0)
3. Princeton - 0 pts (0-0-0)
3. Quinnipiac - 0 pts (0-0-0)
3. St. Lawrence - 0 pts (0-0-0)
3. Yale - 0 pts (0-0-0)
11. Union - 0 pts (0-2-0)
12. Dartmouth - 0 pts (0-2-0) 

RPI at Union
ECAC Game - Messa Rink (Schenectady, NY)
10/30/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 5, Union 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

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

Union at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
10/31/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Union 2

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

Upcoming games
06 Nov - at #17 Clarkson
07 Nov - at #15 St. Lawrence
13 Nov - #12 Yale
14 Nov - Brown
20 Nov - at Bentley