Men's Hockey - at Clarkson/St. Lawrence (31 Jan/1 Feb)

There was a bit of a mixed train of thought heading into the North Country trip this season. First, as last year's sweep demonstrated in part, the formerly "dreaded" North Country experience didn't really have to be all that dreaded, but with four players (two top scorers and two top defenders) and the coach suspended for Friday's till at Clarkson, an expectation kind of set in that any result against the Golden Knights would be gravy. The Engineers certainly didn't get any kind of result at all, falling 3-0, but the return of the suspended players paid immediate dividends the next night as RPI ended the road trip on a high note with a 4-3 victory over St. Lawrence.

Clarkson
Tinordi-Rogic-DeVito
Laliberte-Bubela-Neal
McGowan-Miller-Schroeder
Bourbonnais, Higgs

Leboeuf-Leonard
Bradley-Hampton

Bokenfohr-Reno

Diebold

Out of necessity, due to league rules on the number of players that can suit up in any given road weekend and the number of players who were out due to suspensions stemming from the melee at the end of the Union game, RPI ended up dressing one player fewer than they were allowed, which in this case meant dressing only 11 forwards. Unexpectedly, Jake Wood was not in the lineup at all, replaced by Mark McGowan, and Riley Bourbonnais came in for one of the suspended players.

Bad penalties put the Engineers behind the eight-ball early in this one, as Guy Lebeouf took three straight minors in the game's first 27 minutes to blunt what little attack the Engineers had left following the suspensions. On the first of those penalties, Clarkson converted to go up 1-0 on the power play 7:33 in.

The second period, long a point of contention with RPI, proved to be especially brutal and ended any opportunity the shorthanded Engineers had at salvaging anything from Friday's contest. Clarkson netted their second goal of the game at 2:48, and scored an extra-attacker goal during a 4-on-4 with a delayed penalty to Craig Bokenfohr con the way, making it 3-0. The Bokenfohr penalty was a major for hitting from behind, ending the sophomore's night early and making RPI even more shorthanded than they already were. Clarkson didn't score on the long power play, but up three goals and dominating the shots 16-3 in the middle stanza, they really didn't have to.

The third period basically consisted of Clarkson going into full lockdown mode, and the punchless Engineers had little response for it, leading to the 3-0 conclusion. Scott Diebold didn't play poorly in net, stopping 26 of 29 shots, but RPI managed only 16 shots in return.

St. Lawrence
Higgs-Zalewski-Haggerty
Laliberte-Bubela-Neal
McGowan-Miller-Schroeder
Tinordi-Rogic-DeVito

Leboeuf-Leonard
Bradley-Dolan

Curadi-Bokenfohr

Diebold

With the exception of Mark McGowan playing in place of Jake Wood, the lineup for the St. Lawrence game was actually the exact same lineup and line combination that played against Union a week prior.

The Engineers gained immediate dividends from the return of the suspended players. On the very first shift, 43 seconds in, Mike Zalewski scored his 6th of the season and 3rd in as many games, with one of the assists going to the similarly returning Ryan Haggerty, to make it 1-0 RPI.

RPI maintained that lead for 13 minutes, but a penalty to Milos Bubela provided the Engineers with their first look at the nation's #1 power play (the Saints score power play goals at about 30%, which is about the only thing they had been doing well), and SLU converted on the man advantage to make it 1-1.

That lasted for less than a minute, as Haggerty responded with his 20th goal of the year on an opportunistic shot that was just a bad goal for the St. Lawrence goaltender to give up, as RPI regained the lead just 54 seconds later.

The very dreaded 2nd period loomed, however. It's uncanny how rough things can be for RPI in the middle frame and on Saturday night it was no exception. Despite outshooting the Saints 12-9 and taking no penalties, the Engineers gave up two goals in the second to go down 3-2. The first came about seven and a half minutes in to tie the game, then another goal with two and a half minutes left in the second gave SLU their first lead of the game.

But in a scene that RPI just hasn't put up much this season, there was a bounceback in the 3rd period. Mark Miller, who grew up in the North Country, notched his 2nd of the year to tie it 3-3 six minutes into the 3rd, and then Haggerty's second of the game and 21st of the season with just a hair over eight minutes left made it 4-3.

A bad interference penalty by Bo Dolan with about 3:30 left gave St. Lawrence a golden opportunity with their deadly power play, but the RPI penalty kill stood strong, and the Engineers then withstood 1:14 of 6-on-5 to escape with two points for the weekend.

Other junk - Ranked ECAC teams this week include #3 Quinnipiac (beat Dartmouth, no change), #4 Union (lost to SLU, beat Clarkson, no change), #9 Cornell (swept at Yale/Brown, up two), #13 Yale (lost to Cornell and beat Colgate, no change), and #14 Clarkson (beat RPI and lost to Union, up one). Colgate (ex-#18, 23 votes) was the only other ECAC team to pick up votes this week. Other ranked teams on the RPI schedule include #1 Minnesota (no change with 40 first place votes), #2 Boston College (no change with 10 first place votes), #5 Ferris State (up one), #15 Denver (up one), and #20 New Hampshire (previously unranked). Mercyhurst (11) also received votes.

With 21 goals, Ryan Haggerty has tied Chase Polacek's 2010-11 season for 2nd most goals by an Engineer in the last 10 campaigns. He trails only Polacek's junior year in 2009-10, which featured 26 goals. He rates 10th in the nation in points per game at 1.38, and trails BC's Johnny Gaudreau by 2 goals for the national lead there (no one else has more than 19). His second goal at SLU was his 5th game winner of the season, tying him for the national lead with Gaudreau and four others.

Jacob Laliberte was missing from the end of the St. Lawrence game, rumor has it that the junior has a separated shoulder but nothing is confirmed.

Next for RPI is Freakout! weekend. On Friday, the Engineers host Yale, and in the last couple of seasons, RPI-Yale has provided some very exciting hockey games. If you can't stay awake for that one, check your pulse. Freakout! features the return of Brown to the Field House, and the final new opponent of the season. RPI has waited 11 months to get some revenge on the Bears for the skin-of-their-teeth win in last year's playoff series, they'll get to go for it in front of a packed house.

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

RPI at #15 Clarkson
ECAC Game - Cheel Arena (Potsdam, NY)
1/31/14 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Clarkson 3, RPI 0

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Watertown Daily Times

RECORD: 10-11-4 (4-6-3 ECAC, 11 pts)

RPI at St. Lawrence
ECAC Game - Appleton Arena (Canton, NY)
2/1/14 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 4, St. Lawrence 3

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

Watertown Daily Times

RECORD: 11-11-4 (5-6-3 ECAC, 13 pts)

Upcoming games
07 Feb - #13 Yale
08 Feb - Brown (Big Red Freakout!)
14 Feb - at Colgate
15 Feb - at #9 Cornell
21 Feb - St. Lawrence

Men's Hockey - Quinnipiac and Princeton (6/7 Dec)

We've frequently mentioned the key for earning a first-round bye in the ECAC is to average 3 points in a home weekend and 2 points in a road weekend (with points against the travel partner pretty much extra), and the Engineers, as rough as the go has been in recent weeks, are still on that track - perfectly, in fact. RPI picked up another three points at home this past weekend, missing opportunities on Friday to complete a sweep against a Quinnipiac team that looked as though it was struggling but skating away with a 3-3 tie ahead of a 5-2 win over Princeton.

Quinnipiac
Neal-Higgs-Haggerty
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Tinordi-McGowan-Bourbonnais
Fulton-Rogic-Schroeder

Leboeuf-Leonard

Bradley-Dolan
Curadi-Reno

Diebold

The Engineers basically fielded all of its healthy forwards on Friday night with several players banged up. Jake Wood was technically suspended due to a third game misconduct picked up against Mercyhurst two weeks prior, but after knee surgery he will be out until mid-January.

RPI has frequently gotten off to a quick start this season, and it was another quick start against the Bobcats that saw the Engineers ahead 2-0 six and a half minutes into the contest, both goals coming off the stick of the nation's leading scorer. Ryan Haggerty potted the game's first goal at 3:16 to make it 1-0, then was credited with the goal after Quinnipiac accidentally swept the puck into its own net off of Haggerty's skate exactly 3:25 later. RPI led in shots 10-4 after the first period, doing a good job of keeping a sluggish Quinnipiac on their toes.

The Bobcats got themselves back into things in the second as their national-best defense began frustrating the Engineers' attempts to put rubber on net. The lead was cut in half thanks to a blast from the blue line 2:12 into the period, and with about two minutes left in the second, the Bobcats drew level with a nifty goal from Sam Anas, one of the top scoring freshmen in the nation.

It was starting to look like a similar story for the Engineers - build an early lead, and then gradually lose it in the late periods. Chris Bradley and Jacob Laliberte conspired to flip the script a little 62 seconds into the third period, as a shot by Bradley from the point was redirected in front by Laliberte into the back of the cage to give RPI the lead once more at 3-2.

Unfortunately, poor discipline by the Engineers unraveled the second lead. A terribly unnecessary interference penalty drawn by Bo Dolan midway through the period produced a power play for the Bobcats that they would convert with some serious net crashing, knotting things back up at 3-3. From there, Scott Diebold was certainly called on to make some big saves, earning 23 saves in the last 40 minutes on 26 shots to keep RPI in the game.

The end result was in some respects a solid point for RPI, considering Quinnipiac's then-position as the #5 team in the nation, but the Engineers blew two leads and the Bobcats were clearly a step slower than their usual pace, which left the lost point a little disappointing for the home team.

Princeton
Neal-Higgs-Haggerty
Laliberte-Zalewski-Bubela
Tinordi-McGowan-Bourbonnais
Fulton-Rogic-Schroeder

Leboeuf-Leonard

Bradley-Dolan
Curadi-Reno

Diebold

No changes were made to the RPI lineup heading into the Saturday game with a weak and very beat-up Princeton team which had been blanked by Union the previous night. The Tigers entered the game with a six-game unbeaten streak in Troy, but dressing 10 forwards and 7 defensemen, they never appeared ready to extend that streak.

Once again, it was RPI jumping out to a quick 2-0 edge, and this time it was in an even quicker fashion than on Friday. Chris Bradley notched his second goal of the season at 3:03 of the first period, and only 23 seconds later, Brock Higgs potted his 10th of the year (with an assist to Bradley). Princeton cut the lead in half with about six minutes left in the first period, but less than two minutes later, on the power play, it was Ryan Haggerty scoring for the 18th time in just 15 games to put the Engineers ahead 3-1. RPI managed three goals on just six shots in the first, not a positive number of shots but an economical use of them at least.

3:43 into the second period, Matt Neal scored on a 5-on-3 power play to make it 4-1 as he continued to work the loose puck behind the goaltender, who thought he was controlling it. The puck squirted just behind the netminder, and Neal simply popped it into the net. Princeton earned the goal back shorthanded on the ensuing 5-on-4, but despite outshooting the Engineers 11-8 in the second period, RPI never looked ready to give up their lead.

With just over seven minutes left in the second, Higgs scored his second goal of the night in highlight-reel fashion, stealing the puck in the neutral zone and single-handedly outmaneuvering two different defenders while cutting to the net, sliding the puck home through the five-hole to make it 5-2.

The Engineers controlled the puck for much of the third period, though they were content to mostly hold the puck in the Princeton zone as they cruised to victory. They managed 10 shots in the final 20 minutes and on a couple of occasions came close to increasing their lead, but the lack of action in the period was just fine for a team holding a three-goal lead over a demoralized and hurting team.

Other junk - With the three-point weekend, the Engineers re-enter the USCHO poll this week after falling out during their bye week, once more ranked #18 in the nation, just where they had been after the Mercyhurst games. Other ranked ECAC teams include #7 Quinnipiac (tied RPI and lost to Union, down two), #8 Clarkson (swept SLU, up two), #10 Union (swept Princeton/Quinnipiac, up one), #11 Yale (lost to Dartmouth and tied Harvard, down three), and #14 Cornell (tied Colgate, up one). Colgate (6) and St. Lawrence (3) also received votes. Other ranked teams on the RPI schedule are #2 Minnesota (down one with 14 first place votes), #4 Ferris State (up two with 3 first place votes), #6 Boston College (up three), and #20 Denver (previously unranked). New Hampshire (45) and Mercyhurst (8) also received votes.

Ryan Haggerty's 1.60 points per game is tied for 3rd in the nation with Mercyhurst junior Matthew Zay, behind SLU's Greg Carey (1.94) and BC's Johnny Gaudreau (1.75).

Haggerty now sits at 18 goals for the season, five more than the tie for 2nd nationally as Gaudreau, SLU's Matt Carey, and Quinnipiac's Sam Anas each have 13. He is the only player in the nation averaging a goal per game or more at 1.20. Haggerty also leads the nation in power play goals with 8, and is tied for first in game-winning goals with 4.

Meanwhile, Brock Higgs is tied for 9th in the nation in goals (with 7 other players) with 11.

Overall, the RPI offense is now 7th in the nation, scoring 3.75 goals per game with 60 in 16 contests.

Craig Bokenfohr is the only skater on the RPI roster that has yet to record a point this year, he has appeared in only one game. Bokenfohr, Bo Dolan, Zach Schroeder, Travis Fulton, and Riley Bourbonnais are the only skaters that have yet to score a goal.

As we mentioned last week, the Engineers have earned a result in every game in which Haggerty has scored a goal, and lost every game in which he has not, and that continued this weekend.

Next weekend, the Engineers wrap-up their calendar year 2013 schedule with the battle of the assistants, as former Denver assistant Seth Appert leads RPI against former RPI assistant Jim Montgomery and Denver. A bonus matchup on Sunday features the Engineers in an exhibition game against the US Under-18 team, which counts new NHL player Jerry D'Amigo and Ryan Haggerty as alums.

ECAC Standings
1. Union - 14 points (7-1-0)
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 (2-7-0)
12. Princeton - 4 points (2-8-0)

#5 Quinnipiac at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
12/6/13 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Quinnipiac 3

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

VIDEO
RPI TV (full game)

RECORD: 7-5-3 (2-3-3 ECAC, 7 pts)

Princeton at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
12/7/13 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 5, Princeton 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

VIDEO
RPI TV (full game)
YouTube (Higgs highlight goal)

RECORD: 8-5-3 (3-3-3 ECAC, 9 pts)

Upcoming games
13 Dec - #20 Denver
14 Dec - #20 Denver
15 Dec - US Under-18 Team (exhibition)
03 Jan - vs. #4 Ferris State (Minneapolis, MN)
04 Jan - vs. #2 Minnesota OR Colgate (Minneapolis, MN)

The Haggerty Effect

Ryan Haggerty is currently scoring at a clip of 1.15 goals per game. That's tops in the nation, and that's good for RPI. Why?

RPI when Ryan Haggerty scores a goal: 7-0-2
RPI when Ryan Haggerty doesn't score: 0-5-0

Kinda stark, isn't it? The latter figure includes the first game at Mercyhurst, where Haggerty was a healthy scratch due to a death in the family and a cancelled flight to Erie.

Now, that's not to say that the team relies wholly on Haggerty for its offense. It's worth pointing out that Brock Higgs has been humming right along on the goal scoring as well, currently tied for 16th in the country at 0.64 goals per game. With 9 goals on the year, he's already tied his career high (attained during his freshman season), and is only slightly below the pace Chase Polacek set in 2009-10, a 26-goal season that is the most for an Engineer in the current millennium.

That's important - after all, hockey's a team sport and Ryan Haggerty is but one man. The Engineers have only five skaters on their roster who haven't scored a goal in the first 14 games of the year. They're getting goals from all over. But the numbers when the goal leader doesn't get involved are very black and white.

It won't last in such an extreme, of course. Eventually this year, the Engineers will lose a game in which Haggerty scores. They'll eventually pull out a result without him.

Let's be plain. Haggerty's rate is going to be hard to maintain for the remainder of the season. A quick whirl on College Hockey Stats tells us that no player who appeared in at least 75% of his team's contests has managed to finish the season scoring a full goal per game or more in the last 10 years - the closest was Minnesota's Ryan Potulny in 2005-06, when he registered 38 goals in 41 games, a 0.93 goals per game average.

But if, somehow, he can maintain the current rate of 1.15 per game (down from earlier in the year already), and appear in every game from here on out, he'd finish the regular season and the first two games of the playoffs (the only ones guaranteed to any ECAC team) with a total of either 40 or 41 goals, depending on what you want to do with the remainder, and there'd still be as many as seven potential games left in the chamber after that.

That would put Haggerty in some pretty rare air as far as the school record for goals in a season is concerned.

1. Frank Chiarelli - 55 (1951-52)
2. John Carter - 43 (1984-85)
3. Bob Brinkworth - 41 (1961-62)
4. Paul Midghall - 40 (1957-58)
5. Ray Belasky - 37 (1958-59)

Now, it's worth mentioning that the game is very different than it was in the 1950s and 1960s, when four of those marks were set. Those guys played in a lot fewer games and were part of much higher scoring contests back then. Chiarelli's record, of course, is part of a national mark which will never be broken in terms of goals per game, averaging a hat trick per game (and he had 9 that year) at 3.06.

Even if he drops back to Polacek's 2010 pace for the rest of the year, we're still talking 30 goals on the campaign for the first time since Brad Tapper in 1999-2000. In the last 10 seasons, here's the total number of 30 goal scorers:

2003-04: 1 (Junior Lessard, UMD - Hobey Baker winner)
2004-05: 1 (Brett Sterling, CC - Hobey Hat Trick)
2005-06: 3 (Chris Collins, BC in HHT)
2006-07: 3 (Ryan Duncan, UND was Hobey Baker winner)
2007-08: 4 (All three of the HHT, including Kevin Porter, Michigan, who won)
2008-09: 1 (Jacques Lamoureux, Air Force - Hobey finalist)
2009-10: 1 (Cam Atkinson, BC - HHT)
2010-11: 2 (both in HHT)
2011-12: 2 (Austin Smith, Colgate in HHT)
2012-13: 0 (Greg Carey, SLU came closest with 28)

18 30-goal scorers in the last decade, all but two of them were in the final 10 for the Hobey Baker Award, 11 of them made the Hobey Hat Trick, and three won the award.

It's a little early to be discussing Hobey favorites, but... it's hard to say that the goal-fest hasn't at least positioned Ryan Haggerty well early on to be part of the discussion down the road.

Just 14 games in - and it's only 13 games technically for Haggerty - we're already scoping out this list for the top 10 goal-scoring seasons for Engineers in the last 10 years.

26 - Chase Polacek (2009-10)
21 - Chase Polacek (2010-11)
16 - Kirk MacDonald (2004-05)
16 - Oren Eizenman (2005-06)
15 - Ryan Haggerty (2013-14)
15 - Paul Kerins (2009-10)
14 - Kevin Croxton (2005-06)
14 - Tyler Helfrich (2010-11)
13 - Jonathan Ornelas (2005-06)
12 - Kirk MacDonald (2006-07)

Perhaps that's even the best chart for exactly what we're looking at in Troy right now.

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

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

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

Leonard-Bradley

Leboeuf-Dolan
Curadi-Reno

Diebold

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Curadi-Reno
Leboeuf-Hampton

Leonard-Bradley

Diebold

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RESULT: RPI 3, Cornell 3

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

VIDEO
RPI TV (full game)

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

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

RESULT: RPI 6, Colgate 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

VIDEO
RPI TV (full game)

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

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

Men's Hockey - Harvard, at Harvard/Dartmouth (29 Oct, 1/2 Nov)

The Engineers played a rare (very rare) 3-games-in-5-days schedule to open the ECAC season and complete their entire season series with the Harvard Crimson, and the results were fairly mixed. A difficult home tie on Tuesday was followed by a tough loss at Harvard on Friday and a big road win over a struggling Dartmouth team on Saturday. That starts the Engineers off with a .500 record in league play through 3 games, a position they're going to need to improve on going forward.

Harvard - Tuesday
Tinordi-Higgs-Rogic
Laliberte-McGowan-Haggerty
Zalewski-Neal-Bubela
Wood-Miller-Schroeder

Leboeuf-Dolan
Leonard-Bradley
Curadi-Reno

Diebold

There were no changes in the RPI lineup from the previous Saturday's victory over New Hampshire - the lines and the players were exactly the same. As it turned out, much of the gameflow from the UNH game ended up being exactly the same, too.

It got underway with an early goal by Johnny Rogic - not quite as early as his first minute tally against the Wildcats, but plenty quickly nonetheless at 4:33 of the first period, giving RPI a 1-0 lead on their very first shot of the game. Ryan Haggerty added another goal, his 9th of the season, about two and a half minutes later on RPI's second shot of the game during the first power play opportunity for either team to make it 2-0. The score was actually a bit of a reversal in fortunes, as Harvard controlled the opening faceoff and then pinned the Engineers in their own zone for a good chunk of the game's opening moments.

Brock Higgs netted his 3rd goal of the campaign at 15:30, and it looked as though the Engineers were ready to start putting the hammer down with a commanding 3-0 lead, given that the Crimson did not appear likely to break through against Scott Diebold any time soon.

The Crimson did eventually make that breakthrough seven minutes into the second period as the tide of the game slowly turned very much in Harvard's favor during the course of the middle frame. RPI was still putting pucks on net in the 2nd, forcing Steve Michalek to make 11 saves in the period, but gradually the Crimson started winning more puck battles and owning the puck more frequently. Despite the trailing off in intensity, the Engineers still had a 3-1 lead heading into the third period.

The final 20 minutes of regulation was almost a complete collapse for the Engineers as they finished blowing the three-goal lead they'd earned in the first 15 minutes. Harvard scored three minutes into the third to cut the remaining RPI lead in half, then proceeded to completely dominate play for the remaining 17 minutes, earning the tying goal at 10:48 and on many occasions coming close to taking the lead.

RPI, fortunate to survive the third without completing their collapse, seemed to wake up in the overtime period, nearly gaining back the league point they'd coughed up in the third period but ultimately failing to record even a single shot on goal in the extra five minutes. In all honesty, Harvard probably deserved the win more than RPI, but given the 3-0 edge the Engineers held, the tie was probably more difficult to swallow for the home team than for the Crimson.

Harvard - Friday
Tinordi-Higgs-Rogic
Laliberte-Schroeder-Haggerty
Zalewski-Neal-Bubela
Wood-McGowan-DeVito

Leboeuf-Dolan
Leonard-Bradley
Curadi-Reno

Diebold

Despite the lethargic play for most of the Tuesday game, only one substitution was made in the lineup as Jimmy DeVito came in to replace Mark Miller, who sat out a game for the first time in his collegiate career. Zach Schroeder was moved up to center the second line, while Mark McGowan took Miller's place centering the fourth line.

As has become the norm, the Engineers started Friday's game off quickly, unleashing a number of shots toward Harvard netminder Raphael Girard, but unlike most of their previous games, there was no breakthrough in the first 20 minutes. After failing to score on two power play opportunities in the first five minutes of the game, RPI started to back off considerably, especially once forced to kill a 1:49 5-on-3 opportunity for Harvard. They escaped the long kill unscathed, and there was no score after one period.

Harvard got all the offense they would need off the opening faceoff in the second period, scoring just 19 seconds into the middle stanza to take a 1-0 lead. From there on, they needed just 15 saves from Girard for the final 40 minutes of play to secure two points and a 3-1 series win over the Engineers in just four days time. RPI did not seem to be close to even threatening to score in the final two periods. Harvard would pick up an empty net goal with just over a minute left in the game to secure the victory.

Scott Diebold actually had a very good game and could hardly be blamed for the loss - he stopped 30 of 31 shots as a hard-luck loser, actually improving both his GAA and his save percentage despite losing. Oddly, there were no penalties called in the second or third periods after the teams had combined for five during the first 15 minutes of the first period.

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

Leonard-Bradley

Leboeuf-Dolan
Curadi-Reno

Diebold

Mark Miller's return dovetailed with Milos Bubela following his lead from the previous night and sitting out for the first time in his collegiate career. Riley Bourbonnais made his college debut as well, replacing Jake Wood in the lineup.

Desperately in need of some points to salvage what was becoming a lost week, the Engineers weathered an early storm by killing off a penalty to Bo Dolan that came 4 minutes into the affair, then about a minute later went up 1-0 on Ryan Haggerty's national leading 10th goal of the season. That was followed just 13 seconds later by Brock Higgs' 4th goal of the year to make it 2-0 RPI. The senior would pick up a second goal on RPI's first power play of the evening at 16:23 to give the Engineers a 3-0 first period lead for the third time in five games. Notably, Haggerty picked up his first assist of the season on Higgs' second goal.

The onslaught continued in the second period, as Matt Neal scored his 2nd of the year just 1:32 in to make it 4-0, and Higgs completed the hat trick later in the period for his 6th goal of the season, like his second one on the power play, giving RPI a 5-0 lead through two periods.

In previous games, the Engineers had maintained cruise control with big leads in the 3rd period, but they continued pouring it on. Jacob Laliberte lit the lamp for the first time this year at 5:26 to make it 6-0. Dartmouth got one back on the power play following a hitting from behind call to Curadi with just over five minutes left to play to scuttle Scott Diebold's shutout efforts, but Curadi made up for it by scoring his first collegiate goal on a blast from the blue line on RPI's subsequent power play chance just over two minutes later to make the final score 7-1.

Diebold was brilliant again, stopping 31 of 32 shots on the evening for a road weekend total of 61 for 63 on saves.

Other junk - Given the up-and-down nature of the weekend, it's not too shocking to see that RPI has not moved at all in the USCHO poll this week, staying at #10 for the second consecutive week. Other ranked ECAC teams this week are #5 Quinnipiac (swept at Colgate/Cornell, up two), #9 Yale (tied SLU and beat Clarkson, up two), #15 Cornell (beat Princeton and lost to Quinnipiac, down one), and #16 Clarkson (beat Brown and lost to Yale, up one). St. Lawrence (34 votes), Union (30), Harvard (22), and Brown (8) also received votes. Other teams on the Engineers' schedule that are ranked include #1 Minnesota (all 50 first place votes, no change), #8 Boston College (no change), #17 Boston University (up one), and #19 Ferris State (previously unranked). New Hampshire (13) also received votes.

Ryan Haggerty's 10 goals is the most in the nation, his closest trailer is Miami's Riley Barber with 8. His 1.25 goals per game leads the nation, and he's one of five players in the country scoring a goal per game or higher.

Haggerty is also tied (with seven other players) for the national lead in power play goals with 4. Brock Higgs is tied with 16 players nationally who are right behind with 3.

Scott Diebold's 1.58 GAA is fifth in the nation, while his .946 save percentage has him tied for fourth.

RPI is tied with Union for the 6th highest scoring offense in the nation (4.00 GPG), and with Denver and UMass-Lowell for the 9th strongest team defense (2.12 GAA). The 1.88 GPG average scoring margin is fourth in the country, behind Minnesota, Providence, and Quinnipiac.

The Engineers' discipline has been superb on a national level - only UConn takes fewer penalty minutes per game.

Next up for RPI is the home weekend against Central New York - Cornell and Colgate. Home points are always a must, but they're even more important now with most of the league having a game in hand over the Engineers, as well as the 1 point showing for the season against Harvard.

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

Harvard at #10 RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
10/29/13 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Harvard 3

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

RECORD: 4-1-1 (0-0-1 ECAC, 1 pt)

#10 RPI at Harvard
ECAC Game - Bright Hockey Center (Boston, MA)
11/1/13 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Harvard 2, RPI 0

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats

USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

RECORD: 4-2-1 (0-1-1 ECAC, 1 pt)

#10 RPI at Dartmouth
ECAC Game - Thompson Arena (Hanover, NH)
11/2/13 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 7, Dartmouth 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats

USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

RECORD: 5-2-1 (1-1-1 ECAC, 3 pts)

Upcoming games
08 Nov - #15 Cornell
09 Nov - Colgate
15 Nov - Union
16 Nov - at Union
22 Nov - at Mercyhurst

Wildcat Offense

OK, folks. I'm back in the real world. Hopefully the two-week lull wasn't too bad. We were unable to live-tweet the Sacred Heart game in Connecticut (which was going on while I was busy getting married) and the men's recap from last weekend appears to have been lost in the ether due to a scheduling mix-up, but other than those, hopefully the coverage you've come to expect from WaP has been humming right along without a hitch.

As far as what was missing from the recap - here's the gist of it, most of which you already know. RPI beat BU 3-1 on Friday night last weekend, a solid bounce-back from a tough game at BC. Then they stomped Sacred Heart for the second time in as many weeks, 7-1 (see, Lowell? It's freakin' simple) for a combined 13-1 throttling across 120 minutes of action against the Pioneers.

Ryan Haggerty, with 7 goals, led the nation on his own in that category after last weekend, he has since been matched by Northeastern sophomore Kevin Roy, who notched two last night in Canton against St. Lawrence to even things up (Roy's kind of a jerk for reneging on Brown at the last minute last year - we're no fans of Brown around here right about now but at the end of the day, when it comes to things like this, Brown's family).

And RPI's now ranked #12 in the nation, up five spots from after the BC loss. Cornell is now ranked (and won last night), Union's out.

Yale lost to Brown last night. So there's that too.

And that's pretty much it.

The women suffered a tough OT loss to UConn yesterday afternoon, which was even tougher considering that they had a power play opportunity in the extra session. They're back at it in Storrs this afternoon, live-tweets to come from WaP.

The men have just one game this weekend, tonight at the Field House against #14 New Hampshire. Scott Diebold was certainly on his game last weekend, and the Engineers will need him to be strong tonight as well against an always-tough UNH.

Clean version for today's pumpup. If you want the real deal, go find it yourself, we're in family mode today.

Men's Hockey - at St. Lawrence/Clarkson (8/9 Feb)

After enduring a difficult first two months to the season, the Engineers have picked the right time to come alive, and as a result, they find themselves right in the thick of the hunt for a home-ice playoff spot with three weeks left in the regular season. As part of the recent renaissance, RPI picked up a sweep in the North Country, battling against a tough St. Lawrence squad on Friday night to nab an overtime victory, 4-3, before coming back the next night in Potsdam and embarrassing Clarkson in their own house, 6-2.

St. Lawrence
Lee-Laliberte-Haggerty
Zalewski-Higgs-Bubela
Neal-McGowan-Tinordi
Rogic-Miller-Burgdoerfer

Leonard-Bailen
Leboeuf-Bradley
Curadi-Dolan

Kasdorf

Johnny Rogic returned to the lineup after serving his one game suspension for a hit from behind in the Harvard game a week prior. He replaced Andrew Commers. Otherwise, RPI dressed exactly the same lineup as they had for Freakout.

Jason Kasdorf's shutout streak came to an end early on a power-play tally by St. Lawrence's top line just 2:20 into the game, a goal that was had only seven seconds into a slashing call against Mark Miller. But the Engineers would get that goal back on their first power play opportunity five minutes later, as Matt Neal potted his fifth of the season about a minute into a hooking call against the Saints, making the score 1-1.

RPI would run their power play total to 2-for-2 just two and a half minutes later as Ryan Haggerty notched his 11th goal of the year during an interference call against SLU to put the Engineers up 2-1 midway through the first. RPI dominated possession in the first 20 minutes, outshooting the home side 13-5.

The second period featured more of the same, although St. Lawrence finally got some good opportunities off on Kasdorf as well. Again, an early penalty, this time a hooking call on Milos Bubela, cost RPI as SLU's top line again converted, knotting the score at 2-2 with all four goals coming on the power play.

The Engineers picked up their third power play of the night late in the second period, and while they didn't make it a combined five-for-five on the man advantage, they did get a goal out of the situation as Nick Bailen scored his sixth goal of the season during what was technically even strength, but was certainly assisted by the fact that RPI had just been on the power play, the goal coming just five seconds after the expiration of the minor.

The RPI penalty kill finally got some conversions in the third period, killing a pair of penalties that helped put the Saints on a 5-on-3 power play for over a minute, but they escaped unharmed. Eventually, however, the Engineers' lack of discipline caught up with them, as SLU scored the tying goal on the power play with just under 7 minutes left to play. The penalty kill was then called upon a fourth time in the final frame just under a minute later, but they held strong to preserve the tie.

As the game progressed into overtime, it seemed that the Engineers were mostly just hanging in there at the end, but C.J. Lee's determination to stick with the play midway through the extra period of hockey paid off as he took a wide-angle shot that caromed in off the goaltender's back 2:31 into overtime to lift RPI to a hard-fought 4-3 overtime win.

The victory was the first since December 27th against St. Cloud State in which the Engineers pulled out a win despite giving up the game's first goal - their fifth such victory of the year. It was also their first win in Canton in their last four tries, and their previous victory had been in overtime as well, a 7-6 thriller in the 2008-09 season.

Clarkson
Lee-Laliberte-Haggerty
Zalewski-Higgs-Bubela
Neal-McGowan-Burgdoerfer
Rogic-Miller-Commers

Leonard-Bailen
Leboeuf-Bradley
Curadi-Dolan

Kasdorf

One major setback from Friday night's game was a knee injury to Matt Tinordi. It is unknown how long the junior will be sidelined, early indications are that he may miss a few games as the team enters the final stretch. Andrew Commers took his place in the lineup, with Greg Burgdoerfer moving up to third-line duty.

With two points on the weekend already, RPI came into Potsdam ready to go and they pretty much jumped on the home team, which was tied with the Engineers coming into the evening due to their own victory the previous night over Union. Although it took RPI over 12 minutes to get themselves on the scoresheet, the dominance was clear practically from the beginning that the Engineers were the dominant side on the evening.

After failing to score on an early power play chance and then killing a penalty of their own, RPI opened the scoring with a goal by Bo Dolan, then got two more in quick succession - Ryan Haggerty's 12th goal of the year and Matt Neal's 6th, with all three goals coming in a span of 4:17, quickly getting the Engineers up to a 3-0 edge.

After the Golden Knights took a penalty with two seconds remaining in the first period, the Engineers went right back to work early in the second, with Jacob Laliberte scoring his 8th goal of the year 42 seconds in to put RPI up 4-0. After another Clarkson penalty, Nick Bailen notched his second of the weekend five seconds into the power play and just about a minute and a half after Laliberte's goal to give RPI the 5-0 lead after just 22 minutes of gametime, and on just 10 total shots. That spelled the end of Clarkson netminder Greg Lewis' night, and senior Cody Rosen came on in relief. That stemmed the tide at least a little bit, especially since the Engineers got yet another power play just seconds after Bailen's goal, but were they were unable to convert.

Bailen's second goal of the night at 9:08 put RPI up 6-0, and from there the Engineers were essentially on cruise control.

With things well in hand, Kasdorf's other shutout streak ended in the third period as the freshman gave up his first even-strength goal since early in the third period against Union at the Times Union Center, a stretch of over four full contests, at 8:06 of the third period. Clarkson picked up a second goal just 1:02 later, but a massive comeback was not in order as RPI, despite a lackadaisical third period, did not give up any more. They were helped by a major penalty against a Clarkson forward with under five minutes to play, and the final minutes played out with the Engineers basically just passing the puck around in the Clarkson zone.

The sweep was RPI's fourth ever in the North Country, and their first since the 2004-05 season. It was also the third time in four seasons that the team swept a road weekend.

Other junk - RPI received a vote in the USCHO poll for the first time since October, with one of 40 voters choosing the Engineers as the 20th best team in the nation, which is all of one vote. On a much larger front, Quinnipiac is the #1 team in the country for the first time, garnering 41 of 50 first place votes after sweeping Cornell and Colgate. #10 Yale (idle due to the snowstorm, no change) and #17 Dartmouth (tied Harvard, no change) were the only other ranked ECAC teams this week, a seasonal low for the conference. Union (40 votes, ex-18th), Colgate (2) and St. Lawrence (2) also received votes. Other teams on the RPI schedule ranked this week were #5 New Hampshire (down one), #8 St. Cloud State (no change), #9 Minnesota State (up two), and #13 Boston University (no change). Ferris State (12) also received votes.

Despite the two wins, Kasdorf's numbers dropped on the national level. His save percentage dipped to .938 and his goals against average is down to 1.60. That makes him sixth in the nation on the former category and fourth on the latter.

With four straight wins, the Engineers are on the nation's longest current win streak, and fourth longest unbeaten streak.

Twin challenges at home for RPI this week as Brown and Anthony Borelli come to town. The Bears' senior netminder has keyed the Bears' small resurgence this season in a similar fashion as did Jason Kasdorf, with slightly better numbers in almost exactly the same amount of time between the pipes. That's followed by a visit from Yale, a team that can score in bunches. Although playing at home, these teams present a solid challenge for the Engineers, but fortunately they are playing as well as anyone in the league right now.

The standings below are adjusted for actual tiebreakers now with the end of the season coming up. RPI is in a three-way tie for third. They lose that three-way tie to Princeton, but have the edge on Dartmouth right now thanks to, essentially, their tie with Quinnipiac (third tiebreaker is record against the Top 4).

ECAC Standings
1. Quinnipiac - 30 points (14-0-2)
2. Yale - 19 points (9-5-1)
3. Princeton - 17 points (7-6-3)
4. RPI - 17 points (7-6-3)
5. Dartmouth - 17 points (7-6-3)
6. St. Lawrence - 16 points (6-6-4)
7. Union - 16 points (6-6-4)
8. Clarkson - 15 points (6-7-3)
9. Colgate - 13 points (5-8-3)
10. Brown - 13 points (4-6-5)
11. Cornell - 10 points (4-10-2)
12. Harvard - 7 points (3-12-1)

RPI at St. Lawrence
ECAC Game - Appleton Arena (Canton, NY)
2/8/13 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 4, St. Lawrence 3 (OT)

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
Watertown Daily Times

RECORD: 11-11-5 (6-6-3 ECAC, 15 points)

RPI at Clarkson
ECAC Game - Cheel Arena (Potsdam, NY)
2/9/13 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 6, Clarkson 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union
Watertown Daily Times

RECORD: 12-11-5 (7-6-3 ECAC, 17 points)

Upcoming games
15 Feb - Brown
16 Feb - #10 Yale
22 Feb - at Cornell
23 Feb - at Colgate
02 Mar - Clarkson

Youth Movement

It has been a rough year on both sides, there's no question. But there's reason for optimism - both the men's and women's teams have young talent that is taking the lead on a lot of things.

At the beginning of the second half of the season, there were two good options for the men - either play your best players and hope for the best result from them, or get your younger players more experience with an eye toward the future.

Ultimately, those options were realistically the same thing. That has seen some upperclassmen fighting for ice time. There's no reason not to expect that, when healthy, we will see all five freshman forwards in the lineup on the men's side.

The freshman are making a significant impact on the women's team as well, with Eleeza Cox, Ali Svoboda, and Taylor Mahoney each making solid contributions already.

Six of the top ten scorers for the men are freshmen and sophomores (and four are freshmen).  Six of the seven freshman skaters have put the puck in the net this season at least once.  Freshmen lead both teams in goals scored (Ryan Haggerty with five and Cox with eight).

Those sophomores and freshmen will be juniors and sophomores next year, and both teams have some pretty solid recruits ready to come in as freshmen next season, too. More on them soon.

In the meantime, it's game day for the women as they head off to play at Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend.  Neither team, of course, can be considered low-hanging fruit, but neither seem invincible either. Might be a good weekend to gain some ground if the team plays as well as they did last weekend in a solid win over Colgate (which was followed by a "hang in there and don't get killed" outing against Cornell, easily the class of the league).

Here's a pumpup for the women this weekend. Been looking for a good excuse to go with Muse, this feels like the weekend.



We'll have another tomorrow for the men as they spend today making sure their immunizations are up to date for the yearly trip to Schenectady.

And once again, apologies for the recent lack of content. Podcasts will be returning as soon as our new computer arrives.

Men's Hockey - Yale & Brown (11/12 Nov)

Snapping a long losing streak often brings a sigh of relief, but RPI's first victory in nine games, which came on Saturday, was anything but relief for a team still struggling to put the puck in the net. The offensive woes returned in RPI's second league weekend, marring an otherwise outstanding game on Friday as the Engineers fell on Black Friday for the first time, dropping a closely played 2-0 contest with first-place Yale, but RPI's lone goal of the weekend on Saturday was enough to put the team in the win column for the first time in over a month as Bryce Merriam picked up his first career shutout in a 1-0 victory over Brown.

Yale
Lee/Higgs/Schroeder

McGowan/O'Grady/Haggerty

Cullen/Laliberte/Rabbani

Angers-Goulet/Rogic/Malchuk

Leboeuf/Bergin

Koudys/Bailen

Leonard/Dolan

Merriam

Black Friday is always an optimistic time for the Engineers, and with Jacob Laliberte returning to the lineup, the team became as close to 100% as they could possibly get, with freshman Matt Neal the only player still out with injury. Even with a tough task in Yale coming into the Field House, there was at least a little optimism that this could be the week that the Engineers made it out of their funk.

Unfortunately, the Engineers got behind early thanks to a bad defensive maneuver. Pat Koudys gave the puck away to Yale senior Josh Balch, who came in unmolested against Bryce Merriam, and the senior coolly faked Merriam out and stuck it in to give Yale a 1-0 lead just 1:51 into the game. When a team is struggling to score, scoring first can be a big help. But just like that, RPI was already in the hole.

From there, the game was actually pretty tight the rest of the way. The Engineers got plenty of power play opportunities practically start to finish, but the offensive woes, which have extended to the man advantage, continued. Despite 12 full minutes of power play chances, RPI simply could not put one in the net. Yale's outstanding penalty kill no doubt had much to do with it, but nothing at all was going to beat Yale's Jeff Malcolm, who appears to be stepping in to answer Yale's overriding question coming into the season about offense. He is on fire early this season, with three consecutive shutouts. Malcolm made 27 stops, including 13 in the second period, to keep RPI off the board for the second straight game.

Clinton Bourbonais (no relation to RPI recruit Riley Bourbonnais) gave Yale a two-goal cushion to seal it with under two minutes to play following an untimely slashing call against Ryan Haggerty. Merriam, who made 14 saves in the third period to keep RPI in the game, was pulled for the final 90 seconds, but RPI could not break Malcolm. For the second straight contest, a lengthy extra attacker situation did not result in an empty netter and ended in a 2-0 loss for the Engineers.

Brown
Lee/Higgs/Schroeder

Tinordi/O'Grady/Haggerty

Cullen/Laliberte/Rabbani

Angers-Goulet/Rogic/Malchuk

Leboeuf/Bergin

Koudys/Bailen

Leonard/Dolan

Merriam

Despite the struggles, only one change came down for Saturday's lineup against a Brown team that had upset Union the previous night - freshman Mark McGowan was replaced by sophomore Matt Tinordi, an expected move for a team that tends to play a more physical game like the Bears.

The first period was a veritable parade to the penalty box for RPI, as three penalties resulted in three power plays for Brown, but Merriam and the penalty killers stood tall as they have done all year - the penalty kill went 8-for-9 on the weekend. Merriam made 10 saves, but the RPI offense was stymied, racking up a ninth straight period without scoring a goal.

It appeared likely that the second period would become the 10th straight without a goal despite 11 shots in the middle frame, but a late penalty to Brown freshman Massimo Lamacchia put RPI on its second power play of the night, and Ryan Haggerty finally broke a scoreless streak of just over 200 minutes in the final minute with a laser of a one-timer from Nick Bailen and Jacob Laliberte to get RPI on the board and give them a 1-0 lead for only the second time this season.

The goal, however, was not enough to fully jumpstart the offense, which remains a concern going forward. Two early opportunities to grab a cushion with power plays starting in the second and fourth minutes of the third went for naught. RPI successfully killed two penalties later in the period, and though they couldn't put the puck in the net despite 1:26 of extra attacker time at the end of the period for Brown, the Engineers still held on for the 1-0 victory, gaining their first two points in league play.

The victory is obviously important for RPI as they try to regain their confidence, but just one goal on the weekend, and only two in the last two weekends, both by Ryan Haggerty, leads one to believe that there is still more work to be done to shake the offensive problems that have plagued the team.

It's a quick turnaround for RPI, as they host Route 7 rivals Union tomorrow night in the fall semester finale at Houston Field House. The Engineers have, for several years, always "gotten up" for Union, and we've seen some real doozies between RPI and the Dutchmen over the last couple of seasons, including three memorable meetings last season. Might this be the moment that offense breaks loose from the icy grip of despair? We'll see. These are two important points, with the Engineers currently sitting in last place after four games. A win would at least bounce them out of the doldrums.

Other junk - For the second week in a row, Union and Yale have swapped positions in the USCHO poll - meaning they're back where they started the ECAC season. #9 Yale (swept RPI/Union, up four) and #13 Union (swept by Brown/Yale, down four) are joined in the rankings this week by #17 Colgate (beat Dartmouth, lost to Harvard, up one) and #18 Cornell (swept Harvard/Dartmouth, previously unranked). Also ranked this week are #4 Notre Dame (swept Alaska, up three with one first place vote), #5 Colorado College (lost to #11 Denver, down two), and #6 Ferris State (beat and tied #12 Lake Superior State, up two). Receiving votes this week were Ex-#19 Quinnipiac (56), Ex-#17 Dartmouth (37), Clarkson (26), and Harvard (3).

RPI's offense is about to hit rock bottom, with 10 goals in 11 games, their 0.91 goals per game average is besting only Alabama-Huntsville's 0.83 (10 in 12 games). Every other team in the nation is scoring at least a goal and a half per game.

Fueling the problem is a total of four goals in the last six contests, and the Engineers haven't scored an even strength goal since Patrick Cullen's tally with 4 seconds left in the second period in the first game against Colorado College - a drought of 320:04, over five hours of game time. Also, it's worth recalling that a full 40% of RPI's goals scored this year came in just one of their games, the 4-1 victory over Minnesota State. We're certainly a long way from that 7-0 goal bonanza of an exhibition game against Acadia.

And, oh yeah. We're a third of the way through the season already.

ECAC Standings

1. Cornell - 6 pts (3-1-0, +6 GD)

2. Yale - 6 pts (3-1-0, +4 GD)

3. St. Lawrence - 6 pts (3-1-0, +2 GD)

4. Colgate - 4 pts (2-2-0, +2 GD)

5. Brown - 4 pts (2-2-0, -1 GD, 10 GF)

6. Union - 4 pts (2-2-0, -1 GD, 6 GF)

7. Dartmouth - 4 pts (2-2-0, -2 GD)

8. Princeton - 4 pts (2-3-0)

9. Quinnipiac - 4 pts (1-2-2)

10. Harvard - 3 pts (1-2-1, -1 GD)

11. Clarkson - 3 pts (1-2-1, -2 GD)

12. RPI - 2 pts (1-3-0)

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

RESULT: Yale 2, RPI 0

BOX SCORES

College Hockey Stats

USCHO

RECAPS

RPI

Troy Record

Albany Times Union

Yale Daily News

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

Reale Deals

1. G Bryce Merriam, 27 saves

2. F Brock Higgs, 6 shots

3. D Nick Bailen, 5 shots

Brown at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/12/11 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 1, Brown 0

BOX SCORES

College Hockey Stats

USCHO

RECAPS

RPI

Troy Record

Albany Times Union

RECORD: 2-9-0 (1-3-0 ECAC, 2 pts)

Reale Deals

1. F Ryan Haggerty, 1 G

2. G Bryce Merriam, 22 saves, SO

3. F Jacob Laliberte, 1 A

Upcoming games

15 Nov - #13 Union

25 Nov - at RIT

02 Dec - at Princeton

03 Dec - at Quinnipiac

10 Dec - vs. Union (Lake Placid, NY)

Men's Hockey - Minnesota State (7/8 Oct)

The season officially got underway this past weekend with a pair of home games against a WCHA opponent, the first time that's happened since November 2003, when St. Cloud State visited for a pair of non-league games. This time, the opponent was Minnesota State, a program which the Engineers had never faced before. The Mavericks were picked in both the media and coaches polls to finish 11th in the 12 team league, so there was a bit of optimism that the Engineers might be able to get out of the gate quickly. They did, but were unable to finish on Friday (hindered in part by a hot goaltender) and had to settle for a weekend split, falling 1-0 late in the Friday game before bouncing back for a 4-1 victory on Saturday night.

Friday
Cullen/O'Grady/Haggerty

Laliberte/Higgs/Lee

Tinordi/Malchuk/Rabbani

Angers-Goulet/Neal/Schroeder

Koudys/Bergin
Leboeuf/Bailen

Leonard/Dolan

Diebold

Greg Burgdoerfer and Mark McGowan were ruled out of this game due to injuries, while Bryce Merriam was considered questionable before ultimately dressing as the backup. Otherwise, the line sheets were almost the same as they had been against Acadia with the exception of the extra skaters.

The story of Friday's game was mostly of the goaltending, as Scott Diebold and Minnesota State's Austin Lee put on a show. The Engineers controlled play for much of the game and peppered Lee with shots throughout - especially in the third period - but simply could not gain a leg up on the Mavericks.

In stark contrast to their 5-for-7 power play performance against Acadia, the Engineers' power play was completely shut down on Friday, finishing without a single goal in 10 opportunities with the man advantage. That's not to say that RPI wasn't taking their chances, especially many of the younger players. Ryan Haggerty did everything but score for RPI, once hitting the post and once being robbed on the doorstep by Lee. The freshman forward had six shots on goal to lead RPI, Nick Bailen had four, while Patrick Cullen, Jacob Laliberte, Brock Higgs, Matt Neal and Mike Bergin all had three a piece, many in decent opportunities to put the puck in the net. Each time, they simply couldn't place the puck where they needed to, or Lee came up with a fantastic save.

Diebold was doing very well in more limited action at the other end of the ice as well. On more than one occasion, the freshman kept the Engineers from giving up the first goal with some brilliant play, including some outstanding lateral movement through the crease. Again, many observers compared his play to that of Allen York, with the main exception being a lack of proclivity for wandering out of the crease to play the puck.

Ultimately, as many of these games tend to conclude, the winning goal came on a very bad defensive play, and the responsible party, somewhat shockingly, was Bailen, RPI's returning All-American. A bad pass during a late four-on-four ended up on the stick of MSU's Eriah Hayes, who was in the zone with Cameron Cooper and only Bailen and Diebold to beat. Hayes' shot was kept out of the net by a brilliant save from Diebold, but the rebound bounced directly to Cooper, and Diebold's save left him unable to get to Cooper's shot (although he certainly tried), which went in just under the crossbar with 1:22 remaining in regulation.

Diebold was pulled for the extra skater almost immediately, but the five-on-four became a five-on-five just 22 seconds later, and the Engineers spent most of their time trying to keep the puck out of the empty net. They were successful in that task, but still had to swallow the pain of a late-goal loss.

Saturday
Rogic/Malchuk/Rabbani

Lee/O'Grady/Schroeder

Cullen/Higgs/Haggerty

Laliberte/Angers-Goulet/Smith

Leonard/Bergin

Leboeuf/Bailen

Curadi/Koudys

Merriam

The next day, Johnny Rogic got his first taste of the ice, replacing Matt Tinordi on the grind line, while Luke Curadi replaced Bo Dolan in the lineup. With assistant captain Justin Smith joining in as well and Bryce Merriam deemed healthy enough to get the start, the Engineers already have just two players - Mark McGowan and Jeremy Coupal - who haven't seen the ice at all this season.

Minnesota State also switched things up in net, turning on Saturday to Phil Cook, and replacing captain Tyler Elbrecht, who suffered a broken arm in Friday's game.

Unlike Friday's game, we didn't have to wait until the 59th minute of the game to get the first goal. 11 minutes in, Minnesota State went up 1-0 on a goal by Johnny McInnis. The Mavericks outshot the Engineers for the first and only time on the weekend in the 1st period, but Bryce Merriam showed early that he was up to the task of being RPI's top goaltender by stopping 12 out of 13 in the opening frame.

If you had Guy Leboeuf in the pool for RPI's first scorer of the season, you're weird, but that's exactly who finally landed the Engineers' first tally with a blistering slapper from the top of the faceoff circle in the final minute of the first, tying the score at one heading into the intermission.

The second period got off with a bang, as well as groans from the RPI faithful. 15 seconds in, a scrum in front of the Mankato net caused by a quick stop in front of the goaltender by speedy Johnny Rogic somehow resulted in a two minute five-on-three for the Mavericks - and RPI backers will be unsurprised to learn that Bryan Hicks was in the stripes for this one. Despite a number of long and difficult defensive situations in the RPI zone, the Engineers held firm, and kept the game tied by the end of the penalties.

Mankato would get a tough call in their direction as well just a couple of minutes later, as Eriah Hayes was sent to the dressing room early for a contact-to-the-head penalty, which is an area of emphasis this season. That put RPI on a five minute power play, and they capitalized late in that long advantage with a goal from the power play quarterback, Nick Bailen, putting the Engineers up 2-1.

In the final minute of the period, a fortuitous bounce gave RPI some insurance. With the puck heading to the back of the net, Cook went back to retrieve it and tried to clear the zone himself, but it ended up on Joel Malchuk's stick, who quickly fired it into the open net before Cook could return to give the Engineers a 3-1 lead at the second intermission.

A holding penalty against Cameron Cooper in the third period led to RPI's second power play tally of the night when Pat Koudys ripped a laser from near the blue line that managed to evade everyone and everything in front to find the back of the net and give the Engineers a rock-solid 4-1 edge that they would not relinquish.

Bryce Merriam, just as Scott Diebold had the night before, looked very comfortable in net, and RPI appears to have two fantastic options in goal behind a set of blueliners that not only was very capable in allowing just one goal each night, but showed ability in shooting from the outside as well with three of RPI's four goals coming from defensemen.

The Engineers now hit the road for three straight games in the midwest, starting this coming weekend at Seth Appert's alma mater, Ferris State. The Bulldogs had a solid year last season and got their season started with a weekend sweep in Canton against St. Lawrence. They're part of a difficult set of upcoming games that will challenge the team in advance of the start of league games at the beginning of November.

Other junk - With the split weekend, the Engineers fell to the edge of the USCHO poll, staying in at number 20, just a few votes ahead of ECAC rivals Colgate, who impressed by winning the Maverick Stampede in Omaha with victories over Robert Morris and Nebraska-Omaha. Ranked ECAC teams are #10 Yale (idle, down one with one first place vote), #11 Union (beat Army, no change), and #19 Cornell (idle, up one). Other ranked teams on the RPI schedule are #2 Notre Dame (split with Minnesota-Duluth, down one with seven first place votes) and #7 Colorado College (idle, no change). Colgate (71 votes), Ferris State (60), Dartmouth (31), RIT (8), Harvard (6), Quinnipiac (3), and Minnesota State (2) each received consideration this week.

On injuries, with Merriam and Haggerty already returning to action, the word is that Burgdoerfer and McGowan will be able to return in the near future, with the Colorado College weekend at the end of the month eyed as the potential return point for both players.

Also, it's worth pointing out that the reported "eighth defenseman" position was not filled before the season began. It had been expected that a walk-on would join the team in an emergency role.

Minnesota State at #18 RPI
Non-Conference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
10/7/11 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Minnesota State 1, RPI 0

BOX SCORES

College Hockey Stats

USCHO

RECAPS

RPI

Associated Press

Troy Record

Albany Times Union

Schenectady Daily Gazette

Mankato Free Press

104.5 WTMM-FM

VIDEO

Highlights (YouTube, no audio)

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

Reale Deals

1. G Scott Diebold, 19 saves

2. F Ryan Haggerty, 6 shots

3. F Brock Higgs, 3 shots

Minnesota State at #18 RPI
Non-Conference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
10/8/11 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 4, Minnesota State 1

BOX SCORES

College Hockey Stats

USCHO

RECAPS

RPI

Associated Press

Troy Record

Albany Times Union

Mankato Free Press

VIDEO

Full game (RPI TV)

Highlights (YouTube, no audio)

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

Reale Deals

1. F Ryan Haggerty, 2 A, 5 shots

2. G Bryce Merriam, 31 saves

3. D Guy Leboeuf, 1 G, 3 shots

Upcoming games
14 Oct - at Ferris State
15 Oct - at Ferris State
21 Oct - at #2 Notre Dame

28 Oct - #7 Colorado College

29 Oct - #7 Colorado College