2012-13 Women's Schedule

Here it is, in all its glory. The Engineers do not leave New York or New England for the entire season (before any potential NCAA matchup, of course) with the exception of the single game at Princeton on the first day of December.

Friday games are at 7pm, Saturday games at 4pm unless otherwise mentioned.

October
Friday, 05 October - UCONN
Saturday, 06 October - UCONN, 3pm
Friday, 12 October - at Boston University
Saturday, 13 October - at Northeastern, 3pm
Saturday, 20 October - UNION
Friday, 26 October - at St. Lawrence*, 4pm
Saturday, 27 October - at Clarkson*, 3:30pm
Wednesday, 31 October - at Vermont, 7pm

November
Friday, 09 November - PRINCETON*
Saturday, 10 November - QUINNIPIAC*
Friday, 16 November - ROBERT MORRIS, 3pm
Saturday, 17 November - ROBERT MORRIS, 3pm
Friday, 23 November - at Syracuse
Saturday, 24 November - at Syracuse
Friday, 30 November - at Quinnipiac*

December
Saturday, 01 December - at Princeton*
Friday, 07 December - BROWN*
Saturday, 08 December - YALE*

January
Friday, 04 January - DARTMOUTH*
Saturday, 05 January - HARVARD*
Friday, 11 January- PROVIDENCE
Saturday, 12 January - PROVIDENCE
Friday, 18 January - at Harvard*
Saturday, 19 January - at Dartmouth*
Friday, 25 January - at Union*
Saturday, 26 January - UNION*, 3pm

February
Friday, 01 February - at Colgate*
Saturday, 02 February - at Cornell*
Friday, 08 February - CLARKSON*
Saturday, 09 February - ST. LAWRENCE*
Friday, 15 February - at Yale*
Saturday, 16 February - at Brown*
Friday, 22 February - CORNELL*
Saturday, 23 February - COLGATE* (Senior Night)

March
Fri-Sun 01-03 March - ECAC Quarterfinals (at higher seeds, best of three)
Friday, 08 March - ECAC Semifinals (at higher seeds)
Sunday, 10 March - ECAC Championship (at highest seed)
Fri-Sat 15-16 March - NCAA Quarterfinals (at seeded teams)
Friday, 22 March - NCAA Frozen Four (Minneapolis, MN)
Saturday, 24 March - NCAA Championship (Minneapolis, MN)

Know Your Enemy: Minnesota State

As part of last year's early season gauntlet, the Engineers took on Minnesota State for the first time in school history, and it was against the Mavericks that RPI picked up what would be their only victory in their first 11 outings. This year, the Engineers return the favor by heading out to Minnesota for the first of what will be two trips to the Land of 10,000 Lakes this season, appearing in Mankato for the first time to take on a program in transition.

Minnesota State
Nickname: Mavericks
Location: Mankato, MN
Founded: 1867
Conference: WCHA
National Championships: 1 (1980, Division II)
Last NCAA Appearance: 2003
Last Frozen Four: 1991 (Division III)
Coach: Mike Hastings (1st season)
2011-12 Record: 12-24-2 (8-18-2 WCHA, 11th place)
Series: Tied, 1-1-0
First Game: October 7, 2011 (Troy, NY)
Last RPI win: October 8, 2011 (Troy, NY)
Last MSU-M win: October 7, 2011 (Troy, NY)

2012-13 games: October 19-20, 2012 (Mankato, MN)

Key players: F Eriah Hayes, sr.; D Evan Mosey, sr.; G Phil Cook, sr.; D Tyler Elbrecht, sr.; F Eli Zuck, sr.; F Zach Lehrke, jr.; F Johnny McInnis, jr.; F Matt Leitner, so.; F Jean-Paul Lafontaine, so.; F Max Gaede, so.; D Zach Palmquist, so.; F Bryce Gervais, fr.; D Nick Buchanan, fr.

Previous KYE installment:

• 2011-12

When your top two scorers are freshmen, you're probably having a difficult season - just ask the 2007-08 Engineers. Minnesota State's seniors certainly underwhelmed offensively last year, contributing to the team's continuing offensive woes as no player reached 30 points for the season for the third consecutive campaign (not, of course, that RPI has much to say on that, with Brock Higgs' 23 leading the team last season). The offensive problems were likely a contributing factor to Troy Jutting losing his job after 12 seasons in Mankato.

The good news is that the Mavericks did get solid freshman campaigns from those top two scorers, Leitner and Lafontaine. Hayes, Lehrke, and Lafontaine tied for the team lead in goals with 13 each, so at the very least the MSU offense can boast a little bit of flexibility with who can put the puck in the net, even if they needed to do it with more frequency to be successful last year.

Last year, Mankato rode an outstanding goaltending performance from senior Austin Lee, who picked up 36 saves for his only career shutout, to swipe a 1-0 victory in the first game between the two programs. The Engineers fared better in game 2 against Cook, scoring four times on the soon-to-be senior, an offensive mark they would not reach again until the end of January. Cook's numbers on the season overall were pedestrian to say the least at 3.55 and .887. The Mavericks are going to need more out of Cook if they are to make strides from last year.

Replacing Jutting behind the bench is Mike Hastings, who has long been expected to take the reins of a Division I program. After 14 years as the head coach of the USHL's Omaha Lancers (winning three championships and never helming a losing season), Hastings replaced long-time Don Lucia lieutenant Mike Guentzel at Minnesota in 2008, leaving one year later to return to Nebraska and become Dean Blais' top assistant at Nebraska-Omaha, where he has been for the last three seasons.

Hastings has proven himself to be an outstanding head coach and four years under the tutelage of two of the greatest college hockey coaches in recent history certainly help his pedigree. How quickly he can turn things around in Mankato, however, remains to be seen, since it's hard to get a bead on what to expect from new coaches. Rick Bennett took over at Union last year and brought them to the Frozen Four, but the cupboard wasn't exactly bare when he took control of a team he knew well as a former assistant. In Lowell, Norm Bazin brought the River Hawks to the NCAA tournament in a season in which they were expected to be lousy. On the flip side, Bob Prier had a rough first season at Princeton.

At any rate, Hastings comes to Mankato just in time for the final season with the powers of the WCHA, which will pretty much all leave for either the Big Ten or the NCHC in 2013. He could be in an excellent position to help mold a new era for the Mavericks in which they can be more than just contenders in the new WCHA.

Know Your Enemy: Ferris State

If there's one word that could be said about RPI's schedule last season, it was... brutal. Seven of the Engineers' losses came against teams who played in the Frozen Four, and we start this year's Know Your Enemy with a team responsible for two of those losses, the national runners-up, who will kick off RPI's 2012-13 schedule in October.

Ferris State
Nickname: Bulldogs
Location: Big Rapids, MI
Founded: 1884
Conference: CCHA
National Championships: 0
Last NCAA Appearance: 2012
Last Frozen Four: 2012
Coach: Bob Daniels (21st season)
2011-12 Record: 26-12-5 (16-7-5-1 CCHA, 1st place)
Series: Ferris State leads, 3-0-0
First Game: January 23, 1998 (Big Rapids, MI)
Last RPI win: None
Last FSU win: October 15, 2011 (Big Rapids, MI)

2012-13 games: October 12-13, 2012 (Troy, NY)

Key players: F Kyle Bonis, sr.; F Matthew Kirzinger, sr.; F Travis Ouellette, sr.; F Eric Alexander, sr; D Scott Czarnowczan, jr.; F Garrett Thompson, jr.; F T.J. Schlueter, so.; G C.J. Motte, so.; D Jason Binkley, so.;  F Josh Henke, fr.; D Zach Dorer, fr.

Previous KYE installment:

• 2011-12

Last year, we mentioned that Ferris State fans would be unanimous in their assessment of the Bulldogs' greatest season. That's still true, but the answer has changed. While FSU won five fewer games last year than they did in 2003, they still managed to skate to their second CCHA regular season title, earning their first ever #1 national ranking and winning three NCAA games to post their first appearances in the Frozen Four and the national championship game. They ran into a juggernaut Boston College team that may be destined to go down in history as one of the greatest ever, but they held their own, keeping things close until late.

Interestingly, on their way to the national championship game, the Bulldogs played eight games against ECAC opponents, winning every single one of them - sweeping St. Lawrence and RPI on back to back weeks in October (outscoring them 15-3), sweeping Colgate in early January, and knocking off Cornell and Union in the NCAA tournament. Tack on FSU's sweep of St. Lawrence in 2010-11, and the Bulldogs have won 10 straight games against the ECAC, all in regulation.

Ferris was a defensive power, especially in the NCAA tournament, but they are losing some of their top defenders. Gone are senior goaltender Taylor Nelson and top defenders Brett Wysopal and Chad Billins. The cupboard is hardly bare, however - Czarnowczan's absence late in the national championship game due to injury was a huge blow, and Motte did well in his 12 freshman appearances, which included a 26-save shutout of RPI in just his second collegiate contest.

Offensively, FSU does lose their top point scorer in Jordie Johnston, but three of their top five scorers from last season return as seniors, including 19-goal scorer Bonis who notched two goals in the first game against the Engineers. Expect a very difficult opening weekend for RPI - they are not nearly as battle tested as this Bulldogs squad, which still returns many of the key components of a team that was very difficult to beat in a CCHA that could make a claim for being the toughest league in the nation last year.

This will be Ferris State's final season in the CCHA, which disbands at the end of the year. They join the new look WCHA in 2013, and could be well positioned to be one of the top teams in that league once the conference shuffle goes into effect. Barring an NCAA berth, the Bulldogs will be the final CCHA opponent that the Engineers face - they have played 10 of 11 current CCHA teams, with Northern Michigan the only one that has never played RPI.

Awakening

Wow! A whole month gone by and nothing to report! We did have two items of note which were covered by our Twitter feed - the men's hockey banquet in early May and the new commitment of Andrew Commers last week.

But all in all, it's shaping up to be the quiet summer we had hoped it would be. Commencement was this past weekend, so the Institute itself is now in full summer mode as well.

Tomorrow begins the first installment of our yearly summer cooler series known as "Know Your Enemy," a semi-comprehensive look at the programs and squads that the men's team will take on in the coming season. We kick off with the national runners up and will end the week before the season starts with the Engineers' oldest rival.

Here is this year's publication schedule, in case you're wondering when to expect which team:
Ferris State - May 30
Minnesota State - June 6
Mercyhurst - June 13
St. Cloud State - June 20
Sacred Heart - June 27
Boston University - July 5 (the only Thursday edition)
New Hampshire - July 11
Union - July 18
Dartmouth - July 25
Harvard - August 1
Princeton - August 8
Quinnipiac - August 15
Yale - August 22
Brown - August 29
Colgate - September 5
Cornell - September 12
St. Lawrence - September 19
Clarkson - September 26

Hibernation

You've probably noticed (or not, if you're taking a break like us) that our post-season hangover period is pretty much in full swing. We haven't had an official wrap-up post yet, so... here it is. It's late partially because I wanted to be sure that the season schedule was front and center for a couple of weeks, and partially because dating to before that - right before the Frozen Four, in fact - I had a health issue that was being taken care of. On the mend and doing much better now.

Anyway, here's a little bit of the tidbits that are out there.

Pat Koudys departs
Probably the biggest news since the end of the Union series in RPI's corner is the early departure of junior-to-be Pat Koudys. We occasionally see players who aren't getting much playing time leave the program and turn up elsewhere: Jordan Cyr left and eventually ended up at Holy Cross, Jordan Watts departed and became a solid player at D-III Adrian, for instance.

Neither of those guys were potential impact players, however, and that's where Koudys' departure does hurt a little bit. It could be argued that the team got along fairly well without him down the stretch as Luke Curadi developed into a dependable asset on the blueline and Pat appeared in only four games after the month of January, none of which came during the playoff run.

Koudys came to RPI with a lot of upside potential, but did have a rough sophomore year defensively after a solid freshman campaign.

It doesn't do us much good to speculate about underlying reasons for the departure. Seth Appert told the Troy Record that it was a decision that Koudys himself made in part because of a lack of playing time. Why Koudys was a healthy scratch down the stretch is unknown and will likely remain that way. He was not injured this season, which means he was a healthy scratch on 12 different occasions this year on a team with only seven defensemen.

It's not outside the realm of possibility that the Washington Capitals weren't satisfied with his development in Troy (or just his playing time) and wanted him elsewhere, but Koudys plans to return to juniors rather than sign with the Oshawa Generals, the OHL team that has his rights. That means he's looking to use his last two years of NCAA eligibility in 2013-14 and 2014-15, and in most cases an NHL team leaning on a player to leave school would result in a bee-line for major junior.

Where he ends up from here is a bit of a mystery, but given that he majored in civil engineering at RPI, that might narrow it down a bit if he maintains his field of study. It makes Clarkson and Yale likely potential landing points, and would put Union out of the running, though he does have a connection there in Josh Jooris, who he played Junior A hockey with in Ontario.

At any rate, it's tough to lose a guy with as much potential as Koudys, but hopefully he lands on his feet. He's a good kid and his father, Jim, is a great person. Unless we see him across the ice at any point down the road, best of luck to him in the future.

What does this mean for RPI? Well, for the time being, they're back to being stuck with only seven defensemen, which is where they've been ever since Bryan Brutlag was moved up to forward midway through the 2009-10 season. Chris Bradley and Craig Bokenfohr are coming in, now replacing Mike Bergin and Koudys. Options include Bergin returning for his redshirt season (seen as unlikely), bringing in a last minute replacement (Koudys leaving almost certainly frees up a scholarship), or sticking with seven for a third straight season.


UConn applies to Hockey East
We have been keeping a close eye on the shifting sands in Hockey East, hoping that a spot could potentially be open for the Engineers to move there at some point. That door appears to have closed with the news that UConn has applied to become the 12th member.

From the outset, we have been pretty clear that UConn would be the best fit for the league, if only they showed significantly more interest in their program. Well, much to our chagrin, it appears that they are now moving in that direction, as they likely would not have made their application if they were not ready to do what it takes to compete in Hockey East.

This will mean a major upgrade for the UConn men's program, likely at the expense of other sports in Storrs as the school will need to offset the scholarships they will need to offer the team in order to stay in compliance with Title IX. The team may play its home games in Hartford until a new, Hockey East-worthy building is done on campus. Word is that Gov. Dannel Malloy, a big hockey fan, was one of the top people pushing for UConn to step up, and when the Governor is pushing something, frequently it manages to get done.is

For RPI and the ECAC, this really means that nothing has changed about the league since the beginning of the sea change, the only league left untouched by the birth of the Big Ten and NCHC and the demise of the CCHA (which will have its final season this year). In July or August, however, I'm probably going to talk about the ECAC's place in the brave new world that gets underway in 2013-14.


Fingers crossed for a quiet summer
Since Without a Peer launched in the fall of 2009, we haven't had much in the way of downtime with the exceptions of the April/May periods immediately following the Frozen Four.

Two summers ago was the NHL exodus in which the Engineers got caught up when Jerry D'Amigo and Brandon Pirri left in August, which went along with a summer of change at RPI as renovations were underway at the Field House and a shifting situation with which recruits were coming in when.

Last year was a double whammy as the very foundation of college hockey shifted with teams jumping from conference to conference, not to mention a veritable coaching carousel which kept us on our toes.

This year, not so much, or at least we hope. Minnesota State and St. Lawrence will have new coaches (both already determined), the teams that will move conferences have moved (hopefully), and there doesn't seem to be an exodus this year. So we're hoping to get a couple of months of peace and quiet before we get underway with our annual "Know Your Enemy" series, which will kick off with Ferris State on May 30, running every Wednesday through the beginning of the season.

Men's 2012-13 Schedule, Take 2

The revised schedule for next year has been released. Changes from the last go-round are in bold. Note that the games previously scheduled for the 25th and 26th of October at Western Michigan have been removed, this is now an open weekend. They have been replaced by a holiday week series at St. Cloud State, which had been rumored for a few months. St. Cloud State needed two additional games after the Great Lakes Invitational, to which they had been invited, was moved to Comerica Park to coincide with the NHL's Winter Classic in Ann Arbor. To add to the Michigan theme, Western Michigan became the invited team, so the swap makes very good sense. We can probably expect to see the Broncos on the schedule in 2013-14 instead.

October
Saturday, 6 October - Acadia (Exhibition)
Friday, 12 October - Ferris State
Saturday, 13 October - Ferris State
Friday, 19 October - at Minnesota State
Saturday, 20 October - at Minnesota State

November
Friday, 02 November - Union* (Black Friday)
Saturday, 03 November - at Union*
Friday, 09 November - at Dartmouth*
Saturday, 10 November - at Harvard*
Friday, 16 November - Mercyhurst
Saturday, 17 November - Mercyhurst
Friday, 30 November - Princeton*

December
Saturday, 01 December - Quinnipiac*
Friday, 07 December - at Yale*
Saturday, 08 December - at Brown*

Thursday, 27 December - at St. Cloud State

Friday, 28 December - at St. Cloud State

Monday, 31 December - Sacred Heart

January
Friday, 04 January - at Boston University
Sunday, 06 January - at New Hampshire
Friday, 11 January - at Quinnipiac*
Saturday, 12 January - at Princeton*
Friday, 18 January - Colgate*
Saturday, 19 January - Cornell*
Saturday, 26 January - vs. Union (Albany, NY)

February
Friday, 01 February - Harvard*
Saturday, 02 February - Dartmouth* (Big Red Freakout!)
Friday, 08 February - at St. Lawrence*
Saturday, 09 February - at Clarkson*
Friday, 15 February - Brown*
Saturday, 16 February - Yale* (Whiteout)
Friday, 22 February - at Cornell*
Saturday, 23 February - at Colgate*

March
Friday, 01 March - Clarkson*
Saturday, 02 March - St. Lawrence* (Senior Night)
Fri-Sun, 08-10 March - ECAC First Round (at higher seeds)
Fri-Sun, 15-17 March - ECAC Quarterfinals (at higher seeds)
Friday, 22 March - ECAC Semifinals (Atlantic City, NJ)
Saturday, 23 March - ECAC Championship (Atlantic City, NJ)
Fri-Sun, 29-31 March - NCAA Regionals (Providence, RI; Manchester, NH; Toledo, OH; Grand Rapids, MI)

April
Thursday, 11 April - NCAA Frozen Four (Pittsburgh, PA)
Saturday, 13 April - NCAA Championship (Pittsburgh, PA)

All times are considered tentative, but expect the Sacred Heart game on New Year's Eve, the Sunday game at New Hampshire, and the Princeton road game to be 4pm puck drops. The games in Mankato and St. Cloud should begin at 8pm Eastern since Minnesota is in the Central Time Zone. Televised games are typically pushed back to 7:30.

Union in Perspective

First ECAC team since...
* Win an NCAA game: Yale, 2011

* Defeat a Hockey East team in the NCAA tournament: Cornell, 2009

* Defeat a CCHA/Big Ten team in the NCAA tournament: Cornell, 2005

* Reach the Frozen Four: Cornell, 2003


Could become the first ECAC team since...
* Defeat a WCHA team in the NCAA tournament: Yale, 2010

* Reach national championship game: Colgate, 1990

* Win national championship: Harvard, 1989

* Sweep regular season, tournament, and national title: RPI, 1985

The Dutchmen reaching the Frozen Four leaves only two current members of the ECAC that have never been: travel partners Princeton and Quinnipiac.

Who are we rooting for? You shouldn't even have to ask.

Plenty of reasons:
1) If Union can win a national championship, anyone can.
2) Union having a national championship and Clarkson still being empty-handed would be hilarious.
3) Equally hilarious - watching all the chest thumpers from the supposedly "superior" conferences try to explain why an "EZAC" team won it.
4) Losing to a team five times in one season isn't nearly as bad if that was the eventual national champion.
5) Stephen van Rensselaer was Dutch.
6) Mark Jooris' kid.
7) Keeping it in the family, what kind of big brothers would we be if were weren't rooting for our little brothers?

I have to agree with a college hockey pundit I regularly chat with regarding the Dutchmen - there are teams out there that play better offense, better defense, have a better power play, and better penalty kill than Union, but none who are as good at all four. This is just a very, very balanced team - we learned that best during the playoffs. Nothing better than having a team capable of simply waiting for the other team to make a mistake, and that's what they have right now.

We rip on Union because... hey, they're Union. And it's fun. But at the end of the day, we agree with what Col. Knowlton told the TU - it's not like we're going to be rah-rah about it and wear the sweater, but we're in their corner.

Go get 'em, kid. Have a pumpup, on us.