The Official 2014-15 Men's Hockey Schedule

Well, that didn't take long.

Two days after we posted a somewhat pieced together schedule, RPI has released the official schedule for next season, filling in the spots where we were unsure. We were right about Bentley being in October and UConn/UNH being in November. However, it turns out that the UConn and UNH road games are on consecutive Tuesdays, not as part of one road trip. Michigan is also in November. The Harvard road game is moved to December 30th, up a month from the original position on the Saturday opposite the Beanpot.

Here's the whole thing, now with times (all Eastern). Games start at 7pm Eastern unless otherwise indicated.

Start your travel plans now.

Sat, 04 Oct - PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND (exhibition)
Fri, 10 Oct - at Notre Dame (Icebreaker), 7:35pm
Sun, 12 Oct - vs. Minnesota/Minnesota-Duluth (Icebreaker - South Bend, IN), 12:05pm
Fri, 17 Oct - at Denver, 9pm
Sat, 18 Oct - at Denver, 9pm
Fri, 24 Oct - BENTLEY
Sat, 25 Oct - BENTLEY
Fri, 31 Oct - UNION (Black Friday)

Sat, 01 Nov - at Union
Fri, 07 Nov - HARVARD
Sat, 08 Nov - DARTMOUTH
Fri, 14 Nov - PRINCETON
Sat, 15 Nov - QUINNIPIAC
Tue, 18 Nov - at UConn
Tue, 25 Nov - at New Hampshire
Fri, 28 Nov - at Michigan
Sat, 29 Nov - at Michigan

Fri, 05 Dec - at Yale
Sat, 06 Dec - at Brown, 4pm
Sat, 13 Dec - BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Tue, 30 Dec - at Harvard

Fri, 02 Jan - MIAMI
Sat, 02 Jan - MIAMI
Fri, 09 Jan - at Quinnipiac
Sat, 10 Jan - at Princeton, 4pm
Fri, 16 Jan - COLGATE
Sat, 17 Jan - CORNELL
Sat, 24 Jan - vs. Union (Albany, NY)
Fri, 30 Jan - at Dartmouth

Fri, 06 Feb - at St. Lawrence
Sat, 07 Feb - at Clarkson
Fri, 13 Feb - BROWN
Sat, 14 Feb - YALE (Big Red Freakout!)
Fri, 20 Feb - at Cornell
Sat, 21 Feb - at Colgate
Fri, 27 Feb - CLARKSON
Sat, 28 Feb - ST. LAWRENCE (Senior Night)

March 6-8 - ECAC First Round (at 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th seeds)
March 13-15 - ECAC Quarterfinals (at 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th seeds)
Fri, 20 Mar - ECAC Semifinals (Lake Placid, NY)
Sat, 21 Mar - ECAC Championship (Lake Placid, NY)
March 27-29 - NCAA Regionals (Providence, RI; Manchester, NH; South Bend, IN; Fargo, ND)

Thu, 09 Apr - NCAA Frozen Four (Boston, MA)
Sat, 11 Apr - NCAA Championship (Boston, MA)

2014-15 Schedule: A Work in Progress

Some additions to what we know about the upcoming schedule:
* The exhibition game is against Prince Edward Island, who last came to Troy in the 2009-10 season. That game, according to precedent, is likely to take place on the 4th of October, coinciding with reunion weekend. It's possible it could be the following Sunday afternoon.

* The second day of the Icebreaker tournament will take place on Sunday in order to avoid the Notre Dame/North Carolina football game on Saturday.

* The Denver series is on, and it will be the weekend after the Icebreaker tournament as the Engineers rack up some frequent flyer miles in October.

* The Union home/home series is set to be the first ECAC games of the season for both teams. They kick off in Troy on Halloween night (which is likely to be Black Friday) and shift to Schenectady on November 1.

* Miami will return to Troy the first weekend of 2015 for a pair of games, according to the Redhawks' schedule.

* Other known opponents who we don't have a date for yet are Boston University, Bentley x2 (both coming to Troy), UConn, New Hampshire, and Michigan x2 (all on the road).

Open weekends are outlined below with an XX for each Friday and Saturday, though, of course, missing games could pop up on other days.

Our thoughts:
* The open weekend in October is probably the most likely place for the Bentley series to end up, since it would give RPI a pair of home games that count under their belts (against a little easier competition than their first two weekends) before starting league play.

* Expect the Michigan games to fall sometime in December after the break in the league schedule.

* The three Hockey East games, therefore, are likely to take place in November. It's possible the UNH and UConn road games will be one road trip. Meanwhile, we've seen BU pop up in Troy mid-week in the recent past, so don't be surprised if that happens.

* Expect the Harvard game to get moved to a mid-week placement if it doesn't follow the Yale/Brown road trip. Don't expect a game on January 31 - the trip to Dartmouth should basically just be a one-night stand.

Here's what we think we know so far.

Sat, 04 Oct - PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND (exhibition)
Fri, 10 Oct - at Notre Dame (Icebreaker)
Sun, 12 Oct - vs. Minnesota/Minnesota-Duluth (Icebreaker - South Bend, IN)
Fri, 17 Oct - at Denver
Sat, 18 Oct - at Denver
XX
XX
Fri, 31 Oct - UNION (Black Friday according to precedent)

Sat, 01 Nov - at Union
Fri, 07 Nov - HARVARD
Sat, 08 Nov - DARTMOUTH
Fri, 14 Nov - PRINCETON
Sat, 15 Nov - QUINNIPIAC
XX
XX
XX (Thanksgiving Weekend)
XX

Fri, 05 Dec - at Yale
Sat, 06 Dec - at Brown
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX (Weekend between Christmas and New Year's)
XX

Fri, 02 Jan - MIAMI
Sat, 02 Jan - MIAMI
Fri, 09 Jan - at Quinnipiac
Sat, 10 Jan - at Princeton
Fri, 16 Jan - COLGATE
Sat, 17 Jan - CORNELL
Sat, 24 Jan - vs. Union (Albany, NY)
Fri, 30 Jan - at Dartmouth
Sat, 31 Jan - at Harvard (will be moved according to precedent)

Fri, 06 Feb - at St. Lawrence
Sat, 07 Feb - at Clarkson
Fri, 13 Feb - BROWN
Sat, 14 Feb - YALE (Big Red Freakout! according to precedent)
Fri, 20 Feb - at Cornell
Sat, 21 Feb - at Colgate
Fri, 27 Feb - CLARKSON
Sat, 28 Feb - ST. LAWRENCE (Senior Night)

March 6-8 - ECAC First Round (at 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th seeds)
March 13-15 - ECAC Quarterfinals (at 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th seeds)
Fri, 20 Mar - ECAC Semifinals (Lake Placid, NY)
Sat, 21 Mar - ECAC Championship (Lake Placid, NY)
March 27-29 - NCAA Regionals (Providence, RI; Manchester, NH; South Bend, IN; Fargo, ND)

Thu, 09 Apr - NCAA Frozen Four (Boston, MA)
Sat, 11 Apr - NCAA Championship (Boston, MA)

Five Year Plan

Wow. It's honestly hard to believe that it's been five full seasons that we've been at this here at WaP. Congratulations to all you Archies who were freshmen when this whole thing got underway on your impending graduation, and we forgive you for never having had the time to read us in the first place.

A few years ago, about this time, whether the Engineers were still alive or not - and it was only one season in four that they were - we'd be running down the NCAA Tournament and making our selections and providing some additional coverage beyond our core RPI hockey mission. Of course, back in those days, it was a lot easier for us to spend time writing for free. We've already gone over all the life changes that Gary and I have been through in the last five years, but we've always tried to stay true to the core mission, if nothing else.

WaP isn't as wacky as it once was. Founded in the vein of Yankees blog NoMaas.org, to which nothing is sacred, everyone's skewerable, and which tries to offer an alternative viewpoint while still puffing out its chest as much as possible (whether it's warranted or not), we've gone a couple of seasons without any really regular photoshop jobs during the season - our only output this year was to slap Mike Schafer's head on a turkey's body while wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

Through promotions at work, marriages (present and future, as it is), new homes, and other things that get in the way of delivering as much content as we have in the past, we've still pushed forward to at the very least bring you breaking news on Twitter, feature pieces that you've come to know and love, weekly updates, and analysis without discretion or favor. (There's frequently even less discretion on Twitter, where we've only got 140 characters to make a point.)

But we press on nonetheless. Neither of us know exactly how long we're going to stay in the game, but we're not done yet.

Barring something worth commenting on from the NCAA tournament which starts tomorrow, we'll go ahead and enter our yearly hibernation now, at least as far as the blog is concerned. We'll drop schedules when they're released, and we'll be back in late May or early June with the start of the annual Know Your Enemy feature. We're also cooking up a special treat that we're hoping to unleash upon an unsuspecting world this summer, so stay tuned for that as well. In the meantime, make sure you're following us on Twitter so you're the first to know when something stupid pops into one of our heads.

We can't thank our readers enough. Without you, we're just opinionated dopes talking to ourselves. Some would argue that's exactly what we are anyway, but we are thankful for every single person who reads what we have to say about everything from the power play to pop culture references. WaP was, is, and will always be free to read. If you want to hit our tip jar over on the right hand side of the site, 100% of the donations go toward defraying what costs we have that are associated with running the site. Don't feel that you have to give a dime, though. We appreciate you just as much if you're just a casual reader.

So until we meet again, friends... have a great couple of months.

Here's to old Rensselaer. She stands today without a peer.

-TR

The Seat Warms

I intentionally waited until some of the clamor over the way RPI went out of the playoffs to die down a little bit to offer my insight on the whole situation.

Let's get one thing straight from the start. Seth Appert is not going anywhere. To argue for his immediate termination is simply a waste of time and breath for a couple of reasons. First of all, he's on the books at RPI through the end of the decade. That's an investment that was made less than a year ago - they aren't going to throw it away this quickly, it just doesn't make sense. Second, you may have forgotten through the understandable disappointment of two consecutive home playoff losses, but the Engineers did have their highest finish in the ECAC in 20 years in 2013, just a season ago.

Yes, this season was disappointing. Expectations were high and those expectations simply were not met. The team did not reach any of the goals that we laid out at the beginning of the season.

Here's what we said in October:

This is a team that should have three must-hit earmarks for this season to be considered successful. First, another first-round bye in the ECAC playoffs, something they achieved last year. That is very basic. Second, at least a trip to Lake Placid, a round that has eluded the team for over a decade, and a goal that would represent growth from last season. Finally, an NCAA bid, which should be a fait accompli if the first two can be accomplished, so let's up the ante - at least a goal in the NCAAs for the first time since George Servinis.

If you'd told us that Jason Kasdorf was going to be lost for the season after the first weekend, a lot of this would have been downgraded for sure. A lot of the high expectations that were placed on this team revolved around having the best goaltender in the league between the pipes, including the expectations by the media and coaches in the preseason polls, which tabbed the team to finish 1st and 2nd in the standings respectively. We'll never know just what this team could have achieved had that freak injury not happened.

That said, there was a lot more that this team could have accomplished than it did. Time and time again this season, especially in league play, the Engineers settled for fewer points than they could have earned thanks to blown leads. 14 times in ECAC games, RPI did not take both points. They had leads in fully half of those games. Some turned into ties, others became losses. Each team that finished ahead of RPI except for Colgate was an opponent in one of those contests - which underlines just how much better the Engineers could have placed had they been able to hold some of those leads.

The home playoff losses are certainly becoming a concern, too. To be fair, the Engineers under Seth Appert have repeatedly drawn teams at home for the playoffs that were hitting their stride at the right time. Brown in 2010, Colgate in 2011, and Brown in 2013 all went on from their 2-1 series wins in Troy to knock the #1 team in the ECAC out of the tournament (Yale in 2010, Union in 2011, and Quinnipiac in 2013). While Dartmouth didn't go on to do the same this season, they were easily the least desired of the four teams that hit the road for the first round given the way their late season went.

Despite this, RPI was very much a part of all four of those series. All four series went to a third game. Why can't they win that third game? There's absolutely a trend now, and it is becoming more and more of a concern. You can point to the tough draws all you want, eventually, good teams overcome difficult opponents.

It has been 12 years since the Engineers played in the ECAC semifinals. Every other team in the league has been there at least once since 2007. If Clarkson had scored the OT winner in Game 3 instead of Cornell, it would have been every team having had an appearance since 2009. It's getting kind of tiresome to be done by this time every single year (2011 being the exception, but even then it was two weeks off before getting throttled by UND).

Next season, the expectations are unlikely to still be there with the early departures of Ryan Haggerty and Mike Zalewski for bigger and better things in the professional ranks. It is what it is. But the ECAC being the ECAC, every team, every season should be able to set at least a home playoff series as an attainable goal.

Given the circumstances, there isn't a hot seat in Troy, not yet at least. But if next year's team can't win a home playoff series, that seat that's already warming is going to get a little bit toastier, and you can bet the farm that Seth Appert's already well aware of that.

Men's Hockey - ECAC First Round vs. Dartmouth (7/8/9 Mar)

All season long, one of the biggest issues with the Engineers has been a lack of killer instinct. Throughout the year, that lack of ability to finish games turned wins into ties and losses with some frequency. Last weekend, that trend returned in full force, showing itself over the course of RPI's first round home playoff series against Dartmouth in two ways that ended the Engineers' season. First, after a solid 4-1 victory in Game 1, that lack of killer instinct allowed the Big Green to get back into the series with a 3-2 win in Game 2, then appeared in the 3rd period of Game 3 as RPI blew a 4-2 lead with 20 minutes remaining to lose 5-4.

Game 1

Higgs-Zalewski-Haggerty

Neal-Bubela-Laliberte

McGowan-Miller-Schroeder

Fulton-Rogic-Tinordi

Leboeuf-Leonard

Bradley-Dolan

Curadi-Bokenfohr

Diebold

Mike Zalewski and Travis Fulton made their returns to the RPI lineup in time for the playoffs, replacing Jake Wood and Jimmy DeVito. None of the Engineers' five freshmen would ultimately see any ice time during the series against Dartmouth, and the RPI lineup did not change in any of the games.

RPI jumped on Dartmouth early in the first period of game one, collecting a pair of goals by Ryan Haggerty to go up 2-0 ten minutes into the game. Haggerty's first goal came moments after the Engineers' first power play of the game got underway, and the second one came on a backhanded shot off an intercepted pass in the Dartmouth zone.

The RPI penalty kill then got active, killing off a holding call to Guy Lebeouf before being pressed into hard service late in the period as back to back penalties to Mike Zalewski and Mark McGowan put RPI on a long 5x3 kill that straddled the first and second periods. They got through both penalties unscathed, and then just over a minute after returning to full strength went up 3-0 as Jacob Laliberte scored on a rebound in front of the net.

A Bo Dolan penalty six minute later got Dartmouth on the board as a shot from the point came weakly into the slot due to a broken stick, but the off-powered motion forced the defense into a bad position, and the loose puck was scooped up and put in the back of the net to make it 3-1.

Zach Schroeder picked up an insurance goal - his second of the season - 66 seconds into the third to make it 4-1, and as time ticked away Dartmouth appeared willing to head to Game 2 down one game to none. Scott Diebold made 29 saves on 30 shots to pick up the victory for the Engineers.

Game 2

Higgs-Zalewski-Haggerty

Neal-Bubela-Laliberte

McGowan-Miller-Schroeder

Fulton-Rogic-Tinordi

Leboeuf-Leonard

Bradley-Dolan

Curadi-Bokenfohr

Diebold

Dartmouth came out of the gate a different team that had limped to a three-goal loss the previous night, setting the pace early. A goal by Eric Neiley was waved off due to goaltender interference, but Neiley would start the scoring off nonetheless on the power play seven minutes in to make it 1-0 Dartmouth. That RPI was not down by more than that after one period was a testament to the solid play of Scott Diebold, who made 18 saves on 19 shots in the first 20 minutes to keep RPI in the game.

Jacob Laliberte scored his second goal in as many nights 8:43 into the second period to even the score at one, and for a brief moment it looked as though momentum may have swung into the Engineers' favor. Just over a minute later, however, that momentum was blunted by poor play in the defensive zone as Dartmouth's Jesse Beamish got to a loose puck in the RPI zone and put it home to put the Big Green up 2-1.

The Engineers did not waste time tying the score again, however, as a power play opportunity produced a goal by Ryan Haggerty, his 27th of the season, only two minutes later to make it 2-2 as RPI outplayed Dartmouth in the latter half of the second period, and despite a very shoddy first period, looked to be in position to move on with a solid showing in the third period.

The third, however, more closely resembled the first period than the end of the second. Dartmouth came out firing, and Diebold did everything he could to keep RPI in the game until Neiley hit the twine for the third time on the evening, but only counting for the second time, putting Dartmouth up 3-2 with 6:14 left in the game.

The Engineers did get some extended opportunities at the end of the game to hit the tying goal for the third time, as Neiley took a cross-checking call in the Dartmouth end with 1:19 left while Diebold was out of the net. That set RPI up with a 6-on-4 advantage through the end of the game, but they were unable to put one past Charles Grant, and the deadlocked series went on to a Game 3 on Sunday night.

Game 3

Higgs-Zalewski-Haggerty

Neal-Bubela-Laliberte

McGowan-Miller-Schroeder

Fulton-Rogic-Tinordi

Leboeuf-Leonard

Bradley-Dolan

Curadi-Bokenfohr

Diebold

It was a familiar face getting the Engineers off on the right foot on Sunday as Ryan Haggerty scored his fourth goal of the weekend to put RPI up 1-0 just 3:39 into the deciding Game 3, setting the tone right. Things started looking very good for the Engineers as a Dartmouth penalty two minutes later put RPI, who had scored on the power play in each of the first two games, on the man advantage. However, the Engineers' feast-or-famine strategy of having five forwards out on the power play would come back to haunt them. 

When Haggerty was unable to control a pass at the blue line, it was immediately pounced on by Dartmouth's Tim O'Brien, who went the length with it on the breakaway. Scott Diebold made the initial save, but the rebound went right to O'Brien who was moving to Diebold's left, and he put home that rebound for a shorthanded goal that made the score 1-1.

Mike Zalewski would score 10 minutes later to make it 2-1, but the circumstances that led to O'Brien's goal still seemed to overshadow the Engineers' lead. 

RPI maintained that one-goal edge for most of the 2nd period. They were unable to extend the lead on a 5x3 opportunity midway through the period even despite calling timeout before the 30 second opportunity - in fact, they did not even record a single shot on the two-man advantage.

The worries over the failure to score seemed to evaporate about five minutes later, as Chris Bradley scored his 3rd goal of the season in a bit of a role reversal goal. Mark McGowan took the shot from the point, and Bradley redirected the shot into the net to put RPI up 3-1.

A Dartmouth goal with 1:55 left in the 2nd period threatened to sap RPI's momentum heading into the deciding 20 minutes, but McGowan would respond less than a minute later by jamming home a puck that was stuck in a scrum in front of the Dartmouth net to make it 4-2 RPI.

Taking a two-goal lead into the final period is usually a superior place to be, but Dartmouth responded as one would expect a team to respond with their backs against the wall, and much as with the first period of Game 2, RPI put forward a passive response to that desperation. A goal by Eric Neiley, his third of the weekend, cut the Engineers' lead in half just 2:10 into the period.

Still, the Dartmouth onslaught came, and still, RPI looked uninterested in meeting the task. About seven minutes after Neiley's goal, Brandon McNally tied the game, and still the Big Green were the aggressors. Both teams got power play opportunities with the score tied, but the game remained deadlocked with with just under 3 minutes to play once the RPI power play expired, the second of the two.

Brad Schierhorn stepped up about 40 seconds after the Big Green finished killing their penalty, rocketing home a perfect pass to complete the Dartmouth comeback, putting the visitors ahead for the first time on the evening with 2:14 left on the game clock.

Suddenly, it looked like the Engineers were interested in playing offense, but the frenzied attempts late with the goaltender pulled were too little, too late. Despite outscoring Dartmouth 10-9, the Engineers lost twice and had their playoff experience end after just three games for the second consecutive season.

Other junk - RPI's last home playoff series victory came in 2004 over Princeton. They have lost five such series since (2006, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014).

Ryan Haggerty, on Wednesday, signed an NHL contract with the New York Rangers, foregoing his senior season.

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.

Dartmouth at RPI

ECAC First Round, Game 1 - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)

3/7/14 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 4, Dartmouth 1

BOX SCORES

College Hockey Stats

USCHO

RECAPS

RPI

Troy Record

Albany Times Union

RECORD: 15-14-6 (8-9-5 ECAC, 21 pts)

Dartmouth at RPI

ECAC First Round, Game 2 - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)

3/8/14 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Dartmouth 3, RPI 2

BOX SCORES

College Hockey Stats

USCHO

RECAPS

RPI

Troy Record

Albany Times Union

RECORD: 15-15-6 (8-9-5 ECAC, 21 pts)

Dartmouth at RPI

ECAC First Round, Game 3 - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)

3/9/14 - 7:00pm

RESULT: Dartmouth 5, RPI 4

BOX SCORES

College Hockey Stats

USCHO

RECAPS

RPI

Troy Record

Albany Times Union

RECORD: 15-16-6 (8-9-5 ECAC, 21 pts)

Thank You

There are likely to be many words written about tonight. Some are most assuredly already being written. But on this night, we have only two.

Thank you.

#3 Guy Leboeuf - West Palm Beach, FL - Business and Management
#11 Bo Dolan - St. Paul, MN - Business and Management
#12 Johnny Rogic - Vancouver, BC - Civil Engineering
#23 Brock Higgs - Kingston, ON - Business and Management (undergrad)/Management-Finance (grad)
#28 Matt Tinordi - Severna Park, MD - Business and Management

--

#6 Madison Marzario - Prior Lake, MN - Business and Management/Communications
#9 Missy Mankey - Hopkins, MN - Chemistry
#14 Toni Sanders - York, PA - Geology
#19 Jordan Smelker - Anchorage, AK - Biomedical Engineering
#23 Nona Letuligasenoa - Fairbanks, AK - Communications

Mid-Weekend Update

Yale and St. Lawrence finished off Harvard and Brown this evening, while Dartmouth forced game 3 against RPI with a 3-2 victory and Clarkson made Princeton look more like the 12 seed, posting a 4-0 shutout over the Tigers.

Both RPI/Dartmouth and Clarkson/Princeton will play their third games tomorrow night at 7. With two series in the books, we're down to a quarter of the outcomes for second round matchups. Here are the remaining possibilities: