What If: Wait Until Next Year

* August 2010: Brandon Pirri and Jerry D'Amigo sign NHL contracts shortly before the beginning of their sophomore seasons

Taio Cruz - Break Your Heart


For a program that was in desperate need of salvation, Brandon Pirri and Jerry D'Amigo seemed like godsends - and despite a bitter ending to an otherwise successful season, better days were certainly on the horizon. Given all the things RPI fans were expecting to happen in the offseason following the team's bitter Game 3 loss to last-place Brown, the 2010-11 season was full of all kinds of hopes and dreams.

The first three seasons of the Seth Appert era were difficult to say the least. Making it clear early on that he intended to start essentially from scratch and build the program into prosperity with his own recruits, the team went 31-68-14 between 2007 and 2009, bottoming out in the third season with a .282 winning percentage that was the second lowest in the modern era, ahead of only the 3-19-0 season of 1965-66.

That 2009 result was deflating for a lot of RPI fans. After all, the new coach by that point was now at the head of a team that was comprised more than half of its roster with players he had recruited. There was little question that sophomores Chase Polacek and Tyler Helfrich were the heart of the offense, but team defense continued to suffer by and large.

Hope, it seemed, was on the way in the form of three prized forward recruits that had been landed just ahead of that dismal season. The first was a small forward from Ontario who could score in bunches, Jacob Laliberte, who committed in February 2008. Then came two big names at the almost same time - Jerry D'Amigo, who would play the 2008-09 season for USA Hockey's Under-18 program, who committed in July, and then the talented Brandon Pirri, a somewhat larger forward from Ontario who could also score in bunches.

Laliberte, who would have turned 19 just before the 2009-11 season got underway, was eventually pushed back a year, but the arrival of D'Amigo and Pirri as boosters for Polacek, Helfrich, and freshman standout Patrick Cullen certainly mitigated that move significantly, with interest piquing after Pirri was selected late in the second round of the NHL Entry Draft that summer, followed by D'Amigo's selection in the sixth round, not to mention the head-turning he did at the US Junior camp in Lake Placid that summer.

The season got off to a slow start as RPI put together a 1-2-1 record in its first four games and then posted lackluster wins against Sacred Heart and American International on back-to-back nights. A dramatic come-from-behind win in Schenectady over Union was overshadowed the next night by a loss to Army on Halloween night which concluded a lackluster October.

Hope began to spring in November with the ECAC schedule getting underway, as the Engineers whipped off wins against Yale, Brown, and Clarkson to start the league season 3-0, the first time the team had accomplished the task since the ECAC championship season of 1995. They then jumped out to a 1-0 lead over St. Lawrence, only two give up two goals in the span of 1:49 in the third period to lose 2-1. That would be the first of six losses in the team's next seven games, including four ECAC games, which sunk those early high hopes, especially given that the other three league games were all in Troy.

In December, D'Amigo was invited to join the US junior team in Canada, and he not only played, he starred on a team that defeated Canada for the gold medal. By the time he returned to Troy in January, his stock had risen significantly, and it coincided with a rise in the team's performance.

Things slowly cranked back up in mid-December. After an upset over BU in Boston, RPI took down Michigan in the first round of the Great Lakes Invitational and then swept the Quinnipiac/Princeton road trip. Between New Year's Day and Freakout, RPI put up a 7-3-2 record that put the team right back in contention for a first round bye. By this point, people were well aware of D'Amigo and Pirri as potential rookie of the year candidates, and Polacek was becoming a legitimate Hobey Baker candidate himself.

Then came Freakout, which was also senior night, and the Engineers could not have played more poorly. With sophomore goaltender Allen York out with an injury, Princeton destroyed RPI 7-0 and dealt a serious setback to the Engineers' first-round bye hopes. A one-point weekend in Central New York sealed the Engineers' fate, they would be the sixth seed after losing a tiebreak with St. Lawrence for fifth place.

Then, the Brown debacle. After a terrible third period performance in Game 1 put RPI down in the series, a 4-1 win in Game 2 forced the a deciding Game 3 - but the Engineers were flat as could be in that contest, falling behind 3-0 early in the third period. Two third period goals were too little, too late, and the turnaround season ended with an upset loss.

But, fortunately, another talented freshman class was waiting in the wings, chock full of defensive strength and, of course, Laliberte.

In August, as the team was getting ready to congeal again for the season, word came from Lake Placid - where D'Amigo was training again for the World Juniors - that the rising sophomore had gained a good 20 pounds of muscle during the offseason, and that Toronto, who had drafted him a year earlier, was impressed with his Rookie of the Year season and previous WJC exploits. After camp ended, D'Amigo was offered the money, and he signed.

It was certainly a blow to the team to lose D'Amigo that early - after his successful freshman year, few thought he would stay through his senior season, but almost no one thought he'd leave before his sophomore year - but conventional wisdom had it that as long as Pirri was in the mix, RPI was going to be OK. Then Pirri was a conspicuous absence at captain's practices, and before long, he had signed a professional deal as well.

The departure of the freshmen actually made up two of a series of events we deemed the "summer from hell" that drastically changed the 2010-11 Engineers from what expectations had been at the end of the 2009-10 season. Assistant coach Jim Montgomery left the program to restart the Dubuque Fighting Saints in the USHL, prized defensive recruit Nick Quinn first pushed his arrival in Troy back a year and the decommitted altogether (ending up in the OHL), and Laliberte had his arrival in Troy pushed back for a second year in a row. That let a lot of the air out of high expectations for 2011 that had some pegging RPI as the top contender to Yale's dominance of the league table.

Pirri's departure was chalked up to the roster issues that Chicago, the Stanley Cup champions, had after being forced to let go of many of its role players to be able to afford some of the hefty contracts they'd taken on to make their championship run, but in all likelihood, D'Amigo's departure only hastened Pirri all the more. D'Amigo ultimately struggled in the AHL in 2011, eventually being sent to play in the OHL, while Pirri spent nearly the entire season in the AHL, save a single NHL game which extended RPI's streak of alums playing in the big leagues.

Despite diminished expectations, the Engineers still ended up having a phenomenal 2011. They chased after and picked up the team's first NCAA bid since 1995, and were nearly unbeatable at home - they won their first seven home games in a row, and didn't have a regulation loss at home until the final week of the regular season - which, as it turned out, could have helped them gain the first-round bye if they'd have had any other result in that contest. Overall, RPI went 14-3-1 between mid-November and early February, a showing for much of the season that helped them back into the NCAA tournament despite a 2-6-1 conclusion to the year.

How would the 2010-11 Engineers have fared if the "summer from hell" had never taken place? What if Toronto had told D'Amigo to hone his skills in Troy for another year to see if his skill level would catch up with his bigger size?

D'Amigo had a difficult first season in the pros, but it may have been portended by a rough WJC camp that summer, which had been chalked up to the attention Toronto had been giving him at the time. He may have been destined for a down year, but night-in and night-out at RPI is still a touch easier than the AHL or even the World Junior camp. Polacek managed to be a Hobey Baker candidate for a second straight season even without the pair, and Allen York came into his own as a top-tier goaltender as well.

Whatever kind of seasons Pirri and D'Amigo would have had in Troy in 2011, you have to think their presence would have boosted the Engineers in close games that were either tied or lost. That by itself likely would have been enough to boost RPI into a top four position in the ECAC playoffs, and probably would have made an NCAA bid more of a sure thing rather than the edge-of-your-seat waiting game that took place for two weeks after being upset by Colgate (which may have helped them get the bid, ironically).

Without considering how RPI would have fared in the ECAC tournament, the boost would surely have been enough to improve the team's draw for the NCAAs. Being matched up with the odds-on favorites for the national championship is never easy (and unfortunately, York wasn't in a good position to channel his inner Jon Casey against North Dakota).

Could that have produced at least the team's first NCAA goal since George Servinis, or perhaps even a first round win? I'd like to think that adding Pirri and D'Amigo to the NCAA roster combined with a less difficult first round opponent would have made the first likely, and the second one very, very possible.

Some have wistfully commented that given the actual turnout of the 2011 season, RPI could have been a Frozen Four team if not for the "summer from hell." It's certainly going too far to peg that as some kind of sure thing, but even to be able to say that such an event was even in the realm of the possible is an intriguing "what if" to chew on.

Beyond 2011, there's little likelihood either player would have ever been playing this season, as seniors, for the Engineers. After the 2010 season, most figured Pirri would stick around one more year, and D'Amigo two at the most.

To some extent, we are still seeing the fallout from the departure of Pirri and D'Amigo today through the depleted nature of this year's senior class. It's had a certain effect on recruiting, in all likelihood, too. While the fab frosh electrified Troy and got boosters dreaming of bigger things, their one season did not have the same impact as a player like Chase Polacek, whose career was overlooked by the NHL, allowing him to be a solid four-year contributor in Troy - or even Jeremy Welsh, who was a freshman at Union during Pirri and D'Amigo's lone year at RPI. Arguably, Welsh contributed more to Union's success by being undrafted and staying three years than Pirri and D'Amigo contributed at RPI.

As a positive aspect, though, their early success and quick professional attention at least portrayed RPI as a place serious hockey prospects could consider as a place to develop both the mind and body - something, however, that would have been enhanced had they stayed an extra year.

Men's Hockey - vs. North Dakota (26 Mar)

They got very little attention ahead of what was possibly the biggest (easily, the latest) game in the program's recent history - at least since the turn of the millennium - but it turned out there was plenty of cause for that lack of attention. The North Dakota Fighting Sioux, ranked #1 in the country, put on a clinic of efficient hockey that, while never thoroughly dominating on the ice, was certainly dominating on the scoreboard. RPI ran into a more well-rounded and talent-laden team in the first round of their first NCAA tournament experience in 16 years, but the only truly disappointing element to the game was the team's inability, for the third consecutive NCAA appearance, to not score a goal as the Engineers fell 6-0 to North Dakota.

North Dakota
Higgs/Polacek/Lee
Cullen/Malchuk/Rabbani

Angers-Goulet/O'Grady/Brutlag
Tinordi/Rogic/Helfrich

Bergin/Foss
Bailen/Kennedy
Koudys/Dolan

York

The 20-day layoff that the Engineers experienced between their last ECAC tournament game and their NCAA regional appearance represented the longest break between games since the tournament expanded to 16 teams in 2003. Some expected RPI to be rusty due to the layoff, others expected them to have more energy. Neither truly ended up being true, but the Engineers did seem to be able to at the very least run with North Dakota in the first period, and actually controlled play to some extent during portions of the opening 20 minutes.

RPI actually had the game's first decent scoring opportunity just seconds into the affair, forcing UND goaltender Aaron Dell to be sharp right away to keep the Engineers off the scoresheet. RPI was ready, willing, and able to set the physical tone early on, though that did lead to a penalty to Bryan Brutlag just 45 seconds into the game. That penalty was killed off, and a big, bruising hit by Josh Rabbani that leveled UND defenseman Brock Nelson (and led to his being helped off the ice, not to return) could have signaled a serious momentum shift, but North Dakota turned around rather quickly and notched the game's first goal on a bit of a dribbling puck. Brad Malone picked up a slow mover that he placed between Allen York's pads. York got a piece of it, but could not stop it from eventually crossing the line.

That would be the only goal of the first period, but the Engineers certainly had their chances, most notably on a shot taken by Chase Polacek that rang off the post loud enough to reverberate in the Resch Center. Brock Higgs also had an opportunity to light the lamp in the first period after finding the puck at his stick with Dell well out of the net, but he was unable to pull the trigger thanks in part to a solid backup from the UND defense.

Malone scored again early in the second period, this time on the power play, to put UND up 2-0, but the Engineers were still largely hanging with the Sioux. The game's turning point, however, came midway through the period. Shortly after killing off a short 5-on-3 after penalties to Brock Higgs and Jeff Foss - in fact, just seven seconds after Foss exited the penalty box to allow RPI to escape the penalty kill unscathed - UND's Danny Kristo scored a nifty goal on a toe drag, blunting any potential momentum from the penalty kill and giving the Sioux a comfortable 3-0 lead.

From there, the game was mostly academic. RPI began to look a little gassed, having given their all during the game's first 30 minutes to keep up with the Sioux and getting nothing to show for it. North Dakota would score on the next two penalties, netting a power play goal on a second penalty to Jeff Foss and a shorthanded goal with their captain, Chay Genoway, in the penalty box late in the second. While the end of the first saw the Engineers trailing only 1-0, the end of the second saw them back 5-0, a comeback looking quite unlikely even with 20 minutes left.

The coupe de grace came just 32 seconds into the third when Hobey Baker favorite Matt Frattin scored despite drawing a slashing penalty against Mike Bergin in the process - he was not about to be stopped. From there, the Sioux relented slightly, preferring to work for the shutout instead. The Engineers, meanwhile, were completely gassed. Their only offensive opportunities of the third period came on three power plays, but RPI still was unable to put anything home. In fact, on some of the man advantages, North Dakota continued to have a pretty solid control of the puck, occasionally pulling up rather than taking shots on Allen York. They put only eight shots on net after 14 in the first and 18 in the second.

Ultimately, RPI didn't play poorly despite their long layoff - they didn't seem rusty at all and they even seemed to play the type of game they set out to play. The only truly ugly element of the entire game was on the scoreboard. Who knows what could have happened if Higgs or Polacek had been able to put the puck home in the first period - but that is neither here nor there. Not scoring a goal, in the end, was the toughest part for RPI fans to have to swallow. The last goal RPI has scored in the NCAA tournament was the famous goal by George Servinis that won the 1985 national championship.

And so ends a remarkable season that had its share of highs and lows, characterized by the lowest of the low being followed by one of the highest highs in March. Seven seniors - Chase Polacek, Tyler Helfrich, Jeff Foss, Bryan Brutlag, John Kennedy, Scott Halpern, and Kevin Beauregard, have played their final games in an RPI sweater. Joel Malchuk is expected to return for his redshirt season - but there is one key underclassman who we know will not be returning.

Allen York on Tuesday signed a pro contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets, forgoing his senior season and becoming the fourth Engineer to sign his first NHL contract this season, following Jerry D'Amigo, Brandon Pirri, and Kirk MacDonald. That leaves a big gap for RPI next season, but fortunately Seth Appert has six months to decide what to do in net. Most likely, junior-to-be Bryce Merriam will be the man between the pipes, but another goaltender will be needed to come in on the roster. That could be the already-recruited Jason Kasdorf, who had been expected to replace York in 2012, or it could be another goaltender yet to be added, with Kasdorf replacing instead Jeremy Coupal on the roster when the practice goalie graduates next year.

Other junk - Chase Polacek finishes his career with 160 points, 19th place among all time scorers at RPI.

With 106 points, Tyler Helfrich finishes his career tied with Norm Bean '70 and Joe Ens '78 for 50th all-time.

Allen York finishes his career at RPI as the top goaltender in program history in goals against average with 2.47.

Greg Burgdoerfer has now been on the roster for three NCAA tournament games - two with Air Force in his freshman season, and one with RPI this year - but did not dress in any of them.

#4 RPI vs. #1 North Dakota
NCAA Midwest Regional Semifinal - Resch Center (Green Bay, WI)
3/26/11 - 1:30pm

RESULT: North Dakota 6, RPI 0

BOX SCORES

College Hockey Stats

USCHO

RECAPS

RPI

USCHO

Troy Record

Albany Times-Union

Grand Forks Herald

Dickinson Press

Green Bay Press-Gazette

Denver Post

Bismarck Tribune

VIDEO
YouTube (Seth Appert remarks)

YouTube (Chase Polacek and John Kennedy remarks)

YouTube (Dave Hakstol remarks)

YouTube (Brad Malone and Corban Knight remarks)

RECORD: 20-13-5 (11-9-2 ECAC, 24 pts)

Reale Deals
1. G Allen York, 36 saves

2. F Brock Higgs, 4 shots

3. F Chase Polacek, 3 shots

Hobey Polacek Revisited

The chants have returned. "Ho-bey Ba-ker!" reverberated around the sold-out Houston Field House last weekend as Chase Polacek scored his 150th point as an Engineer with a power play goal to give RPI a 4-1 lead over #1 Yale in the Big Red Freakout! on Saturday. It was his fifth consecutive game with a goal, and helped increase the winning streak to... five. Coincidence?

About this time last year, I wrote about Polacek's potential candidacy for the Hobey Baker Award and figured that he'd make the list of 10 finalists, but would go no further than that, and that turned out to be what happened.

This year, things are a little bit different. This time, I could see Chase as the Hobey Baker winner - assuming, of course, that he continues to play the way he's been playing for the next month and a half.

What's the difference from this year to last year? A lot of the things I spoke about last year have changed. Last year, I noted that only three members of non-NCAA tournament teams have won the Hobey. That's still true, but unlike last year, RPI is well positioned for an NCAA tournament berth.

I noted the difficulty of an ECAC player winning the award. Still true - but you'd have to have your head in the sand not to notice the incredible season the league is having, with five teams currently ranked in the top 20. That mitigates things a little bit.

But first and foremost, as good of a season as Polacek was having last year, he's practically surpassing that this year, and without the "assistance" of Brandon Pirri and Jerry D'Amigo, who some posited were opening up the opportunities for Chase. Some scoffed before the season started when Seth Appert said that it was Chase who made Brandon and Jerry go, not the other way around. Chase had 1.33 points per game at the end of last season. As of right now, he's scoring at 1.50 points per game this season. Certainly looks like Appert was telling the truth, doesn't it?

He's also the only returning finalist putting up better numbers than last year. Maine's Gustav Nyquist is the only other finalist from last year still playing college hockey, and his numbers, while still pretty outstanding, are off from last year when he led the nation in scoring and still did not claim the Hobey. This season, Nyquist has only six goals in 24 games as opposed to 19 in 39 last year, and while he made most of his points off of assists last year as well, is off the pace with 22 assists in 24 games where he had 42 in 39 last season.

This isn't to say that Chase is a shoo-in for the Hobey or even the Hobey Hat Trick. But as compared to last season, he is much better positioned to contend for the actual award rather than merely being honored as a Finalist (and eventually, a First Team All-American). I'll break down the Hobey race later this month.

What about Allen York, you ask? Yes, Allen is having a tremendous year, but that isn't enough when you're a goaltender. Fair or not, you have to have more than just a sensational season between the pipes to claim the Hobey Baker, you have to be head and shoulders above every other goaltender. That, unfortunately, is not the case with Allen. He may have an outside shot at being a finalist (which would be truly unique, as RPI, to my knowledge, has never had two Hobey finalists in the same year), but that's about as far as it'll go unless he somehow begins some epic shutout streak or something along those lines to really bring attention to himself.

Regardless, you should take the time to visit the Hobey Baker site and help stuff the ballot box for Chase and Allen. Does it mean anything? Eh, not really. But maybe it'll get some casual observers to take a second look at the men of Troy.

Men's Hockey - Brown and Yale (28/29 Jan)

The Engineers are officially on a roll. For the first time since February 2002 - in a stretch that included the immortal Freakout! victory over Clarkson - RPI has won five consecutive ECAC games. They kept things going in impressive fashion this weekend, completing the season sweep of Brown with their second shutout of the season on Friday, 3-0, ahead of the Big Red Freakout! matchup with top-ranked Yale, earning their first victory over the national #1 in 15 years (Vermont in 1995-96), 5-2 in front of a sold-out crowd.

Brown
Angers-Goulet/O'Grady/Brutlag
Cullen/Higgs/Rabbani
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Tinordi/Rogic/Malchuk

Bergin/Foss
Kennedy/Dolan
Leboeuf/Bailen

York

John Kennedy returned to the lineup after missing just one game, giving RPI a full complement of skaters to choose from again. There had been some drama during the week as to whether he'd play, with Appert deeming him "50-50" and Kennedy deeming himself "95 percent," but the captain did in fact return to the lineup.

Brown returned to Houston Field House for the first time since their upset 3-game playoff victory over RPI last March, but were playing against what was clearly a better RPI team than last season's.

The Bears came up shooting throughout the game, but the Engineers were first on the board for the fourth straight game. A kneeing call against Jeff Foss was canceled out by penalty to Brown's Harry Zolnierczyk for running Allen York about a minute into the Brown power play. Seconds later, Jack Maclellan was called for slashing York during the ensuing 4-on-4, giving RPI a 4-on-3 that eventually became a 5-on-3 when Foss exited the box. With time running down on Zolnierczyk's penalty, Chase Polacek scored his 15th goal of the season, stretching his goal-scoring streak to four in a row, making it 1-0 Engineers.

Zolnierczyk would get his team in trouble again just over three minutes later, this time with a tripping penalty, and again the Engineers responded. Bryan Brutlag scored just about 30 seconds into the penalty to give RPI a 2-0 edge heading into the second period.

The rest of the game was basically the Allen York show. After Brutlag's goal in the first period, Brown had four full power play opportunities, but could not score thanks to York, who made 36 saves on as many shots to preserve the shutout. Tyler Helfrich scored an empty netter with just over two minutes to play to seal the win. Notably, Zolnierczyk took a penalty at 19:59 of the third period, but the Engineers couldn't complete the hat-trick of goals with the Brown captain in the penalty box.

The win, coupled with Dartmouth's tie with Cornell, moved the Engineers into a tie for 4th place in the ECAC, a bye position, with RPI winning the tiebreaker with the Big Green thanks to their season sweep of Dartmouth that was completed the previous weekend.

Yale
Angers-Goulet/O'Grady/Brutlag
Cullen/Higgs/Rabbani
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Burgdoerfer/Rogic/Malchuk

Kennedy/Dolan
Bergin/Foss
Koudys/Bailen

York

It appears that Burgdoerfer and Tinordi are becoming somewhat interchangeable in the lineup and for good reason - they are fairly similar players.

Yale had already been upset on the weekend heading into Troy as they dropped a one-goal decision to Union in Schenectady on Friday. Conventional wisdom had it that Yale wasn't going to lose two games in a row, but the Engineers, straight out of the gate, had other plans.

Yale's Nick Jaskowiak took the game's first penalty just 1:44 in on a hooking call, and though it took RPI nearly the entire two minutes to score, they did with 10 seconds remaining on the penalty as Patrick Cullen scored to put the Engineers ahead 1-0.

From there, however, Yale displayed exactly why it was the #1 team in the country, maintaining excellent puck possession for basically the next 30 minutes of the game, and keeping RPI bottled up in its own end with an amazing forecheck that more often than not kept the Engineers from getting very far with the puck even when they did have it. But as amazing as the Yale forecheck was, Allen York was even more impressive. Totally dialed in, York made a number of instinctive saves and had tremendous puck awareness all night long.

He needed to be sharp in the second period, as the Engineers began a procession to the penalty box that included a stretch of nearly four straight minutes after consecutive penalties to C.J. Lee and Chase Polacek (with a 10 second overlap of 5x3). RPI killed those penalties, and also killed a delay of game call against Johnny Rogic after Rogic popped the net off its moorings during yet another feverish Yale rush.

Eventually, the penalties became a touch too much. Almost a minute-and-a-half into an elbowing call against Greg Burgdoerfer, Yale finally put one behind York, tying the game at one. From there, the Engineers could have broken, given how dominant Yale had been practically since Cullen's goal.

But that didn't happen. Instead, RPI turned things the other way, assisted by a Yale penalty. Josh Rabbani notched his third goal of the year on a nice deke move in front of the net on the ensuing power play, putting the Engineers back on top 2-1 heading into the third period, but with the game still very much in doubt as it was one of only 3 RPI shots during the middle frame, and they had only 9 through 40 minutes. Such was the puck domination of the Bulldogs.

A fortuitous sequence of events early in the third period put the Engineers in firm control of the scoreboard despite the play on the ice. With Allen York off the ice on a delayed holding penalty against Yale's Ken Trentowski, Brock Higgs scored his fifth goal of the season to give RPI a two-goal cushion. The new rule put in place this season requires penalties to be assessed even if a goal is scored in a delayed situation, so Trentowski went to the box for two minutes and RPI, fresh off their goal, went straight to the power play.

Not even a minute after Higgs had put RPI up by two, Polacek made it five straight with a goal, improbably putting the Engineers up 4-1 despite all of their struggles and required big defense throughout the game. The goal also chased Ryan Rondeau, who has been Yale's stalwart in net all year, after giving up four goals on 12 total shots.

Late in the game, York took offense to Yale's Chris Cahill operating around the net and dropped his stick to go after the Bulldog senior. That netted him an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, and the Bulldogs converted with 2:15 left in the game to cut the RPI lead to 4-2. That gave Yale the opening they needed to pull their backup goaltender, Nick Maricic, but 37 seconds after the net was vacated, C.J. Lee scored RPI's second empty netter of the weekend to put the seal on a 5-2 victory over the best team in the nation.

Allen York was nothing short of fantastic. He made 38 saves on 40 shots, making it an eye popping 74 saves on 76 shots for the weekend. The win snapped RPI's Freakout! losing streak at three, and ended the winless streak at four. It also represented RPI's third win in four tries against the Bulldogs, who saw their quest for a third consecutive Cleary Cup thrown into a little bit of doubt, as they now sit just one point ahead of Union in the ECAC standings.

The Engineers completed their big homestand 4-for-4, and now hit the road to face Quinnipiac and Princeton, the only two ECAC teams they have yet to see this year. The Bobcats have been all over the map but still could be a challenge, especially at home. Princeton, meanwhile, is surprising many of the experts and having a fantastic season, they currently sit in third in the ECAC and have been nationally ranked for three straight weeks. They present RPI's greatest remaining road challenge during the remainder of regular season.

Other junk - Five wins in a row will usually see you rising in the polls. Beating the reigning #1 does that too. The Engineers moved up to their highest position yet this season and are now ranked #9 in the country following their sweep. Yale being swept predictably moved them out of the #1 position, down to #3 in the nation with 2 first place votes. Other ranked teams are #11 Union (up two, swept Yale/Brown), #17 Dartmouth (up one, tied Cornell and beat Colgate), and #19 Princeton (no change, swept Clarkson/St. Lawrence). #14 Boston University (up two) and #20 Colorado College (no change) are also ranked this week. Also receiving votes were Northeastern (4), RIT (2), Niagara (1) and Quinnipiac (1).

Chase Polacek followed up his ECAC Player of the Week performance (in which he had 3 goals and 1 assist) with a 2 goal, 3 assist effort this week. His power play goal in the Freakout! made him the 21st Engineer to reach 150 points for his career, and his assist on Lee's empty-netter gives him 151 points. Barry Martinelli '76 currently occupies 20th with 155 points, followed by Larry Landon '81 in 19th with 157.

Chase is unlikely to catch Miami's Andy Miele (49) or Carter Camper (46) for the national point scoring lead (they feed off each other on the same line), but he is now 5th in the nation in points per game with 1.50, and is tied for 4th in the nation in points 39 for the year.

Allen York, meanwhile, also improved on his numbers from last week, when he was ECAC Goaltender of the Week. He earned his second shutout of the year against Brown, and didn't allow a single even-strength tally against the #1 team in the nation against Yale, making 38 saves on 40 shots.

The Engineers are currently 9th in the nation in KRACH and second in the ECAC, meaning that from this vantage point (that is, from right now), they would be favored in every remaining game they play for the remainder of the regular season.

ECAC Standings
1. Yale - 11-3-0 (22 pts)
2. Union - 10-3-1 (21 pts)
3. Princeton - 9-4-1 (19 pts)
4. RPI - 9-5-0 (18 pts)
5. Dartmouth - 8-4-2 (18 pts)
6. Cornell - 7-5-2 (16 pts)
7. Quinnipiac - 6-6-3 (15 pts)
8. Clarkson - 6-6-1 (13 pts)
9. Brown - 5-8-1 (11 pts)
10. St. Lawrence - 3-9-1 (7 pts)
11. Harvard - 3-12-0 (6 pts)
12. Colgate - 0-12-2 (2 pts)

Adjusted Standings
1. Yale (.786)
2. Union (.750)
3. Princeton (.679)
4. RPI (.643)
5. Dartmouth (.643)
6. Cornell (.571)
7. Clarkson (.500)
8. Quinnipiac (.500)
9. Brown (.393)
10. St. Lawrence (.269)
11. Harvard (.200)
12. Colgate (.071)

Brown at #10 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
1/28/11 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Brown 0

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

VIDEO
RPI TV (full game)
YouTube (goals, no audio)
YouTube (post game press conference)

RECORD: 16-6-3 (8-5-0 ECAC, 16 pts)

Reale Deals
1. F Tyler Helfrich, 1 G, 2 A
2. G Allen York, 36 saves
3. F Chase Polacek, 1 G, 1 A

#1 Yale at #10 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
1/29/11 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 5, Yale 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
Yale Daily News
College Hockey News

VIDEO
YouTube (highlights, all goals plus big York saves, no audio)
YouTube (post game press-conference)
YouTube (York penalty)
YouTube (fan video)
YouTube (post-game celebration)

RECORD: 17-6-3 (9-5-0 ECAC, 18 pts)

Reale Deals
1. G Allen York, 38 saves
2. F Chase Polacek, 1 G, 2 A
3. F Josh Rabbani, 1 G, 1 A

Upcoming games
04 Feb - at Quinnipiac
05 Feb - at #19 Princeton
11 Feb - Colgate
12 Feb - Cornell
18 Feb - at St. Lawrence

Allen York is a Canadian Hero

Dear everybody:

Do we have your undivided attention now?

Love,
RPI and the ECAC

Pride of a nation. Allen York, out of Wetaskiwin, Alberta, made 34 saves and earned the 12-round shootout win in net just moments after being attended to on the ice by the RPI trainer as the Engineers shocked a collection of the best young talent in America.

Men's Hockey - Boston University (11 Dec)

There's no time like a game on national television to make a statement, and that's exactly what the RPI Engineers did this weekend with their lone outing at home against the BU Terriers. With Time Warner's cameras broadcasting their exploits around North America, RPI came through with a solid 4-1 victory partially spoiled by a ridiculous display by the referees, but ultimately earned on the ice with good hustle and outstanding special teams play.

Boston University
Angers-Goulet/Rogic/Brutlag
Cullen/Polacek/Helfrich
Lee/Higgs/Rabbani
Tinordi/Malchuk/Burgdoerfer

Bergin/Foss
Bailen/Dolan
Koudys/Leboeuf

York

The big news at the outset was the return of C.J. Lee and Joel Malchuk, fully one half of the injured quartet that was out against Yale and Brown. There was a bit of good news about John Kennedy as well - he has had his cast removed. He probably won't play next week in the exhibition as a precaution, but he may well be back in time for the Alabama-Huntsville games. Marty O'Grady, however, is an unknown going forward.

The game got off to a rough start for RPI as Joel Malchuk and Guy Leboeuf were each called for tripping early on, giving BU a short 5-on-3 power play opportunity. The penalty kill was up to the challenge though, and the Engineers escaped unharmed. Two minute later, a BU penalty set up RPI's first chance on the man advantage, but a penalty to Pat Koudys for interference just a minute later negated the chance and eventually gave BU it's third power play opportunity only midway through the first period.

That was when the Engineers struck. A clearing pass out of the zone by Mike Bergin was taken by Lee, who raced forward with Malchuk. The two players returning from injury raced into the attacking zone two-on-two, with Lee making a drop pass to Malchuk, who promptly blasted it from near the top of the zone, beating BU's Grant Rollheiser to put the Engineers up 1-0 on a shorthanded tally.

In the final minute of the first period, BU defenseman David Warsofsky was called on a cross-checking call that put RPI on its 2nd power play of the game, and the Engineers responded quickly. Tyler Helfrich scored his 9th goal of the season after being left all alone on the doorstep to Rollheiser's right. He one-timed a cycling pass from Chase Polacek to give RPI a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission.

Right off the bat in the second period, another BU penalty led to an RPI goal. Polacek scored with one of his signature "one-timer near the goal line from a sick angle" shots for his 8th goal of the year to make it 3-0. After the next whistle, BU coach Jack Parker decided that 3 goals on 13 shots was too much, and pulled Rollheiser in favor of his classmate, Kieran Millan. The move did seem to get the Terriers back into things, as the game opened up and became more of a two-way affair than the one-sided tilt the Engineers had turned it into at that point.

Midway through the period, BU's Matt Nieto got a great breakaway opportunity to score, but was stoned cold by Allen York to keep the shutout intact. Each team got a power play chance following the Polacek goal, but neither scored until Wade Megan was able to put back a big rebound that York had let up, putting the Terriers on the board and ending the night for York's stick, as he smashed it against the pipe out of frustration for giving up the rebound. For the remainder of the period - a good four minutes - momentum was definitely in BU's favor.

The 3-1 score carried over into the third period, where things really started to get out of hand. The referees, led by Bryan Hicks of Union wave-off fame, appeared ready to swallow their whistles, but it was a bad move given the myriad calls that had not been made for both teams in the first two periods, and the smattering of bogus calls both teams were called for as well. The game had already been chippy, but it got much worse during the third period. The Terriers worked hard looking for another goal to put them back in the thick of things, but Allen York did what he has increasingly been able to do - clamp things down. He made another big breakaway save during the period to preserve the 2-goal lead.

Things definitively unraveled late in the period after an interference call against BU. It was one of those "had to" penalties, given that the Engineers had come into the zone on a lightening-fast 3-on-0, which you don't see every day. The penalty came with about two-and-a-half minutes left in the 3rd, putting a serious damper on BU's ability to come back. Then, the referees lost control of the game, as BU's frustrations began to boil over. Parker's argument with the referees after the interference call - more than likely, an argument stemming from things not called rather than the actual call - resulted in a bench minor to go along with the interference, putting RPI on a 5-on-3 for two minutes holding the 2-goal lead.

Less than a minute later, BU was whistled again for cross-checking (which was really iffy given that they were already down a player) and the brawling began. No player was issued a game DQ, but several were sent to the locker rooms early, including Lee, Nick Bailen, and BU's Alex Chiasson.

About a minute later, as the 5-on-3 was about to expire, Bryan Brutlag scored on a one-timer in the slot to make it 4-1, putting the seal on the victory. In the immediate aftermath, Warsofsky was shown the gate. Seconds after the ensuing faceoff, Bo Dolan was called for roughing, and seconds after that, a 5-minute major and a game misconduct was assessed to BU's Garrett Noonan for grasping the facemask in another scrum with 16 seconds left. The game was essentially over, but the referees had lost control well before. Jack Parker was furious after the final horn, talking to one of the linesmen during the hand-shake and making a sarcastic gesture to Bryan Hicks, a move which saw him slapped with a game misconduct of his own at the 20:00 mark of the 3rd period.

The ugliness and the terrible officiating aside, it was a monster mid-season win for RPI hockey, scoring a solid victory against one of the top teams in the nation - a team which was ranked #1 just a few weeks ago. The win continued the Engineers' unbeaten streak at Houston Field House this season to 7-0-0.

Next up for the Engineers is a bit of a treat - they play an exhibition this Sunday against the US Junior Team in their first preparation game for the World Junior Championships in Buffalo, which run from December 26 to January 5 at the Sabres' HSBC Arena and Niagara's Dwyer Arena. This is the team on which Jerry D'Amigo won a gold medal last year - and D'Amigo will be back to lead the United States in its quest for a second straight gold. This game will be something of a valedictory for D'Amigo at the Field House. Expect an ovation for the Toronto Marlies forward when he is announced on Sunday. If you're going to be in the Capital District, you are advised not to miss it.

Other junk - The upward mobility continues for the Engineers; another week, another rise in the polls. The win over BU propelled RPI up one place to #14 in the nation. The loss was a bit more of a hit for the Terriers, however, as they dropped three to #10. Other ECAC teams ranked this week are #1 Yale (up to 45/50 first place votes, idle) and #12 Union (up one, blew out AIC and Army at home). Ex-#19 Dartmouth dropped out after just one week as a ranked team after losing to one-win Vermont last night. #20 Colorado College is ranked for the first time in over a month. Other RPI opponents receiving votes are Clarkson (41, the second straight week with the most votes for an unranked team), Dartmouth (36), Princeton (23), and Niagara (1).

With a goal and two assists on Saturday, Chase Polacek has seven points in the last two games. His goal tied him with Don Hearns '75 and Brian Ferreira '90 for 33rd in RPI history with 134 points, and he is now tied with Trevor Kaye '62 for 32nd with 135 points. Next on the list, tied for 30th, are two big names - Mo Mosco '55 and Richard Scammell '69, who have 137 points each.

Joel Malchuk's second goal of the year was also his second shorthanded goal of the year. He is one of only 17 players in the nation with multiple shorties on the season.

The Capital District may be turning into Fort Neverlose. RPI and Union are a combined 14-0-1 at home this season - the lone blemish being Union's tie with UConn.

The ECAC league schedule is finished for 2010, it picks back up on January 3 with a travel-partner game between Quinnipiac and Princeton in New Jersey, then goes to a full 12-game weekend January 7th and 8th.

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

Adjusted Standings
1. Yale (1.000)
2. Dartmouth (.688)
3. Princeton (.667)
4. Clarkson (.643)
5. Union (.583)
6. RPI (.500)
7. Quinnipiac (.450)
8. St. Lawrence (.429)
9. Brown (.417)
10. Cornell (.333)
11. Harvard (.222)
12. Colgate (.083)

#7 Boston University at #15 RPI
Nonconference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
12/11/10 - 3:30pm

RESULT: RPI 4, Boston University 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
BU Daily Free Press
Boston Herald
College Hockey News
Inside Hockey

VIDEO
Goals (no audio, includes one York breakaway save)
Post-game interviews

RECORD: 9-4-3 (3-3-0 ECAC, 6 pts)

Reale Deals
1. G Allen York, 28 saves
2. F Chase Polacek, 1 G, 2 A
3. D Nick Bailen, 2 A, 5 shots

Upcoming games
19 Dec - US Junior National Team (exhibition)
30 Dec - at Alabama-Huntsville
31 Dec - at Alabama-Huntsville
07 Jan - Clarkson
08 Jan - St. Lawrence

Boston Terriers Are Not Scary

See? Very cute and not scary.

And this is coming from fans of a team called the "Engineers." So of course, it's all in good fun.

As was last night's game. Getting past the awful officiating that marred the whole thing and especially the waning moments (and what else can you really expect from a game officiated by Bryan Hicks at this point?), RPI looks primed. They played as a team against a squad loaded with talent and while BU didn't appear to play their best game, they're nothing to shake a stick at. It was a solid victory for the home team, which is now 7-0-0 inside the friendly confines of Houston Field House.

And don't look now, but if the season ended today, 9 of RPI's 16 games thus far would be against teams playing in the national tournament. It should come as no surprise that the Engineers' schedule to date is rated as the toughest in the ECAC - or that their 9-4-3 record sees them ranked 9th in the nation according to KRACH.

When asked if this was a signature win for the team, Allen York (28 saves, including two on the breakaway) had the right response. "You know, it could be...but at the end of the day it's still a regular season win so I hope not."

Strap in and hold on. This could get exciting.

Eh, Why Not

See the title. Feel the title.

Yeah, it's just two games, but come on. It's been nine years. Just enjoy the moment.



All Tournament Team
G - Allen York, RPI
D - Nick Bailen, RPI
D - Jeff Foss, RPI
F - Jordan Samuels-Thomas, Bowling Green
F - Chase Polacek, RPI
F - Tyler Helfrich, RPI

MVP - Bryan Brutlag, RPI

Men's Hockey - at Dartmouth and Harvard (5/6 Nov)

The Engineers close out the year with lots of home games. 4 of the last 6 ECAC weekends of the year are in Troy, a fact which should be helpful down the stretch. The trade-off, of course, is that the year has to start off with lots of road games, and that's just the way the league schedule kicked off last weekend, with games at Dartmouth and Harvard. RPI got off the ground well on Friday, dumping the Big Green 4-1, but had a long trip back to Troy after a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Harvard on a late goal, settling for the weekend split.

Dartmouth
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Brutlag/Malchuk/O'Grady
Cullen/Higgs/Rabbani
Tinordi/Rogic/Halpern

Bergin/Foss
Kennedy/Dolan
Leboeuf/Bailen

York

The minor shakeup of the 2nd and 3rd lines was a result of Alex Angers-Goulet developing an infection that ultimately kept him from the lineup throughout the weekend. Patrick Cullen was the replacement, he was inserted onto the Higgs line, with Marty O'Grady moving onto the Malchuk line. Seth Appert said that Joel Malchuk was also hurt, but was able to maintain his position as the 2nd line center.

The knock on Dartmouth coming into the season was questionable goaltending. After going with junior Jody O'Neill twice in the Ivy Shootout the previous weekend, coach Bob Gaudet decided to throw freshman Cab Morris in against the Engineers for his first collegiate action in the Big Green's first ECAC game of the year.

After failing on two power play opportunities in the game's first eight minutes, the Engineers got themselves on the board first. A minute after killing a hooking penalty against Guy Leboeuf, Chase Polacek notched his fourth goal of the season, with assists coming from Mike Bergin and Tyler Helfrich, to make it 1-0. It was one of only five shots of the first period for the Engineers.

Dartmouth, meanwhile, blasted away at Allen York throughout the opening period, but especially in the last half of the first - he faced a total of 14 shots in the first period alone, allowing one goal, which came a little under three minutes after Polacek's goal, leaving the game tied at one after the first period, and the Engineers looked like they were on their heels.

Marty O'Grady turned that momentum around almost right away. Just 58 seconds into the second period, O'Grady scored his first goal of the season from Bryan Brutlag and Joel Malchuk to put RPI up 2-1. It was the only goal of the period, but the momentum swung decidedly in RPI's direction during the second - York was forced to make only 3 saves, while the Engineers had 11 shots on goal.

A Dartmouth penalty early in the third period put the Engineers on their fourth power play of the game, and C.J. Lee made the Big Green pay rather quickly. He scored his third goal of the season - and second in as many games - from Nick Bailen and Brock Higgs (who has been getting an increased amount of ice time on the power play) to give RPI a two-goal edge. Three-and-a-half minutes later, RPI went on the penalty kill after a penalty to Johnny Rogic, but the end result became another RPI goal. Chase Polacek, who was among the best shorthanded scorers in the nation last year, earned himself another shorty with the lone assist going to Lee. WRPI announcers questioned whether the puck went all the way over the line, but the goal ended up counting, giving the Engineers a 4-1 lead, which would be the final difference.

Harvard
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Brutlag/Malchuk/O'Grady
Cullen/Higgs/Rabbani
Burgdoerfer/Rogic/Smith

Koudys/Kennedy
Bergin/Foss
Leboeuf/Bailen

York

Greg Burgdoerfer worked his way back into the lineup for Saturday's game, taking Matt Tinordi's place on the Rogic line. Justin Smith also saw his first action of the season, replacing Scott Halpern, leaving Kevin Beauregard, Bryce Merriam, and Jeremy Coupal as the only Engineers yet to see the ice thus far this season.

The Crimson were coming into only their second competitive game of the season, their first coming the previous night against Union, a 2-1 loss.

There honestly isn't much to report about the flow of this game. Neither team put a great number of pucks on net in the first two periods - Harvard led the shot total 12-11 after 40 minutes, a low number for both teams despite four power plays for the Engineers and three for the Crimson. During the second period, the Engineers had a pair of goals waved off - one which Josh Rabbani put into the net but was batted in by a high stick, and another that was put in after a scrum in front of Harvard goaltender Kyle Richter, but disallowed because it crossed the line after the whistle.

Referees Eric Ernst and Nick Litterio swallowed their whistles during much of the third period, but late in the game, observers say they had little recourse but to call a penalty to Harvard's Daniel Moriarty for hooking, as he impeded what could have been a clear scoring opportunity for the Engineers. RPI went to work and had their best showing of the night on the man advantage by far, blasting away at Richter, but they weren't able to put one over the line, and the power play expired.

Just 16 seconds after the Moriarty penalty expired, Litterio's arm was in the air - and he was calling Polacek for interference behind the play. WRPI's Tim Heiman couldn't spot the penalty, and Seth Appert later told the Times Union that if there was a penalty on the play, it certainly wasn't on Polacek, one of the team's most important penalty killers, for reasons he'd proven the previous night. All signs pointed to the call being nothing more than the usual ECAC "even up" call - RPI had a late power play, therefore Harvard had to have one too.

The Polacek penalty came late enough that it would have run into a potential overtime period - but it did not get that far. With 8.2 seconds left in regulation, Harvard scored the game's first and only goal on the power play as Alex Killorn beat Allen York with a shot York would probably like a second chance at, shortly after the Engineers, a week after giving up a late goal defending against an extra skater, were unable to clear the zone after attaining the puck, which had led to the late Union goal as well. Just over five minutes away from a solid 3-point weekend, RPI instead had to stomach a loss that ended a 7-game unbeaten streak that had been the longest in over a decade.

Other junk - The split road weekend resulted in the Engineers holding steady in the weekly USCHO poll, as they remain 18th in the nation with 145 votes overall. Also ranked from the ECAC this week are #3 Yale (up two with 5 first-place votes, swept Princeton and Quinnipiac at home) and #12 Union (up three, beat Harvard and tied Dartmouth). As with last week, Boston University is the Engineers' only non-conference opponent ranked this week, but they are now ranked #1 in the nation as they are undefeated in their first 8 games (6-0-2). They earned 31 of 40 first place votes. Cornell fell from the Top 20 after splitting a weekend in the North Country, they tied with Robert Morris for the most votes among unranked teams with 30. Colorado College (22), Quinnipiac (11), Clarkson (2), Dartmouth (2), Harvard (1), and Niagara (1) also received votes.

All ECAC teams now have two games under their belts, and in an interesting twist, no team was swept on the weekend - each team earned at least one point in the opening round. Most surprising was the home sweep by the St. Lawrence Saints of Cornell and Colgate, a duo most observers expected to be among the most difficult travel partner pairings in the league. Nine teams came away with either two points or one point on the weekend, which means there's practically no separation after the first weekend.

Every ECAC team except for Yale and Brown is back into league action this coming weekend (Yale is at Colorado College and Air Force on Saturday and Sunday, Brown is idle), with Dartmouth and Harvard traveling to Clarkson and St. Lawrence, while Princeton and Quinnipiac are at Colgate and Cornell.

And of course, the big RPI/Union weekend is this weekend as well. The travel partners tied 3-3 in Lake Placid in the last week of October, and will not see each other again during the regular season after this weekend. Union is trying to advertise some kind of "blackout" event on Friday in which everyone is supposed to wear black to the game. What a novel concept! The REAL Black Saturday (usually Black Friday) takes place the next night in Troy.

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


#18 RPI at Dartmouth
ECAC Game - Thompson Arena (Hanover, NH)
11/5/10 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 4, Dartmouth 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
WMUR-TV (Manchester, NH)

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

Reale Deals
1. F Chase Polacek, 2 G
2. F C.J. Lee, 1 G, 1 A
3. G Allen York, 25 saves

#18 RPI at Harvard
ECAC Game - Bright Hockey Center (Boston, MA)
11/6/10 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Harvard 1, RPI 0

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
USCHO
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
Boston Globe
Harvard Crimson

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

Reale Deals
1. D Nick Bailen, 5 shots
2. G Allen York, 22 saves
3. F Tyler Helfrich, 2 shots

Upcoming games
12 Nov - at #12 Union
13 Nov - #12 Union (Black Saturday)
26 Nov - UConn (RPI Invitational)
27 Nov - Alabama-Huntsville/Bowling Green (RPI Invitational)
03 Dec - at #3 Yale

Men's Hockey - at Northeastern, Bentley (15/16 Oct)

A week after a successful (if not materially successful) trip to Colorado, the RPI season rolled on with the only away/home weekend of the season with another interesting matchup in Boston before heading home for reunion weekend and an early evening game to kick off the Houston Field House schedule. It was a "three point weekend" for the Engineers, as they earned a tie for the second consecutive game against Northeastern, 2-2, before beating Bentley 3-0 on Saturday night.

Northeastern
Helfrich/Polacek/Lee
Angers-Goulet/Malchuk/Brutlag
Cullen/Higgs/O'Grady
Rabbani/Rogic/Burgdoerfer

Bergin/Foss
Koudys/Kennedy
Leboeuf/Bailen

York

The Northeastern Huskies came into the season with fairly high expectations in Hockey East, with the coaches of the league believing they can finish somewhere in the middle of the table as one of the best teams outside of the league's traditional "Big Four" of BC, BU, UNH, and Maine. Given the Engineers' similar aspirations (picked fifth in the ECAC), this promised to be a game of very evenly matched teams, and it played out that way for the most part.

Penalties were an issue for both teams in Colorado, and it was no different in this game, especially in the first period as the Engineers and Huskies both took 5 minor penalties in the first 20 minutes with three power plays each. RPI would score on their third chance on the man advantage, taking their first lead of the season as Bryan Brutlag scored from Tyler Helfrich and Nick Bailen on a two-man advantage that was brilliantly executed. But three minutes later, on a delayed penalty to Greg Burgdoerfer, Northeastern scored after an extended 6x5 opportunity to tie the score, and then went on the power play to boot thanks to the new rule requiring penalties to be assessed even after goals on delayed calls.

Northeastern came out firing in the second period, earning an even strength goal on a blast from the point by 6'7" behemoth Jamie Oleksiak to put the Huskies up 2-1. From there, penalties continued to rule the day. Burgdoerfer took his third penalty of the night less than a minute after the Husky goal, which would pretty much end his night as he didn't see the ice much after that. The chippiness started getting nasty shortly thereafter, as Northeastern's Zak Stone was issued five for a hit from behind and a game misconduct for a hit that left Alex Angers-Goulet prone on the ice for a few minutes. That long power play was mitigated shortly thereafter by a too many men call on RPI (served by Johnny Rogic who, along with Burgdoerfer, became scarce after the first period). A second penalty to NU a minute later eventually gave the Engineers a long 5x3 power play, but unlike their first period opportunity, they were unable to convert.

After a questionable "instigating" call on Brutlag (who apparently was managing to instigate from being flat on the ice, where he was put at the end of the play), the Engineers were the beneficiary of a questionable call on Northeastern, and they capitalized on the ensuing power play as Chase Polacek scored from a pretty extreme angle, almost on the goal line, for his first goal of the year to tie the game at two.

The referees looked as though they wanted to swallow the whistle in the 3rd period, but early on Northeastern's Randy Guzior made a dangerous play, checking Brutlag into the RPI bench from behind, and he earned the 2nd major penalty of the night for Northeastern. But as on the first major, the Engineers squandered the opportunity with penalties of their own, actually giving the Huskies a 4x3 power play after penalties to Marty O'Grady and Jeff Foss. All told, both teams were assessed a total of 13 penalties, although the Huskies ended up with far more in minutes thanks to the two majors. Neither team scored for the duration of the penalties, and after that, the whistles were put away.

The goaltenders put on a show in the third period, with Allen York making a total of 7 saves, while Northeastern's Chris Rawlings made 9 of his own. The Engineers got a late power play on a blatant hooking call, but it was evened up about a minute later with a tripping call against Helfrich. Neither team was able to break the deadlock, though RPI did manage 3 shots in the overtime period. Overall, an evenly played game marred by lots of penalties, but an even tie with neither team really having much to be disappointed with in the result.

Bentley
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Angers-Goulet/Malchuk/Brutlag
Rabbani/Higgs/O'Grady
Tinordi and Halpern

Koudys/Kennedy
Bergin/Foss
Leboeuf/Bailen
Dolan

York

The next night, Seth Appert came out with an interesting combination of 7 defensemen (the entirety of the RPI defensive corps) and 11 forwards, leaving Bo Dolan as an extra defenseman and only three centers - Polacek, Malchuk, and Higgs - dressed with Matt Tinordi seeing his first action as an Engineer. Rogic and Burgdoerfer, who did not see action in the second half against Northeastern, were in the stands, as was Patrick Cullen, who had not in three games been the force RPI partisans had hoped he would be.

Once again, it was penalties, penalties, penalties in the first period, especially for RPI. Four penalties gave Bentley two 5x3 chances of a minute or more, but the Engineers stood firm down two men. The Falcons were aggressive both on and off the power play, putting 8 shots on Allen York in the first period. The penalty killing necessitated a focus on defense in the first period, and the Engineers did not score on 7 shots.

A late penalty to Bentley in the first period carried over into the second, and on the fresh ice, it was Chase Polacek scoring his second of the weekend to put RPI on the board on the man advantage. The Engineers' penalties suddenly dried up for the remainder of the game, as they took only one penalty in both the 2nd and 3rd period, but now it was the Falcons' turn to take a slew of penalties. Tyler Helfrich converted on another opportunity midway through the 2nd period to make it 2-0, and after missing a wide-open net on Friday and again earlier in the game on Saturday, C.J. Lee finally got the proverbial monkey off his back, scoring early in the 3rd period for his first collegiate goal to make it 3-0.

Meanwhile, Allen York was lights out. Bentley fed him a steady diet of shots all game long, but the junior netminder was up to the task. 8 more shots in the 2nd period and 7 in the 3rd gave him a 23-save shutout, the third of his career. It was also the 20th victory of his career.

Bentley is a team that has potential to be outstanding within Atlantic Hockey in the near future, but they are young and were definitely a team RPI needed to beat. The Engineers are now 1-1-2 on the season. They executed well against the Falcons, getting a good combination of offense and defense, where they needed more offense in the first three games they played but were very much in those games thanks to their defense.

Next on the docket are RIT and Niagara, two teams both looking for their first wins of the season in a psuedo-travel partner weekend as both teams also face Union in Schenectady. These are also games the Engineers should win if they hope to make splashes in the ECAC this season, developing that finishing touch on offense while maintaining a solid defensive front. The combination, applied within the ECAC, would make them a very dangerous team to play.

Other junk - RPI gained votes in the weekly USCHO.com poll, earning 27, up from 13 last week, tying them with Ferris State for the unofficial #23 in the nation. Ranked ECAC teams this week are #5 Yale (no change, idle), #13 Cornell (down one, idle), and #18 Union (down two, lost to #14 Alaska and beat Alaska-Anchorage). Also ranked are #8 Boston University (up two) and #19 Colorado College (down one). Also receiving votes were Colgate (25), RIT (10), and Quinnipiac (2).

The RPI penalty kill has been incredibly effective, even despite its frequent use. That's obviously not something that they should be relying on as often as they have been, but it's good to know it's there. The Engineers are 27 for 29 on the penalty kill, a 93.1% rate that has them ranked 6th in the nation on the kill. Only Boston College (23/23, 100%) and Notre Dame (21/22, 95.5%) have a better kill percentage with 20 or more penalty kill opportunities, and only Michigan (26/30, 86.7%) has had more opportunities overall.

Of course, the Engineers have had plenty of power play chances too, and their combined 57 special teams chances in just four games is tops in the nation, only Maine and Wisconsin with 53 each also have more than 50.

Allen York has a shutout streak of 90:36 heading into this weekend's games, which goes back to 4:24 of the 2nd period in Boston. His 1.45 GAA is 8th in the nation, his .947 save percentage is 9th, and his 248:32 of time in net is more than any other goaltender thus far this season. He has been nothing short of superb for the Engineers in all four of their games thus far.

The Lee/Polacek/Helfrich combination has been pretty sensational - Polacek does what he does, but Lee and Helfrich are not squandering their opportunities playing with the team's star, as they are helping drive the Engineers' efforts on offense. Although the goals haven't been there for the most part, the Angers-Goulet/Malchuk/Brutlag combination is also showing signs of life. If they can start producing, that would go a long way toward being the "answer" to the Pirri and D'Amigo departures.

An interesting tidbit from Saturday night's game - former Engineer C.J. Hanafin '05 is now an ECAC linesman, and he worked the Bentley game in that capacity.

Four RPI home games will now be broadcast on Time Warner Cable in the Albany area, with two of them being picked up for broadcast across North America on the NHL Network. This Saturday's game against Niagara and the January 29 game against Yale will be available exclusively on TW3, while the December 11 game against BU and the February 12 game against Cornell will air on NHL Network. The latter two games will now start at 3:30pm to accommodate the NHL Network's schedule. Tim Heiman '10 and Kevin Broad '07 will be on the call for all four games.

RPI at Northeastern
Nonconference Game - Matthews Arena (Boston, MA)
10/15/10 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 2, Northeastern 2

BOX SCORES

• College Hockey Stats
• USCHO

RECAPS

• RPI
• USCHO
• Troy Record
• Albany Times-Union

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

Reale Deals
1. G Allen York, 26 saves
2. F Chase Polacek, 1 G
3. F Bryan Brutlag, 1 G

Bentley at RPI
Nonconference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
10/16/10 - 5:00pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Bentley 0

BOX SCORES

• College Hockey Stats
• USCHO

RECAPS

• RPI
• USCHO
• Troy Record
• Schenectady Gazette
• Albany Times-Union

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

Reale Deals
1. F Tyler Helfrich, 1 G, 2 A
2. G Allen York, SO, 23 saves
3. F Chase Polacek, 1 G, 2 A

Upcoming games
22 Oct - RIT
23 Oct - Niagara
30 Oct - vs. #18 Union (Lake Placid, NY)
05 Nov - at Dartmouth
06 Nov - at Harvard

Men's Hockey - at Colorado College (8/9 Oct)

There are varying levels of success in a given weekend. A team can sometimes escape a really bad weekend with four points, the points being a silver lining in an otherwise poor showing. Other times, a team can play very well and not come out with many points, the lack of points being a downside in an otherwise great weekend. For RPI's first weekend of the regular season, the latter situation applied, in this case occurring largely thanks to a few bad breaks and a few tough bounces. The Engineers went to Colorado for a weekend series with the Tigers of Colorado College, dropping the first game 2-1 before coming back to tie on Saturday, 2-2.

Friday
Angers-Goulet/Malchuk/Brutlag
Helfrich/Polacek/O'Grady
Cullen/Higgs/Lee
Halpern/Rogic/Burgdoerfer

Bergin/Foss
Leboeuf/Kennedy
Bailen/Dolan

York

The tone was set early on Friday as freshman Guy Leboeuf took a checking from behind penalty just 57 seconds into the game, the first of 20 minor penalties that would be called on the evening - that's one every three minutes. RPI escaped the first penalty kill, and had a long 5-on-3 chance shortly thereafter that went nowhere. Practically back-to-back penalty kills after penalties to Johnny Rogic and Joel Malchuk later in the period produced CC's first goal as first-round draft pick Jaden Schwartz notched his first career goal in his first period of college hockey play, beating Allen York to make it 1-0.

A CC penalty late in the first period led to RPI's first goal of the season, but not in the typical power play fashion. Nick Bailen unleashed a laser of a slapshot from just behind the blue line as the Engineers moved to assume the attacking zone, and the shot eluded Tiger goaltender Joe Howe, giving Bailen his first goal as an Engineer, unassisted, and making the score 1-1 heading into the second period.

The second period was marred by penalties - both teams had three power play opportunities while 11 penalties were called over the course of the 20 minutes. Most disappointing for the Engineers, a second long 5-on-3 opportunity arose midway through the period, but they simply could not finish, and the period ended 1-1. The goaltenders put on a show in the period, with Howe stopping 15 shots while York made 12 saves of his own.

The march to the penalty box resulted in a second CC goal midway through the third period. An early penalty to Malchuk and a later penalty to Bailen gave the Tigers the first two power play chances of the third period, and they delivered halfway through the Bailen penalty when Rylan Schwartz, Jaden's older brother, collected his first of a year by scoring on a rebound over York, who was still on the ice from the previous save.

The Engineers didn't quit, and they appeared to have tied the score after a flurry in front of Howe during a late power play opportunity. The goal was disallowed on the ice and the decision held up after a review - the referee ruling that the whistle had been intended to have blown before the puck ended up in the net. RPI wouldn't get another one past Howe, struggling to maintain control of the puck with York pulled late in the game. They wouldn't give up the empty netter, but fell 2-1 regardless.

All in all, it wasn't a bad game for RPI. They outshot the home team 31-27, got a great game out of Allen York, and was pretty tight defensively for the most part, not giving up too many good scoring chances at even strength and successfully taking care of 6 of 8 penalty kills on the night. The high number of penalties was a problem, but it was a problem for both teams. To be fair to the referees, there weren't a great number of questionable calls on Friday night.

Saturday
Angers-Goulet/Malchuk/Brutlag
Helfrich/Polacek/O'Grady
Cullen/Higgs/Lee
Rabbani/Rogic/Burgdoerfer

Koudys/Kennedy
Bergin/Foss
Bailen/Dolan

York

As opposed to Friday night's game, Saturday night started off as an unmitigated disaster for the Engineers, as the first 20 minutes were utterly dominated by Colorado College. While York was peppered with 13 shots in the first period, RPI managed only a single shot on goal against Joe Howe. The defense held for the first half of the period, but the floodgates opened when Rylan Schwartz notched his second goal of the weekend at 11:40, and the Tigers would score again on a good bounce their way just over a minute later to make it 2-0.

RPI, meanwhile, looked helpless. Down two goals, they had three terrible power play showings, two late in the first and one right at the beginning of the second period. After the conclusion of that third power play, the Engineers still had only one shot for the entire game to that point.

The penalties started popping back up after the third power play failure. During the second, RPI would hand Colorado College five consecutive power play chances in the middle stanza, including a long 5-on-3 chance late in the period. Fortunately, the penalty kill stood up to the heavy scrutiny, keeping the Engineers in the game when they needed it most. Offensively, RPI improved to 6 shots in the second period, but it still looked like a tall task to come back, still down 2-0 after two periods. York was the backbone, rebounding from a couple of tough breaks in the first to finish the first 40 minutes with 21 saves.

RPI came out for the sixth period of the weekend on the big ice at high altitude as the more aggressive of the teams, something the Tigers surely aren't used to dealing with, which really displays the Engineers' outstanding conditioning. The aggressiveness paid off early in the period, when RPI, finally given a fourth chance on the power play, converted to get on the board as Tyler Helfrich, who had been a nuisance for the Tigers all weekend long, made the break through to bring the Engineers within a goal with most of the third period left to play.

Then, it was CC's turn to march to the penalty box. The Tigers took three consecutive penalties during the middle part of the third, and the Engineers hungrily searched for the tying goal, putting up good showings on all three advantages, but finding Howe a tough nut to crack, as the CC sophomore stood on his head during the penalty kills to keep his team on top.

It was another long shot that would elude Howe to tie things up late in the period. Very similar to Bailen's blast the previous night, Mike Bergin uncorked a big shot from just outside the blue line that found the back of the net, knotting the game at two despite all of the rough patches the Engineers endured through the first two periods.

Hungry to take the lead, RPI maintained pressure. A few minutes later, C.J. Lee, who had a great night offensively for the Engineers, got a mini breakaway on Howe but could not pull the trigger, and after being hauled down, he picked up a retaliatory roughing call that gave CC the opportunity to have a late power play. The Engineers bent during the ensuing penalty kill, but did not break, and the game went into overtime.

After some dominant play from CC early in the extra period, the Engineers got a two-on-one break the other way that ended with a pass to Chase Polacek. Despite an open net, Polacek couldn't corral the pass, having to switch to his backhand instead of blasting it into the net. He instead moved behind the net and lost the puck, where he was blasted into the boards. Much like Lee's penalty, Polacek swung at the player that had put him on the ice, earning himself a foolish roughing call with two minutes left that had RPI playing for the tie instead of the win. The penalty kill, as it had been all night, held up late, and the game ended in a 2-2 tie. RPI was 7-for-7 on the penalty kill on Saturday, and 13-for-15 on the weekend.

Other junk - The Engineers still managed to earn 13 votes in this week's USCHO.com poll despite the "one-point" weekend in Colorado. The Tigers, for their part, moved up two positions to #18. Among ECAC teams, the idle Ivies had some movement due to the misfortunes of teams around them - St. Cloud State's upset loss to Clarkson saw the Huskies move down considerably, boosting Yale up one to #5. Meanwhile, BU's title win in the Icebreaker had them moving up to #10, dropping Cornell down one to #12. Union's near-total home white-washing of Sacred Heart earned them a three-slot raise to #16. Other teams on the RPI schedule this year earning votes were RIT (37, dropped out after losing to St. Cloud State and Nebraska-Omaha), Colgate (21, beat Army), St. Lawrence (3, tied Minnesota State twice) and Quinnipiac (2, split with Ohio State).

Notably, in three games (one being the UNB exhibition), three of RPI's four goals have been scored by defensemen - two by Mike Bergin and one by Nick Bailen.

Next up for RPI is an away/home weekend, starting off in Boston against Northeastern and finishing up at home against Bentley. The Huskies were 0-2 last weekend, losing to Hockey East cellar-dwellers Providence before dropping a 2-0 decision at home to #1 Boston College. So in that sense, both teams on Friday will be playing easier competition than their last game. Bentley does not begin play until next weekend and will be entering the Field House after a game at Quinnipiac.

RPI at #20 Colorado College
Nonconference Game - World Arena (Colorado Springs, CO)
10/8/10 - 9:30pm

RESULT: Colorado College 2, RPI 1

BOX SCORES

• College Hockey Stats
• USCHO

RECAPS

• RPI
• USCHO
• Troy Record
• Albany Times-Union
• Colorado Springs Gazette

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

Reale Deals
1. D Nick Bailen, 1 G
2. G Allen York, 25 saves
3. F Bryan Brutlag, 5 shots


RPI at #20 Colorado College
Nonconference Game - World Arena (Colorado Springs, CO)
10/9/10 - 9:00pm

RESULT: RPI 2, Colorado College 2

BOX SCORES

• College Hockey Stats
• USCHO

RECAPS

• RPI
• USCHO
• Troy Record
• Colorado Springs Gazette
• KOAA-TV
• KKTV-TV

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

Reale Deals
1. G Allen York, 34 saves
2. F Tyler Helfrich, 1 G
3. D Mike Bergin, 1 G

Upcoming games
15 Oct - at Northeastern
16 Oct - Bentley
22 Oct - RIT
23 Oct - Niagara
30 Oct - vs. #16 Union (Lake Placid, NY)