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

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

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

Leonard-Bradley

Leboeuf-Dolan
Curadi-Reno

Diebold

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Curadi-Reno
Leboeuf-Hampton

Leonard-Bradley

Diebold

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RESULT: RPI 3, Cornell 3

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

VIDEO
RPI TV (full game)

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

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

RESULT: RPI 6, Colgate 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

VIDEO
RPI TV (full game)

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

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

Men's Hockey - Harvard/Dartmouth (1/2 Feb)

February is about the right time for teams to start making their moves, especially if they're near the bottom and looking to move up, and RPI put forward exactly the right signals on that front, pitching back-to-back shutouts in a home league weekend. They took care of Harvard and Dartmouth by twin 3-0 scores to earn four more big ECAC points as the stretch run begins.

Harvard
Lee-Rogic-Haggerty
Zalewski-Higgs-Bubela
Neal-McGowan-Tinordi
Burgdoerfer-Miller-Commers

Leonard-Bailen
Leboeuf-Bradley
Curadi-Dolan

Kasdorf

Originally, Jacob Laliberte was slated to play against the Crimson, but he was a last minute scratch due to illness. Johnny Rogic was moved up to the top line to replace him, and Andrew Commers got the start on the fourth line instead, making his home-ice debut.

Rogic's time as the top line center was short and came to a very abrupt end just 10:37 into the game, when he was called for checking from behind thanks to a reckless hit at the Harvard bench on Alex Fallstrom. That ended his night early and put Harvard on a five-minute power play that had the potential to put the Crimson into a game they had been floundering in to that point. However, what transpired following the penalty was five solid minutes of the Engineers playing fetch with Harvard, as the penalty kill threw the puck down ice repeatedly. Only once, for a short time, were the Crimson able to even set up in the RPI zone during the long power play, and they were unable to put a single shot on goal while the Engineers managed two of their own.

Late in the first period, RPI put the first goal on the board as Mark Miller redirected a shot from the point by Luke Curadi into the back of the net, giving the Engineers a 1-0 edge heading into the locker room.

Shortly after another fairly easy penalty kill by RPI in the early part of the second period, the Engineers converted on their second power play opportunity of the game thanks to a highlight-reel goal by Mike Zalewski. The freshman skated with the puck from behind the net to the left of the goaltender, waiting so long to find his opening that he eventually went down to his knees and shot from the backhand to score and put RPI up 2-0.

Harvard put the majority of their shots on goal up in the second period, but even that wasn't much of a feat, as Jason Kasdorf stopped just six shots in the second to preserve the shutout going forward. The third was even quieter for him, with Kasdorf stopping only two shots in the third period for a total of 11 in the entire game in his first collegiate shutout.

Meanwhile, Miller scored his second goal of the game to put it away a little under three minutes into the third, shooting from the slot and beating the goaltender top shelf to make it 3-0, which would stand as the final score. The RPI penalty kill ended up 3-for-3 on the evening, including the five-minute major.

Dartmouth
Lee-Laliberte-Haggerty
Zalewski-Higgs-Bubela
Neal-McGowan-Tinordi
Burgdoerfer-Miller-Commers

Leonard-Bailen
Leboeuf-Bradley
Curadi-Dolan

Kasdorf

Laliberte, still feeling ill but well enough to give it a go, returned to the lineup on Saturday night for the Freakout!, arguably replacing Johnny Rogic, who was given a one-game suspension by the league thanks to his check from behind during the first period against Harvard. Functionally, it was Andrew Commers getting a second consecutive start due to the Rogic suspension.

A very physical first period was put together by both teams on Saturday night, but you'd never know it by looking at the box score, which shows no penalties whatsoever being called in the first 20 minutes. That set the tone for the rest of the evening, as both teams were called just three times over the course of the game, the second straight night that five-on-five action was the name of the game.

Dartmouth arguably had the best chance of breaking the deadlock early in the game as an initial shot was saved by Kasdorf, but the rebound dropped to a position that left him out of line for the followup save. Fortunately, Guy Leboeuf was standing in the crease at the right time and made a save of his own to keep the Big Green off the board.

Just as it appeared that Dartmouth and RPI were destined to hit the first intermission without scoring, RPI landed a confidence crusher with just 11 seconds remaining in the first period. Leboeuf didn't get all of a one-timer attempt to the goaltender's left off a pass from Matt Neal, but the momentum of the puck carried to Matt Tinordi, situated just a little farther back, and the junior one-timed the puck himself to the back of the net to make it 1-0 at the death of the first.

RPI got enough jump out of the gate early in the second period as well to make it 2-0 just 1:52 of game-time after the Tinordi goal. Brock Higgs found Mike Zalewski sitting alone at point blank range in the slot, and Zalewski one-timed the pass in for his second goal of the weekend.

With about five minutes left in the second, Mark Miller scored his third goal of the weekend on one of the most amazing moves you'll see. Leboeuf found him with a long up-ice pass, and the freshman darted in alone on the Dartmouth net. Despite being tripped up from behind (and no call on the play), Miller stayed with the play, firing the puck while stretched out in mid-air and beating the netminder for a 3-0 RPI edge.

Dartmouth regularly got the puck on Kasdorf, and Saturday night was nothing like Friday for the freshman goalie. He turned away as many shots in the second period - 11 - as he had the entire previous night, and was forced to step up for 12 saves in the third period, but despite the Big Green's fevered attempts in the final period to crawl back into things, Kasdorf and the defenders around him played shutdown hockey. C.J. Lee even chipped in early in the third by slashing apart the stick of a Dartmouth forward who had been in good position to score on a rebound - it resulted in a penalty, but RPI successfully killed it off.

Kasdorf ultimately stopped 28 shots on the night and 39 for the weekend in picking up back-to-back saves for the first time since Nathan Marsters accomplished the feat in 2004 against Cornell and Sacred Heart. More importantly for the Engineers, it was their fourth consecutive win in as many ECAC games, running their record in the last eight league outings to 5-1-2.

Other junk - Quinnipiac again just missed the #1 ranking in the nation this week, dropping two first place votes but still coming in at #2 with 20 first place votes after tying Brown and beating Yale. Also ranked this week are #10 Yale (beat Princeton and lost to Quinnipiac, down two), #17 Dartmouth (tied Union and lost to RPI, down one), and #18 Union (beat Harvard and tied Dartmouth, no change). Colgate (46) and St. Lawrence (2) also received votes. Other ranked teams on RPI's schedule this season are #4 New Hampshire (down one), #8 St. Cloud State (up four), #11 Minnesota State (up four), and #13 Boston University (down two). Ferris State (17) also received votes.

Jason Kasdorf holds the second best goals against average in the nation with a 1.44 GAA in 667:27 of game time. That trails only Miami freshman Ryan McKay, who has a 1.08 GAA in 612:33.  His .944 save percentage is good enough for fifth in the nation, second only to McKay's nation-leading .960 among freshman. Interestingly, both McKay and Kasdorf are 6-2-2 on the season.

Next weekend, RPI takes their ECAC streak up to the North Country, where on Friday they face one of the hottest teams in the nation outside of Quinnipiac - St. Lawrence is 4-0-2 in their last six games and as a by-product of that, are now sitting alone in fifth place in the ECAC. That's a spot that the Engineers covet, and they can pass the Saints with a win on Friday, where a loss puts them three points behind, making that a big game indeed. The Saturday game in Potsdam will be just as important for RPI, as they are currently tied with the Golden Knights in the ECAC standings.

If everything goes perfectly for RPI next weekend, they could be sitting in as high as 3rd (alone) at the end of Saturday. If everything goes badly, they could end up back in 11th. More likely, they should end up somewhere in between. That's the ECAC for you - but make no mistake every point is precious now, and the Engineers are undoubtedly playing their best hockey of the year.

ECAC Standings
1. Quinnipiac - 26 points (12-0-2)
2. Yale - 19 points (9-5-1)
3. Dartmouth - 16 points (7-6-2)
4. Union - 16 points (6-4-4)
5. St. Lawrence - 14 points (5-5-4)
6. Princeton - 13 points (5-6-3)
7. Colgate - 13 points (5-6-3)
8. Clarkson - 13 points (5-6-3)
9. RPI - 13 points (5-6-3)
10. Brown - 13 points (4-6-5)
11. Cornell - 10 points (4-8-2)
12. Harvard - 6 points (3-12-0)

Harvard at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
2/1/13 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Harvard 0

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

RECORD: 9-11-5 (4-6-3 ECAC, 11 points)

#16 Dartmouth at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
2/2/13 - 7:05pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Dartmouth 0

BOX SCORES

College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS

RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

RECORD: 10-11-5 (5-6-3 ECAC, 13 points)

Upcoming games
08 Feb - at St. Lawrence
09 Feb - at Clarkson
15 Feb - Brown
16 Feb - #10 Yale
22 Feb - at Cornell

Men's Hockey - Princeton and Quinnipiac (25/26 Feb)

Coming into the final six games of the regular season, the Engineers had only failed to win once at home, with four home games left, so things were looking pretty good. Going 0-3-1 in those four home games is a recipe for failure no matter how well your team is doing, however, and that's exactly what happened to the Engineers to close out the 2010-11 regular season. After the embarrassment of being swept at home by the likes of Colgate and Cornell two weeks prior, RPI laid another egg on senior weekend, losing to Princeton at home for the fourth time in a row, and earning only a tie with Quinnipiac when a win would have delivered them into the ECAC Quarterfinals with their first ever bye.

Instead, the Engineers now have to play Colgate in the first round of the ECAC playoffs, with a trip to Cornell the reward for victory.

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

Bergin/Foss
Koudys/Kennedy
Leboeuf/Bailen

York

The big news on Friday night was that Mike Bergin was making his return to the lineup after missing all of February to that point after being injured in the Freakout - his return was expected to provide a major boost to an RPI defense that had been noticeably exposed in recent games.

RPI got the first power play of the game, but were down 1-0 just 25 seconds into their own man advantage when Princeton freshman Andrew Calof stole the puck from Chase Polacek at center ice and went in all alone on York, coolly wristing a backhander to the top of the cage to put the Tigers ahead, an ominous sign for the Engineers. RPI would get the goal back as a product of the same power play chance as Brock Higgs scored his 7th goal of the year just a few seconds after the advantage ended to tie the game back up.

That was short lived. Princeton would score practically off a faceoff in the RPI zone less than two minutes later to regain their lead.

Princeton made it 3-1 five minutes into the second period by scoring on a relatively weak shot that Allen York probably should have had, and things were starting to look pretty bleak for RPI. The Tigers began to dominate puck control and the two goal lead looked like it may as well have been 20.

An RPI power play midway through the period made it look like that could change, as Matt Tinordi scored his first collegiate goal to bring RPI back within one. The Engineers looked like they had a little bit of life, but unfortunately it was an unforced error by Tinordi that led to another sour turn of events. Tinordi took a roughing penalty that negated what had been a productive power play for the Engineers, and eventually led to a power play that produced a goal for Princeton just before the last minute of the second period. The turn of events felt like a definite dagger.

Johnny Rogic netted his fourth goal of the year with about five minutes left in the third period, but the Engineers were unable to find the equalizer even after Princeton was called for interference with 1:45 left and even with Allen York on the bench creating a 6-on-4 situation for over a minute and a half of that time.

One could look at the game's last sequence as being the fourth consecutive game with a long two-man advantage that the Engineers not only failed to convert, but also helped lose the game. It's a complete head-scratcher why this team, which has gotten so many two-man advantages of late, just can't score on them. There's no excuse.

RPI gave up far too many shots, as well. Allen York gave up 4 goals, but had 40 saves. This could have been far worse.

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

Bergin/Foss
Leboeuf/Kennedy
Bailen/Dolan

York

Despite the bad result on Friday, RPI still was very much in a position where they could land the bye, especially given the high likelihood of other games going their way - RPI was essentially rooting for Union and Yale over Princeton and Cornell, the two top teams in the league.

The pre-game concern was for Chase Polacek. He reportedly was ill on Saturday and there seemed a very real possibility that the senior would be a scratch for the first time in his collegiate career. He skated in the pre-game warmup and was deemed ready to go, so he did indeed start on senior night.

Things looked good early on as RPI got a goal from an unlikely source. Just one week removed from his first career goal (into an empty net), Guy Leboeuf beat the goaltender this time just two minutes into the game to put the Engineers up 1-0. Even more impressively, the first assist went to another stay-at-home defenseman, John Kennedy.

RPI led 1-0 after one period, and it was becoming clear looking at games elsewhere that they were in very good position to grab that first round bye, as Princeton and Cornell both were losing in their games. However, the Engineers had a horrible first 10 minutes of the second period, allowing two goals about five minutes apart to go down 2-1. To make matters worse, Leboeuf and Patrick Cullen were both called for cross-checking a mere 45 seconds after giving up the go-ahead goal, meaning RPI had a two-man disadvantage for a full two minutes.

Fortunately, RPI got through unscathed and even tied the game back up two minutes later on Joel Malchuk's sixth goal of the year. Things were looking up for the Engineers again, and all they needed was another goal and they'd be taking the next weekend off.

Unfortunately, that goal never came. The third period was full of opportunities for RPI as they had three distinct power plays in the final 20 minutes, but they simply could not finish. Quinnipiac bottled the puck up in the RPI zone for much of the remainder of the game, including the overtime period, which featured just one shot on goal by either team. The Bobcats were doing what they needed to do, because they came into the game really only needing a tie for home-ice (although they could have reached 7th with a win).

Despite the game being tied, Seth Appert pulled Allen York with about 30 seconds left in the overtime period, but it did not lead to a goal. Everything went right for RPI except for their own game, and they finished in a three-way tie for 4th place with Cornell and Princeton, losing the tiebreaker with the Big Red but winning it with the Tigers to end up as the 5th seed.

Just one more point over 22 games would have seen RPI have this coming weekend off. There are plenty of places that point could have been picked up over the year, and we're not just talking about the two screwjob losses (although those do now seem even more upsetting now). The bottom line is, this team needs to decide whether it wants to be tough or not. We know they can be, the question is whether they still have enough gas in the tank to show it.

Other junk - The one-point home weekend caused another drop in the polls, as RPI is now ranked #16 in the nation, down two from last week. #3 Yale (1 first place vote, no change), #4 Union (1 first place vote, up one), #13 Boston University (up two), #17 Colorado College (up two), and #20 Dartmouth (down two) are also ranked this week. Receiving votes were Princeton (18), RIT (6), and Cornell (3).

Chase Polacek has only one point in the last four games. That point does move him into 20th by himself with 156 points. He needs one point to tie Larry Landon '81 for 19th with 157.

That does still put Polacek and Jeff Foss are still on pace to set the all-time record for games played as an Engineer provided they stay healthy. They will tie Peter Merth's record on Friday and they would break the record in the team's second playoff game.

Final ECAC Standings
1. Union - 17-3-2 (36 pts)
2. Yale - 17-4-1 (35 pts)
3. Dartmouth - 12-8-2 (26 pts)
4. Cornell - 11-9-2 (24 pts)
5. RPI - 11-9-2 (24 pts)
6. Princeton - 11-9-2 (24 pts)
7. Clarkson - 9-12-1 (19 pts)
8. Quinnipiac - 6-9-7 (19 pts)
9. Brown - 8-12-2 (18 pts)
10. Harvard - 7-14-1 (15 pts)
11. St. Lawrence - 6-15-1 (13 pts)
12. Colgate - 4-15-3 (11 pts)

Princeton at #14 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
2/25/11 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Princeton 4, RPI 3

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

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

RECORD: 19-10-4 (11-8-1 ECAC, 23 pts)

Reale Deals
1. F Brock Higgs, 1 G
2. F Tyler Helfrich, 1 A
3. G Allen York, 40 saves

Quinnipiac at #14 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
2/26/11 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 2, Quinnipiac 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

VIDEO
RPI TV (full game)

RECORD: 19-10-5 (11-9-2 ECAC, 24 pts)

Reale Deals
1. D Guy Leboeuf, 1 G
2. F Joel Malchuk, 1 G
3. D John Kennedy, 1 A

Upcoming games
04 Mar - Colgate (ECAC First Round Game 1)
05 Mar - Colgate (ECAC First Round Game 2)
06 Mar - Colgate (ECAC First Round Game 3, if necessary)
11 Mar - at Cornell (ECAC Quarterfinal Game 1, if qualified)
12 Mar - at Cornell (ECAC Quarterfinal Game 2, if qualified)

Men's Hockey - at St. Lawrence and Clarkson (18/19 Feb)

Earning road weekend splits is a good way to position yourself for a first-round bye, as long as you're taking care of business at home as well. RPI finished off their ECAC road schedule with another split, giving them four splits and a 3-point weekend among their five league road weekends. In the North Country, the Engineers had to endure a tough 5-3 loss to a very game St. Lawrence team, but they picked up a convincing 5-1 victory over Clarkson the next night.

St. Lawrence
Lee/Polacek/Helfrich
Cullen/Higgs/Rabbani
Angers-Goulet/O'Grady/Brutlag
Halpern/Malchuk/Smith

Koudys/Foss
Kennedy/Dolan
Leboeuf/Bailen

York

All eyes were on Allen York as he made his return to the RPI lineup after missing three full games and part of a fourth due to a concussion. Meanwhile, hopes that Mike Bergin would return to the lineup were not realized, as he would miss his fifth and sixth consecutive games since picking up a leg injury in the Freakout!.

The game could not have started off much worse for the Engineers. St. Lawrence won the faceoff and immediately started pressuring in the RPI zone, keeping the puck in almost as though they were on the power play until they scored the first goal of the game just 1:24 in to make it 1-0.

The Engineers responded three and a half minutes later on the power play, as Josh Rabbani scored on a rebound a minute into RPI's first man advantage of the night to tie the score. That would not last terrible long, however, as Guy Leboeuf was called for roughing about two minutes later, and St. Lawrence's freshman phenom Greg Carey gave them the lead back on the ensuing faceoff, scoring just 4 seconds into the Leboeuf penalty to put the Saints back on top.

RPI would have plenty of chances to tie things up again during the remainder of the first period, especially when SLU was called for too many men while they were already killing a penalty, giving the Engineers a 5-on-3 for over a minute for the third consecutive game, and like the previous two, they did not convert. They even had third power play opportunity before the end of the period that was also wasted. Despite starting off the night 1-for-1, RPI ultimately went 1-for-4 on the advantage in the first period and finished the night 1-for-6.

Carey scored his second goal of the night with a pinpointed laser of a shot that simply placed the puck in a part of the net where York wasn't to make it 3-1 early in the 2nd period. Later on in the period, as a penalty to Pat Koudys was expiring, the Saints got a fourth goal that was at least inspired by the power play if not technically a power play goal, giving SLU a commanding 4-1 lead that they would hold after two periods.

It wasn't so much that the Engineers were playing poorly per se, although they did have some top players who had rough games, it was more an issue with St. Lawrence playing exceptionally well as a team. That was displayed in lights early in the third period. Just one minute after Jeff Foss scored his third goal of the year of the year off a rip from the point to cut the lead to 4-2 (the much ballyhooed "worst lead in hockey"), the Saints answered right back, scoring on an impossible angle shot that Allen York appeared to either not see, or straight gave up on. At any rate, the fifth goal of the night for St. Lawrence ended York's night, and Bryce Merriam made his fifth consecutive appearance in net for the Engineers.

Merriam stopped all seven shots he saw, but the Engineers could not claw their way back. C.J. Lee did net his fifth goal of the season with four and a half minutes to play and Merriam was pulled for much of the remainder of the game, but it was too little too late for RPI as they fell, 5-3. It was RPI's third consecutive loss, the first time this season they have dropped more than two in a row.

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

Bailen/Foss
Leboeuf/Kennedy
Koudys/Dolan

York

The shakeup to the lineup was immediate and intriguing. Although C.J. Lee appeared to be favoring his shoulder late in the Friday game, he was scratched due to a coach's decision rather than an injury. Brock Higgs, for the first time, was moved off to the left wing, and Tyler Helfrich was placed on the fourth line alongside Matt Tinordi and Johnny Rogic.

For the second night in a row - and the third consecutive game - the Engineers got off to a bad start by giving up the first goal of the night. This one came in similar fashion to one of St. Lawrence's goals as the Golden Knights scored just three seconds into an elbowing penalty against Nick Bailen, giving Clarkson a 1-0 lead only 2:48 into the contest.

The Engineers started off slowly, but gradually began putting pucks on net, ending the first period with the shot totals tied 8-8 despite being down 1-0. The second period was a different story, as RPI outshot Clarkson 4 to 1 during the middle stanza. The persistence paid off midway through the period as RPI finally got on the board with a putback goal from Marty O'Grady, who notched his sixth goal of the year to bring things level.

RPI was the beneficiary of a late penalty to Clarkson in the second period, called at 20:00 to give them fresh legs and a fresh sheet of ice for a full two-minute power play to start the third, but they were unable to take advantage. That didn't matter two minutes later as Johnny Rogic scored on a rebound following a wraparound try by Matt Tinordi, putting the Engineers in front for the first time on the weekend, 2-1.

The Engineers killed a pair of penalties during the period, and Allen York was brilliant in the third, showing that exceptional lateral movement that has served him well all season. He made 20 saves on 21 shots during the course of the game.

Greg Burgdoerfer's third goal of the year midway through the third gave RPI an important two-goal cushion, and Guy Leboeuf sealed it with his first career goal into an empty net with under two minutes remaining, lofting it high in the air from just over the red line in the neutral zone and watching it bounce down and into the net.

That wasn't the end, however, though the final goal was more of a testament to the forechecking, defensive, and penalty killing ability of Alex Angers-Goulet. A slashing call against Joel Malchuk put Clarkson on the power play for the remainder of the game, but in the final seconds, a pokecheck while forechecking from Angers-Goulet resulted in a breakaway in the Clarkson zone, which he put away with 4.2 seconds left in the game, giving RPI a 5-1 victory.

RPI now sits in fifth place, one point behind Cornell and Dartmouth, who are tied for third. Things are very simple for RPI from here - if they win a pair this weekend and see Cornell drop at least one, they won't have to hit the road again until a potential trip down the Garden State Parkway to the Atlantic City Expressway. Sure, it's a bit of a longer drive than the 10-minute trip down I-787 that we never got to take, but it's the new goal.

Other junk - No movement for RPI this week in the USCHO.com poll, as the split weekend kept them ranked #14 in the nation. Ranked past opponents this week are #3 Yale (no change, swept Quinnipiac/Princeton), #5 Union (up two, swept Clarkson/SLU), #15 Boston University (no change), #18 Dartmouth (down two, swept by Colgate/Cornell), and #19 Colorado College (down one). Also receiving votes this week were Princeton (33), Cornell (24), RIT (20), and Northeastern (3).

Congratulations to Tyler Helfrich, who earned his 100th career point on Saturday with an assist on Johnny Rogic's goal. He is the 61st member of the RPI Century Club.

A very rare pointless weekend for Chase Polacek leaves him tied with Barry Martinelli '76, for 20th all time with 155 points. He needs two points to tie Larry Landon '81 for 19th with 157.

I was mistaken about the all-time lead for games played in an RPI uniform - apparently RPI's online records have not been updated to reflect last year, when Peter Merth set the record with 151 games. That does still put Polacek and Jeff Foss on pace to set the all-time record provided they stay healthy and in the lineup - they would break the record in the team's second playoff game.

With Matt Tinordi and Guy Leboeuf breaking onto the scoresheet for the first time in their collegiate careers, Kevin Beauregard, who has appeared in only one game this season, is the only skater who has not registered a point this year.

14 different Engineers have registered at least 3 goals so far this year. That includes every forward that has scored a goal.

ECAC Standings
1. Union - 16-3-1 (33 pts)
2. Yale - 16-4-0 (32 pts)
3. Cornell - 11-7-2 (24 pts)
4. Dartmouth - 11-7-2 (24 pts)
5. RPI - 11-8-1 (23 pts)
6. Princeton - 10-8-2 (22 pts)
7. Clarkson - 8-11-1 (17 pts)
8. Quinnipiac - 6-9-5 (17 pts)
9. Brown - 6-11-2 (14 pts)
10. St. Lawrence - 6-12-1 (13 pts)
11. Colgate - 4-14-2 (10 pts)
12. Harvard - 4-14-1 (9 pts)

#14 RPI at St. Lawrence
ECAC Game - Appleton Arena (Canton, NY)
2/18/11 - 7:00pm

RESULT: St. Lawrence 5, RPI 3

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Watertown Daily Times

RECORD: 18-9-4 (10-8-1 ECAC, 21 pts)

Reale Deals
1. F Josh Rabbani, 1 G
2. D Jeff Foss, 1 G
3. F Joel Malchuk, 1 A, +1

#14 RPI at Clarkson
ECAC Game - Cheel Arena (Potsdam, NY)
2/19/11 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 5, Clarkson 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Watertown Daily Times

RECORD: 19-9-4 (11-8-1 ECAC, 23 pts)

Reale Deals
1. G Allen York, 20 saves
2. F Matt Tinordi, 1 A
3. F Alex Angers-Goulet, 1 G

Upcoming games
25 Feb - Princeton
26 Feb - Quinnipiac (Senior Night)
04 Mar - ECAC First Round Game 1 (if necessary)
05 Mar - ECAC First Round Game 2 (if necessary)
06 Mar - ECAC First Round Game 3 (if necessary)