Men's Hockey - Icebreaker Tournament (10-12 Oct)

The Engineers got their season out of the gates with a difficult assignment - the annual Icebreaker tournament, which always features some of the top teams in the nation. The way it played out was probably one of the toughest paths possible, featuring a game against the homestanding Notre Dame Fighting Irish followed by the consensus favorites for the national championship, the Minnesota Golden Gophers. RPI picked up an upset victory in the first round by knocking off the Irish, 3-2, but learned they have a long way to go to challenge the very best in the nation, playing well but falling 3-0 to Minnesota.

Notre Dame
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Nanne-Miller-DeVito

Leonard-Bokenfohr
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Kasdorf

Lines and pairings for the Engineers against Notre Dame were similar to the ones put forward for the exhibition matchup the previous weekend. Milos Bubela was reinserted into the lineup on the second line, moving Lou Nanne to the fourth line.

After a back-and-forth, fast-paced 10 minutes to start the game as both teams got their competitive legs underneath them, a penalty to Jared Wilson was the first item of note on the box score, producing a penalty kill that RPI got behind them with little fuss. Notre Dame would, however, score the game's first goal shortly after killing a penalty of their own with very little problem, getting a tally from Mario Lucia to take a 1-0 lead with just under three minutes left in the game.

RPI wasted very little game time getting the goal back. After a cross-checking call against the Irish with 11 seconds left in the first period, freshman Viktor Liljegren scored the Engineers' first goal of the season, and the first of his career, on the power play just 42 seconds into the second period to knot the game up at one.

Five minutes later, it was Jacob Laliberte scoring his first of the year on a redirection of a shot by Matt Neal to put RPI ahead for the first time. After that, it was the Engineers' penalty kill that saved the day, scotching power play opportunities for Notre Dame off penalties to Drew Melanson and Jake Wood.

Another penalty by Wood in the early third period looked to give the Irish their fifth power-play chance of the game, but a penalty to Lucia six seconds later ended it before it even began. Notre Dame did end up making the most of the ensuing 4-on-4, tying the game at two with a goal by Jordan Gross. But as the 4-on-4 continued, and with Wood about to exit the penalty box, RPI earned what would eventually be the game winning goal from junior Mark Miller, who put back a shot by Zach Schroeder to put the Engineers ahead for good.

Jason Kasdorf, in his first official game for RPI in almost a full calendar year, stopped 14 of 15 Notre Dame shots in the third period to seal the victory, as the Irish spent much of the last 10 minutes of the game with the puck down in the Engineers zone. He made 31 saves on 33 shots overall.

The victory set up an early Sunday championship game against #1 Minnesota, who had been 4-3 winners over Minnesota-Duluth earlier on Friday. There were no games played on Saturday due to the Notre Dame football game taking place on campus that day, which would have completely dominated the tournament's conclusion otherwise.

Minnesota
Neal-Laliberte-Bourbonnais
McGowan-Miller-Schroeder
Wood-Liljegren-Melanson
Nanne, DeVito

Leonard-Bokenfohr
Curadi-Prapavessis
Wilson-Bradley

Bell

Kasdorf

Bubela, who didn't see an awful lot of ice time on Friday, was pulled out of the RPI lineup against the Golden Gophers. The Engineers dressed just 11 forwards, two of which (Nanne and Schroeder) are from families with Minnesota hockey alums in their ranks. In Bubela's place, Bradley Bell suited up for his first official action as an RPI Engineer, skating as a seventh defenseman.

From the very outset of the game, it was apparent that Minnesota was the dominant team. The Golden Gophers controlled basically every aspect of the game from start to finish, and it was a testament to how well RPI played in response that the final score was not worse than it ended up becoming. Some observers said the Engineers looked like they were a step behind the #1 ranked team in the country, it was probably more accurate to say that Minnesota was a step ahead.

The Gophers collected just one goal in each of the three periods, getting points from Seth Ambroz in the first, tournament MVP Hudson Fasching in the second, and Connor Reilly in the third. The first two goals were on redirects in front that were primarily a function of Minnesota's superior puck control, the third was a power play goal immediately after the first faceoff of the man advantage, a booming shot from the point that Kasdorf probably would have preferred a second chance at, quite possibly the only goal of the weekend that he gave up that he could have done better with.

The Engineers took their chances throughout the game and put a respectable 22 shots on Minnesota goaltender Adam Wilcox, but many of their opportunities were not high-percentage chances, and Wilcox gave up few rebounds. Despite Wilcox's shutout, it was Kasdorf who was named the game's third star after a second consecutive 31-save effort, this time making 31 saves on 34 shots, including a couple of breakaway saves against some of the best shooters in the country.

For the next three weekends, the Engineers will have only a single opponent in a weekend series. It starts with another long road trip, this one to the NCHC's Denver, and follows with the home openers against Bentley and the annual home-and-home against Union.

RPI at #12 Notre Dame
Icebreaker Game - Compton Family Ice Arena (South Bend, IN)
10/10/14 - 7:30pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Notre Dame 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
USCHO
Troy Record

RECORD: 1-0-0

RPI vs. #1 Minnesota
Icebreaker Game - Compton Family Ice Arena (South Bend, IN)
10/12/14 - 12:00pm

RESULT: Minnesota 3, RPI 0

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
USCHO
Troy Record
Minneapolis Star-Tribune

RECORD: 1-1-0

Upcoming games
17 Oct - at #16 Denver
18 Oct - at #16 Denver
24 Oct - Bentley
25 Oct - Bentley
31 Oct - #2 Union

The Boys are Back

It's on.

The men's grueling start to the season begins tonight, as they take on #12 Notre Dame in the annual Icebreaker Tournament, straight outta Compton Family Ice Arena in South Bend. On Sunday, they get either Minnesota-Duluth, a team that was just barely outside of the first USCHO poll (by a single vote) or the #1 team in all the land and the pretty clear favorites for the national championship, Minnesota.

The women get their first home game on Saturday when they take on Vermont, and then they turn around and head up to Burlington on Sunday for the back-end of a home-and-home series. That makes for an even more rare men/women doubleheader on a Sunday.

Hockey is fully back, and it's time to get flying.

Know Your Enemy: Minnesota

Our second entry for this year's Know Your Enemy is a team that RPI got the opportunity to face-off against last season in a game they weren't guaranteed in the Mariucci Classic. After losing to Ferris State, it looked like a matchup with the Gophers was likely gone, but Minnesota's shootout loss to Colgate produced an unexpected RPI-Minnesota matchup in the consolation game of the tournament that featured exceptional finishing by the Gophers in a 6-2 loss. This year, Minnesota looms once more as a potential second-day opponent in an in-season tournament.

Minnesota

Nickname: Golden Gophers
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Founded: 1851
Conference: Big Ten
National Championships: 5 (1974, 1976, 1979, 2002, 2003)
Last NCAA Appearance: 2014
Last Frozen Four: 2014
Coach: Don Lucia (16th season)
2013-14 Record: 28-7-6 (14-4-3-0 Big Ten, 1st place)
Series: Minnesota leads, 10-2-0
First Game: March 12, 1953 (Colorado Springs, CO)
Last RPI win: December 10, 1988 (Minneapolis, MN)
Last Minnesota win: January 4, 2014 (Minneapolis, MN)

2014-15 game: October 12, 2014 (South Bend, IN - possible)

Key players: F Seth Ambroz, sr.; F Travis Boyd, sr.; F Christian Isackson, sr.; D Ben Marshall, sr.; F Kyle Rau, sr.; F Sam Warning, sr.; D Mike Reilly, jr.; D Brady Skjei, jr.; G Adam Wilcox, jr.; D Jake Bischoff, so.; F Taylor Cammarata, so.; F Justin Kloos, so.; F Hudson Fasching, so.; D Ryan Collins, fr.; D Jack Glover, fr.

Previous KYE installment:

• 2013-14

If there's one team that almost ritually gets slammed with early departures, it's the University of Minnesota. Regularly attracting some of the top talent in the west (and recently, beyond), the Gophers churn out NHLers like it's going out of style - and that frequently means losing top players before their college eligibility is exhausted. It's not uncommon to see Minnesota drop its four or five top scorers from the previous season regardless of their class year.

This season? Well, so far, the Gophers haven't lost a single underclassman, and their top seven scorers from last season (Rau, Warning, Reilly, Kloos, Boyd, Fasching, and Cammarata) are all set to return next year. For a program that is used to requiring significant contributions from freshmen - and three of those players were freshmen last season - they're going to have a wealth of college experience leading the way in the coming season off a year in which Minnesota very nearly captured their sixth national championship.

Yes, Minnesota has completed the Capital Region double in having now lost to both RPI and Union in the national championship game (albeit 60 years apart), but they essentially bring back everything that got them there this season. Goaltender Wilcox put up a GAA under 2.00 for the season, which made him one of the best netminders in the nation. Adding to the seven players mentioned above, Ambroz notched 14 goals as the team's ninth highest scorer. Ponder that for a second.

The Gophers captured the very first Big Ten regular season title in 2014, but were upset by Ohio State in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament despite playing in front of what was essentially a home crowd at the Xcel Energy Center. They clobbered Robert Morris and St. Cloud State in the West Regional in the same building, then beat their arch-rivals North Dakota with a (literally) last-second shorthanded goal before simply being unable to match Union blow for blow in the title game.

Put very simply, this is a team that is stacked and ready to win now. Considering what they accomplished last year and what they bring back, we'll be hard pressed to find a team that'll be more likely to be favored for the national championship than the Gophers. They should be very solid favorites in the first round of the Icebreaker against Minnesota-Duluth, which means that if the Engineers are playing Minnesota, it's highly likely something has already cut their way against Notre Dame. That is fairly good news, but the Gophers would present an even bigger challenge. We saw last year the discipline that Minnesota displayed against RPI and the resilience that led them to answer quickly each challenge that the Engineers put forward. With a team that will essentially just be another year older, it'll be a tough hill to climb for RPI if they see the "U" across the ice in South Bend on the Sunday of the Icebreaker.

Men's Hockey - Mariucci Classic (3/4 Jan)

It doesn't get much harder than facing the top two teams in the country on back to back nights on the same weekend, over a thousand miles from home, and taking on the #1 team on its own (larger) ice surface in front of 9,600 fans, but playing poorly for stretches of those games doesn't exactly make things easier. The Engineers didn't exactly look ready for prime time in a tough battle against Ferris State and Minnesota, showing flashes of brilliance but enduring rough stretches, especially in the 2nd period, that doomed them to a pair of 6-2 losses in the Mariucci Classic.

Ferris State
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Bradley-Dolan
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Diebold

The break certainly helped get the Engineers relatively healthy. Jacob Laliberte and Matt Neal, both injured during RPI's last game weekend against Denver and the U-18 team, were back in the lineup.

Early on against the Bulldogs, RPI actually looked pretty decent. They were getting shots on goal, they were taking offensive opportunities as they came, and they were generally controlling play. Then a bad bounce - from the RPI perspective, anyway - combined with spot errors to put the Engineers behind the eight-ball. Ferris State scored the game's first goal on a bounce which put the puck right on a forward's stick in front of the net, and Scott Diebold could do little to get to it. The Bulldogs had a 1-0 lead after just over seven minutes.

From there, unforced errors helped build the Ferris lead. A cross-checking call against Mike Zalewski made it 2-0 at 13:45, marking the first time all season that the Engineers, who have dominated the opening 20 minutes in most of their games, gave up two goals in the first period.

RPI would get one back with about 2:30 left in the period as Milos Bubela finally broke off his long goal scoring drought, netting his second of the year on the power play shortly after a 5-on-3 ended to make the score 2-1 heading into the second period. The Engineers came out of the first with momentum and an 11-9 shot edge, but that was not to carry over into the second period.

One of the keys to Ferris State's success throughout the game was in blocking shots. The Engineers, as strong as they had been offensively in the first half, needed to put more pucks on net, and while they took more shots against the Bulldogs, many of them were not getting through thanks to a concerted shot-blocking effort by the designated home team.

A holding call on the power play against Bo Dolan can probably go down as the full turning-point in the game. After several golden opportunities for the Engineers were met with iron or a big save, Dolan turned the puck over and picked up the penalty while tracking down the short-handed counter. Ferris State scored with the subsequent 4-on-4 on the larger ice surface, then netted one on the power play that followed to make it 4-1, putting the Engineers in a serious hole.

The Engineers put 11 pucks on net in the final period of the game to officially outshoot Ferris State 34-30, but an early Ferris goal in the period had already made it 5-1. Mike Zalewski picked up a short-handed goal midway through the period to bring RPI back within three, but that was as close as they would get. The Bulldogs gained an empty net tally with three minutes left on the clock to cinch things up and advance to the championship game.

Minnesota
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Leboeuf-Leonard

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Diebold

Colgate's shootout victory over Minnesota ensured that the Engineers' challenge would be the #1 team in the nation the next evening, a team that was getting its head coach and two top young players back on the bench following Team USA's unsuccessful conclusion to the World Junior Championship. The trio, unavailable for the first night due to their trip back from Sweden, were ready to go against the unlucky Engineers for the consolation game, which followed a much-maligned showing against the Raiders.

For the Engineers, Jake Wood returned from his knee injury, replacing Mark Miller in the lineup.

RPI had to weather the early storm from the Golden Gophers, a reversal of the usual script of the Engineers being the early aggressors, and for the most part things were looking good. Scott Diebold bounced back from a tough outing against Ferris State and picked up 14 saves in the first period alone against the high flying Gophers. The home team looked a bit frustrated in the early going.

Things looked bright indeed when Zach Schroeder and Brock Higgs linked up for the team's second shorthanded goal in as many nights with just over four minutes left in the first period, giving RPI a 1-0 lead against the general flow of play. After killing the penalty off, it even looked like the Engineers had the potential to take that lead into the locker room, but a shot from the blue line was redirected past Diebold in the final minute of the period, making it 1-1 after one.

The biggest knock on RPI all season long has revolved around poor play in the second period, and that poor play reared its ugly head again against the Gophers. The top team in the nation won't frequently fail to take advantage of a situation like that. Three goals in the first seven minutes of the second period made the score 4-1 for the second consecutive evening. All told, Minnesota scored four times in just under eight minutes of game time to seize control of the game. The RPI attack picked up slightly late in the second period, but the damage was done.

Unlike Friday's game, however, it was RPI who would score the first goal of the third period as Matt Neal put one away to make it 4-2 and bring the game within reach once more. However, another turning point was coming four minutes later.

Just as Ryan Haggerty appeared to have scored top-shelf off the faceoff to make the score 4-3, the Engineers were whistled instead for interference. The call was originally on Haggerty, who was at the point for the shot, then it was changed to Jimmy DeVito, who wasn't even on the ice. Regardless of the phantom call, RPI went from feeling back in the contest to having to kill a penalty, and only 28 seconds after they'd thought it was 4-3, the real score was 5-2 as the Gophers quickly converted. Another empty-netter given up by the Engineers made it back to back 6-2 losses, with neither score really doing justice to the work RPI put in, but both losses certainly deserved.

Other junk - Losing games, even against the best, doesn't do much for a team outside of the rankings. The Engineers fell further in the vote tally, accruing only three this week. #4 Union (idle, up one), #7 Quinnipiac (beat Sacred Heart and Maine, up one), #10 Yale (tied Vermont, no change), #11 Clarkson (tied and lost to UMass-Lowell, no change), and #12 Cornell (idle, up three) were the ranked ECAC teams this week. Colgate (13) also received votes. Other ranked teams on RPI's schedule include #1 Minnesota (no change with 42 first-place votes), #3 Ferris State (down one), #5 Boston College (up one), #17 Denver (down one), and #20 New Hampshire (previously unranked). No other opponents received votes.

RPI is 1-6-3 against currently ranked teams. There it is. Not something that's going to be a bright spot on the NCAA resume, even if they can turn things around in ECAC play.

Despite his four-game goal drought, Ryan Haggerty continues to lead the nation in goals with 18. As of the Minnesota game, he has fallen under 1 goal per game. BC's Johnny Gaudreau is right on his heels now with 17. Brock Higgs is tied for 5th in the nation with 13 goals.

Haggerty's 1.37 points per game has him tied for 9th nationally. Higgs, Matt Neal, and Jacob Laliberte are all among the top 100 in the nation in points per game. Haggerty's 8 power play goals is now tied for first in the nation with Minnesota State's Jean-Paul Lafontaine.

Guy Leboeuf and Brock Higgs each have two short-handed goals this season. That's the first time the Engineers have had two players with two shorties in a season since Chase Polacek and Joel Malchuk in 2010-11. RPI had two as a team all of last year (Higgs had one of them), the six that the team has scored is the most since 10 in 1999-2000 (they had 6 in 2000-01 as well).

Defensively, the Engineers are now in the bottom half of the nation in a tie for 33rd with a team GAA of 2.85. The offense has slipped to 15th at 3.30 goals per game.

It's back to ECAC play for RPI this coming weekend with a road series at Princeton and Quinnipiac. The way the Tigers' season has gone, points are a must out of that game, while the Bobcats present another serious challenge as the Engineers tangle with their third high-flying offense in four games by the time they get to Hamden.

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

RPI vs. #2 Ferris State
Mariucci Classic Game - Mariucci Arena (Minneapolis, MN)
1/3/14 - 5:00pm

RESULT: Ferris State 6, RPI 2

BOX SCORES

College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

RECORD: 8-7-4 (3-3-3 ECAC, 9 pts)

RPI at #1 Minnesota
Mariucci Classic Consolation - Mariucci Arena (Minneapolis, MN)
1/4/14 - 8:00pm

RESULT: Minnesota 6, RPI 2

BOX SCORES

College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
USCHO
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

RECORD: 8-8-4 (3-3-3 ECAC, 9 pts)

Upcoming games
10 Jan - at Princeton
11 Jan - at #7 Quinnipiac
24 Jan - Dartmouth
25 Jan - vs. #4 Union (Albany, NY)
31 Jan - at #11 Clarkson

Survive and Advance

(The end of our series on the NCAA Regionals will run on Tuesday of next week.)

The Engineers come off a long break this weekend - both the men and the women. For the women, it's a road series at Providence, a team that has run hot and cold this year with a fairly challenging schedule. For the men, it's nothing less than a possible weekend with the two best teams in the nation.

The ladies return from basically a full month off with games at Providence, who started the second half of their season on Tuesday with a loss at Dartmouth. Right away, that should be a warning sign. The Lady Friars also have losses to Yale and Union in their resume. But, then again, the Engineers managed a loss to Yale as well, so who knows what's in store at "The Coffin."

The men have a tall task this afternoon as they face off with #2 Ferris State at about 5pm Eastern time, 4pm local at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis. The college hockey world is watching to see if the Bulldogs get to face off with #1 Minnesota tomorrow night. Hopefully, the Engineers will be spoiling that dream - or, perhaps, helping to force it into the Mariucci consolation game provided that Colgate helps things along.

It's not going to be easy... but anything worthwhile rarely is.

It's Eminem for this weekend's pumpup... so be aware that it's obviously NSFW, but the lyrics seem to describe this team and this weekend fairly well (hopefully).

Know Your Enemy: Minnesota

Our final "new" addition to the Know Your Enemy rolls this year is a program that is among the most respected in the entire nation from a school that's one of the major players in the college athletic scene by virtue of their association with one of the oldest and most respected conferences out there - yet had to wait 20 years for their first national championship in part because of a plucky group of engineering students from a small school in upstate New York.

Minnesota

Nickname: Golden Gophers
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Founded: 1851
Conference: Big Ten
National Championships: 5 (1974, 1976, 1979, 2002, 2003)
Last NCAA Appearance: 2013
Last Frozen Four: 2012
Coach: Don Lucia (15th year)
2012-13 Record: 26-9-5 (16-7-5 WCHA, 1st place)
Series: Minnesota leads, 9-2-0
First Game: March 12, 1953 (Colorado Springs, CO)
Last RPI win: December 10, 1988 (Minneapolis, MN)
Last Minnesota win: October 12, 2007 (St. Paul, MN)

2013-14 game: January 4, 2014 (Minneapolis, MN - possible)

Key players: F Nate Condon, sr.; D Justin Holl, sr.; D Jake Parenteau, sr.; F Tom Serratore, sr.; F Seth Ambroz, jr.; F Travis Boyd, jr.; F Christian Isackson, jr.; D Ben Marshall, jr.; F Kyle Rau, jr.; F Sam Warning, jr.; D Mike Reilly, so.; D Brady Skjei, so.; G Adam Wilcox, so.; D Mike Brodzinski, fr.; F Taylor Cammarata, fr.; F Hudson Fasching, fr.; D Tommy Vannelli, fr.

They don't call Minnesota the "state of hockey" for nothing. 182 Minnesotans played college hockey last season - including three at RPI among 22 in the ECAC. Given the state's size relative to other states with a high number of varsity college programs, the five D-I teams in Minnesota (with an additional 10 Division III programs) are pretty substantial, especially considering that all but one of those five have been to the Frozen Four in the last five seasons.

And when it comes to the "state of hockey," there's one school that certainly commands the majority of attention, and that's the Gophers. While they can no longer brag the state's only national championships following the 2011 triumph of Minnesota-Duluth, the five that they have ranks them among the most in the country.

How solid a program is Minnesota? Well, consider this: the last class to graduate without making even a single NCAA appearance was the Class of 1970. 15 classes since then never missed the tournament. They're regulars, and the program's history of regular success even predates the NCAA tournament's inception.

Varsity hockey at the "U" dates back to 1922, when a team under I.D. MacDonald put together a 6-3-1 record that included four victories over the school's arch-rivals from Wisconsin. Unlike many other schools, Minnesota continued to field a hockey program throughout the Great Depression and through World War II as well. The school claims a pre-NCAA national championship from 1929 (shared with Yale) and won the national AAU championship in Lake Placid in 1940 as part of an 18-0-0 season.

Minnesota's first eight seasons were above .500, and the program suffered just five losing seasons from its inception to 1951, when the team joined the Midwest Collegiate Hockey League, an early attempt at a college hockey conference today considered a forerunner of the WCHA. It was around that time that John Mariucci, who had captained the 1940 squad and played in the NHL, would start the team on the road to becoming NCAA titans as head coach of the Gophers for 13 seasons - though the ultimate national glories would elude him.

In his first season as coach in 1953, Mariucci led Minnesota to a 23-win season, shattering the school record of 18 and bringing the Gophers to the NCAA tournament for the first time, eking out a victory over an RPI team also making its first NCAA apperance, winning 3-2 before falling 7-3 to Michigan in the national championship.

The next season, a second straight 23-win campaign, Minnesota again returned to the Frozen Four and the national championship game, falling short once again as RPI pulled off a shocking 5-4 win in overtime thanks to Gordie Peterkin's game-winning goal.

Mariucci coached the US Olympic team to a silver medal in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy in 1956 (with a team stocked with Minnesotans) and helped establish Minnesota as one of the top western teams, but left the program in 1966, having played an immense role in the development of hockey both in Minnesota and on the national level but without having claimed a national championship.

The program struggled under Mariucci's replacement, Glen Sonmor (who maintained a long connection with the Gophers as a radio analyst until 2011), though he did bring Minnesota its first WCHA regular-season crown in 1970, and helped produce a Cinderella run through the WCHA playoffs and into the NCAA tournament in 1971 that saw the Gophers fall 4-2 in the national championship game to Boston University despite having an overall losing record.

Herb Brooks became Minnesota's head coach in 1973, building upon Mariucci's legacy by propelling the Gophers to the regular league hardware and NCAA appearances they're known for today. In just his second season as head coach, Brooks guided Minnesota to its first national championship as the first of three straight national championship games between the "U" and WCHA rivals Michigan Tech, winning 4-2 in Boston. The Huskies gained revenge in the 1974 championship, 6-1, but Minnesota earned its second crown in 1975 with a 6-4 win over MTU.

Minnesota was again at the intersection of Olympic glory in 1979, when Brooks' third national championship (4-3 over North Dakota) made him the top candidate to coach the 1980 US Olympic team, a team which needs little in the way of introduction. Nine Gophers were on that team, including Mike Ramsey and Rob McClanahan, starters against the Soviet Union.

The 1980s and 1990s featured a solid amount of league domination by Minnesota under coaches Brad Buetow and Doug Woog, but no more national championships despite six WCHA regular season titles, three playoff titles, 16 NCAA bids (including 13 in a row from 1985 to 1997) and eight Frozen Four appearances. The closest the Golden Gophers came during these two decades to wearing the crown were in 1981 under Buetow, a 6-3 loss to hated Wisconsin in the national championship, and in 1989 under Woog, as a team still considered one of the greatest in Minnesota history fell 4-3 in overtime to Harvard.

In 1999, after a second straight losing season that followed 20 winning seasons in a row, Woog stepped down as head coach. Minnesota hired Colorado College head coach Don Lucia, who had guided the Tigers to five straight NCAA appearances and two Frozen Fours, and under Lucia the ship was righted fairly quickly. Lucia's first eight seasons were of the 20-win variety, one of the more basic measures of success for a program as accomplished as Minnesota. In 2002, just his third season behind the bench, Lucia guided the Gophers to their first national championship since 1979, and a year later made the Gophers the first team to win back-to-back crowns since Boston University in 1971 and 1972.

Since then, there's been a lot of success for the "U" - 4 WCHA regular season championships and 2 more Frozen Fours - but the ultimate goal, one the team seems to start every year with a better-than-average shot at achieving, has been elusive.

One unique feature about the Gopher program is its tradition of recruiting either all or almost all native Minnesotans to the team. Last year's team had just four players not from the Land of 10,000 lakes, and as recently as 2008 the Gophers boasted an all-Minnesota roster. The program's tradition of recruiting the top players in the state is credited with helping to fuel the rise of the state's high school league as the best in the nation. For years, the Minnesota-only policy was in full effect, started by Mariucci and adhered to especially under Woog.

Perhaps not ironically, Minnesota's 2002 national championship, their first in almost a quarter-century, was won on an overtime goal scored by Grant Potulny, a North Dakota native who was the first non-Minnesotan to play for the Gophers in 15 years. Today, non-Minnesotans dot the roster, but the vast majority of Gopher players are still from Minnesota, frequently chosen from among the top high school players in the state.

This year marks the beginning of a new era for Minnesota, as they split from the WCHA for the first time since its inception to join the new Big Ten hockey conference, in correlation with their school-wide affiliation.

Minnesota is not a guaranteed opponent for the Engineers as it had been originally thought when it was first announced that RPI would play in the Mariucci Classic for the first time. Instead, fellow ECAC squad Colgate will draw the Golden Gophers in the first round. With the Raiders as the other potential opponent in the tournament, RPI stalwarts would probably prefer to get a game with the hometown team, since there are already other opportunities to see RPI and Colgate do battle this year (and any year).

Following the Gophers' upset loss in the NCAA tournament at the hands of a Yale team that would go on to win the national championship, the team experienced an outright exodus of underclassmen signing NHL contracts, losing five would-be seniors and taking a big bite out of the team's experience levels after a mostly-successful season last year with just one senior seeing any ice time at all. Now, four of the team's top five scorers from last year are gone with each leaving eligibility on the table.

But there's always talent at Minnesota, even in down years, and this probably isn't even likely to be a down year. 10 NHL draft picks remain from last year's squad, and more will join them in the fall. Wilcox had a tremendous freshman season that saw him put down a GAA of 1.88, Rau returns after scoring 40 points last year (and despite rumors that he'd join the rush to the exit). Condon, Warning, Ambroz, and Marshall all had at least eight goals each last year. Every freshman class at Minnesota has a number of blue-chip talents, and frequently freshmen are among the top players on the team.

It adds up to a team with few holes, but if the Engineers face off with the Golden Gophers, there will be at least a few in the lineup during the first weekend of 2014. Since the tournament falls during the World Junior Championships (held this season in Sweden), there's practically a certainty that the Gophers will be without some of their top younger players - Skjei, Cammarata, Vannelli, and Fasching have all been invited to the annual WJC prep camp in Lake Placid. They're also going to be missing their head coach - Don Lucia will be the head coach of Team USA in Sweden.

A matchup with Minnesota, regardless of who's not playing, would be another big test for an RPI team with big dreams this year. The Mariucci Classic games represent the Engineers' only experience with Olympic-sized ice before potential games in Lake Placid in March, and if they face the Gophers, that'll be something to be overcome - not to mention the 10,000 seat arena that should be almost full (students will be gone for winter break). It adds up to yet another difficult challenge for RPI, but like the Denver series, it would be a building block experience heading into the meat of the ECAC schedule in January and February.

Tentative 2013-14 Men's Hockey Schedule

Here it is, the tentative schedule for next year. The exhibition game in October should be against a Canadian school as usual, the game against Boston College is rumored to be part of a doubleheader with BU/Cornell at Madison Square Garden (if it doesn't pan out, the game will likely take place in Chestnut Hill), and the second opponent in the Minnesota tournament in January is not known for sure, though it is believed the first opponent will be the Golden Gophers. Freakout! is presumed to be Brown, given the usual time of year for the event, though Harvard and Clarkson are outside possibilities.

Game times are at 7pm unless otherwise indicated, but are subject to change due to television scheduling.

October
Saturday, 05 October - EXHIBITION
Saturday, 12 October - at Sacred Heart (Bridgeport, CT)
Sunday, 13 October - at Boston College (time TBD)
Friday, 18 October - at Boston University
Saturday, 19 October - SACRED HEART (Parents Weekend)
Saturday, 26 October - NEW HAMPSHIRE

November
Friday, 01 November - at Harvard*
Saturday, 02 November - at Dartmouth*
Friday, 08 November - CORNELL* (Black Friday)
Saturday, 09 November - COLGATE*
Friday, 15 November - at Union*
Saturday, 16 November - UNION*
Friday, 22 November - at Mercyhurst
Saturday, 23 November - at Mercyhurst

December
Friday, 06 December - QUINNIPIAC*
Saturday, 07 December - PRINCETON* (4pm)
Friday, 13 December - DENVER
Saturday, 14 December - DENVER
Sunday, 15 December - US UNDER-18 TEAM (exhibition)
Friday, 20 December - vs. Union (Albany, NY)

January
Friday, 03 January - at Minnesota (8pm)
Saturday, 04 January - at Minnesota Tournament (Minneapolis, MN) (5pm)
Friday, 10 January - at Princeton*
Saturday, 11 January - at Quinnipiac*
Friday, 24 January - DARTMOUTH*
Saturday, 25 January - HARVARD*
Friday, 31 January - at Clarkson*

February
Saturday, 01 February - at St. Lawrence*
Friday, 07 February - YALE*
Saturday, 08 February - BROWN* (Big Red Freakout!)
Friday, 14 February - at Colgate*
Saturday, 15 February - at Cornell*
Friday, 21 February - ST. LAWRENCE*
Saturday, 22 February - CLARKSON* (Senior Night)
Friday, 28 February - at Brown*

March
Saturday, 01 March - at Yale*
Fri-Sun, 07-09 March - ECAC First Round (at campus sites)
Fri-Sun, 14-16 March - ECAC Quarterfinals (at campus sites)
Friday, 21 March - ECAC Semifinals (Lake Placid, NY)
Saturday, 22 March - ECAC Championship (Lake Placid, NY)
Fri-Sun 28-30 March - NCAA Regionals (Bridgeport, CT; Worcester, MA; Cincinnati, OH; St. Paul, MN)

April
Thursday, 10 April - NCAA Frozen Four (Philadelphia, PA)
Saturday, 12 April - NCAA Championship (Philadelphia, PA)

For Q

It never fails.

An ECAC team gets into the national discussion on which team might be the best in all the land, and the cacophony, especially from out west, is that, of course, there's no way that loser EZAC team could possibly be the best. THEY HAVEN'T PLAYED NE1!!!

Please.

In this case, the team in question is obviously Quinnipiac. There aren't too many other teams out there with the best record in the country and a 19-game unbeaten streak that are still unbeaten in league play. They've earned the right to be in the discussion, but don't tell that to many WCHA fans (most of whom are soon to be either Big Ten or NCHC fans) or even some Hockey East fans.

In fact, I got a tweet earlier last week that basically laid it out like this - "other than the fact that they swept Nebraska-Omaha at home, why should I be impressed with Quinnipiac?"

Ugh.

Let's break this down. Who's got the best record in the nation? Again, that's Quinnipiac.

It's not enough by itself, of course. Niagara has the third best record, but no one is touting them as the third best team in the country. That's because, excuse the repetition, they actually haven't played anyone. KRACH tells us that their strength of schedule is 58th out of 59 teams in the country - only Army has played an easier schedule. So while 17-4-5 Niagara has the nation's third best record and are in the hunt for what could be Atlantic Hockey's first ever at-large bid, they're being pegged as a team that might be in the Top 15, if that. That's fair.

Does Quinnipac deserve similar treatment?

According to KRACH, Quinnipiac has played the 33rd most difficult schedule to date nationally. In a world where there are 59 teams, 33rd is... pretty plain, yes. But then again, Minnesota, who has been number one for a few weeks now, and who many thought would drop down in favor of the Q, is only 27th themselves - yet no one ever asks who THEY'VE played.

Why is that? The answer is pretty simple. They play in the WCHA, which is recognized as a difficult league regardless of the year. They're the place where Herb Brooks won national championships. If they have a similar record to Quinnipiac, they must be better, because they're Minnesota and they play in the WCHA.

That's pretty lame. Determining the top team in the nation shouldn't have anything to do with what a program has done in the past, or the reputation of their conference alone - only what they're doing right now. Right now, the Gophers are one of the best teams in the country, there's no doubt. But look at the metrics - all of those mathematical methods for comparing all of the nation's teams against each other.

Who's #1 in KRACH? Quinnipiac. Who's #1 in the Pairwise, as we get into the month of February? Quinnipiac, and they don't lose a single Pairwise comparison with anyone, including the Gophers. Ratings Percentage Index? Quinnipiac. It's all there - that pretty much concludes the major metrics of comparison right there.

Need more? OK. As we did two years ago when a similar complaint was levied against Yale for having the temerity to lay claim to the title of the best team in the nation, check out the extended list of computer rankings for college hockey as compiled by the Markhams over at rpihockey.net. KASA is basically KRACH 2.0 - it takes into account the impact of home ice advantage when calculating KRACH. The Q's still #1. They're #1 in HEAL. Then they're #2 in four other rankings. Yes, every possible metric is saying that Quinnipiac is either best in the nation or second best, and the ones that say they're second best are the ones you've never heard of.

The fact of the matter is, the ECAC is in an up year. No, they're nowhere near the level they were at in November when certain ECAC backers were claiming that this was the year for five NCAA tournament teams, but three teams in the tournament is looking like a stronger likelihood than it usually ever does, and four doesn't appear to be outside the realm of possibility, which is almost never said about the ECAC (and hasn't happened in quite some time). This is a tough league this season with some very good teams.

In fact, it's such a good league that teams like Cornell and Harvard, who were consensus top-level picks, are struggling to keep their heads above water. Are they underperforming? Sure they are. But that's not the only reason they're in 11th and 12th right now - the league is just very competitive from top to bottom.

That makes it all the more impressive that Quinnipiac has functionally, if not mathematically, clinched the #1 seed in the ECAC tournament with a month left to play. That makes it all the more impressive that they still haven't tasted defeat in league play - and should be a huge boost to their national credentials.

But for some reason, it's not enough. For some reason, a team that's not even in first place in their conference is supposed to be best in the nation.

We know better. Rand Pecknold and his charges are the real deal - for 19 straight games, against some solid competition from within the league and without, they've found ways to win most nights and have at least walked away with a draw. How hard is that to do? The next highest unbeaten streak right now is SIX - and most people think six in a row without losing is pretty good.

Get used to it.

(By the way... we told you Quinnipiac was going to be good.)

What If: Gordie's Goal

March 1954: Gordie Peterkin scores in overtime against Minnesota to give RPI its first national championship

Perry Como - Wanted


It is a testament to Ned Harkness that in just its fourth year, the modern version of the RPI hockey program was playing in the NCAA Tournament, and the following season was in the national championship game. The combined impact of Harkness, who would go on to establish himself not only with three Frozen Fours and a national championship at RPI but with four straight Frozen Fours and two more championships at Cornell, and the innovation of the RPI Field House created in the Engineers an early eastern powerhouse.

And yet, despite RPI playing in its second consecutive national tournament, the Engineers appeared something of an afterthought in Colorado Springs in 1954. Sure, RPI had finished third in the previous year's Frozen Four, but they certainly weren't going to be a match for Vic Heyliger and the back-to-back-to-back defending champions, the Michigan Wolverines, in the first round. They were from the east, and eastern teams simply couldn't match up well with the far better west. Besides, RPI wasn't even supposed to be there - everyone knew St. Lawrence, with its early season victory over Michigan State in its back pocket, was the more worthy team from the east. Only the Engineers' 4-2 victory over the Saints in Troy the previous week to earn a regular-season tie in the Tri-State League had sent them to Colorado - where they'd suffered twin 8-3 drubbings to Denver and Colorado College in late January.

But something funny happened on the way to the third place game - RPI handed Michigan, the only team to appear in all six previous NCAA tournaments (and four-time national champions), a 6-4 upset loss thanks in large part to Gordie Peterkin's hat trick. And despite their newly earned reputation as giant-killers, the Engineers were still huge underdogs to a Minnesota team that was physically bigger, had a larger roster, had been runners-up to Michigan the previous year, and had an extra day of rest following a 14-1 demolition of Boston College (a 13-point win that is still the largest margin of victory in the history of the NCAA tournament).

RPI jumped out to an 3-0 lead against the Gophers early in the second period, but Minnesota stormed back to take a 4-3 lead themselves. After Abbie Moore tied the game late in the third period off a pass from the great Frank Chiarelli, it was Peterkin's goal two minutes into the sudden death overtime that shocked the college hockey world and saw a little engineering school from upstate New York capture the east's second ever national crown.

Anyone who's watched an overtime game in the playoffs knows just how crucial every shift, every bounce of the puck can be. The sudden-death nature of overtime, and the requirement in the playoffs that there be a winner, makes every little detail so much more important. We've seen multiple overtime games in three of the last five years, none of which were won by RPI, so we ought to know just how devastating it can be to lose.

Several other teams know that pain on a larger level. St. Lawrence (1988), New Hampshire (1999), and Miami (2009) would all have national championships to celebrate today if they'd been able to get the bounce of the puck to go their way in the overtime period of a national championship. They couldn't - they don't. Michigan State (1959) and Minnesota-Duluth (1984) were in the same boat before they eventually won national titles, as was Minnesota following Peterkin's goal.

So the question is - what if the shoe was on the other foot? What if Minnesota's John Mayasich or Dick Dougherty had beaten Bob Fox rather than Peterkin putting the puck and Jim Mattson into the net?

Most immediately, Minnesota celebrates a national championship twenty years earlier than it actually did when Herb Brooks brought the Gophers their first title in 1974. Minnesota coach John Mariucci, who eventually helped start the Minnesota North Stars and for whom Minnesota's arena is named, would have a national championship on his record, perhaps the biggest thing that's missing from the Hockey Hall of Famer's resume.

Tangentially speaking, the 1959 Frozen Four may not have taken place at the RPI Field House if not for the Engineers' attention-grabbing national championship five years earlier, though the fact that the Field House was one of the nicer arenas in college hockey may have seen it end up there anyway.

For RPI, however, a loss in the 1954 national championship game could have had lasting repercussions, though there would have been little expectation of it at the time. The severity of those repercussions depends largely on how the lack of a national championship on his record would have affected the decisions of coach Ned Harkness. Overall, Harkness amassed a record of 176-96-7 during his time at RPI and brought the Engineers to the national tournament in 1953, 1954, and 1961.

Would that have been enough to pique Cornell's interest by itself when their coaching position came vacant in 1963? If not, it's possible Harkness could have stayed on at RPI longer, and the difficulties the team experienced in the late 1960s could possibly have been avoided. Perhaps, if Harkness had stayed long enough some of the same recruits he brought to Ithaca could have come to Troy, although given the differences in the academic offerings, it's almost certainly pie in the sky to suggest names like Ken Dryden would have appeared in the RPI history books. Ironically, a loss in 1954 - if it had led to Harkness staying in Troy - could have led to a boost in the program's pedigree during the 1960s and 1970s.

If Harkness had left for Cornell after all in 1963 - entirely possible, given the apparent problems he had in getting the players that he wanted due to academic restraints - the ensuing difficult years could have spelled disaster for the Engineers at the Division I level. The Institute struggled with the question of whether the program was to remain in the then-new Division I while it was limping to repeatedly poor showings, including a combined 1-17-0 ECAC record in 1966 and 1967, which had coincided with the departure of many of the smaller schools from the ECAC just a few years earlier into what was then called ECAC-II, soon to be called Division III.

As it was, one of the important elements encouraging the team to stay in Division I was the 1954 championship. Without that hardware and the legacy it created, it would have been easier for president Richard Folsom to fold the hand and bring the Engineers to the ECAC-II, where they would have been more competitive during the time period. RPI's hockey focus would be saved thanks to Harkness' success and the three NCAA tournament appearances, so the Engineers could well have become Division III powerhouses in the years that followed, but they'd forever be a quirk in the NCAA's record books - the only program to reach the NCAA tournament no longer playing in Division I.