Men's Hockey - Michigan (24 Oct)

RPI rounded out the first part of its non-conference schedule with a single game against Michigan, the second consecutive Power 5 opponent to grace the Houston Field House ice this season. The first time out, against Boston College, an upset was in the works. This past weekend, the Engineers again managed to play a respectable game against a top opponent, but flat starts to the first and second periods doomed RPI to their third consecutive loss and fourth in five games as they fell 5-2 in a game that was closer than the final scoreline indicated.

Michigan
Liljegren-Bubela-Wood
Ohrvall-Tironese-Bourbonnais
Melanson-Miller-Nanne
Fulton-Schroeder-Gillespie

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Reno
Moore-Hampton

Kasdorf

Mark Miller's return to the lineup led to the reunification of the "M-N-M" line alongside Drew Melanson and Lou Nanne. The trio was one of the Engineers' top combinations last season.

Against Boston College, RPI set the tone early with defense, and they appeared to be focusing on the same to start against Michigan, but the Wolverines came out for the first period with a little more jump in their stride, and as they pushed the pace early they put the Engineers into an early hole. Brendan Warren scored his first collegiate goal through a screen 2:40 into the game to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. That was ultimately the only major occurrence of the first period, as the opening 20 minutes quickly evolved into a relatively sloppy show of hockey.

A quick start bolstered Michigan again in the second period, as Tyler Motte scored a goal that seemed highlight-reel quality but surely was one that RPI netminder Jason Kasdorf would have wanted a second chance with. Motte took a backhanded swing at the puck while sliding on his stomach, and Kasdorf played too close to his left post as the puck squeaked by him to the right, just past an outstretched leg and into the net to give Michigan an improbable 2-0 lead.

But RPI didn't buckle at that point. Zach Schroeder would pick up his first goal of the year just four and a half minutes later, stuffing home a rebound off a shot by Travis Fulton (that itself was a rebound off a shot by Parker Reno) to halve the Michigan lead.

The Engineers arguably dominated the remainder of the second period, especially during a power play opportunity that came down the pike a minute and a half after the Schroeder goal. RPI kept the puck down in the Michigan end for well over the first minute of the man advantage, cycling well and taking a few shots, but an errant pass to the point couldn't be corralled by Meirs Moore, allowing Michigan off the hook.

A bad bounce put RPI back in the hole with about five minutes remaining in the period. Against the flow of play, Michigan pounced on an unexpectedly loose puck as both teams transitioned out of the RPI end. It was picked up by Joseph Cecconi, who moved it to Tony Calderone alone in the slot, and Calderone picked his spot perfectly to put it past Kasdorf and lift Michigan to a 3-1 lead. Despite RPI's dominance of the middle frame, they were now down a pair heading into the third.

Penalties early in the third period had doomed RPI both nights in Alaska the previous weekend, but the Engineers buttoned up well at home, keeping themselves in the game until a power play opportunity with about nine minutes left to play provided an opening to draw closer. While working the puck in the corner to the left of Michigan's Zach Nagelvoort, Jake Wood was able to take advantage of a stumble by Michigan defenseman Nolan de Jong. As de Jong fell to the ice, Wood saw his opening and cut straight to the net, poking it in to make the score 3-2.

From there, with about 7:30 or so to try and tie the score, RPI pushed for that third goal hard, but lax play eventually set in and helped Michigan secure the victory. After a faceoff win in the RPI zone, the Wolverines managed to hold the zone with relative ease as the Engineers seemed unwilling to challenge the puck while Michigan played a little keep-away to kill the clock. Eventually, Warren took an opportunistic shot from the point that got through everyone and dented the twine to give Michigan their third two-goal lead of the night, essentially ending hope with about three minutes left in the game.

Kasdorf was pulled from the net moments later, but a minute of extra attacker time couldn't pull the Engineers any closer. Motte scored his second of the night with the empty net to provide the final 5-2 scoreline - a score which a casual observer might look at and see an obviously rough loss for RPI, but a close scrutiny of the box score would indicate a relatively close contest. Kasdorf made 23 saves and Nagelvoort 19, and it was a one-goal contest up to the 17:00 mark of the third period.

Regardless of how the game played out, RPI now has its preparation for the beginning of the ECAC season complete, and must next rush headlong into the Union weekend whether they're ready for it or not. 

#11 Michigan at RPI
Non-conference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
10/24/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Michigan 5, RPI 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
Michigan Daily

VIDEO
Full game
Appert post-game

RECORD: 1-4-0

Upcoming games
30 Oct - at Union
31 Oct - Union (Black Saturday)
06 Nov - at #19 Clarkson
07 Nov - at #16 St. Lawrence
13 Nov - #13 Yale

Michigan Plays Here Tonight

Check this out - before this weekend, Michigan hadn't played in an ECAC building in almost 30 years. That's a long time. So while we can partially thank Col. Knowlton's move to make road wins more important in the PairWise Rankings, we also have to give kudos to Seth Appert, whose deal with Red Berenson brought the Wolverines out to take on both of the Capital District teams this weekend in exchange for four home games for Michigan - the two against RPI last year, and two against Union next year.

It was a barn burner in an actual barn last night as Michigan and Union skated to a 5-5 draw in Schenectady, a game in which the Dutchmen blew a two-goal lead in the third period (sound familiar?). The Engineers cannot afford to get themselves into a track meet like that if they have a hope of even matching Union's draw against the Wolverines - the offense just isn't in a position to go blow for blow just yet.

The name of the game is defense. And if the defense that beat Boston College shows up tonight, or any night, anything can happen for this team. Anything at all - much of it great.

It's just one night this week. Tonight.

Know Your Enemy: Michigan

Michigan returns RPI's favor this year (and begins one for Union) by swinging through the Capital District for the first time since 1984-85, when they dropped a pair to the Engineers in Red Berenson's first year as head coach. That was a pretty good season for RPI. Riding right along with the mythical 31-year gap between national championships for the Engineers is the fact that they beat the Wolverines in both seasons where they won it all. They'll have the opportunity to try and repeat both of those "trends" this season.

Michigan
Nickname: Wolverines
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Founded: 1817
Conference: Big Ten
National Championships: 9 (1948, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1964, 1996, 1998)
Last NCAA Appearance: 2012
Last Frozen Four: 2011
Coach: Red Berenson (32nd season)
2014-15 Record: 22-15-0 (12-8-0-0 Big Ten, 3rd place)
Series: RPI leads, 7-5-1
First Game: March 12, 1954 (Colorado Springs, CO)
Last RPI win: December 29, 2009 (Detroit, MI)
Last Michigan win: November 29, 2014 (Ann Arbor, MI)

2015-16 game: October 24, 2015 (Troy, NY)

Key players: F Cristoval Nieves, sr.; F Justin Selman, sr.; F J.T. Compher, jr.; D Nolan De Jong, jr.; D Michael Downing, jr.; F Alex Kile, jr.; F Tyler Motte, jr.; G Zach Nagelvoort, jr.; D Zach Werenski, so.; D Nick Boka, fr.; D Joe Cecconi, fr.; F Kyle Connor, fr.; F Brendan Warren, fr.

Previous KYE installments:

• 2014-15

The Wolverines made the all-time series against the Engineers look a bit more respectable by sweeping last year's home series. Game 1 was actually a pretty good showing for RPI, but the visitors blew the game with some mental mistakes across a very short span in the third period and Michigan, as good teams will do (especially at home), jumped on those mistakes. In Game 2, the Wolverines put on a clinic, dissecting the Engineer defense for three goals in the first period en route to a 6-0 victory. Jason Kasdorf, fighting a mid-season injury, was not on the trip.

Considering that Michigan made a record 22 consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament from 1991 to 2012, the fact that the tournament has been missing the Wolverines the last three years in a row is more than just a little bizarre. But this is a team that is definitely moving back in that general direction. Last season, they got back on the 20-win bandwagon (they'd managed that milestone 25 years in a row prior to 2013) and were more or less on the bubble for a tournament appearance.

Werenski and Connor are both fairly likely to go in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft this month - Werenski is a virtual lock to be a top 15 pick, while Connor could be a mid-to-late 1st round selection. Boka, Cecconi, and Warren are all highly likely to come to campus as NHL draft selections as well. All told, if there are no additional defections to the pro ranks (just two, senior-to-be Andrew Copp and sophomore-to-be Dylan Larkin, have left thus far), Michigan could be looking at as many as 11 NHL draftees on their roster.

The Wolverines boasted the nation's top offense and 3rd best power play last year, and many of the important drivers of those honors - Nieves, Kile, Compher, and Selman especially - are back in the Maize and Blue again this season. Copp, Larkin, and the leading scorer from last year, Zach Hyman, are gone, but there's plenty of talent there, and the addition of Connor to the attack should help the offense continue to hit without too terribly much of a hitch.

The defensive side of the puck was where Michigan was somewhat vulnerable, but even there they were doing an acceptable job. With the exception of one senior blueliner, all of the Wolverines' regulars on defense, including goaltender Nagelvoort, were either freshmen or sophomores. That fact tends to make Michigan's team GAA of 2.89 look a lot better. This year, there are no seniors at all among the UM defense, but expect this team to keep the puck out of the net better than they did last year as the core gets more experienced.

Honestly, there's never a time when Michigan wouldn't represent a good test for RPI - even in the 2009 GLI, the last win that the Engineers claimed over the Wolverines thanks to some shoddy goaltending by the ersatz home team. That's going to be true this year as well. If there are any areas in which RPI looks favored, it's going to be playing on home ice and arguably being the "fresher" of the two teams, as Michigan is the only game of that weekend for RPI while the Wolverines have to tangle with Union the previous night in Schenectady. That's not terribly likely to even up the score to any great degree and turn the home team into the favorites, but it should help make an exciting matchup for the home crowd that bit more interesting. What areas there are to be exploited in the defense need to be hit early, because Michigan will be a difficult team to come back on, even at home.

Men's Hockey - at New Hampshire & Michigan (25 Nov and 28/29 Nov)

Now deep into the second chunk of non-conference games, the Engineers played three road games in five nights with mixed results against traditional college hockey powers. They managed to put forward a dominating performance at New Hampshire on Tuesday night last week, but only managed a 2-1 victory when all was said and done. They were the better of the two teams on Friday night in the Great Lakes State, but had to eat a 3-2 loss after spot mistakes late in the third period. Running out of juice by Saturday, RPI came out strong in the first 10 minutes but unraveled after that to finish the week with a 6-0 rout as Michigan completed a weekend sweep.

New Hampshire
Liljegren-Bubela-McGowan
Melanson-Neal-Bourbonnais
Laliberte-Miller-Wood
Curadi-DeVito-Fulton

Leonard-Prapavessis
Bradley-Hampton
Wilson-Reno

Kasdorf

With players returning to the RPI lineup - especially Luke Curadi and Chris Bradley - the lines began to solidify a bit on Tuesday. Lou Nanne and Zach Schroeder, who had missed the UConn game, would ultimately be out for the entire slate of games for the week, but still project to hopefully be back for the ECAC contests against Yale and Brown.

Meanwhile, an eyebrow raiser in the lineup saw Curadi being slotted as a left-winger on the fourth line, something Seth Appert would later say was something he's been looking to try for some time, and felt confident enough to go forward with it in light of the injuries up front and the team's depth on the blue line.

The Engineers' worst period on Tuesday may have been the first period, but it was the one in which all of the game's goals were scored. UNH struck first on the power play 8:09 in on Warren Foegele's first collegiate goal to put the home team up 1-0. RPI picked up their first goal about six and a half minutes later, basically also on the power play. With the Wildcats killing off their penalty just a few seconds earlier, Curtis Leonard scored with a laser pinpointed blast from the blue line to knot the score, with assists to Matt Neal and Drew Melanson.

Just under two minutes later, RPI struck again to take a lead they would not relinquish. With Travis Fulton jamming the net, Parker Reno came up from the blue line to poke home a rebound to make the score 2-1. It was Reno's second collegiate goal, and first of the season.

Near the end of the period, Michael Prapavessis very nearly made it 3-1 in favor of the Engineers, but he hit a post for the second time in three games.

Jason Kasdorf came out of the game at the start of the second period for what would later be determined to be a precautionary measure as he suffered an undisclosed lower body injury in the first period. It was his replacement, Scott Diebold, who would be the story of the remainder of the game, as he stopped 11 shots in each of the next two periods to preserve the RPI victory.

Diebold's dominance in net was only part of the overall RPI success in the final two periods. The Engineers began controlling the puck well and playing good defense throughout the game. The penalty kill was especially effective, killing off the last six opportunities that the Wildcats got, including a very late penalty to Milos Bubela that effectively gave UNH the final 1:50 with a 6-on-4 situation. Diebold himself lived up to the old adage that your best penalty killer has to be your goaltender, as he made some huge saves in the final moments to deprive the home team of another goal.

Michigan (Friday)
Liljegren-Bubela-McGowan
Melanson-Neal-Bourbonnais
Laliberte-Miller-Wood
Curadi-DeVito-Fulton

Leonard-Prapavessis
Bradley-Hampton
Wilson-Reno

Diebold

After the team stopped in Buffalo the following night to take in the Sabres-Jets game, they ultimately dressed just about the same lineup as Tuesday with one major exception. The injury to Kasdorf from the New Hampshire game was deemed enough to rule him out for the Michigan series. Appert remarked that Kasdorf likely would have played if it were a league weekend in February or March, or a playoff series, but that the team wanted him back to 100% before he saw action again in the first half of the season.

RPI, as has been the case in nearly every game this season (save three), were behind after the game's first goal, which Michigan notched late in the first period to go up 1-0. The opening 20 minutes were otherwise pretty even, both teams putting up nine shots on goal and the game establishing some early back and forth flow.

The Engineers took advantage of their opportunities in the second period to tie the score. Although Michigan began putting together something of a more solid lead in shots, RPI converted on what would ultimately be their only power play opportunity of the night as Milos Bubela scored his second of the year from Jacob Laliberte and Riley Bourbonnais to tie the score at one 8:45 into the second period.

RPI played their most convincing hockey in the third period, taking the lead with 13 minutes left on a Bourbonnais redirection of a shot by Drew Melanson to put RPI up 2-1. The goal was Bourbonnais' fourth of the season, his first since his hat-trick against Union.

From there, RPI looked strong. As the minutes ticked by, they looked primed to at the very least defend their lead, if not score an insurance marker, but a pair of mistakes with about three minutes left in the game put them behind. A soft goal by Tyler Motte with 3:02 remaining in the period tied things up at two, and then just 29 seconds later, Diebold got a piece of a shot by Zach Hyman, but couldn't keep it from the back of the net. In the blink of an eye, RPI was the team that was down a goal. In both circumstances, defensive let-downs created scoring opportunities that the Wolverines simply converted.

Michigan (Saturday)
Liljegren-Bubela-McGowan
Melanson-Neal-Bourbonnais
Laliberte-Miller-Wood
Curadi-DeVito-Fulton

Leonard-Prapavessis
Bradley-Hampton
Bell-Reno

Diebold

The only change to the RPI lineup from Friday was the insertion of Bradley Bell in place of Jared Wilson, a move that was intended to get the freshman some playing time against a top-level team.

Early play between RPI and Michigan on Saturday actually resembled the early parts of the third period from Friday more than anything else - some good back and forth play that RPI had their chances with. Unfortunately, that proved to be one of the few bright spots for the Engineers on the evening.

Michigan opened the scoring 7:53 in on a put-back goal by Kevin Lohan. A power play goal just seconds into the Wolverines' first opportunity of the game about seven minutes later made it 2-0, and a solid individual effort by Syracuse native Boo Nieves three minutes after that put the Engineers down 3-0.

Nieves made it 4-0 in the second period with another strong individual effort, practically going coast-to-coast while on the power play. It was a rough night in net for Diebold, who stopped just 19 of 23 shots after 40 minutes, but he gutted out the remainder of the game with Jason Kasdorf unavailable.

Michigan notched another pair of goals in the third period for the final score of 6-0. The Engineers managed a respectable 26 shots on net, including two against Michigan's practice goaltender, but rarely looked ready to crack the scoreboard following the first 10 minutes of the game. The game was equal parts rough play by RPI and outstanding work by a Michigan team full of talent and starting to put the pieces together.

RPI returns to ECAC play this coming weekend with the Yale/Brown road trip, then faces a harrowing schedule afterwards, mostly of non-conference games. #3 Boston University is the team's last home game of the year the following weekend, then after Christmas they do battle with #9 Harvard, probably the best team in the ECAC, and coming home after New Year's for a pair of games with #4 Miami. One thing this team will certainly be by the time the core of the league schedule begins in January is battle-tested.

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

RPI at New Hampshire
Non-Conference Game - Whittemore Center (Durham, NH)
11/25/14 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 2, New Hampshire 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Concord Monitor

RECORD: 6-7-1 (4-2-0, 8pts)

RPI at Michigan
Non-Conference Game - Yost Ice Arena (Ann Arbor, MI)
11/28/14 - 7:30pm

RESULT: Michigan 3, RPI 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI

RECORD: 6-8-1 (4-2-0, 8pts)

RPI at Michigan
Non-Conference Game - Yost Ice Arena (Ann Arbor, MI)
11/29/14 - 7:30pm

RESULT: Michigan 6, RPI 0

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

RECORD: 6-9-1 (4-2-0, 8pts)

Upcoming games
05 Dec - at Yale
06 Dec - at Brown
13 Dec - #3 Boston University
30 Dec - at #9 Harvard
02 Jan - #4 Miami

Bring the Funk

It's back to hockey after the post-Thanksgiving food coma.

At home in Troy, the women take on RIT, the reigning CHA champions. This season for the Tigers... a lot of ups, a lot of downs, a lot of what-have-yous. Cross your fingers here that the Engineers are finally getting over the injury bug.

That's something the men have been doing over the last couple of weeks, and they've persevered pretty well. We're just waiting to see when Lou Nanne and Zach Schroeder get back into the lineup. If it's not this weekend against Michigan, hopefully, it's at least next week against Yale and Brown, games which arguably will go a lot farther in helping RPI succeed this season.

The Engineers have historically held some kind of mystical advantage over the Wolverines. From that epic and immortal takedown in the 1954 national tournament to the win in the 2009 GLI, RPI has an unexpected 7-3-1 all-time record against Michigan. That's pretty nifty. Let's extend it, eh?

It's been a while. Let's go retro this weekend, just for fun (as always, if you have any killer pumpup ideas, feel free to tweet at us). Ann Arbor's likely to be fixated on its hatred of Ohio State this weekend, so let's slip on into Funkytown and slip out with a couple of good results.

Know Your Enemy: Michigan

This week's Know Your Enemy features a program that has been one of the monsters of college hockey pretty much since the beginning of college hockey. One of the more polarizing teams in the western reaches of the sport due in part to their "big school" status, Michigan has traditionally been one of the strongest teams in the nation regardless of how often they've won it all - which, to be honest, hasn't been a whole lot recently compared to some other top programs. While they've claimed more national championships than any other school, many of them are from an era when they were by far the biggest fish in a rather small pond. But make no mistake about it: the Wolverines are still college hockey royalty.

Michigan
Nickname: Wolverines
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Founded: 1817
Conference: Big Ten
National Championships: 9 (1948, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1964, 1996, 1998)
Last NCAA Appearance: 2012
Last Frozen Four: 2011
Coach: Red Berenson (31st season)
2013-14 Record: 18-13-4 (10-8-2-1 Big Ten, 3rd place)
Series: RPI leads, 7-3-1
First Game: March 12, 1954 (Colorado Springs, CO)
Last RPI win: December 29, 2009 (Detroit, MI)
Last Michigan win: January 18, 1986 (Ann Arbor, MI)

2014-15 games: November 28-29, 2014 (Ann Arbor, MI)

Key players: F Zach Hyman, sr.; D Brennan Serville, sr.; F Andrew Copp, jr.; F Cristoval Nieves, jr.; F J.T. Compher, so.; D Nolan De Jong, so.; D Michael Downing, so.; F Alex Kile, so.; F Tyler Motte, so.; G Zach Nagelvoort, so.; F Tony Calderone, fr.; F Dylan Larkin, fr.; D Sam Piazza, fr.; D Zach Werenski, fr.

This season marks the first of a three-year deal for games between Michigan and the teams from the Capital District. RPI makes its first visit to one of the hallowed halls of college hockey, Yost Ice Arena, since the 1985-86 season. That series was a wild affair, which was split while the teams managed to combine for a mind-blowing 34 goals in two games (defense, anyone?). The Engineers earned a 7-6 victory on the first night, followed by an 11-10 overtime win for the Wolverines the next night - the only time in school history (probably in most schools' histories) that RPI scored double digits in goals and lost.

RPI and Michigan don't dance too frequently, but the Engineers seem to have had the Wolverines' number when they do - RPI joins only Cornell, Denver, Minnesota, Penn State, and UMass-Lowell as current teams with a winning all-time record against Michigan. In fact, the first time RPI and Michigan met, it was in a game that would alter the course of college hockey history.

The University of Michigan has had a hockey program continuously since 1923, when they played their first four games in a home-and-home Friday-Saturday set against familiar rivals Wisconsin, winning first three of those four games. Unlike many schools, which saw hockey fall to the wayside during the Great Depression and World War II, Michigan kept its program active during the 1930s and 1940s. In fact, it was during the 1930s that the Wolverines first developed their reputation as a strong hockey program, producing nine winning seasons during the decade while regularly playing games against Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The team's fortunes dipped in the early part of the 1940s during World War II, but this was more a function of who was playing and who they were playing against. Most able bodied men of college age were off fighting the war, and those that weren't had few schools still playing the sport to compete against. Therefore, the Wolverines played most of its games against Army teams and sides put together by local factories, most of which had older and bigger men than the varsity squad could manage.

In 1945, as the war reached its conclusion, Michigan and NHL alum Vic Heyliger became the squad's third head coach, replacing the man who had helmed the program since 1928, Ed Lowrey. Heyliger was in the right place at the right time with the war ending, and his hockey acumen combined with an influx of returning veterans that burgeoned schools around the country to create the first powerhouse of the NCAA era.

Heyliger began matching his team up with junior teams from Canada in December of 1945, and his Wolverine teams immediately began finding great success not only against those squads but against American colleges as well. Following the conclusion of the war, Heyliger's teams never finished a season with a winning percentage below .600, a stretch of 12 consecutive years. In fact, once the NCAA championship was established in 1948, Michigan went five straight campaigns without a winning percentage below .800.

During the years that the NCAA Tournament was held exclusively in Colorado Springs, there was one other constant: Michigan. From 1948 through 1957, the four-team tournament stayed in one place, and the Wolverines were there every single season. Back then, there was a certain hierarchy in college hockey. Western teams, it was thought, were generally better than eastern teams, and among western teams, few could approach the strength and power of Michigan. They won the very first NCAA championship in 1948 with an 8-4 win over Dartmouth. They were kept from the national title game the next year by the Big Green, but eventually won their second, third, and fourth titles in 1951 (over Brown), 1952 (over Colorado College) and 1953 (over Minnesota), giving Michgan four championships in the first six years of the tournament.

1954 was supposed to be more of the same. After a season which rarely saw Michigan even challenged by the best American teams in the west, the Wolverines headed to Colorado Springs to do battle with an upstart little engineering school from the weaker east, ready to roll into an expected showdown with their rivals from Minnesota in what would have been the first ever NCAA championship rematch game. Things didn't go to script that year, as the unknown RPI Engineers produced one of the biggest upsets in college hockey history to that time by dethroning the three-time champions, 6-4. Michigan would come back the next night to pound Boston College 7-2, but their reign was over.

The loss to RPI kept the Michigan dynasty from establishing a reign that would have been practically unbreakable by today's standards. Though their stretch of three straight crowns from 1951 to 1953 has never been duplicated, the Wolverines ended up tacking on two more in 1955 and 1956, making for five titles in six years and six in the first nine.

Heyliger retired from Michigan in 1957 after the Wolverines fell to Colorado College in the national championship game, failing to repeat the three-peat. Taking his place was a man who had previously played for the Wolverines under Heyliger - his brother-in-law, Al Renfrew. While Renfrew wasn't able to duplicate Heyliger's massive success due in part to growth in college hockey providing more competition, Michigan was hardly a slouch during his 16 years in the driver's seat in Ann Arbor. While the first few seasons under Renfrew were Michigan's first losing years in the NCAA era, the school would quickly be back in the Frozen Four by 1962, and throughout the 1960s, Renfrew was producing top-level performances, winning a national championship in 1964 with a 24-win season, then the most in school history.

Michigan was one of the top teams in the newly-formed WCHA throughout the 1960s, but a rough stretch of three losing seasons to start the 1970s marred Renfrew's final years behind the bench. He retired in 1973 to take over the school's ticket office, just ahead of the opening of Yost Ice Arena. Dan Farrell, a Michigan Tech grad, would lead the Wolverines for the remainder of the decade, leading the team to four 20-win seasons in seven years, as well as the 1977 national championship game, where they fell to Wisconsin.

If ever there could be said to have been seriously difficult times in Michigan's post-World War II history, the early 1980s might qualify. After departing the WCHA for the less well-established CCHA in 1981, the Wolverines suffered the first of five straight 20-loss seasons in 1983, continually finishing near the bottom of the conference. It was during this stretch, however, that the third coach that could legitimately earn the title of "legendary" at Michigan took the reins. Like Heyliger and Renfrew before him, he was a former captain of the Wolverines as a player, and like Heyliger, he had enjoyed a career in the NHL: Gordon "Red" Berenson.

Berenson's first three seasons as head coach in Ann Arbor were the last three of the 20-loss season stretch from 1985 to 1987, but once it ended, the Wolverines embarked upon a streak of dominance rivaled only by its early NCAA dynasty years, topping it in length but falling short of its benchmark for top honors. The 1987-88 season was Michigan's first winning year in the last six, and it started a remarkable streak: it was the first of 25 straight seasons in which the Wolverines won at least 20 games.

The 1990s especially evoked memories of the late 40s and 50s by the numbers. Eight straight 30-win seasons, a practically untouchable streak, were rattled off from 1991 to 1998, a stretch that included four CCHA regular season titles, three CCHA championships, and six Frozen Four appearances, including national championships in 1996 and 1998. Again, the three-peat was interrupted by an upset in the Frozen Four in 1997, this time by Boston University, ending Michigan's title hopes despite a final record of 35-4-4. Brendan Morrison, who a year earlier had scored the overtime goal to deliver Michigan's first national championship in 32 years, earned Michigan's first Hobey Baker Award that season.

1999 brought an end to the 30-win streak, but the success rolled on in Ann Arbor. Six more CCHA crowns, six more CCHA regular season titles, and five more Frozen Four appearances were in the offing over the next 14 seasons. In every year from 1991 to 2012, the Michigan Wolverines were in the NCAA tournament, a record streak broken only in the team's final season in the CCHA - a streak that nearly continued as a struggling Michigan team in 2013 very nearly completed an odd Cinderella run through the CCHA tournament, falling to Notre Dame for the final CCHA championship. The loss to Notre Dame sealed Michigan into its first losing season since 1987 - at 18-19-3.

So, now, perhaps more than at any time in the recent past, Michigan is a team in a bit of flux. Red Berenson's incomparable streaks of success snapped, the Wolverines again missed out on the NCAA tournament last season in the first year of the Big Ten. They got back to the usual ways of a winning season, but missed 20 wins for the second straight time, in part due to the overall strength of their new conference (struggling against the clear minnows of the Big Ten, Penn State, didn't help).

Part of Michigan's uncharacteristically mediocre season last year can be chalked up to the youth of last year's squad as well as the strength of the Big Ten. Compher last year became the first freshman in recent memory to lead Michigan in scoring, and Nagelvoort, despite some pretty solid numbers in net for the Wolverines, was also in just his first collegiate season.

Nieves, after a sparkling freshman campaign, endured a sophomore slump, but Michigan still got 22 points out of him. They return three of seven 20-point scorers from last season, including two of five who notched at least 10 goals and 10 assists with Compher and Copp. It could have been more, as two of Michigan's top scorers left with eligibility remaining. Larkin, coming in off the US Under-18 team and a possible first round selection in the upcoming NHL Draft, is a solid bet to be an important contributor as well.

A number of sources describe Michigan's blue line last year as "a mess" and "disastrous," and they have graduated the best of the bunch, leading to a troubling situation in the back. But there's some serious help on the way in the person of a very young but very talented addition in Werenski. Only making his commitment to the Wolverines this month, Werenski doesn't turn 17 until mid-July, but he accelerated his high school courses and graduated this year, making him eligible for college. He projects to be a first-round selection in the 2015 draft, but chances are good he'll have his freshman year done by then, and despite his youth he should add some stability to a rough defensive situation.

Regardless of the state of the blue line, RPI can expect to be in for a pair of difficult games despite the history of success the Engineers have had against Michigan. Even in a tough year as the Wolverines had last season, they had an overall record of 10-3-3 at Yost, a place that just doesn't see visiting teams finding a great deal of success in practically any year. If you've never been, you owe it to yourself to try and get out to the Great Lake State for this series, as Yost is certainly a bucket list destination for a fan of college hockey. To be successful, RPI will need to take advantage of any defensive disarray and the offense simply has to follow through on opportunities, because in a place like Ann Arbor, you aren't going to win unless you can pounce on windows of opportunity.

Running For the Border

Lost in all of the discussion of the shell game going on amongst Division I conferences this offseason is the continuing war between the CHL and the NCAA over talent - and there is new evidence that the NCAA is losing the battle.

The 2011 NHL Entry Draft was somewhat noted for its lack of collegiate talent in the early rounds. The first selection linked to a college team was defenseman Jamie Oleksiak, who just finished his freshman year at Northeastern, selected 14th overall by Dallas. That followed on with North Dakota recruit J.T. Miller, taken next at 15th by the Rangers, and a pair of Miami recruits, Connor Murphy and Tyler Biggs, by Phoenix and Toronto respectively, at 20th and 22nd. That was it for first round picks - four.

Now, it looks even worse. It's actually down to one. Miller and Murphy have decided to reneg on their commitments and will instead play major junior in the Ontario Hockey League, Oleksiak has left Northeastern and will also play in the OHL, and throw in early second round choice John Gibson (Anaheim), a Michigan commit, who is also bound for the O. Of the top eight draftees who had college hockey connections a little over a month ago at the draft - either as commits or current players - fully half have now defected north of the border.

RPI was indirectly hit by this last season, with recruit Nick Quinn eventually choosing the OHL over college shortly after decommitting, though his choice not to come to RPI may have been affected by other elements, not the least of which was his unexpected cut from Dubuque by Jim Montgomery due to a misinterpretation of USHL rules. There's also Jerry D'Amigo, who ended up finishing his season last year in major junior with Kitchener after he struggled in the AHL, but again, that wasn't a direct correlation - he signed a pro contract, which is why he left RPI, and was probably a little disappointed to have ended up in the OHL.

The Engineers have won some battles, too. D'Amigo and Brandon Pirri were both highly coveted by their OHL teams, both ultimately chose RPI during the summer of 2009. Incoming freshman Jacob Laliberté had also apparently been pursued by Gatineau of the QMJHL that same summer.

Make no mistake - the "war" we talked about last summer has largely come about because some very talented players who in years past probably would have been pushed 100% to the CHL are now considering and in many cases playing NCAA hockey in the United States, both Americans and Canadians. This speaks to the still-growing value of college hockey as a route to the professional ranks. Though this year's draft wasn't the best in that respect, recent drafts have had college and college-linked players performing extremely well (along with American players in general).

The CHL, however, isn't ready to admit that the NCAA can be a fertile ground for talent to grow, not while they're losing good players. They're also willing to take advantage of NCAA rules which force a player who chooses major junior to stay on that route, since the NCAA considers the CHL to be a professional league since many of its players are paid. Once they reel a player in, there's no going back, though NCAA players always have the option to change direction - like Oleksiak did.

College commitments are almost always adhered to within the college community - after all, no coach wants his own commits poached, so he's not likely to go after another's. The CHL certainly doesn't respect those decisions and in many cases will relentlessly pursue top college-bound players up until the point where it becomes obvious that they will not change their minds. It does speak a bit to the character of some (not all) of these players that their commitment - their word - doesn't mean much.

Don't forget, though, that the NHL plays a role here. Some teams out there have proven themselves to be friendly to college hockey - especially teams like Toronto (Brian Burke), New Jersey (Lou Lamoriello), and Washington (George McPhee) who have administrators with links to college. But there are a number of teams out there that clearly accept the CHL's line - Montreal, Anaheim, and Dallas among them. Atlanta was long known to be fairly hostile to college hockey, we'll have to see whether a wholesale management change during their move to Winnipeg will change that for the Jets, who have Jason Kasdorf's draft rights.

For the time being, however, the role of college hockey's PR arm, College Hockey Inc., continues to be important. Paul Kelly has the arduous task of winning hearts and minds for the NCAA experience, and while there's still a long way to go, the effort is being made, and the die has been cast. The CHL may emerge victorious this summer, but the battle continues.

Low-Seeded and Rusty

So, the Engineers are a #4 seed. They also didn't play last week (or the week before that, but that's beside the point). Some would say... well, they're going to be rusty and they're a low seed, so they're going to get bounced with no problem. And maybe they're right.

But... maybe neither of those are particularly relevant, either.

How have #4 seeds and teams that have had extra rest fared in the tournament lately? Well... pretty good actually. #4 seeds are in bold, teams playing with extra rest are in italics.

2006
Bemidji State - Lost to Wisconsin
Colorado College - Lost to Cornell
Holy Cross - Defeated Minnesota, lost to North Dakota
Nebraska-Omaha - Lost to Boston University
New Hampshire - Lost to Michigan

2007
Air Force - Lost to Minnesota
Alabama-Huntsville - Lost to Notre Dame (2 OT)
Maine - Defeated St. Cloud State, defeated UMass, lost to Michigan State
Miami - Defeated New Hampshire, lost to Boston College
UMass - Defeated Clarkson, lost to Maine

2008
Air Force - Lost to Miami
Clarkson - Defeated St. Cloud State, lost to Michigan
Michigan State - Defeated Colorado College, lost to Notre Dame
Niagara - Lost to Michigan
Notre Dame - Defeated New Hampshire, defeated Michigan State, defeated Michigan, lost to Boston College
Princeton - Lost to North Dakota
Wisconsin - Defeated Denver, lost to North Dakota

2009
Air Force - Defeated Michigan, lost to Vermont
Bemidji State - Defeated Notre Dame, defeated Cornell, lost to Miami
Miami - Defeated Denver, defeated Minnesota-Duluth, defeated Bemidji State, lost to Boston University
New Hampshire - Defeated North Dakota, lost to Boston University
Ohio State - Lost to Boston University
Vermont - Defeated Yale, defeated Air Force, lost to Boston University

2010
Alabama-Huntsville - Lost to Miami
Alaska - Lost to Boston College
Bemidji State - Lost to Michigan
New Hampshire - Defeated Cornell, lost to RIT
RIT - Defeated Denver, defeated New Hampshire, lost to Wisconsin
Yale - Defeated North Dakota, lost to Boston College
Vermont - Lost to Wisconsin

2011
Air Force
Colorado College
Nebraska-Omaha
New Hampshire
RPI
Union

#4 seeds are 8-12 in the first round since 2006, while teams that were off the previous week are 10-9 in the same stretch. Meanwhile, at least one #4 seed has won in the opening round in every tournament since 2006, and at least two supposedly "rusty" teams have won in the opening round against a team fresh from the fight in each of the last four years - not to mention that North Dakota has suffered losses to such teams in each of the last two tournaments (though neither were as a #1 seed).

Oh, and we've had at least one team in the Frozen Four for the last four years running that were either a #4 seed or were rested heading into the tournament (or both).

Hockey isn't basketball - a low seed isn't necessarily a killer. We'll see what happens tomorrow, we're just over 24 hours to go until we tangle with the Sioux.

-----

Today, games get underway in the East and West regionals in Bridgeport and St. Louis. There's the potential for an all-ECAC final in Bridgeport if Yale and Union, the higher seeds, win their games. Yale and Air Force have met once before this season, and it ended in Yale's first loss out in Colorado in a game they were winning 3-0 with 15 minutes left to play. Now in their backyard, I don't see this ending the same way. Meanwhile, Union and Minnesota-Duluth provides one of the truest toss-up games of the first round, as 8/9 matchups frequently do. This one's probably anyone's game, the Dutchmen have the stronger team while Duluth has the stronger individual players.

Out in St. Louis, it's Boston College and Colorado College in an interesting high/low matchup. The Eagles are certainly favored, but the Tigers seem like they could at least provide an interesting game if nothing more. Finally, there's Michigan and Nebraska-Omaha. Michigan shows up every year, but they rarely have been bringing home the national championship, with their only two championships during their long stretch of NCAA tournament appearances coming in 1996 and 1998. Omaha, meanwhile, had a pretty decent season overall but simply could not beat Bemidji State to save their lives this year (fully 1/3 of their losses this year are to the Beavers, including two in the WCHA playoffs). Dean Blais vs. Red Berenson has all the makings of a barnburner in this matchup between teams that were CCHA rivals just last year.

It All Comes Down to This

We've been saying it since the beginning. We need Cornell to lose.

Guess what? It's true to the very end.

If Yale beats Cornell to win the ECAC championship for the second time in three years, nothing, and I mean nothing else will matter. The Engineers will be playing in the NCAA tournament.

RPI presently has an 83.0507% chance of making the tournament according to Reilly Hamilton's numbers, but that number plummets significantly if Cornell beats Yale - to 22.0463% before any other game is considered, and by that time the other games we will have wanted to go our way will already be over, so we will know if we're in or out - or if we even require a Yale win.

Let's look at the PairWise before we get into the goods.

1. Yale*
2. North Dakota*
3. Boston College*
4. Miami*
5. Merrimack
6. Denver
7. Michigan
8. Union
9. Minnesota-Duluth
10. Notre Dame
11. Western Michigan
12. New Hampshire
13. Nebraska-Omaha
14. Colorado College
15. Rensselaer
22. Cornell
24. RIT*
29. Air Force

Where's the rest of the PairWise, you ask? Truncated to the teams who are still alive for the tournament. Be mindful that Dartmouth and Maine are there, and TUCs, but neither will make the tournament. They're simply making life difficult for the Engineers right now.

The Maine comparison is lost due to Colorado College's loss to North Dakota on Friday. That leaves only two comparisons left to worry about that can be flipped: Notre Dame and Dartmouth.

First off, let's look at upsets. There is only one remaining potential "upset" champion - that is, the teams competing for the WCHA, CCHA, Hockey East, and ECAC championships will all be playing next weekend regardless of what happens with only one exception: Cornell. The Big Red must win in order to play next weekend. Therefore, the 12, 13, and 14 PWR teams at the end of Saturday WILL be in the tournament.

As of right now, the top 12 teams in the PWR are all guaranteed positions in the tournament. If Yale defeats Cornell, it will guarantee a spot for CC, UNO, and RPI, the only bubble teams left.

RIT or Air Force will be the #16 seed, depending on who wins the Atlantic Hockey championship. Cornell will be the #15 seed if they defeat Yale, bouncing one of CC, UNO, or RPI, most likely RPI unless the ECAC and CCHA consolation games go their way.

The Engineers can still finish as high as 12th in the PairWise, and it wouldn't take much to accomplish it. Here's what we need.

Engineer Cheering Section
Colgate over Dartmouth
Michigan over Notre Dame (a tie is acceptable, in some rare cases preferable)
Yale over Cornell
Western Michigan over Miami
Denver over North Dakota
Merrimack over Boston College
RIT over Air Force

The highlighted games are the most important. The first two are the ECAC and CCHA consolations, and will be the first games of the day.

At this point, I don't really understand why WMU beating Miami is important for RPI's chances at a #3 seed, but that's what the PairWise predictor says, so let's roll with it. It's not highlighted because the goal is simply making the tournament. The first three games are of the utmost importance - especially the ECAC championship if we don't get good results from the ECAC and CCHA consolations.

Notre Dame: The Engineers are now winning this comparison, but if Notre Dame defeats Michigan it will flip back due to TUC. A Michigan win or tie means Rensselaer wins this one.

Dartmouth: The Big Green lose to Colgate, and this one flips back to the Engineers on RPI/H2H. A tie does not get the job done.

If Cornell defeats Yale for the ECAC title, the Engineers almost certainly must win both of these comparisons to reach the NCAA tournament. No other comparison that the Engineers have, whether winning or losing, can be flipped. There is no more TUC cliff - what you see is what you get.

There is one scenario where the Engineers get in despite a Yale win even if Dartmouth wins or ties the consolation. It requires a tie in the CCHA consolation game and a Western Michigan victory over Miami. That flips one of UNO's comparisons and pushes them down into 15th. So we might more accurately be rooting for a tie in the CCHA consolation, but if there's a winner, we certainly want it to be Michigan. There's no scenario where Cornell and Notre Dame winning ends well.

The Hockey East, Atlantic Hockey, and WCHA title games don't really appear to mean much to us, if anything.

With all of that said, this is what the tournament currently looks like.

Bridgeport
1. Yale
2. Union
3. Notre Dame
4. RIT

St. Louis
1. North Dakota
2. Michigan
3. Minnesota-Duluth
4. Rensselaer

Manchester
1. Boston College
2. Denver
3. New Hampshire
4. Colorado College

Green Bay
1. Miami
2. Merrimack
3. Western Michigan
4. Nebraska-Omaha

Yale will be the #1 overall seed and as hosts, will be placed in Bridgeport. Union is not likely to move much from where they are now, so they are likely to go to Bridgeport too. This means that there is no chance for RPI to end up in Connecticut as a tournament team if they do not reach #12 in the PairWise. They're still exceptionally unlikely to end up in Bridgeport anyway due to Union and bracket integrity. Go ahead and cross Connecticut off your list.

Boston College and North Dakota will be the 2/3 overall seeds in either order. Functionally, this means that Boston College will be in Manchester as the #1 seed there (unless New Hampshire falls to a #4, which is likely if the Engineers get to #12 PWR), and that North Dakota will be the #1 seed in St. Louis if what I have been led to believe is correct. If the Engineers stay where they are at #15 PWR and still make the tournament, they would play in either Manchester or St. Louis (with a possibility of Green Bay if the Sioux end up there instead).

#4 PWR, the final top seed, will be one of Miami, Merrimack, Denver, or Michigan. They will be the top seed in whichever western regional the Sioux are not sent to (unless New Hampshire becomes a 4 seed, in which case they will be the top seed in Manchester - then unless it's Merrimack, and then North Dakota has no choice but to go to Manchester, making Boston College and Merrimack the top seeds in the western regionals).

As long as my understanding about North Dakota going to St. Louis is accurate, the Gateway city is my best guess at RPI's most likely potential destination if they make the tournament. Manchester is next most likely, Green Bay after that, and Bridgeport is extremely unlikely, if not completely impossible.

Bottom line - Yale wins, we're in. Cornell wins, we need some help but can still make it in as long as things went our way earlier in the day.

If we're out... there is no scenario out there where we won't at least have the slight consolation of being the "first team out." The Engineers will finish no worse than where they are now.

Let's go Eli! Let's go Raiders! Go Blue!

Men's Hockey - Great Lakes Invitational (29 and 30 Dec)

Holiday tournaments are sometimes difficult to gauge ahead of time due to different teams treating them differently, not to mention that for practically every team it means a return from a long layoff. RPI and the GLI were no exceptions. Overall, the hope was that the layoff allowed broken bodies to get good and rested. That did happen for the Engineers.

Despite playing a couple of clunker games, RPI still managed to take second place overall in the Great Lakes Invitational, shocking a partisan Michigan crowd on Tuesday to beat the Wolverines 4-3 before falling to a Michigan State team that was hitting on all cylinders, 6-1.

Michigan
Lee/Polacek/Halpern
Angers-Goulet/Pirri/O'Grady
Cullen/Kerins/Halpern
Vassel/Malchuk/Watts

Kennedy/Merth
Brutlag/Burgdoerfer
Bergin/Foss

York

The big news before puck drop was quite simple - every single Engineer who was rumored or confirmed to have injury problems earlier in December (Mike Bergin, C.J. Lee, Allen York, and Jordan Watts) was in the lineup, the big news being the long-awaited returns of Bergin and Lee, who looked to be back to 100% given what they displayed on the ice.

The GLI is like the western version of the Beanpot, except that there's one team that's always different. For Michigan Tech, and especially for Michigan and Michigan State, this is the most important in-season tournament of the year, and regardless of the Wolverines' struggles, Detroit was still their home turf and it was still GLI - they were heavy favorites.

The first period displayed exactly why Michigan were favored - they outshot the Engineers 14-3 in a display that would continue throughout the game. But RPI, despite being completely outplayed, took the challenge head on and smacked the Wolverines directly in the snout. An early penalty to David Wohlberg (one of two Michigan players cut from Team USA, making this the first time in 12 years that the US WJC team had no Michigan players) put RPI on the power play, and with the very first shot of the period, Chase Polacek beat Michigan goalie Bryan Hogan to give the Engineers an early 1-0 lead just 2 minutes into the game.

From there the game got dicey for RPI as the Michigan barrage went into full force, but Allen York was repeatedly there to make the stop. In the final minute of the period, the Engineers got their third man advantage, and once again it was Chase Polacek coming up big less than 20 seconds later, scoring with 6 seconds left in the 1st to put RPI up 2-0 after one period. Hogan's save percentage for the first 20 minutes was 33% - 1 for 3.

The second period was more of the same - the RPI defense was better overall, but the shot margin was still fairly wide, 11-6 in favor of Michigan. The 2-0 lead held up for the first half of the 2nd, but eventually Wohlberg would be the first Wolverine to solve York, scoring to halve the Engineer lead and given the continuing domination from Michigan, it looked like the RPI lead was in danger of disappearing completely.

Then, almost as quickly, the lead was back on what can only be called a fluke goal, but they all count, don't they? About three and a half minutes later, Paul Kerins came into the Michigan zone and took an opportunistic shot from near the boards that Hogan tried to glove down, but instead the puck bounced off Hogan's glove and into the back of the net, putting RPI up 3-1 with about 3 minutes left in the 2nd period. Legendary Michigan coach Red Berenson had seen enough, Hogan did not come out for the 3rd. In his place was Shawn Hunwick, the backup, who plays about as much as Joe Harkenrider (that is to say, he doesn't). Hogan gave up 3 goals on a total of 9 shots.

Early in the 3rd a disastrous pair of penalties were called on RPI simultaneously - a head-scratching kneeing minor (which I didn't think existed) on Kerins and a boarding call on Scott Halpern gave Michigan a 5-on-3, and if there's one constant with the RPI penalty kill this year it's that being down two men is practically always going to result in giving up a goal. The fact that it was for a full two minutes only made it even more inevitable, and 49 seconds later Michigan's Carl Hagelin scored to make it 3-2 RPI.

The Engineers clung to the one-goal lead for much of the period, even killing an additional penalty to bring the penalty kill to an impressive 1-for-6 for the night midway through the period, but eventually the heavy pressure that Michigan exerted all game paid off with the game tying goal with 8 minutes left in regulation. Seth Appert immediately called timeout to calm his charges down, later saying that he'd told them that if before the game they'd been offered the chance to be tied with Michigan with 8 minutes to play they'd have taken it in a heartbeat.

The timeout undoubtedly worked. Just 46 seconds after the Wolverines tied the score, Marty O'Grady scored one of the most unlikely goals of the season, threading the needle to slip the puck somehow between Hunwick and the near post, roofing his shot to flip the water bottle and put RPI back up, 4-3.

From there, it was a matter of hanging in there until the end. Michigan refused to quit, but Allen York was up to the task, stopping 19 shots in the final stanza, far more shots than the Engineers had throughout the entire game. The Wolverines appeared to be enjoying some home-cooked calls as well, as they were the beneficiaries of a pair of late penalties which were questionable at best. Still, the penalty kill held up, finishing the night 7 for 8, with the only damage coming on a 5-on-3. Hunwick was pulled early, giving Michigan a 6-on-4 advantage during the late penalty, but the Engineers withstood the barrage, even surviving one of the worst blueline calls in recent memory in the waning seconds to earn the 4-3 victory, earning a trip to the GLI title game.

At this point, it was obvious the Engineers were playing with house money. They'd just won a game in which they'd been thoroughly outplayed in many facets of the game, partially being bailed out by Michigan's goaltending woes, and they would be facing nationally ranked Michigan State. The Spartans had gone hog wild on GLI hosts Michigan Tech, absolutely punking out the Huskies in the early game, 10-1.

Michigan State
Angers-Goulet/Pirri/O'Grady
Cullen/Polacek/Lee
Halpern/Kerins/Rabbani
Watts/Malchuk/Helfrich

Kennedy/Merth
Brutlag/Burgdoerfer
Bergin/Foss

Merriam

This marked the third consecutive game with AAG/Pirri/O'Grady as a scoring line, which leads me to wonder if we might see them again this upcoming weekend - the only other constant, of course, being that Jerry D'Amigo was also out for the last three games, which leads me to believe that we might see the People's Line reunited. Either way, it's not a bad place to be.

Additionally, the hero of the first round, Allen York, was on the bench. My guess is that the move had three approaches. First, York made 43 saves in the Michigan game and was probably a bit tired after that performance. Second, the Spartans had been able to sit back and watch the RPI/Michigan game and possibly had gotten a bead on York. Third, it was a good spot to get some big game experience for the freshman Merriam.

Whatever the ultimate reasons, the move backfired early. Merriam looked noticeably shaky in the warmups, which doesn't always mean a bad performance ahead, but it may have in this instance. He also displayed a lot of nervous energy immediately before the game started. It didn't take Michigan State long to pick up where they'd left off the previous night.

Early, it looked like a repeat of the Michigan game - lots of possession for the Spartans, not so much for the Engineers. Merriam made a few saves but it didn't seem to do much for his state of mind. Nine minutes into the game, a retaliation trip by Tyler Helfrich was the one caught by the referee, and MSU capitalized, scoring on their very first power play opportunity just one second before Helfrich was due to come out of the box. About three and a half minutes later, a soft shot evaded Merriam and made it 2-0 Spartans, and that was it for Merriam. He'd made seven uncomfortable saves and given up two softies. York came back in and made 3 more stops to keep it at 2-0 during the second intermission.

It didn't let up in the 2nd period, however, as MSU scored again 3 minutes in to make it 3-0 and it looked like the chances of the Engineers being able to hang a red banner in the Joe Louis Arena rafters was pretty much gone. Then, midway through the period after a successful penalty kill, the Engineers roared to life to play probably their best 10 minutes of the tournament. It was kickstarted by Patrick Cullen, who took a great pass from Helfrich in the slot and put it into the net to put RPI on the board. From there, it seemed like the ice was starting to tilt in the Engineers' favor for the first time - opportunities were being created, passes were crisper, and shots were being taken. Minutes later, RPI came oh so close to closing within one as Brandon Pirri beat MSU netminder Drew Palmisano only to ring it off the post.

Then, in the last minute of the 2nd, a bad mistake slammed the door shut again. A bad pass out of the defensive zone by Pirri was intercepted by Corey Tropp, who passed to Jeff Petry on a 2-on-1 opportunity that neither Pirri nor York had any prayer of stopping. The Spartans knew they were going to score as soon as they received the puck. That's the hallmark of a good team. Instead of being down 3-1 with momentum going into the 2nd intermission, they were down 4-1 with a dagger in the heart.

To their credit, the Engineers never gave up, giving the MSU defense all it could muster, but it wasn't more than the Spartans could handle. Michigan State would add a pair of goals in the second half of the 3rd period to take the GLI championship, 6-1, a 5-goal win which mirrored the 8-3 victory the Spartans earned over the Engineers to take the 1986 GLI title.

Chase Polacek was named to the All-Tournament Team for his 2-goal effort in the Michigan game. He was the token Engineer, there was a token Wolverine (they beat MTU for 3rd place), and the rest of the team was all Michigan State. Allen York pretty obviously should have been the goaltender on the All-Tournament Team (he had 43 saves to pretty much singlehandedly lead RPI into the title game, 61 for the whole weekend, and kept RPI in the game long enough to challenge in the 2nd period against Michigan State), but Palmisano was named to the team despite his team scoring 16 goals in two games and barely having more saves in the tournament than York had in the Michigan game. I'm not bitter though, no.

Ed Weaver would describe the loss as "easily the worst of the year" for RPI, but I'd say that's only really true on the scoreboard. They didn't put forward their best effort in either game, but they did enough to earn respect from a nationally ranked team which may just be the best team the Engineers have played all season. They put together a respectable showing at a prominent tournament despite being without one of their premier scoring threats, Jerry D'Amigo. That's something to be proud of. The team may still be at the .500 mark, but there's nothing more going forward than ECAC league games, and this team showed early in the ECAC schedule that when they're healthy (especially on the blueline), they're hard to beat. And they're healthy. And Jerry will be back.

A big weekend looms for RPI. First place Quinnipiac is on the ledger on Friday, but the Bobcats are really in first place on paper only as they have come crashing down from the lofty heights which they were at just a month ago. Since beating UMass on November 28 to go to a jaw-dropping 12-1-0, the Bobcats have limped to a 1-4-1 record, including 4 straight ECAC losses to Yale, Brown, Harvard, and Princeton. The last three in particular are troublesome - those are some weak teams (although Princeton has shown a touch more life lately, beating Cornell and running with Maine, their defense is still atrocious). It looks like the Engineers might be getting Quinnipiac at the right time, and were lucky to avoid them earlier in the season. Still, it's a road game, and the Q can certainly still score. They'll need to be more solid on Friday than they were in Detroit to be able to do what they want.

Then, on Sunday, it's the aforementioned Princeton Tigers in a game that will be shown live on national TV on ESPNU. Princeton has had a rough season so far but the talent is there for a potential turnaround, so they could well be dangerous. The key to beating Princeton will be to exploit their defense, an aspect of their game that was thought to be their biggest strength this season has instead become one of their greatest liabilities. Overall, the key to this weekend will be offense for RPI. In this case, the best defense might be a good offense, and scoring goals early and often will be crucial. There's no reason this team, healthy, can't go into these road games and score themselves four points. If they can do that, it'll be time to fire up the bandwagon again - the season will be back in business.

Other junk - No points for the Engineers again this week despite the big win over Michigan. Then again, the Wolverines are down to only 4 votes - a shocking turn of events given that they hadn't been out of the actual rankings in years before this season. Ranked teams in the ECAC this week are #6 Yale (up 3 after beating #11 Ferris State and tying #7 Wisconsin), #8 Cornell (down four after losing to #3 Colorado College and Princeton before beating UNH), #12 Quinnipiac (down four after losing to Harvard), and #17 Union (up one after losing to #15 UMass and clowning UConn). St. Lawrence, who upset Boston College in the Denver Cup, received 5 votes, the only other ECAC school with votes. RPI non-conference opponents from this year include #9 Michigan State, #16 UMass, and #20 Alaska, with New Hampshire and Michigan also receiving votes.

Chase Polacek's point-scoring streak ended at 14 after registering 2 goals in the game against Michigan but failing to reach the scoring sheet against Michigan State. He remains in 5th place nationally with 28 points (14 goals and 14 assists), behind UMass junior James Marcou who has 32 points. His 14 goals are also 5th nationally, and his 8 power play goals trail only Wisconsin's Blake Geoffrion and UMD's Justin Fontaine, who each have 9.

Meanwhile, Brandon Pirri's 22 points has him tied for first among freshman along with Merrimack's Stephane Da Costa and Alaska's Andy Taranto. He's alone in first among first year players with 15 assists. We learned this week from TSN analyst Bob McKenzie that Pirri was very closely considered for an invitation to Team Canada's World Junior Championship camp. While he would have been a longshot to have made the team this year even if he'd been invited, it bodes well for next year's tournament, where he'll still be eligible. For an NCAA player to be invited to camp for the Canadian WJC is a tremendous honor, and an even bigger honor to actually make the team. That's usually reserved for over-the-top talent, like former UND standout and current Chicago Blackhawks star Jonathan Toews.

Tyler Helfrich was injured in the Michigan game after taking a shot off his ankle, but he came back to play in the Michigan State game. It was a game-time decision; Justin Smith also dressed and skated in the warm-up, but it was decided that Helfrich was good to go. He should be OK going forward.

Two words: Jerry. D'Amigo. He's so awesome, he gets his own update, so standby for that.

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

By Winning Pct. (points/possible)
1. Union .786 (11/14)
2. Cornell .722 (13/18)
3. Yale .714 (10/14)
4. Quinnipiac .636 (14/22)
5. Colgate .611 (11/18)
6. St. Lawrence .562 (9/16)
7. Brown .438 (7/16)
8. RPI .429 (6/14)
9. Princeton .350 (7/20)
10. Harvard .333 (6/18)
11. Clarkson .250 (4/16)
12. Dartmouth .143 (2/14)

RPI vs. Michigan
Great Lakes Invitational - Joe Louis Arena (Detroit, MI)
12/29/09 - 7:30 pm
RESULT: RPI 4, Michigan 3

BOX SCORES

• College Hockey Stats
• USCHO

RECAPS

• RPI
• USCHO
• Troy Record
• Albany Times-Union
• Detroit Free Press
• The Detroit News
• Associated Press (Chicago Tribune)
• AnnArbor.com
• Michigan Daily

PHOTOS

• MGoBlue
• Detroit Free Press

RECORD: 10-9-1 (3-4-0 ECAC, 6 pts)

Reale Deals
1. G Allen York, 43 saves
2. F Chase Polacek, 2 G
3. F Marty O'Grady, GWG

RPI vs. #13 Michigan State
Great Lakes Invitational Championship - Joe Louis Arena (Detroit, MI)
12/30/09 - 7:30 pm
RESULT: Michigan State 6, RPI 1

BOX SCORES

• College Hockey Stats
• USCHO

RECAPS

• RPI
• USCHO
• Troy Record
• Albany Times-Union
• Lansing State Journal
• Detroit Free Press
• The Detroit News

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

Reale Deals
1. F Patrick Cullen, 1 G, 4 shots
2. D John Kennedy, even
3. F Tyler Helfrich, 1 A, 2 shots, +1


Upcoming Games
08 Jan - at #12 Quinnipiac
10 Jan - at Princeton
16 Jan - at #17 Union
22 Jan - Dartmouth
23 Jan - Harvard

--
MEN’S HOCKEY

Rensselaer went 1-1-0 last week, finishing second on the 45th-Annual Great Lakes Invitational in Detroit, Mich. The Engineers beat Michigan (4-3), before dropping the championship game to 13th-ranked Michigan State (6-1). Junior Chase Polacek (Edina, MN) recorded a pair of power-play goals in the victory over the Wolverines. RPI (10-10-1; 3-4-0 ECAC Hockey) returns to ECAC Hockey play this weekend, when it visits eighth-ranked Quinnipiac on Friday (7pm) and Princeton on Sunday (3pm).

Live stats and video for Friday’s contest will be available at http://www.quinnipiacbobcats.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17500&KEY=&SPID=10456&SPSID=87919 and Sunday at http://www.goprincetontigers.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPID=4264&SPSID=46868&DB_OEM_ID=10600. In addition, Sunday’s game against the Tigers will be televised nationally on ESPNU. Both games will be broadcast courtesy of WRPI radio on 91.5 FM or log on to www.wrpi.org and click on sports.

Marty O'Grady Won A Car

But... I'm sure he'll probably throw it back. I think it's a General Motors product.


RPI faces Michigan State for the Great Lakes Invitational title tomorrow night in Detroit. It'll be live on FSN Detroit at 7:30, don't miss it.

A Confluence of RPI Hockey History

RPI defeated Michigan 6-4 on March 12, 1954 in Colorado Springs, CO in the 1954 Frozen Four. It was their first meeting, and the Engineers would go on to win their first national championship.

The Engineers won their 2nd national championship at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on March 30, 1985.

You've gotta lose your mind in Detroit Rock City.



PS: Check out my holiday tournament previews at College Hockey News - Part I, Part II. I did take Michigan in tomorrow's game... the Engineers can win this game. If they do, I won't be as surprised as a lot of people will be.