Know Your Enemy: Brown

Sometimes it feels like Groundhog Day when talking about Brown, because in many ways, the scouting report doesn't seem to change - they find a little success when they can get goaltending, they generally play a physical game, and they've got one or two scorers that are worth looking out for leading a fairly thin attack otherwise. A lot of that does seem to still be true, only the names have changed.

Brown
Nickname: Bears
Location: Providence, RI
Founded: 1764
Conference: ECAC (Ivy League)
National Championships: 0
Last NCAA Appearance: 1993
Last Frozen Four: 1976
Coach: Brendan Whittet (8th season)
2015-16 Record: 5-19-7 (3-13-6 ECAC, 11th place)
Series: RPI leads, 62-26-8
First Game: December 28, 1951 (Troy, NY)
Last RPI win: March 5, 2016 (Troy, NY)
Last Brown win: February 13, 2015 (Troy, NY)

2016-17 games: November 4, 2016 (Troy, NY); December 10, 2016 (Providence, RI)

Key players: G Tim Ernst, sr.; F Davey Middleton, sr.; F Zack Pryzbek, sr.; D Tyler Wood, sr.; F Tyler Bird, jr.; F Charlie Corcoran, jr.; F Sam Lafferty, jr.; D Josh McArdle, jr.; D Ben Tegtmeyer, jr.; F Max Willman, jr.; F Alex Brink, so.; D Max Gottlieb, so.; F Tommy Marchin, so.; D Brady Schoo, so.; D Zach Giuttari, fr.; G Gavin Nieto, fr.

Key losses: F Nick Lappin, F Mark Naclerio, D Brandon Pfeil, F Joe Prescott

Previous KYE installments:

• 2010-11
• 2011-12
• 2012-13
• 2013-14
• 2014-15
• 2015-16

Brown having a bad season can sometimes fly under the radar - they have a lot of bad seasons. This past one was particularly bad on paper - the Bears won only five games for the first time since 2009, Roger Grillo's final season before his resignation and Brendan Whittet's hiring. The Bears' seven ties helped keep them from a second-consecutive 20-loss season, a mark of a truly terrible season for any Ivy League team (which have shorter schedules than the rest of the nation). They still haven't finished with a winning record in ECAC play since 2004.

The RPI-Brown series last year was rather incredible in many ways. Prior to last season, the Engineers had not come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a game in over a decade. They did it twice last year against Brown - first in the game in Providence, as the Bears went up 3-0 after 32 minutes, with RPI taking the lead for good less than 20 minutes later. Then it would happen again in what would prove to be Brown's final game of the season - a 3-0 first intermission lead evaporated over the final 40 minutes as the Engineers eliminated the Bears.

That was a cathartic series for RPI on two levels - first, it finally got that home playoff series monkey off their back, and second, it's worth remembering that Brown was partially responsible for the growth of that monkey with a pair of playoff series wins in Troy (2010, 2013). When Brown took that 3-0 lead in Game 2, the feeling around the Field House was very "oh, here we go again." But what followed was very, very indicative of the kind of season the Bears had - they simply could not hold leads.

Brown lost their first three games of the season to Holy Cross, Dartmouth, and Harvard - all games in which the Bears led at some point. They held a lead in each of their first five games of the season (including a game at RPI) and were 1-3-1 after those five games. For the entire season, the Bears lost seven games in which they had a lead at one point or another. Tack on the seven ties that they had as well, and you can see that they were more than game with some regularity, but they just couldn't get the job done by the final horn.

And they're losing a serious amount of talent and leadership. Lappin and Naclerio were major contributors to this team offensively throughout their college careers, both graduated as members of Brown's century club. Pfeil was just as important as a key defensive element for four years (although he rarely got enough help).

Putting this bluntly, Marchin is returning for his sophomore season as Brown's leading scorer for his active career with only 27 points - a fairly low bar that none of his teammates, even the rising seniors and juniors, have been able to attain in two or three full college seasons. By way of comparison, the Engineers have had their noteworthy struggles to score goals over the last few season, and five of them return this season with 27 or more points for their career. Marchin is a legitimate budding star in the ECAC - but in a lot of ways, he draws comparisons with guys like Matt Lorito, who graduated in 2015. When one player is the best guy on the team by far, or one line the best line by far, the opposition will find it fairly easy to focus their defensive efforts exclusively on them, daring the rest of the squad to pick up the slack. When they don't, the best players will look slightly more pedestrian.

Can Marchin get some help? There are possibilities around. Willman reportedly turned heads in a very positive way at the Buffalo Sabres' development camp this offseason. His classmates, Bird and Lafferty, are the other two NHL draftees at Brown, and all three have struggled to live up to their potential. We'll likely see one or two of these guys alongside Marchin this season (since Marchin usually paired with Naclerio and Lappin last year), and that could boost their output, but the one-line wonder problem will persist.

In net, Ernst and classmate Tyler Steel have split time across their three years in Providence, but Ernst was the clear starter last season. Neither have produced numbers that would have them even approaching the league median - which should honestly give Nieto, who comes in having just won an NAHL championship in Fairbanks alongside RPI's Todd Burgess, the opportunity to compete for the starting job right away unless one of the seniors can really step up their game. Good goaltending can make a mediocre team into a very respectable team, and the Bears are in desperate need of at least that.

The physical game that Brown typically plays was not always visible last season. In fact, the Bears were the least penalized team in the entire nation last year - not always something to brag about (although given that they also had the third-worst penalty kill in the country, it probably helped a bit). We'll have to see if this trend continues into the coming season. Historically, Brown has been a lot more successful when they're muscling the other team off the puck efficiently and effectively. Doing that well almost always means pushing the envelope on what's a penalty and what's legal, which is why it might be a little alarming that the Bears had so few PIMs.

Brendan Whittet has some definite tools in his toolbox to work with, especially with sophomores Marchin and Gottlieb at his disposal. These guys would be easy starters on any team in the league. But if Brown is going to buck the trend and have success this year, the Bears are going to have to be a lot more than the sum of all of its parts, especially if Ernst, Steel, or Nieto can't provide that big spark they need in the crease.

Men's Hockey - ECAC First Round (4/5 Mar)

For over a decade, RPI's playoff bugaboos have been two-fold - an inability to reach the semifinals, exacerbated by an inability to win a playoff series at home. One of those roadblocks has now been overcome, although it wasn't easy. The Engineers, some would argue, managed to escape in the first round this year at Houston Field House, claiming a 3-2 victory on Friday night despite being outplayed for large swaths of the game, and completing a two-game sweep by overcoming a 3-0 deficit for the second time this year against the Brown Bears for a 4-3 victory.

Game 1
Bourbonnais-Schroeder-Nanne
Liljegren-Bubela-DeVito
Wood-Miller-Ohrvall
Rodriguez-Fulton-Gillespie

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Reno
Moore-Hampton

Kasdorf

Travis Fulton and Zach Schroeder both returned to the RPI lineup in time for the playoffs, which necessitated Lonnie Clary and Tommy Grant coming out.

Looking back, it seems odd to say that the Engineers never trailed on Friday night, especially considering the near total dominance of Brown during the first period, especially the first 15 minutes or so. Indeed, RPI was badly outshot in the opening frame, 17-5, a figure that's especially bad when you consider that Brown usually gives up a good chunk of shots.

But it was the Engineers who struck first, well against the flow of play - naturally, on a counter-attack. Alex Rodriguez moved the puck out of the defensive zone and pushed it up for Kenny Gillespie. The sophomore winger gained the zone, but lost the handle on the puck as he went to cut toward the net. Fortunately, Meirs Moore was trailing the play, and he picked up the loose puck as though it had been a drop pass. The freshman d-man turned himself into a forward and raced it up the boards, ripping a shot when he reached the outer edge of the faceoff circle. The shot beat Tim Ernst over his glove on the far side, putting RPI ahead 1-0 at 7:37 of the first period.

Brown evened it up early in the second period even as the Engineers started tilting the ice back in the other direction. Moments after Max Gottlieb failed to pot a backhander into a gaping net, Brown's other Max (Willman) struck twine after a shot from the top of the faceoff circle, beating Jason Kasdorf through a screen to make it 1-1.

That was easily the brightest moment of the period for the visitors, as RPI basically turned the first period on its ear, outshooting the Bears 12-2 in the middle frame. But for much of the period, it seemed that the Engineers' dominance was destined to be as effective as Brown's was in the first 20 minutes, as the possession and shot control was not adding up to additional points on the board. It wasn't until the final minute of the second period that RPI was able to pounce on a defensive miscue to retake the lead.

Mike Prapavessis took the puck along the side boards, then took advantage of a pick thrown by Zach Schroeder on Tommy Marchin and caught Mark Naclerio moving in the wrong direction to move into a wide open spot at the top of the slot. The sophomore defenseman paused, set up his spot, and then roofed one to make it 2-1 at the end of the second.

RPI opened some breathing room early in the second period as Jared Wilson put one home from almost the same exact spot on the ice that Willman had scored the previous period, and in much the same way - through a screen. Wilson's fifth goal of the season gave the Engineers a much-needed two-goal edge.

That goal would prove crucial later in the period, as the Bears pulled back within one on the power play. Sam Lafferty maneuvered the puck from the blue line into the slot, then got Kasdorf to hesitate ever so slightly when dishing the puck through traffic to Charlie Corcoran, standing just to the right of the crease. The hesitation gave Corcoran enough time to one-time the puck home to make it 3-2.

Less than a minute later, Brown believed they'd tied the game up on a wraparound try by Willman. While Kasdorf usually does a pretty solid job of sealing up the post on wraparounds, this time his foot ended up in the side-netting, allowing a bare amount of space, and Willman thought he made it through. The try was waved off on the ice, and while several replays, from both overhead and in front showed that the puck probably went in, there was no angle by which it could be said definitively that it was in and fully over the line. The wave-off stood.

That stands in stark contrast to the goal review in Brown's previous game in Troy - in which there was exceptionally clear evidence that a goal should have been awarded despite having been waved-off on the ice. In this case, a gut feeling that a goal happened was not enough to overturn a wave-off.

The ice must have been tilted toward the west end of the Field House all night, because the same dynamic of the team shooting that way coming away with the lion's share of the shot total continued in the third period - 16-6 (and 45-13 for the evening). But RPI managed to hang onto their lead throughout. Kasdorf stood especially tall during the final 1:24 with the extra skater, and the Engineers managed to escape with the 3-2 victory and a 1-0 series lead.

Game 2
Bourbonnais-Schroeder-Nanne
Liljegren-Bubela-DeVito
Wood-Miller-Ohrvall
Clary-Fulton-Rodriguez

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Grant
Moore-Hampton

Kasdorf

Parker Reno is probably still not back to 100%, and it looked it on Friday night - whether he was reinjured or not remains to be seen, but he was pulled in favor of Tommy Grant, while Kenny Gillespie came out for Lonnie Clary's return.

While the first 15 minutes of the first period on Saturday weren't exactly as dominating for RPI as they had been for Brown the previous night, it's probably fair to say that the Engineers at least had the better of play. And as with Friday, it was the team opposite the momentum who managed to strike first - and in Brown's case, struck multiple times to put an emphatic stamp that they were still very much a part of the proceedings despite the first night loss.

Penalty troubles for the Engineers in the first period certainly didn't help matters, as Brown got on the board first with a goal by Sam Lafferty on the power play 7:25 into the game - roughly the same time that Meirs Moore had scored the previous night to establish the 1-0 lead. Just a couple of minutes later, a lost defensive zone faceoff turned into a general defensive let-down as a pass through the front of the crease was not cleared by two defenders in front, getting picked up by Nick Lappin instead and one-timed home to make it 2-0 Brown just after the game became 10 minutes old.

A tripping call on Tommy Grant late in the period turned into a second power play goal for the Bears as Tyler Bird took advantage of poor defense off a faceoff in the RPI end, slipping behind everyone and then receiving the pass after the faceoff win, roofing it to make the score 3-0 Brown just seconds from the end of the first period.

But as with the last time Brown went up 3-0 on RPI - in Providence - the silver lining for the Engineers was that it happened relatively early, giving the Engineers 40 minutes to start their comeback. They used nearly all of it, but come back they absolutely did.

It started early in the second period with a herculean individual effort by Milos Bubela. Off a save by Kasdorf, Mike Prapavessis moved the puck to the RPI senior, who fought his way through the neutral zone and up the boards, speeding into the zone and then gliding into the slot one-on-one. He picked his spot, and then snapped a shot that beat Ernst to get the Engineers on the board and set the tone early that RPI was not yet beaten. Incidentally, the save by Kasdorf ended up being the secondary assist on the play, which was the first point recorded by an RPI netminder since October 25, 2008, when freshman Allen York had the lone assist on a goal by Erik Burgdoerfer.

Seven and a half minutes later, it was Bubela scoring again in almost the same exact fashion - using his speed into the zone along the boards (this time the feed coming via linemate Jimmy DeVito) and cutting to the net to wrist one in to make it 3-2 RPI, confirming the comeback try.

A number of times, the Engineers looked ready to tie things up, but it would take over 20 minutes more down just one goal to complete the comeback. Bubela took a shot on the power play midway through the third period that was saved by Ernst, but the puck bounced free to Riley Bourbonnais, who immediately shoved it home to level things up.

Brown appeared to have retaken the lead minutes later off a goal by Lafferty, but it was immediately waved off due to goaltender interference. From there, the game evolved into more of a back and forth, and minutes later, RPI had to defend their newly-procured tie on the penalty kill following a boarding call against Grant, but they managed to emerge unscathed.

As time ticked by, it seemed increasingly likely that the next goal would be the game winner, and the Engineers would be the beneficiaries. With 1:42 left in regulation, a total laser shot by Jared Wilson - who'd also earned the game winning goal the previous night - got through traffic and past Ernst to give RPI the lead for the first time on the evening at 4-3.

The Engineers staved off the final rush by Brown, and despite being dominated for two periods on Friday and going down 3-0 on Saturday, RPI had a series sweep, and their first home playoff series victory in 12 years.

That's one monkey off the back. There's another one that can be removed this coming weekend, although it certainly won't be easy. The last time RPI saw the Crimson, it was an absolute offensive barrage - one that the defense stood up to and pulled out a 2-1 victory. You're not going to see those materialize in that fashion very frequently, let alone twice in one weekend, so the Engineers are certainly going to have to be a lot stronger for a lot longer if they're going to build upon the home win and return the program to the promised land.

ECAC Quarterfinals
#8 Cornell at #1 Quinnipiac
#7 Dartmouth at #2 Yale
#6 RPI at #3 Harvard
#5 Clarkson at #4 St. Lawrence

Brown at RPI

ECAC First Round Game 1 - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
3/4/16 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Brown 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

VIDEO
Full game
Highlights
Appert post-game interview

RECORD: 17-13-7

Brown at RPI
ECAC First Round Game 2 - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
3/5/16 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 4, Brown 3

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

VIDEO
Full game
Highlights
Appert/Bradley post-game interviews

RECORD: 18-13-7

Upcoming games
11 Mar - at #12 Harvard (ECAC Quarterfinals Game 1)
12 Mar - at #12 Harvard (ECAC Quarterfinals Game 2)
13 Mar - at #12 Harvard (ECAC Quarterfinals Game 3, if necessary)
18 Mar - vs. #1 Quinnipiac/#18 St. Lawrence/Clarkson/Dartmouth (ECAC Semifinal, Lake Placid, NY - if qualified)
19 Mar - ECAC Championship (Lake Placid, NY - if qualified)

Heroes Are Born Here

We've been down this road before. You know the names.

For every George Servinis, John Carter, and Gordie Peterkin, there's a Christian Morrisette, there's a Chris Migliore, there's a Mike Tamburro.

You pull on that sweater in a game that has meaning, you give yourself that opportunity to become a hero. Some games have more meaning than others.

Tonight is one. Tomorrow will be another. God willing, there will be more.

It's been 12 years since a home playoff series win and another two on top of that for the last semifinals experience. It's embarrassing. That's nearly an entire generation. But what better opportunity for a nobody to become a somebody?

Doug Hearns took his shot on Ken Dryden, and in doing so ushered in a new era for RPI Hockey. This is a program that has been in need of that new era. And there are 26 men eligible to kick it off in that locker room. It's a team effort to ensure that one - or more - can be the one to write their name. The one that, 20 years from now, people will look back and say, "Hey, you remember when (HERO) scored that goal? Made that save? Threw that hit? Blocked that shot? The one that led to (GLORY)?"

This isn't the first time here at WaP that we've talked about the playoffs as a time when heroes are born. But just because we're still waiting, doesn't mean it's not true.

It can be true. Now. Even if it's not forever, it can just be tonight - and we'll be in need of another one tomorrow. Anyone ready to claim the mantle?

Men's Hockey - at Brown/Yale (29/30 Jan)

Perhaps it was the exception that proves the rule - "first to three wins" is a common saying in hockey, especially in college hockey. Both nights this past weekend, the other team was first to three before the Engineers had scored their first. On Friday against Brown, RPI turned the tables by pumping in the next four to secure an improbable victory, 4-3, but on Saturday after falling behind 3-0, the Engineers simply could not break onto the scoreboard in a 3-0 loss.

Brown
Melanson-Schroeder-Nanne
Miller-Bubela-Wood
Ohrvall-DeVito-Liljegren
Bell-Fulton-Rodriguez

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Grant
Moore-Hampton

Kasdorf

Bradley Bell returned to the lineup for just the third time this season, dressing as a forward for the first time in his collegiate career - the Engineers otherwise keeping the same lineup intact that won the Mayor's Cup game against Union.

RPI has had their share of difficulties with Brown of late, going winless in their last three games against the Bears including a 3-3 draw in Troy in November that was controversial as Brown had a fairly clear goal waved off in overtime. On Friday, the Bears wasted no time getting themselves into a position of command, as Josh McArdle scored 2:39 into the contest to put Brown ahead 1-0 as part of a fairly dominant opening 20 minutes for the home team.

Brown extended their lead in the second period, as super freshman Tommy Marchin notched his 11th goal of the season on the power play at 5:45 of the middle frame, making it 2-0, and then going up 3-0 on a bad turnover by Meirs Moore deep in the RPI end. Alex Brink put it home to give Brown a seemingly insurmountable home lead.

But the Engineers weren't quite whipped yet, and they managed to climb back into contention in a most unlikely manner - on the power play. Despite entering the night with just 9 power play tallies on the season, RPI managed two in the final six minutes of the second period to make it a real contest again. Viktor Liljegren scored his second goal of the season just two and a half minutes after Brink's goal to get the Engineers on the board, and then a big blast by Jared Wilson on the power play made it to the back of the net to cut Brown's lead to one at 3-2.

The Engineers were strong in the third period in seeking the tying goal, and they appeared to have it early in the period when Mark Miller was initially credited with RPI's third goal of the night, but it was eventually overturned due to a lack of video evidence that the puck had fully crossed the line after a lengthy review. That kind of thing is a good way to dampen the morale of a team throwing everything they can into their comeback, but to their credit, the Engineers kept working for the tying goal, and they got it eight minutes into the period as Liljegren notched his second goal of the night to complete the comeback.

Then, just 51 seconds later, RPI nabbed the lead for the first time, with the red-hot Lou Nanne scoring his sixth of the season to make it 4-3 Engineers, a lead that Jason Kasdorf made stick with 11 saves in the final period as the shell-shocked Bears found it difficult to mount an offensive response until the final moments with the netminder pulled. Marchin very nearly tied the game in the waning moments, but a big save by Kasdorf preserved the win.

Coupled with Yale's loss to Union, the comeback win fueled a golden opportunity for the Engineers the next night: three points ahead of Yale and just one point behind idle Harvard after the Crimson's win over Princeton, a road sweep would not only put the Engineers in second place by themselves, it would give them a five point cushion over fourth.

Yale
Melanson-Schroeder-Nanne
Miller-Bubela-Wood
Ohrvall-DeVito-Liljegren
Clary-Fulton-Rodriguez

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Grant
Moore-Hampton

Kasdorf

Bell and his linemates saw very little ice-time in the second half of the Brown game - during the comeback - and he was replaced in the lineup by Lonnie Clary, the only healthy forward who made the trip to southern New England.

While RPI had a big opportunity to seize the moment and take firm control of their first-round bye destiny, the Bulldogs, who'd had an eight-game unbeaten streak snapped the previous night, certainly had other ideas. Yale took advantage of a flat first period from the Engineers to pounce quickly on the visitors, getting two first period goals from defenseman as All-ECAC blueliner Rob O'Gara scored his first goal of the year six minutes into the game to make it 1-0, and then a beautiful rip by freshman Anthony Walsh from the top of the slot eight minutes later made it 2-0.

The Engineers appeared to be pulling themselves back into contention late in the second period with some improved play, but they were unable to get any quality shots against Alex Lyon, one of the best netminders in the conference. Lyon made 18 saves in the first two periods to keep the score 2-0 heading into the third.

RPI may have been able to come back from a 3-0 deficit on Friday because they went down by three with nearly half the game remaining, and the Brown defense is frequently suspect. When Yale took a 3-0 lead seven minutes into the third period on a goal by Cody Learned, the mountain was easily twice as high, since RPI was afforded only 13 minutes to erase the gap against Yale's rock-solid defense. The Bulldogs simply stuck to their defensive plan, which was brilliant the entire night, and helped their netminder record his third shutout of the season with 29 saves.

Seth Appert is a firm believer in fighting until the end - and even down 3-0, he pulled Jason Kasdorf for the extra attacker with about three minutes left. The team continued to show heart even after hope for even a draw was gone, selling out to stop the empty-netter and continuing to push for the first goal that never came.

While a win would have made a first-round bye very, very likely, with a loss the final three byes are in firm toss-up mode, with just four points separating Harvard in 2nd from SLU in 6th. Especially with three games against nationally ranked opponents following this coming weekend - two on the road and the one at home against the #1 team in the country - the Freakout! pairing of St. Lawrence and Clarkson may be a serious determinant on whether the Engineers will need to fight through two playoff rounds to reach Lake Placid or get the luxury of playing at home for only one. A home sweep would give RPI 22 points on the year, edging them oh so close to that promised land. But lost points will be far harder to pick up again down the road.

Current ECAC Standings
1. Quinnipiac - 25 pts (11-0-3)
2. Harvard - 19 pts (8-3-3)
3. RPI - 18 pts (6-2-6)
4. Yale - 17 pts (7-4-3)
5. Dartmouth - 16 pts (8-6-0)
6. St. Lawrence - 15 pts (7-6-1)
7. Cornell - 14 pts (6-6-2)
8. Clarkson - 13 pts (5-6-3)
9. Union - 10 pts (3-7-4)
10. Princeton - 8 pts (3-9-2)
11. Colgate - 8 pts (3-10-2)
12. Brown - 7 pts (2-10-3)

#16 RPI at Brown

ECAC Game - Meehan Auditorium (Providence, RI)
1/29/16 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 4, Brown 3

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

RECORD: 14-7-6 (6-1-6 ECAC, 18 pts)

#16 RPI at #11 Yale
ECAC Game - Ingalls Rink (New Haven, CT)
1/30/16 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Yale 3, RPI 0

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

RECORD: 14-8-6 (6-2-6 ECAC, 18 pts)

Upcoming games
05 Feb - St. Lawrence
06 Feb - Clarkson (Big Red Freakout!)
12 Feb - at #7 Harvard
13 Feb - at #20 Dartmouth
19 Feb - #1 Quinnipiac

They're All Important

It's another ECAC weekend, which means its another big weekend. They just don't stop coming, do they?

The women have a crucial home weekend against Colgate and Cornell - two of the teams they're fighting with for a playoff spot (although Colgate is very much improved). They dropped a tough one on Tuesday against Yale, so this is now even more crucial than it otherwise would have been. The Tute nabbed three points on the road against the Big Red and Raiders back in October. If they can get things done at home, the future looks a lot brighter. There just aren't a lot of good opportunities to get points in the last three weeks of the season, so each and every point this weekend is precious, especially against the Big Red.

It's the same old story for the men. Friday is a game against Brown they have to win. They just have to. The Bears are in last place. First-round bye teams don't lose to last place teams, but that's exactly what (should have) happened at home when these teams faced off. Instead, RPI is now winless in three tries against Brown, and they have got to get the job done tonight. Tomorrow's the flipside. Want to stay in the top 4? Gotta get a result against Yale again. Keep that momentum going and play well against good teams the way they have been.

Reaching back for this week's pumpup. No theme here, really, just something to get the blood pumping. Unless you want to explore the idea that a hockey game has a metaphorical relation to battle and war, go ahead. No one's stopping you.

Crossroads of a Season

Tonight, the Engineers get to take their best shot at the top - Quinnipiac. The Bobcats have been totally unreal this season, sitting a monumental 7 points ahead of RPI in 1st place and basically playing king of the mountain with the rest of college hockey. First in the RPI, first in KRACH, first in the Pairwise, first in the polls. They've lost only once all year. It ain't going to be easy. But glory awaits tonight in Hamden if the Engineers can do what they've done all year - find ways to win, and take down top-end squads. They did it at home just last weekend. Doing it on the road would be a huge (and we mean huge) boost, both in the ECAC and in the Pairwise.

RPI hasn't beaten Union three times in the same season since 1997, and even that year they were 3-1-1 against the Dutchmen (they swept a home playoff series, because that's what they did back then). Even when Union was horrible, they still found ways to produce a result against RPI. And these last couple of years, even more so than usual, you can just throw the records out the door. They don't even matter a little bit when these teams play. Both teams have a shot at skating away with the Mayor's Cup.

And last year, at least, it represented a bad turning point for the Engineers. Coming in on a 3-game winning streak after finally snapping a long 9-game losing streak and easily playing some of their best hockey of the season, RPI took a 3-2 edge into the 3rd period and promptly gave up six goals in 20 of the most painful minutes of hockey you'll ever see - and kicking off a brand new 9-game winless streak that wasn't broken until the last night of the regular season.

On the surface, there's not much to this weekend. An odd mid-week league game at a team RPI hasn't beaten since 2010, and then a non-conference game on neutral ice. But mark my words. Two losses at the end of this weekend will sour everyone on this team, while two wins would turn some serious heads. The final results of these two games won't have much more of a lasting impact than in how it propels the Engineers into the remainder of the season.

On the women's side, it's a road trip to Brown and Yale, and a couple of games the Engineers have got to come up with points in if they want to stay in the playoff hunt. Brown should present more of a challenge than Union did last week, but only slightly. Points lost there would hurt a lot. Yale, on the other hand, is a primary competitor for a playoff - and RPI's already coughed up a pair of points to the Bulldogs this year. This weekend's a crucial one in the playoff hunt for sure - they won't have nearly as many opportunities for easy points after this one's over.

No team wants to be peaking in January, but it's clear both teams have a lot to play for and need to be on top of their game now, more than ever before this year.

Women's Hockey - Yale & Brown (4/5 Dec)

One final weekend of ECAC play marked the end of 2015 for RPI, with the Engineers hosting Yale and Brown at Houston Field House.

Yale proved to be a big challenge for the Engineers, as the Bulldogs left Troy with a 4-1 victory that would have been a shutout if not broken by Jaimie Grigsby in the final minute of Friday's game. Brown made for a better matchup on Saturday as the Engineers were backstopped to a 2-0 win by Lovisa Selander.

Yale

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

Hansen/Renn
Kimmerle/Godin
Behounek/Banks

Selander

Jordan Chancellor scored twice in the span of 2:36 in the first period to help Yale jump out to a 2-0 lead, and the Bulldogs didn't look back as they coasted to a 4-1 win over RPI in Troy Friday night. Yale outshot RPI 43-23 in the contest.

Chancellor opened up the scoring at the 4:56 mark of the opening frame, taking the puck from behind the net and moving into the slot to put a wrist shot glove side past Selander.

Her second goal followed shortly thereafter as she fired home a rebound after Selander made the initial stop on a point shot by Mallory Souliotis.

Souliotis made it a 3-0 lead for the Bulldogs at 13:26 after a total breakdown in the RPI crease left the puck sitting behind Selander long enough for the Yale defender to meander around the net and poke it home.

The rout looked to be on before the first period drew to a close as Jamie Haddad notched Yale's fourth goal of the afternoon. After a 4-on-4 faceoff win in the RPI zone, the goal played out as nearly a carbon copy of Chancellor's first as Haddad was allowed to move right into the slot to put a shot glove side past Selander.

Selander settled down in the second period, turning away all 19 shots faced, then stopped another 7 in the third. However the Engineers couldn't muster any offense until the game's final minute when Jaimie Grigsby stole the puck behind the Yale net and swung it around front and past netminder Hanna Mandl to break the shutout bid and make it a 4-1 game.

The loss marks a continuation of a long winless streak against the Bulldogs for RPI. The Engineers haven't picked up two points against Yale since February 2013 - a season where Yale went 5-21-3.

Brown

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

Kimmerle/Godin
Hansen/Renn
Behounek/Banks

Selander

After Friday night's loss to Yale, RPI rebounded on Saturday to earn a 2-0 shutout over Brown. Makenna Thomas scored for the Engineers and led all players with seven shots on goal, while Alexa Gruschow picked up another goal - her team-leading ninth of the season.

Gruschow's goal came early in the first period - following a nifty move along the boards to come away with the puck, she cut toward the net and put a laser just under the crossbar leaving no chance for Monica Elvin to make a save.

The Engineers went without a goal throughout most of the rest of the game, though they outshot their guests handily by 13-6, 12-8, and 10-5 margins in the game's three periods. Shayna Tomlinson had a nice chance in the second off a rebound, but the sophomore fired the puck over the net while falling to the ice.

It took until the final minute for the Engineers to tack on an insurance goal, as Thomas scored into the empty net to make it a 2-0 game. Amanda Kimmerle sent the puck down ice where it was tipped by Mari Mankey as she was being tripped at the RPI blue line. Thomas picked it up and skated in 1-on-1 against Abby Niewchas, threading it through the defender and into the empty net.

The Engineers will break for the holidays, not returning to action until January 2nd and 3rd when they travel to Erie, PA to face Mercyhurst in a non-conference pair that will mark the end of non-conference play before RPI launches into 14 straight league games to end the season.

-----

RPI vs. Yale
ECAC Hockey Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
12/4/15 - 3pm
Yale 4, RPI 1

BOX SCORES:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=5193
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1516/boxes/wrenyal1.d04

RECAPS:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/news/2015/12/4/WICE_1204151510.aspx?path=whock
Yale: http://www.yalebulldogs.com/sports/w-hockey/2015-16/releases/20151204pwnbhy
Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSNBU9z4aMM
Complete Game Video: http://rpitv.org/productions/1016-womens-hockey-vs-yale

RECORD: 4-9-2 (2-4-1 ECAC)

-----

RPI vs. Brown
ECAC Hockey Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
12/5/15 - 3pm
RPI 2, Brown 0

BOX SCORES:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=5194
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1516/boxes/wbrnren1.d05

RECAPS:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/news/2015/12/5/WICE_1205152921.aspx?path=whock
Brown: http://www.brownbears.com/sports/w-hockey/2015-16/releases/20151205rgvxb7
Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkfMVLyCwuQ
Complete Game Video: http://rpitv.org/productions/1018-womens-hockey-vs-brown

RECORD: 5-9-2 (3-4-1 ECAC)

-----

ECAC Standings

1. Quinnipiac - 16 pts (7-1-2) (.800)
2t. Harvard - 11 pts (5-3-1) (.611)
2t. Princeton - 11 pts (5-4-1) (.550)
4. Dartmouth - 10 pts (4-3-2) (.556)
5t. Colgate - 8 pts (2-1-4) (.571)
5t. Clarkson - 8 pts (3-3-2) (.500)
5t. St. Lawrence - 8 pts (4-4-0) (.500)
8t. Yale - 7 pts (3-2-1) (.583)
8t. RPI - 7 pts (3-4-1) (.438)
10. Cornell - 6 pts (2-3-2) (.429)
11t. Brown - 2 pts (1-5-0) (.167)
11t. Union - 2 pts (0-6-2) (.125)

-----

Upcoming Schedule

Jan. 2 - at Mercyhurst (3pm)
Jan. 3 - at Mercyhurst (1pm)
Jan. 8 - Quinnipiac (7pm)
Jan. 9 - Princeton (4pm)

Break the Ceiling

It's been a fun couple of months in Engineer Nation. The women turned some heads by picking up points they weren't supposed to at Colgate and Cornell, and then against Clarkson. The men... well, they were written off at the start of the season, then beating Boston College was a fluke, and now... well, now they're where they are now.

This is a crucial weekend for the women's team. Yale and Brown at home. If they want playoffs this year, the Engineers have got to pick up these points - the entirety of league weekends may not get any easier than this duo at the Field House. RPI is winless in their last four (five if you count the exhibition in Montreal) since upsetting Clarkson, but this is definitely a weekend to prove that the Engineers' quick start to the ECAC schedule was no fluke - or at least not as big as it was portrayed at the time. If you're going to be a young team might as well be a young team that's unwilling to wait their turn.

For the men, we've known since the beginning that as much as the team's obviously better than the so-called experts thought coming in, they're probably not the very apex of the ECAC, either. Still, here we are, the beginning of December, and it's still RPI sitting atop the league standings (with Quinnipiac, of course, a team that's proven their bonafides more than the Tute has). That's probably not going to last that much longer - but even if it's just one more night with a win over a Dartmouth team that has frequently struggled on both ends of the ice this year, why not? The longer they stay there, the better the end result's going to be no matter what. Points are points, and they're easier to come by at home than they are on the road. So even with Harvard tomorrow night - let's go for broke!

Fun little tune for this week's pumpup. Been stuck in my head for a couple of weeks and the lyrics are at least somewhat relevant too, so here's your earworm. This is definitely neo-80s style, but it was only released a couple of months ago. Enjoy.

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.

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)

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

VIDEO
Highlights
Full game

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

RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

VIDEO
Highlights
Full game

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

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.

Know Your Enemy: Brown

The Engineers lost twice to Brown during the regular season last year, marking the first time since the 2001-02 season that the Bears had won the season series against RPI, and marking only the first time since 1995-96 that Brown had swept the Engineers during the regular season. That the games against RPI provided the Bears with 2/5 of their league wins and fully a quarter of their wins on the entire season underscore that the Brown series was one of the lowlights of last season for the Engineers. Every time the Bears start to look like they're ready to break out and vie for league honors, they seem to fall backwards with a season like they just finished.

Brown
Nickname: Bears
Location: Providence, RI
Founded: 1764
Conference: ECAC (Ivy League)
National Championships: 0
Last NCAA Appearance: 1993
Last Frozen Four: 1976
Coach: Brendan Whittet (7th season)
2014-15 Record: 8-20-3 (5-14-3 ECAC, 11th place)
Series: RPI leads, 59-26-7
First Game: December 28, 1951 (Troy, NY)
Last RPI win: February 28, 2014 (Providence, RI)
Last Brown win: February 13, 2015 (Troy, NY)

2015-16 games: November 14, 2015 (Troy, NY); January 29, 2016 (Providence, RI)

Key players: F Nick Lappin, sr.; F Mark Naclerio, sr.; D Brandon Pfeil, sr.; G Tim Ernst, jr.; F Davey Middleton, jr.; G Tyler Steel, jr.; D Tyler Wood, jr.; F Tyler Bird, so.; F Sam Lafferty, so.; D Josh McArdle, so.; D Ben Tegtmeyer, so.; F Max Willman, so.; D Max Gottlieb, fr.; F Tommy Marchin, fr.

Key losses: F Matt Lorito, D Joey de Concilys, F Massimo Lamacchia, F Matt Harlow, F Ryan Jacobson

Previous KYE installments:

• 2010-11
• 2011-12
• 2012-13
• 2013-14
• 2014-15

Truth be told, Brown had a pretty solid February, but that's about it. They carried a 4-16-1 overall record (1-12-1 in the ECAC - guess who the win was against) into the final month of the regular season, and that's where they rattled off a four-game win streak and six-game unbeaten streak, with the middle four games of that unbeaten streak all coming on the road. That was enough to draw separation between themselves and Princeton, as they'd basically shared the ECAC basement for nearly the entire season.

The Bears sputtered at home on the final weekend of the season, picking up just a point against Cornell and Colgate before being soundly defeated on the road at Harvard to conclude their otherwise miserable season.

There's just very little that Brown was able to do right last year. Along with Wisconsin and Lake Superior State, the Bears were one of three teams that finished in the bottom 10 nationally in all four major categories - offense, defense, power play, and penalty kill.

Brown had just six players reach double digits in points last year, and three of them - Lorito, de Concilys, and Lamacchia - have graduated. Lorito is an especially serious loss, as he was by far the best player on the team in the last three seasons, the glue that made the Bears' top line (and really, their only serious scoring line) cohesive. The other two members of the line the last two years, Naclerio and Nick Lappin, return as the team's best offensive hopes, but they'll need to add a new third element. But more to the point, the Bears aren't going to be that fearsome offensively until they broaden the appeal. Lorito and his linemates all collected point totals in the low 20s, they had the capacity to do a lot more than that but they were always facing the opposition's best defensive stand by a clear margin simply because the other lines just didn't produce at all.

The defense is in a tough spot as well. Steel has struggled in his first two seasons between the pipes for the Bears, and arguably he's lost his top spot to Ernst, who put up fairly weak numbers last season as well, just not as bad as Steel's. We've seen time and time again that a solid goaltender is usually enough to make a team competitive, and the first step for the Bears is going to have to be to get some separation, in a good way, between Ernst and Steel. Until one of them can step up and start keeping pucks out of the net (both had GAAs over 3 last season), Brown's offensive problem is actually pretty moot.

The core of the blueliners is still quite young, so unless one of the goalies starts standing on his head or the offense suddenly and unexpectedly explodes, don't expect Brown to be among the elite of the ECAC this coming season. That said, the fact that they were able to sweep the Engineers last season certainly doesn't make them a team RPI can just sleep on. We've seen Brown be dangerous - especially late in the season and in the playoffs. After a nearly 20-year streak of always taking at least a few points from Brown, it's time for the Engineers to start a new streak, and to do that, defense is going to have to take center stage. The Bears scored 10 goals against RPI last season, more than any other team (they scored just 44 in league play altogether, and 65 overall), including Harvard (9), against whom they played four games. A team that's struggling to score shouldn't be finding the seams against you if you want to succeed.

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

Facing a key home weekend with the potential to jump-start their sputtering season, the Engineers continued to free-fall, enduring an embarrassing 6-3 loss at the hands of Brown on Friday and then falling 4-1 to Yale in the 38th annual Big Red Freakout! Being swept at home is never good, and it's worse when you're falling farther and farther from being able to nab a home ice position for the playoffs. Despite the setbacks, the Engineers did not lose position in the league standings, but they made it measurably more difficult to gain it in the final two weeks.

Brown
Liljegren-Schroeder-Bubela
Neal-McGowan-Laliberte
Melanson-Miller-Nanne

Wood-Bourbonnais-DeVito

Curadi-Leonard
Prapavessis-Bradley
Wilson-Reno

Kasdorf

Lou Nanne returned from his injury suffered a week prior at St. Lawrence, his return to practice the previous Tuesday marking the first time since October that RPI has had a complete practice with every player on the roster. He returned to the lineup as part of a reunited Melanson-Miller-Nanne line, a combination which had provided a significant amount of excitement early in the season prior to the injury and illness woes of all three components. Jake Wood also returned to the lineup for the first time since the Mayor's Cup, a game in which he was suspended for two contests.

For the second straight game, Jacob Laliberte got the Engineers on the board first with a goal, and it didn't take long. On the senior's very first shift at 1:19, he scored his sixth goal of the season with assists to Mark McGowan and Jared Wilson to make it 1-0.

Spot mistakes cost the Engineers in the first period, however. A turnover in the defensive zone created a breakaway opportunity that the Bears capitalized on at 9:08 to tie the score, then an error by Jason Kasdorf three minutes later helped put Brown ahead 2-1 as a shot bounced off his leg pads and directly into the net.

Another soft Brown goal early in the second period ended Kasdorf's night prematurely, the struggling junior managed just 10 saves on 13 shots before his night ended after 24:33 between the pipes. Senior Scott Diebold took over for the remainder of the game, keeping Brown off the board for the remainder of the second period.

Milos Bubela's 6th goal of the season cut the Brown lead in half despite some dreadful play from the home side during the second period, and the 3-2 scoreline carried over into the third period, keeping the Engineers in the game despite an overall poor showing.

Brown regained their two-goal edge with a score just 51 seconds into the third, and once more against the flow of play, the Engineers managed to climb back to within one nine minutes later on a goal by Mark Miller, his fourth of the campaign. But just four minutes later, Brown scored a goal in transition on the power play when RPI penalty killers got stuck in the Brown end after a clearance, ending any real chance of the Engineers coming back even for the tie. A (literally) last-second empty netter produced a 6-3 score line for the final.

Yale
Liljegren-Schroeder-Bubela
Neal-McGowan-Laliberte
Melanson-Miller-Nanne

Wood-Bourbonnais-DeVito

Leonard-Bradley
Prapavessis-Bokenfohr
Curadi-Wilson

Kasdorf

The only real change heading into Freakout! night was the insertion of Craig Bokenfohr into the lineup in place of Parker Reno, and a slight reshuffling of the defensive pairings. The Melanson-Miller-Nanne line was put out for the first shift, their first start of the season.

Yale's power play operated with ruthless efficiency all night long, especially on their first two opportunities in the first and second periods, and those tallies were key to victory for the Bulldogs. Their first power play goal came just 3:13 into the game, when they scored after an efficient sequence following a faceoff win in the RPI zone to go up 1-0. A little over two minutes later, the score was 2-0 after Yale's John Baiocco got himself free, got around Bokenfohr, and fired a precision shot that managed to get past Jason Kasdorf and into the net with only the slightest of angles available.

Late in the first period, RPI appeared ready to shift momentum in their direction with a power play goal by Viktor Liljegren. The freshman potted his fifth goal of the year on a rebound from a shot by Drew Melanson to make it 2-1 heading into the second.

For the second straight night, however, the opposition scored early in the period to squelch any momentum the Engineers could carry over while down just one. 91 seconds in, Yale had their third goal of the night to regain a two-goal edge, and then the Bulldogs executed once more on the power play to go up 4-1 just under five minutes later.

That would be all the scoring for the contest. RPI did start to look a little bit better late in the second period and into the third period, but they rarely looked ready to get a second goal. Yale let off the gas slightly after going up by three and were content to play lock-down hockey in the third period in order to skate off with the victory. Jason Kasdorf did start to look a little more like his usual self, especially late in the third as RPI had a pair of penalties to kill off, and he was called on to make some solid saves in order to preserve the scoreline.

Assisted slightly by Union also getting swept on the weekend (failing to score any goals in two consecutive games after going 98 in a row without being shut out), RPI remains in 9th place heading into the penultimate weekend of the regular season. The Engineers are on a very thin line when it comes to potentially playing at home. As of now, they need to pick up victories over Cornell and Clarkson for sure to even have a prayer, but they are going to need some help almost certainly from Union against those same teams if they're going to be playing in Troy when March arrives.

Current ECAC Standings
1. Quinnipiac - 31 points (15-2-1)
2. St. Lawrence - 25 points (12-5-1)
3. Yale - 22 points (10-6-2)
4. Harvard - 21 points (9-6-3)
5. Dartmouth - 20 points (9-7-2)
6. Colgate - 19 points (8-7-3)
7. Cornell - 18 points (8-8-2)
8. Clarkson - 18 points (8-8-2)
9. RPI - 14 points (7-11-0)
10. Union - 13 points (6-11-1)
11. Brown - 9 points (4-13-1)
12. Princeton - 6 points (2-14-2)

Brown at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
2/13/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Brown 6, RPI 3

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

RECORD: 9-21-1 (7-10-0, 14pts)

#15 Yale at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
2/14/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Yale 4, RPI 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

RECORD: 9-22-1 (7-11-0, 14pts)

Upcoming games
20 Feb - at Cornell
21 Feb - at Colgate
27 Feb - Clarkson
28 Feb - #20 St. Lawrence (Senior Night)
06 Mar - ECAC First Round (Site TBA)

Statistic of the Year

Here's your statistic of the year for the RPI men.

When allowing two or fewer goals, the Engineers are 9-0-1.
When allowing three or more goals, the Engineers are 0-20-0.

It's that amazingly stark. You'd think that, even with the Engineers' well documented goal struggles, they'd have found a way to at least pick up a tie in one of those games where they've allowed three. You'd perhaps especially think that maybe they'd have dropped one or two even when they didn't.

Nope. It's been a hard and fast rule through 30 games. Give up three, lose. Don't give up three, don't lose.

Now, most teams are going to have a strong record in games where they allow two or fewer, and a weaker one when they give up three or more. It's just a fact of life. But this is pretty telling about what matters for this team.

The three-goal mark is always bandied about in college hockey as the goal for any team to score in any game. "First to three" is a pretty common remark, especially out west.

Interestingly enough, RPI has managed 3 goals themselves in six of nine wins - the difference being three 2-1 victories over Union, Dartmouth, and New Hampshire. They've scored three in a loss only once - in the Mayor's Cup game, a game they lead 3-2 heading into the 3rd period.

What's going on here? Wasn't the defense supposed to be a point of strength?

Freakout! weekend is here, and it's none too soon. The Engineers have slid into 9th, a road playoff spot, just as we feared would happen after the game at Dartmouth. They're back home for the first time in a month, and they've done some awesome things at home in league play this season. With four of the last six games being played in the friendly confines of Houston Field House and the Tute still just four points out of 3rd place, it's another key weekend. Friday's game against Brown is a required two points - almost nobody is giving up points to the Bears this season, and RPI's already dropped two of them. Yale presents a bigger challenge on Saturday, but perhaps Freakout! could be the great equalizer. The last time Yale came to the Freakout! they were the #1 team in the nation. They weren't anymore afterwards.

Meantime, the women get set to wrap up their season next weekend at home, but first they go through their final road trip of the year to Yale and Brown. The Bulldogs are almost certainly off to the playoffs, but they at least represent some lower hanging fruit that the Engineers should hope to grab points from. Brown is a team RPI needs to beat, the first of two straight Saturday games in which the Engineers can pick up points to conclude their season on an upbeat note.

We've had a pretty good year here at WaP, and we're hoping it continues for at least another month. We've been accused at times by different people of going far too easy on the teams for their struggles or being far too hard on them. Sounds like we're getting it right.

But for those who think we're too hard... this pumpup is for you.

Men's Hockey - at Yale & Brown (5/6 Dec)

The rollercoaster ride continues for the men's team. Thanks to injuries and illnesses to some of the Engineers' most crucial components, the trend is heading back downslope after a disastrous weekend of results against what has historically been an important road trip for RPI to pick up some points. With Drew Melanson sidelined by mononucleosis and with Lou Nanne and Jason Kasdorf continuing to miss time due to injuries, the Engineers struggled through the last full ECAC weekend of the calendar year, falling 5-2 against Yale and then becoming the first league team to drop points to Brown in a 4-2 loss in Providence.

Yale
Liljegren-Bubela-McGowan
Wood-Neal-Bourbonnais
Laliberte-Miller-Fulton
Curadi-Schroeder-DeVito

Leonard-Prapavessis
Bradley-Hampton
Wilson-Reno

Diebold

Melanson's absence was salved somewhat by the return from an ankle injury of Zach Schroeder. Travis Fulton moved up to the Miller line, while Schroeder slotted in on the fourth line.

The opening period against Yale was a rough one for the Engineers, as they managed just 2 shots on goal in the first 20 minutes. The Bulldogs began to take full control of the period in the final 10 minutes, though RPI withstood the attack for much of the period. Just as it appeared that the Engineers might get out of the first with no score, Yale struck with under 2 minutes left in the period after a sustained attack in the RPI zone to go up 1-0.

The game's turning point came about six minutes into the second. Shortly after an RPI attack ended with a puck off the post, the Bulldogs went the other way with it and scored to make the score 2-0 instead of the 1-1 tally the game could have featured if the Engineers had been able to finish the attack.

Jake Wood scored his first goal of the season with 4:05 remaining in the second period, but any momentum RPI could have taken into the second intermission was scuttled just over two minutes later as Yale scored their third even strength goal of the game and second in the last two minutes of a period to make it 3-1 Bulldogs.

RPI hardly gave up the ghost at that point. After a solid first 10 minutes of the third period, RPI pulled to within one for a second time on the evening with a power play goal from Milos Bubela. The junior's third goal of the season made the score 3-2, but once again, that reduced lead for the Bulldogs didn't last long. Only 50 seconds later, the Bulldogs put one in the back of the net to regain the two-goal edge.

An empty netter with just over a minute left to play sealed RPI's fate. It was a game where the Engineers didn't play poorly, but they made enough spot errors and gave up goals at the very worst possible times - late in periods and just after their own goals - to doom themselves to a loss.

Brown
Liljegren-Bubela-McGowan
Wood-Neal-Bourbonnais
Laliberte-Miller-Fulton
Curadi-Schroeder-DeVito

Leonard-Prapavessis
Bradley-Hampton
Wilson-Reno

Diebold

Without much of a choice due to injuries and illnesses, the Engineers ran the exact same lineup against a Brown team that had been absolutely blown out the previous night against Union, who went up 7-0 on their way to a 7-1 victory.

Unfortunately, many of the same pitfalls that created a loss on Friday night reared their ugly heads again on Saturday. This time, it was a quick - and soft - goal that put the Engineers down 1-0 for the 15th time in 18 games this season. Brown, a team that has had trouble scoring goals this year, put themselves on the board just 50 seconds in to make it 1-0.

Jacob Laliberte notched his second goal of the season about two and a half minutes later on the power play to even the score, but once again, a quick goal given up blunted the momentum that RPI could have gained from having evened things up. Another soft one, this one only 31 seconds after the goal from Laliberte put RPI back behind just as quickly as they'd tied the game.

Several 4-on-4 opportunities were generated over the next 30 or so minutes, but nothing came of them and the Bears maintained a tedious 2-1 edge even as the Engineers began taking control of the game in the second period. Despite a 17-7 domination in shots on goal in the middle stanza, it was Brown scoring - for the fourth time in five periods on the weekend, a goal coming in the last two minutes of a period - to make it 3-1.

By the time the Bears picked up their fourth goal of the game 7:13 into the fourth period, again despite some strong play by the Engineers, it was a hole too big for RPI to extract itself. Jake Wood's second goal of the season with 3:22 left to play earned the Engineers a little more respectability, but it wasn't enough to stop the team's losing streak from extending to four games overall and three games in ECAC play.

The 0 point weekend was the first time since Brown and Yale became travel partners that the Engineers failed to earn at least a weekend split on that particular road trip. It also sent the team, which held first place on its own ahead of the Quinnipiac game, down into a tie for 5th place with St. Lawrence, a team with a game in hand over the Engineers. RPI is now four points out of first place and only two out of 10th, with just one more league contest - against the hottest team in the ECAC, Harvard - left to be played before 2015.

Things will not get easier from here. 6 of RPI's next 8 games are against ranked opponents, with the next four in a row coming against teams currently ranked in the top 10. This Saturday, the Engineers return to the Field House for the first time in a month to take on Jack Eichel and Boston University. With any luck, at least some of RPI's walking wounded will be back in the lineup, as the team sorely missed its top two scorers and top netminder this past weekend.

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

RPI at Yale
ECAC Game - Ingalls Rink (New Haven, CT)
12/5/14 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Yale 5, RPI 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

RECORD: 6-10-1 (4-3-0, 8pts)

RPI at Brown
ECAC Game - Meehan Auditorium (Providence, RI)
12/6/14 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Brown 4, RPI 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

RECORD: 6-11-1 (4-4-0, 8pts)

Upcoming games
13 Dec - #2 Boston University
30 Dec - at #5 Harvard
02 Jan - #6 Miami
03 Jan - #6 Miami
09 Jan - at #15 Quinnipiac

Women's Hockey - Brown & Yale (5/6 Dec)

RPI finished the 2014 portion of the schedule (hitting the halfway point of the season with 17 games down and 17 remaining) by hosting Brown and Yale, two of the other teams in the bottom half of the ECAC standings.

After roaring out to a 7-0 lead over Brown on Friday, the Engineers' penalty kill surrendered four straight goals and the Bears tacked on one more at the last second for a 7-5 final. Another pair of power play goals allowed on Saturday turned a 1-1 tie into a 3-1 Yale lead and though the Engineers drew to within one on an extra attacker goal, couldn't knot it up and ended the year with a 3-2 loss.

Brown

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

Banks/Schilter
Kimmerle/Godin
Middlebrook/Behounek

Piper

RPI had a 4-goal first period for the first time in eight years and Alexa Gruschow had two goals and two assists including the game winner, but the Engineers finished on a sour note surrendering five straight but holding on for a 7-5 victory.

The Engineers last scored four in the opening period on 12/8/06 in a 7-0 win over Union. This time around Jenn Godin opened the scoring, skating into the zone all alone while the rest of the Engineers took a line change and giving RPI a 1-0 lead.

Marisa Raspa scored two goals just 13 seconds apart to triple RPI's lead. The goals temporarily gave the freshman the team lead in the category, but that would be taken back by Alexa Gruschow when she later scored the sixth and seventh goals for the Engineers - one each on the power play and shorthanded.

Between those events, Delaney Middlebrook scored her first goal as an Engineer in the middle of the first to make it 4-0, then Laura Horwood scored the Engineers' fifth at 1:13 of the second.

After going up 7-0 early in the third on Gruschow's shorty, the Engineers proceeded to surrender four straight power play goals, a glaring weakness the team has exhibited all season with a 67.2% success rate - last in the nation by a margin of 8.5%.

Brown's power play goals included a 5-on-3 goal followed by a goal on the remaining 5-on-4 just 26 seconds later. They would tack on one more for good measure in the game's final second, taking what could have been the Engineers' largest margin of victory in five years and instead turning it into a two-goal win by a 7-5 final score.

Yale

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

Banks/Schilter
Kimmerle/Godin
Middlebrook/Behounek

O'Brien

Laura Horwood drew the Engineers even at 1-1 late in the first period, but another pair of goals on a 5-on-3 and the ensuing 5-on-4 cost RPI a shot at a weekend sweep as they eventually fell 3-2 to Yale in Troy on Saturday afternoon.

Horwood's goal was a nice one, as the sophomore put her first shot over the net before circling around the corner back to the slot to find a loose puck and backhand it into the net to draw things even.

Yale had taken the lead early, as RPI did the day before, with a tally 1:40 into the first. Mallory Souliotis picked up the goal with a big slapper through traffic from the point which found its way past Kelly O'Brien.

Yale's second and third goals came late in the second period, with Delaney Middlebrook and Kathryn Schilter both in the box. Taylor Marchin made it 2-1 with a slapshot of her own on the 5-on-3, then Aurora Kennedy scored the game-winner on another shot through traffic from the point just moments later.

Alexa Gruschow brought the Engineers back to within one at 18:42 of the third, with O'Brien out of the net in favor of the extra attacker, but 1:18 wasn't enough time to find another goal and RPI fell to Yale by a 3-2 final score.

With the loss on Saturday, the Engineers now sit in a 4-way tie for last place with Brown, Union, and Colgate. While there's a lot of hockey left to play, it will be an uphill struggle for the Engineers to catch up to Yale or Dartmouth in the fight to make the playoffs. There's nothing to be done for a while, though, as the team now has a month-long break for the holidays before continuing their homestand with five games in nine nights at Houston Field House to say hello to 2015.

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RPI vs. Brown
ECAC Hockey Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
12/5/14 - 7:00pm
RPI 7, Brown 5

BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1415/boxes/wbrnren1.d05
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=4439

RECAPS:
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/news/2014/12/5/WICE_1205142343.aspx
Brown: http://www.brownbears.com/sports/w-hockey/2014-15/releases/20141205ojla0x
Complete Game Video: http://rpitv.org/productions/877-womens-hockey-vs-brown-university

RECORD: 3-11-2 (1-4-0 ECAC)

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RPI vs. Yale
ECAC Hockey Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
12/6/14 - 4:00pm
Yale 3, RPI 2

BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1415/boxes/wrenyal1.d06
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=4438

RECAPS:
RPI: http://rpiathletics.com/news/2014/12/6/WICE_1206141737.aspx
Yale: http://www.yalebulldogs.com/sports/w-hockey/2014-15/releases/20141206o9jj7z
Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yTOo2aAF4U
Complete Game Video: http://rpitv.org/productions/878-womens-hockey-vs-yale

RECORD: 3-12-2 (1-5-0 ECAC)

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Upcoming Schedule

Jan. 2 - Princeton (3pm)
Jan. 3 - Quinnipiac (3pm)
Jan. 6 - Providence (4pm)
Jan. 9 - Dartmouth (7pm)
Jan. 10 - Harvard (4pm)

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ECAC Standings

1. Quinnipiac - 14 pts. (6-1-2) (.778)
2. Clarkson - 13 pts. (6-2-1) (.722)
3t. Harvard - 11 pts. (6-1-1) (.781)
3t. St. Lawrence - 11 pts (5-3-1) (.611)
5t. Cornell - 10 pts. (5-2-0) (.714)
5t. Princeton - 10 pts. (5-4-0) (.556)
7. Yale - 6 pts. (3-3-0) (.500)
8. Dartmouth - 5 pts (2-4-1) (.357)
9t. Brown - 2 pts (1-5-0) (.167)
9t. RPI - 2 pts (1-5-0) (.167)
9t. Union - 2 pts (1-5-0) (.167)
9t. Colgate - 2 pts (1-6-0) (.143)