Know Your Enemy: Yale

After thrashing poor Princeton 6-0 on February 26, Yale was 19-5-4 and unbeaten in 16 of 17 with an eight-game winning streak. The next night's game against Quinnipiac would be difficult, of course, since their record and streaks were pretty similar, but the Bulldogs did look ready for deep ECAC and NCAA runs. They got neither, following a 4-1 road loss in Hamden, Yale limped to the end in getting swept by Dartmouth at home in the ECAC quarterfinals and falling in overtime to UMass-Lowell, ending their otherwise strong season with a regrettable four-game losing streak, their worst since a five-game streak in 2013 (which did end up an OK year for them, all things considered).

Yale
Nickname: Bulldogs
Location: New Haven, CT
Founded: 1701
Conference: ECAC (Ivy League)
National Championships: 1 (2013)
Last NCAA Appearance: 2016
Last Frozen Four: 2013
Coach: Keith Allain (11th season)
2015-16 Record: 19-9-4 (14-5-3 ECAC, 2nd place)
Series: RPI leads, 56-45-6
First Game: January 22, 1909 (Albany, NY)
Last RPI win: November 13, 2015 (Troy, NY)
Last YU win: January 30, 2016 (New Haven, CT)

2016-17 games: November 5, 2016 (Troy, NY); December 9, 2016 (New Haven, CT)

Key players: F Frankie DiChiara, sr.; F Mike Doherty, sr.; F John Hayden, sr.; F Chris Izmirlian, sr.; G Patrick Spano, sr.; F Ryan Hitchcock, jr.; D Adam Larkin, jr.; D Nate Repensky, jr.; F Ted Hart, so.; F JM Piotrowski, so.; F Joe Snively, so.; G Sam Tucker, so.; D Anthony Walsh, so.; F Will D'Orsi, fr.; G Corbin Kaczperski, fr.; D Chandler Lindstrand, fr.; F Luke Stevens, fr.

Key losses: G Alex Lyon, D Rob O'Gara, F Stu Wilson, D Ryan Obuchowski, F Cody Learned, D Mitch Witek, F Carson Cooper

Previous KYE installments:

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

Ouch. That's a lot of important names that are gone, first and foremost Lyon, their all-everything goaltender. In a league that was brimming with some of the nation's top goaltenders, Lyon became the first-ever repeat winner of the ECAC's Ken Dryden Award, the aptly named title for the best netminder in the league. If not for the Hobey Baker season of Harvard's Jimmy Vesey, he would have been a very compelling candidate for ECAC Player of the Year as well. When he was on, Yale was practically impossible to beat. On top of five shutouts, he limited the opposition to just one goal on nine occasions. When you add in a team where 12 players reached double digits in points for the season, and that's a scary prospect to have to tangle with.

That's easily Yale's primary challenge for 2017 - defense. As we've said ad nauseum, a little goaltending can go a long way in the ECAC, and the Elis are moving from a sure thing to a bit of a tossup between the pipes. Kaczperski comes in as Lyon's immediate replacement, but Spano and Tucker will likely also be part of the mix. Spano has appeared in just nine games over three years - but to be fair, he was behind Lyon the whole time. Tucker made no appearances during his freshman season last year, and Kaczperski only just committed in February, likely when it became apparent that Lyon wasn't going to be sticking around. None of the three are obvious choices to either earn the top spot nor obvious to be serving in a backup role - perhaps a bit of a bonus for the Engineers, as they face Yale at home very early in the ECAC schedule, and it's a good bet the role won't be firmly hashed out by then.

The core of Yale's blue line group has been gutted as well with the loss of three seniors in O'Gara, Obuchowski, and Witek. Larkin and Repensky (the latter of which missed 16 games last season to injury) should be the new core, but they'll be leading a plenty young group of defensemen. Yale seems to always find ways to put up a fairly strong defensive front, but they'll be hard pressed to duplicate last year's national best team GAA (1.78) and penalty kill (94.4%) minus the outstanding quartet that they're losing.

The good news is that the Bulldogs still have a ton of offense to choose from. Hayden finally had a breakout season last year in leading Yale with 16 goals, and Snively, the ECAC Rookie of the Year, is a bonafide college star in the making, pacing Yale's balanced attack with 28 points as a freshman.

They do lose some important attacking ability with Wilson (who's already moved on to become the USHL's Director of Hockey Operations) and Learned, not to mention the offensive capacity of O'Gara and Obuchowski, who combined for 100 points for their careers from the blue line, but there are a multitude of options for the Bulldogs in the attacking zone. Six of the 12 who reached double digits in points are back (Snively, Hayden, DiChiara, Hitchcock, Izmirlian, and Doherty), plus it wouldn't be shocking if guys like Ted Hart, Piotrowski (now minus his flow), or NHL draftee Stevens (son of former NHLer Kevin Stevens) filled in the gaps in the attacking balance.

So Yale is probably still at least a little bit scary, but probably not 2013 or 2016 scary. They're in a better position than their travel partners because of their attacking depth, but they'll definitely look more like they're spinning tires by comparison to last season if they don't get a solid defensive front hammered down by the New Year. They could probably win a few track meets, but their traditional set up under Keith Allain has pretty much required defensive success to breed seasonal success.

That probably makes it a very good thing from RPI's perspective that both games against the Bulldogs will come before the New Year - in fact, both well before Christmas. These two squads usually link up for some pretty fun contests, and you have to give the edge to the winner of the battle between RPI's offense and Yale's defense, the expected weaker links coming into the season.

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

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

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

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Grant
Moore-Hampton

Kasdorf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Grant
Moore-Hampton

Kasdorf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#16 RPI at Brown

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

RESULT: RPI 4, Brown 3

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

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

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

RESULT: Yale 3, RPI 0

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

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

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

They're All Important

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

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

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

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

Crossroads of a Season

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yale

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

Hansen/Renn
Kimmerle/Godin
Behounek/Banks

Selander

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brown

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

Kimmerle/Godin
Hansen/Renn
Behounek/Banks

Selander

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

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

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

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

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

-----

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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ECAC Standings

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

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Upcoming Schedule

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

Break the Ceiling

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

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

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

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

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

The Engineers are continuing to find ways to pick up league points even without some of their most important players. Sometimes, as with their 3-2 overtime win over nationally-ranked Yale on Friday, it came down to grit, determination, and some superb individual efforts. Others, as with their 3-3 draw with Brown on Saturday, it could be chalked up to refusing to quit and a bit of just plain old dumb luck.

Yale
Liljegren-Bourbonnais-Wood
Melanson-Miller-Nanne
Fulton-Schroeder-Gillespie
Ohrvall, Clary

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Reno
Moore-Hampton
Grant

Hackett

With Milos Bubela and Evan Tironese still out, RPI rolled with the same 11x7 lineup they had put out against St. Lawrence. Jason Kasdorf remained sidelined with the injury he picked up against Clarkson the previous weekend, but he did dress and was available in an emergency capacity, suggesting that his injury should not have him on the shelf for much longer.

RPI had to be the ones setting the tone if they were to have any hope of ending their four-game losing streak against the Bulldogs, and they did that with a goal on their second shift of the game. Mark Miller, fresh off the OT winner against St. Lawrence, notched his third of the year on a shot from the top of the slot to give RPI the early 1-0 advantage as the "M-N-M" line showed flashes of the efficiency that they would show throughout the contest as the top line for the Engineers on the evening.

Yale tied things up five and a half minutes later on a goal by Ryan Hitchcock during a delayed penalty to Meirs Moore as Hitchcock pulled the puck free off the trip by Moore and just worked it straight toward the net and hammered it to Cam Hackett's right.

The Engineers regained the lead in the second period, seconds after a penalty to Jake Wood expired. Riley Bourbonnais picked the puck out of the corner of the Yale zone and zipped it up to Parker Reno, who had plenty of space at the point. Reno ripped a shot that was deflected by Lou Nanne in front, beating Alex Lyon top shelf, giving RPI a 2-1 lead.

That lead held up well into the third period, when Yale evened things once again, this time on the power play. With just under 10 minutes left in regulation, freshman Andrew Gaus netted his first collegiate goal by picking up a rebound behind Hackett from a shot by Stu Wilson, knotting the game at two. Both teams had power play opportunities late, but neither were able to capitalize, and it was off to overtime once again for RPI.

Yale put together a fairly dominating performance early in overtime, forcing Hackett to make one quality save to keep the Engineers in the game, and keeping the RPI defense on its toes for much of the extra period. But a strong counter-attack started by a diving stab by Reno to not only clear the puck but get it to Viktor Liljegren allowed the Swedish sophomore to make a rush up the boards, finishing it with a cut to the net and a lofted shot up over Lyon's shoulder, securing a 3-2 victory for the Engineers.

Hackett finished with 41 saves for the Engineers, giving him 78 across his first two games, both wins, combined - certainly a phenomenal start to his collegiate career.

Brown
Liljegren-Bourbonnais-Wood
Melanson-Miller-Nanne
Fulton-Schroeder-Gillespie
Ohrvall, Clary

Bradley-Prapavessis
Wilson-Reno
Moore-Hampton
Grant

Hackett

For the third straight outing, RPI fielded the same 11x7 lineup with Hackett between the pipes. Brown was coming off their first positive result of the season, a 3-2 come-from-behind overtime victory at Union the previous night.

As has frequently been the case for the Engineers across the last couple of decades, a bit of a letdown was in order off a big win as RPI again seemed to play to the level of their competition, especially in the first period which has frequently been a strong period for them. Outside of a single power play opportunity against which the Engineers unleashed 7 shots in two minutes against a hapless (this is actually a correct usage of the word hapless) Brown penalty kill which was dead last in the nation coming into the game, RPI mustered just five shots in the opening period.

Brown cashed in on their own power play opportunity late in the first, as freshman Tommy Marchin scored with 36 seconds left to make it 1-0 Brown at the first intermission.

The Engineers got two more power play chances in the second period, and again, they produced plenty of scoring opportunities but no goals throughout their second and most of their third power play chances, but Bourbonnais finally broke through late in the third power play to put RPI on the board 12:06 into the second period. RPI looked close to scoring again late in the second, but couldn't put one home.

Any thoughts that the Engineers could take their late-period momentum and turn it into an advantage in the third went out the window almost immediately. Nick Lappin scored just 27 seconds into the third to put Brown up 2-1, and then Lappin scored again on the power play just 2:02 later to put the Bears up 3-1 and put RPI into a serious hole.

But RPI did not back down, digging in for a second straight Saturday and finding a way to pull back into things. A shot by Jared Wilson three minutes later was redirected in by Kenny Gillespie, halving the Brown lead, and RPI was all the way back four minutes after that with a goal by Zach Schroeder while Bears netminder Tim Ernst was being screened by his own man, tying the game at three.

A lackluster finish led into RPI's fourth consecutive overtime game - the first time that's happened since five in a row in February 1992. That period featured some good end-to-end action until a fairly weak elbowing call against Bourbonnais - possibly called as a make-up call after a strong hit at the end of regulation went (reasonably) uncalled - put Brown on an overtime power play that with 2:21 left.

In the final minute of the game, a Brown shot from the slot was saved by Hackett, but the rebound trickled behind him into the crease. Schroeder rushed over to try and clear it, but his poke-check sent the puck caroming off Hackett and toward the net, which Schroeder was crashing into. Waved off on the ice, the puck was found under Schroeder and in the net once play was stopped. The referees went to have it reviewed, but the replay system malfunctioned, and the initial call on the ice of no goal was upheld despite RPI TV replays fairly clearly showing what should have been a good goal.

Let off the hook by crook, RPI killed the remaining power play time and even had a good possession in the Brown end to conclude the game, but they were unable to pull off the ultimate robbery by putting one in on the other end, and the contest ended in a 3-3 tie. Regardless of the controversial ending, it was the sixth straight game without a loss for the Engineers, representing the team's best unbeaten streak to start the ECAC schedule since the early 1970s, and it leaves them in first place three weeks into the season - although most teams will play their games in hand this coming weekend while RPI heads back into non-conference mode.

Cam Hackett picked up ECAC Rookie of the Week honors for his heroics in leading RPI to their second-straight three point weekend.

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

By winning percentage
1. Quinnipiac (1.000)
2. RPI (.833)
3. Cornell (.750)
4. Harvard (.750)
5. St. Lawrence (.667)
6. Yale (.625)
7. Brown (.375)
8. Dartmouth (.333)
9. Colgate (.250)
10. Clarkson (.167)
11. Union (.167)
12. Princeton (.000)

#10 Yale at RPI

ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/13/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Yale 2 (OT)

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

VIDEO
Highlights
Full game

RECORD: 5-4-1 (4-0-1 ECAC, 9 pts)

Brown at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/14/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Brown 3 (OT)

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS

RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

VIDEO
Highlights
Full game

RECORD: 5-4-2 (4-0-2 ECAC, 10 pts)

Upcoming games
20 Nov - at Bentley
24 Nov - New Hampshire
27 Nov - vs. Western Michigan (South Bend, IN)
28 Nov - at #16 Notre Dame/vs. #8 Harvard (South Bend, IN)
04 Dec - Dartmouth

Prove It Again

Well, another week has passed, and the Engineers are still tied for first place in the ECAC on the men's side. Huzzah. Now comes the real test on whether they can stay.

Yale is 1-0-1 on the young ECAC season - the RPI has two games in hand over them, but they won both of those games. But the Engineers aren't part of the real discussion just yet. That's because Yale is still unbeaten overall as well (3-0-1) and have looked very good while doing it. The one blemish against the Bulldogs is a tie against Harvard, another team that has looked very, very good (and is in fact tied with RPI for first place). You see the issue by now. Yale and Harvard tying each other, that's no knock on either of them. The Engineers, meanwhile, still need a signature win to join the conversation.

The opportunity presents itself tonight as the #10 Bulldogs come to Troy. When it comes to upsets in the Appert era, Yale has provided more than their share, although the Bulldogs have certainly had RPI's number of late. Yale swept by a combined 9-3 score last year, and 8-2 a year before that. In 2012-13, though, it was 10-2 RPI. The Bulldogs frequently seem to avoid having to face off against Jason Kasdorf - over the last two seasons, only the most recent game came against the Engineers' top netminder. They're likely to avoid him again tonight, although Cam Hackett showed off some skill over the weekend in the North Country. This shouldn't be as easy as it's been in the last couple of seasons.

Tonight's game is a tough one, but Saturday's against Brown has to be one where RPI takes points - probably both - if they want to be taken seriously. Last year, they were swept by the Bears for the first time in almost 20 years. That's a stain that needs to be washed away if they are to prove they're a better team than they were last season. Brown is 0-3 to start the season and they've given up 19 goals in three games - by comparison, RPI has given up 25 in 9. Get it done.

The women face an even more daunting challenge this weekend as they travel to face probably the most difficult back-to-back pairing in the ECAC this season, Dartmouth and Harvard. Their upset win over Clarkson on Saturday last weekend made the loss to St. Lawrence tough to swallow, but it did prove that good goaltending can keep any team in any game long enough to do some damage, and that's exactly what the Engineers got from ECAC Goalie of the Week Lovisa Selander. If she can build on her outstanding weekend, good things are in store going forward for this team. It may not be this weekend, but it'll be soon.

Dropping the beat for this weekend's pumpup.

Know Your Enemy: Yale

The name of the game in basically any sport is to always be a "hard out." When your opponent can beat you, as long as you're making it as difficult on them as you can, you're doing OK. In college hockey, a good way to measure that is to take a look at how many games you either emerged victorious from, managed a draw, or fell by just a single goal (taking out empty net margins if one prefers). Yale returned to the NCAA tournament on an at-large bid last season for the first time since winning the national championship, and in the process of doing so, played only three games all season in which they lost by more than one goal. That's a "hard out," and they aren't likely to get any easier to drop.

Yale
Nickname: Bulldogs
Location: New Haven, CT
Founded: 1701
Conference: ECAC (Ivy League)
National Championships: 1 (2013)
Last NCAA Appearance: 2015
Last Frozen Four: 2013
Coach: Keith Allain (10th season)
2014-15 Record: 18-10-5 (12-6-4 ECAC, 3rd place)
Series: RPI leads, 55-44-6
First Game: January 22, 1909 (Albany, NY)
Last RPI win: February 16, 2013 (Troy, NY)
Last YU win: February 14, 2015 (Troy, NY)

2015-16 games: November 13, 2015 (Troy, NY); January 30, 2016 (New Haven, CT)

Key players: F Carson Cooper, sr.; F Cody Learned, sr.; D Ryan Obuchowski, sr.; D Rob O'Gara, sr.; F Stu Wilson, sr.; D Mitch Witek, sr.; F Frankie DiChiara, jr.; F Mike Doherty, jr.; F John Hayden, jr.; G Alex Lyon, jr.; F Ryan Hitchcock, so.; D Adam Larkin, so.; D Nate Repensky, so.; F Ted Hart, fr.; F Joe Snively, fr.

Key losses: D Tommy Fallen, D Matt Killian, F Trent Ruffolo

Previous KYE installments:

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

Those three games? A 4-0 loss to St. Lawrence at home in early November at the very beginning of the season (Yale's only truly bad loss of the entire season, although Kyle Hayton had a lot to do with it, stopping 32 shots), a 3-1 loss at home to Union in early December (a game which was knotted at zero until two Daniel Ciampini goals at the end of the second period 39 seconds apart), and a 6-4 road loss at Dartmouth in early February.

30 other games were either winners, ties, or games where the Bulldogs were certainly right in it to the bitter end, including the 3-2 overtime loss to a championship game-bound BU squad in the first round of the NCAA tournament, a game that seemed eerily familiar to the Bulldogs' first round game against Minnesota in 2013 with the exception of the overtime winner going against them.

Yale has long proved the old axiom that defense wins championships, especially since they seem to always have solid offense over the last several campaigns. When they get good defense, they become a very, very good team, and that's just what they had last season - and this coming season - in Dryden Award winner Lyon and the ECAC's Best Defenseman winner in O'Gara. They anchor a defensive stand that has really now eclipsed the Bulldogs' offensive capacity. Yale was the top defensive team in the nation last year at a total team GAA of 1.64. That figure represented college hockey's stingiest defense in over a decade, since Cornell put up an incredible 1.29 team GAA in 2005.

Fallen and Killian were key elements as 1/3 of the blue line group (Fallen appeared in every game, Killian missed just one), but fully half of that corps are now seniors in O'Gara, Obuchowski, and Witek, three of the very best defensemen in the ECAC.

Lyon's 1.62 personal GAA and .939 save percentage were both tops in the nation, and while he didn't play, he was part of Team USA's World Championship team (not a junior team, mind you - essentially the national senior team) that won a bronze medal in the Czech Republic this past May. He backed former UMass-Lowell netminder Connor Hellebuyck, who was arguably the tournament's best goalie.

On offense, the Bulldogs aren't the same kind of team they were a few years ago when they were regularly at the top of the league and won their national championship. They don't have the one or two guys that are overpowering with the puck, guys like Jesse Root and Kenny Agostino who would just bury it so regularly that the rest of the team was, quite frankly, gravy. But Yale last year managed to get good balance, much like the North Country teams, and that perfectly complimented the great defense they tended to get on a night in, night out basis. The team's top eight scorers return from last year, and nine players return who had at least 10 points.

The stars seem to be aligning in New Haven to produce not only one of the best teams in the ECAC, but one of the best teams in the nation as well. There's a bit of untapped potential in Hayden, who arrived highly touted but has had a couple of fairly pedestrian seasons thus far, he could be ready for a breakout year. If that happens, and the Bulldogs get the same offensive balance and defensive dominance that they had last year, anything can happen.

RPI-Yale matchups have been a lot of fun for a number of years, but last year's two games broke the "close game and/or anyone can win" mold a bit. The Bulldogs dominated the Engineers twice last year in a pair of games in which RPI wasn't really even close. The Engineers will require a strong defensive front against Yale if they are to have a shot, and low-scoring contests are going to be the name of the game for any team that wants to beat the Bulldogs - the kind of game where a good bounce is going to be the difference maker.

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

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

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

Wood-Bourbonnais-DeVito

Curadi-Leonard
Prapavessis-Bradley
Wilson-Reno

Kasdorf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wood-Bourbonnais-DeVito

Leonard-Bradley
Prapavessis-Bokenfohr
Curadi-Wilson

Kasdorf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RESULT: Brown 6, RPI 3

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

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

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

RESULT: Yale 4, RPI 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

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

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

Statistic of the Year

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leonard-Prapavessis
Bradley-Hampton
Wilson-Reno

Diebold

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leonard-Prapavessis
Bradley-Hampton
Wilson-Reno

Diebold

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RESULT: Yale 5, RPI 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

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

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

RESULT: Brown 4, RPI 2

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

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

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

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

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

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

Brown

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

Banks/Schilter
Kimmerle/Godin
Middlebrook/Behounek

Piper

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yale

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

Banks/Schilter
Kimmerle/Godin
Middlebrook/Behounek

O'Brien

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

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

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

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

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

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

-----

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

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

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

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

-----

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

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

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

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

-----

Upcoming Schedule

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

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ECAC Standings

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

Climbing the Mountain

Lou Nanne was the leading scorer for the Engineers. Then he hurt his shoulder and he's missed four games (set to become five and probably six this weekend).

While he was out, Drew Melanson became the team's leading scorer. He's out now, too. Mononucleosis.

Jason Kasdorf has been an absolute rock for RPI between the pipes almost since he arrived on campus. The team has simply played better when he's in goal. He's missing his third straight game tonight.

The injuries have not been a few and they're impacting some of the most key players on the squad. With that as the backdrop, the Engineers take off for Yale and Brown this weekend needing a minimum of 2 points to keep up their momentum in league play. It's not going to be easy, especially tonight against a Yale team that has found its groove on defense.

Meanwhile, the time is now for the women. Tied with Union in last place with no points in league play so far, there will be few weekends better to nab league points than at home against Brown (2 points, earned against St. Lawrence) and Yale (2 points, earned against Colgate). The Engineers finally picked up their second win last Friday against RIT, but then had a power outage the next afternoon in being shutout by the Tigers.

It's a daunting task facing both squads, but that's why we watch.

Know Your Enemy: Yale

The year after winning a national championship can sometimes be difficult to traverse. A team that's just won it all practically always has to deal with key components being gone the next season. The Bulldogs lost fewer of those elements than most teams, but they didn't really come close to repeating, anyway. Yale's trip around the sun as reigning national champs was a little bit of everything. It didn't end with more trophies or even a return to the NCAA tournament, but it wasn't terrible, either. It wasn't middling, but it wasn't exactly full of dread. It was simply a decent season without being much to write home about.

Yale
Nickname: Bulldogs
Location: New Haven, CT
Founded: 1701
Conference: ECAC (Ivy League)
National Championships: 1 (2013)
Last NCAA Appearance: 2013
Last Frozen Four: 2013
Coach: Keith Allain (9th season)
2013-14 Record: 17-11-5 (10-8-4 ECAC, 5th place)
Series: RPI leads, 55-42-6
First Game: January 22, 1909 (Albany, NY)
Last RPI win: February 16, 2013 (Troy, NY)
Last YU win: March 1, 2014 (New Haven, CT)

2014-15 games: December 5, 2014 (New Haven, CT); February 14, 2015 (Troy, NY)

Key players: F Anthony Day, sr.; D Tommy Fallen, sr..; D Matt Killian, sr.; F Trent Ruffolo, sr.; F Carson Cooper, jr.; F Cody Learned, jr.; D Ryan Obuchowski, jr.; D Rob O'Gara, jr.; F Stu Wilson, jr.; D Mitch Witek, jr.; F Frankie DiChiara, so.; F Mike Doherty, so.; F John Hayden, so.; G Alex Lyon, so.; F Johnny Baiocco, fr.; F Ryan Hitchcock, fr.; D Nate Repensky, fr.

Key losses: F Jesse Root, F Kenny Agostino, D Gus Young

Previous KYE installments:

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

Going through an entire season where your longest winless streak is two is something most teams wouldn't mind enduring, but for Yale last year, it didn't result in much of anything when all was said and done. They didn't pick up the first-round bye in part because they just couldn't beat three of the four bye teams - Union, Quinnipiac, and Cornell, accounting for five of their eight league losses (they swept Colgate). 

And, as we mentioned last week, Quinnipiac became quite the bugaboo for the Bulldogs, who won ultimate glory over the local rival, but were swept out of the ECAC playoffs in Hamden after giving up 11 goals in two games, which was more than Yale had given up in their previous six games combined (eight).

Root and Agostino, two definite heroes of the national championship, have now graduated. Yale returns only one player who reached the 20 point mark, and that's Obuchowski, a defenseman, who managed exactly that total. Doherty's 9 goals and 9 assists is tops among returning forwards.

However, the crux of Yale's offense is a balanced attack. 11 returning players notched between 10 and 20 points last season. Only five returning Engineers fall into that range (although two others scored more than 20). It's the number of guys that can manage that level of output that frequently dictates success in distributing the offensive workload. When you've got that kind of team statistic, you're a team that can be dangerous no matter what line is out on the ice.

Yale's defense certainly ran hot and cold last season. Case in point - Union and Princeton scored the same number of goals against the Bulldogs. The aforementioned hot defensive streak at the end of the season destroyed by Quinnipiac. You're going to have that when you're trotting out freshmen goaltenders every night, as the Bulldogs did. Lyon won the starting role fairly quickly, and his numbers weren't awful at .918 and 2.41. As we've said pretty much every year of these Yale capsules, "not awful" is pretty much all Yale generally needs from their netminders.

There's not a lot to dislike about Yale. They've got a couple of go-to guys ready to replace Root and Agostino in Doherty and Hayden - if you want to kvetch about something there, they're both only sophomores. They've got scoring balance. Their power play is pretty solid. Their defense isn't nightmarish even if it could be a little more consistent. The only glaring issues on this team are a penalty kill that needs to be better than it was last year, and a core element that's still a little young.

Keith Allain got this team up to speed within two years of taking control, and other than a lackluster 2012 season where they finished with a .500 record in the very middle of the ECAC, his teams since then have been among the best in the league. While the Bulldogs aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, they've got the chops to be contenders. Their open style of play is still fun to watch, and based on what we saw last season, they've certainly begun to figure out RPI. The Engineers are going to need to take a page from Yale's book and be more dangerous on multiple lines if they're going to run with them.

Men's Hockey - at Brown/Yale (28 Feb/1 Mar)

Coming into the final weekend of the regular season, the Engineers knew they would be playing in the first round of the playoffs, the top four slots in the league being firmly out of reach. They also knew they needed some points in order to guarantee that they would be playing at home in the first round. After grabbing those points with a 3-0 victory against Brown and after playing a decent first period against Yale, the Engineers folded into a 5-0 loss, ending the regular season on a sour note.

Brown
Higgs-Zalewski-Haggerty
Neal-Bubela-Laliberte
McGowan-Miller-Schroeder
Fulton-Rogic-Tinordi

Leboeuf-Leonard
Bradley-Dolan

Curadi-Bokenfohr

Diebold

Milos Bubela returned to the RPI lineup Friday night, replacing Jimmy DeVito, with lines reassembled accordingly. A win or a tie against Brown guaranteed the Engineers home ice in the first round of the ECAC tournament, and while they eventually got there, it took quite some time before the result of the game became unbalanced.

After a first period with no goals and no scoring (albeit with an 11-7 shot advantage for the Engineers), RPI managed to get through the second period without giving up the game's first goal despite a pair of penalties in the middle stanza, one to Mark McGowan for tripping and the other a penalty for too many men that came at the very tail end of RPI's only power play of the period.

The first two periods were basically a goaltender's duel between Scott Diebold and Brown freshman Tyler Steel, with the latter stopping 18 shots to the former's 17 through the first 40 minutes. Both teams had their opportunities, especially Brown who rung two shots off the post.

Shortly after killing Brown's third power play early in the third period, the Engineers would be the first ones onto the board somewhat against the flow of play as Jacob Laliberte rocketed home a rebound off a shot by Matt Neal to score his 6th goal of the year, making it 1-0 Engineers.

Brown's attack did not let up despite going down, and the Bears continued to put the pressure on Scott Diebold. The junior netminder was forced to make several saves to maintain RPI's edge. That pressure eased slightly when once more the Engineers managed a goal against the flow of play. An opportunistic shot by Mark Miller along the Brown blueline was misjudged by Steel, going in on the short side to put RPI up 2-0 on Miller's 3rd goal of the year.

Ultimately, two bad penalties by one of Brown's top forwards, Matt Lorito, helped bring an end to the Brown threat. His nearly back to back calls for hooking and cross-checking allowed RPI a little more breathing room as Brown threw the kitchen sink at the Engineers trying to claw their way back into things. It was not to be, as Diebold stood strong with a 34-save shutout. Zach Schroeder, long snake-bitten on scoring goals, finally secured his first of the year by hitting the empty net just 10 seconds after Steel had vacated it, sealing the victory for RPI and securing home ice in the first round.

Yale
Tinordi-Higgs-Haggerty
Neal-Bubela-Laliberte
McGowan-Miller-Schroeder
Wood-Rogic-DeVito

Leboeuf-Leonard
Bradley-Dolan

Curadi-Bokenfohr

Diebold

With home ice in their back pockets, RPI could take some heart in the fact that nothing that happened outside of their game against Yale would have any impact on where they finished - they would only help determine their opponent, something that was completely out of their hands. The metric was simple. A win would make the Engineers the 6th seed in the tournament, a loss or tie would leave them 7th. In both cases, they would be hosting an undetermined team from the same potential field of teams, making the difference fairly moot with the exception of limiting the potential quarterfinal opponents.

Mike Zalewski, who battled illness over the weekend, was ruled out for the game, and Jake Wood stepped in to take his place. Travis Fulton was also swapped out of the lineup to be replaced by Jimmy DeVito.

The first period was a classic back-and-forth, physical, speed-driven period between RPI and Yale. Both teams picked up plenty of scoring chances, there were plenty of hits, and neither team looked to be giving an inch of ice. Five minutes in, RPI was killing a penalty to Guy Leboeuf that was fortunate to be only a minor, and just after the Lebeouf penalty ended, a high-sticking call to Matt Neal put them right back on the penalty kill, but both times a strong showing on the kill ended without goals for the home team. The 9-8 shot total - the Bulldogs holding the advantage - was very indicative of the evenly played period at even-strength.

Then, as the second period got underway, only one team really seemed to come out for it, and Yale was that team. The Bulldogs began dominating basically every facet of the game as the Engineers shrunk away from their transitional game, their physical play, and their speed. The lopsided shot total for the middle frame - 18-3 for Yale - was also very indicative of how things went. Yale opened the scoring 9:12 into the second period with a goal by Jesse Root. That it was the only goal of the period spoke volumes of how well Scott Diebold was playing in net for the Engineers - his play alone kept RPI in the contest after 40 minutes. Despite how poorly the team was playing, the Engineers were still a good bounce away from tying things up.

In the third period, however, RPI looked even more unready or unwilling to face the Yale challenge, and the floodgates soon opened. An Anthony Day goal 2:25 in made it 2-0, and 10 minutes later a goal from Frankie DiChiara basically sealed RPI into 7th place as the home team took a 3-0 lead with under 8 minutes to play. After 8 shots in the first period, the Engineers managed just 10 more for the remainder of the game, and two more goals given up with under two minutes to play produced a 5-0 rout that ended the regular season.

After a wild ending in Ithaca between Cornell and Harvard, the overtime game that was the last one to finish produced three different potential opponents for the three different potential outcomes. A tie would see Harvard on their way to Troy for the first round. A win by the Crimson would produce Brown. However, with Cornell scoring in the final minute of the overtime period, the Dartmouth Big Green, one of the hottest teams in the league down the stretch, were the ones ordering up a bus to Houston Field House next weekend.

Other junk - Ranked ECAC teams this week included Union (swept Yale/Brown, no change with 1 first place vote), #6 Quinnipiac (beat SLU and tied Clarkson, up two), #13 Cornell (lost to Dartmouth and beat Harvard, down two), #16 Yale (lost to Union and beat RPI, down one), and #18 Colgate (lost to Harvard and beat Dartmouth, down two). Clarkson (17) also received votes. Other ranked teams on the RPI schedule include #1 Minnesota (up one with 37 first place votes), #2 Boston College (down one with 12 first place votes), and #7 Ferris State (down three). Denver (27, previously ranked 20th), New Hampshire (16), and Mercyhurst (8) also received votes.

Ryan Haggerty won the ECAC goal scoring crown by netting 14 goals in league play, one more than Union's Daniel Carr or St. Lawrence's Matt Carey.

Brock Higgs is a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award, given to a senior in each sport with committment to "community, classroom, character and competition." The online vote counts for 1/3 of the final vote tally, and you can vote once per day. To support Brock, click here.

Final ECAC Standings
1. Union - 37 points (18-3-1)
2. Colgate - 29 points (13-6-3)
3. Quinnipiac - 28 points (12-6-4)
4. Cornell - 26 points (11-7-4)
5. Clarkson - 24 points (11-9-2)
6. Yale - 24 points (10-8-4)
7. RPI - 21 points (8-9-5)
8. St. Lawrence - 18 points (7-11-4)
9. Brown - 17 points (8-13-1)
10. Dartmouth - 16 points (7-13-2)
11. Harvard - 16 points (6-12-4)
12. Princeton - 8 points (4-18-0)

ECAC First Round matchups
#12 Princeton at #5 Clarkson
#11 Harvard at #6 Yale
#10 Dartmouth at #7 RPI
#9 Brown at #8 St. Lawrence

RPI at Brown
ECAC Game - Meehan Auditorium (Providence, RI)
2/28/14 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 3, Brown 0

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record

RECORD: 14-13-6 (8-8-5 ECAC, 21 pts)

RPI at #15 Yale
ECAC Game - Ingalls Rink (New Haven, CT)
3/1/14 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Yale 5, RPI 0

BOX SCORES

College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS

RPI
USCHO
Troy Record

RECORD: 14-14-6 (8-9-5 ECAC, 21 pts)

Upcoming games
07 Mar - Dartmouth (ECAC First Round - Game 1)
08 Mar - Dartmouth (ECAC First Round - Game 2)
09 Mar - Dartmouth (ECAC First Round - Game 3, if necessary)
14 Mar - at ECAC Quarterfinals, Game 1 (if qualified)
15 Mar - at ECAC Quarterfinals, Game 2 (if qualified)

The Bitter End

So this is what it all comes down to. RPI's in a good spot to be playing at home next weekend, as long as they scrape together a couple of points in a historically successful road trip at Brown and Yale this weekend.

The last two days, we've laid everything out. Nothing left to do now but play the games. Hopefully, we'll be seeing some more hockey next week at the Field House.

Here you go, Breaking Bad fans. The end is nigh.

Men's Hockey - Yale and Brown (7/8 Feb)

Sometimes, it's the spot mistakes that make the difference between a result and a loss rather than just generally lackadaisical play. In the Engineers penultimate home weekend of the regular season, two costly penalties were quite literally the difference between a home sweep and a home split. Despite some pretty solid play overall by the Engineers against Yale and Brown, costly errors turned a victory into a 3-2 overtime defeat against the Bulldogs, but RPI bounced back the next night to pick up a desperately needed victory over Brown in the Big Red Freakout!, 4-1.

Yale
Higgs-Zalewski-Haggerty
Neal-Bubela-DeVito
McGowan-Miller-Schroeder
Wood-Rogic-Tinordi

Leboeuf-Leonard
Curadi-Dolan

Bokenfohr-Reno

Diebold

The biggest issue for the Engineers in crafting their lineup over the weekend was the loss of Jacob Laliberte, who suffered a shoulder injury against St. Lawrence. He was replaced in the RPI lineup by Jake Wood, with Jimmy DeVito moving onto a scoring line for the first time. Parker Reno also returned to the RPI lineup, replacing Chris Bradley, who has an unknown injury.

For the second straight game, goals from players who were suspended for the Clarkson game due to the Union brouhaha powered the Engineers in the first period. Ryan Haggerty notched his 22nd goal of the season 11:22 into the game to make the score 1-0, though that lead would be short-lived as the Bulldogs would pull even quickly. A blast from the point a little over a minute and a half later got through a screen and in to tie things up.

Mike Zalewski put the Engineers up 2-1 on a shorthanded breakaway goal with just under two minutes left in the first period, picking up RPI's 7th shorty of the season. That lead would hold significantly longer than the Engineers' previous lead.

A power play midway through the second period would provide RPI with a golden opportunity to extend their lead, and the Engineers did everything but score on the man advantage, peppering the Yale netminder with seven shots on goal but failing to hit paydirt on what would ultimately be their only power play of the entire game.

Meanwhile, the Engineers took that 2-1 lead into the third period, where an untimely penalty provided the opening Yale needed to close the gap as the Bulldogs scored just five seconds into a penalty to Jake Wood to tie the game at two. Yale controlled play for much of the third period, but were unable to find a go-ahead goal during regulation.

Another ill-timed penalty broke the game for the Engineers, who led for more than half the contest. This one came in overtime as Guy Leboeuf was called for boarding behind the RPI net, and 38 seconds later after some poor penalty killing, Yale converted to earn a 3-2 victory in overtime.

Brown
Higgs-Zalewski-Haggerty
Neal-Bubela-DeVito
McGowan-Miller-Schroeder
Fulton-Rogic-Tinordi

Leboeuf-Leonard
Curadi-Dolan

Bokenfohr-Reno

Diebold

Jake Wood's removal for Travis Fulton was the only change in the RPI lineup from Friday night.

For the second time in three games - and the second time in as many Saturday nights - the Engineers kicked off the game with a goal from Mike Zalewski on the first shift. Against St. Lawrence the previous weekend, he'd scored 43 seconds in to give RPI the early 1-0 edge. Against Brown, it took nine fewer seconds as he notched his 8th of the year and 5th in as many games just 34 seconds in.

Two key moments helped the Engineers keep a grip on things in the first period. The first was Matt Tinordi's 5th goal of the year at 14:00 of the period to go up 2-0. The second was a disallowed goal that nearly caused RPI's two-goal edge to disappear in short order.

A delayed penalty is a terrible time to take a too-many-men call, but that's just what the Engineers did 2:26 after Tinordi's goal. With an interference call against Brock Higgs coming up, RPI was simultaneously whistled for an extra skater, giving Brown a two minute crack at a 5-on-3. It took the Bears less than a minute to connect on the two-man advantage to make it 2-1, and it initially appeared that Brown had tied it up on the ensuing 5-on-4 with a blast from the point, but the goal was disallowed for interference with the goaltender. After review, the call was confirmed, and the Engineers dodged most of the bullet.

A power play goal from Tinordi about 14 minutes into the 2nd gave the Engineers that 3-1 edge once again, and RPI continued to pour it on in the 3rd period, eventually scoring their fourth goal with Mark McGowan's second of the year, sealing it up with about 2:30 or so left in the game, and salvaging a weekend split.

Other junk - Ranked ECAC teams this week include #3 Union (swept Brown/Yale, up one), #4 Quinnipiac (beat Clarkson and lost to SLU, down one), #11 Cornell (lost to Colgate, down two), #13 Yale (beat RPI and lost to Union, no change), #14 Clarkson (lost to Quinnipiac and beat Princeton, no change), and #19 Colgate (beat Cornell, previously unranked). No other league teams received votes. Other ranked teams on the RPI schedule include #1 Boston College (up one with 47 first place votes), #2 Minnesota (down one with 3 first place votes), #4 Ferris State (up one), and #18 Denver (down three). New Hampshire (1) also received a vote.

With seven shorthanded goals, the Engineers are tied for 3rd in the nation in shorties with Notre Dame, trailing only Maine and Mercyhurst who have eight each.

Ryan Haggerty is still hanging in 2nd place in the nation in goals at 22. He trails Johnny Gaudreau of Boston College by three. With 21 points in ECAC play, Haggerty is in 2nd place, far behind SLU's Greg Carey with 28. He does lead the ECAC in goals with 12, one ahead of SLU's Matt Carey.

Next up for RPI is the road-trip that ostensibly is the most difficult of the season - the only one that includes two currently ranked teams and two teams that are in the thick of the hunt for the first-round bye. Points could be at a premium when the Engineers need them most. This is a very different Colgate team from the one that got rolled in Troy back in November, and Cornell has been pretty strong of late as well.

ECAC Standings
1. Union - 26 points (13-3-0)
2. Quinnipiac - 23 points (10-3-3)
3. Colgate - 21 points (10-5-1)
4. Clarkson - 20 points (10-6-0)
5. Cornell - 20 points (8-4-4)
6. Yale - 17 points (6-5-3)
7. RPI - 15 points (6-7-3)
8. Brown - 13 points (6-9-1)
9. St. Lawrence - 13 points (5-8-3)
10. Harvard - 11 points (4-9-3)
11. Dartmouth - 7 points (3-12-1)
12. Princeton - 6 points (3-13-0)

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

RESULT: Yale 3, RPI 2 (OT)

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

RECORD: 11-12-4 (5-7-3 ECAC, 13 pts)

Brown at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
2/8/14 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 4, Brown 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

RECORD: 12-12-4 (6-7-3 ECAC, 15 pts)

Upcoming games
14 Feb - at #19 Colgate
15 Feb - at #11 Cornell
21 Feb - St. Lawrence
22 Feb - #14 Clarkson
28 Feb - at Brown