The first obstacle for the Engineers was a tough Princeton team. It looked like RPI would be facing an uphill battle all night. The Tigers were pressuring Engineer goalie Nathan Marsters from the puck-drop, and 23 seconds into the game, Princeton defenseman Luc Paquin hurled a shot at Marsters, and forward Josh Roberts drove the puck into the net for a fast 1-0 lead.

The pressure on the RPI defense continued to mount until an apparent Tiger goal was waved off because it went in off a skate. This was the break that the Engineers needed. Three minutes after the first goal of the game, RPI co-captain Matt Murley broke out of the neutral zone and found forward Marc Cavosie, who scored on Princeton goalie Dave Stathos.

The Engineers kept up the attack, continuing to break past the Tiger defense, even when Cavosie took a two-minute penalty for holding. Just off of the four-on-five and in the Tiger zone, RPI’s special teams unit found the net. Andrew McPherson hit Conrad Barnes with a nifty pass and Barnes slid the puck between Stathos’ legs to put RPI on top 2-1.

After the first period, Princeton outshot Rensselaer 32-7. The numbers, however, are deceiving—most of Princeton’s shots came from the perimeter, and Marsters was rarely in any difficulty. In contrast, the Engineers had quality shots, scoring three more times throughout the game.

At 4:29 into the second period, Stathos saved a shot from RPI forward Chris Migliore, but Jim Henkel found the rebound and stuffed it in the net. On the other end of the ice, Marsters had 17 saves and allowed no goals during the period. The only scary moment for the Engineers was when Henkel and a teammate collided hard near the RPI bench, but Henkel was only briefly shaken and returned to the ice on his next shift.

Princeton came out of the locker room shooting in the third period. The Engineers managed to turn the Tiger’s pressure against them. With 16:40 remaining in the game, RPI broke out on a two-on-one: Forward Mikael Hammarstrom set up McPherson with a cross-ice pass to put the Engineers up by three goals.

The Princeton offense couldn’t be quieted, though—Neil Stevenson-Moore scored on a cross-ice pass from Tiger forward Ryan Kraliz to close within two, but the Engineers padded their lead again when Murley rebounded a puck into the net off of a shot by Nolan Graham.

Princeton then pulled Stathos in favor of Nate Nomeland. The Tigers rallied to again pull the game within two goals when forward George Parsons drove in a shot at 15:11, but RPI still took the game 5-3, and rolled into Yale with a four-game winning streak.

RPI got on the board against the Bulldogs early when Blake Pickett’s shot from just inside the blue line deflected off a Yale defenseman’s skate and past goaltender Dan Lombard.

The Engineers increased their lead just minutes later when Murley and Jim Vickers took advantage of poor Yale play in the offensive zone. Vickers intercepted an attempted clearing pass, faked a shot, and then sent a nice feed to Murley, who was all alone in the right circle. Murley showed why he is the No. 2 scorer in the league as he fired the puck past Lombard for a two-goal advantage.

Although RPI clearly owned the opening minutes with a more aggressive level of play, a Yale goal at 12:04 seemed to energize the Bulldogs. A skirmish in the Yale end resulted in an RPI power play, as Andrew McPherson drew four minutes for roughing, but two Yale players were sent to the penalty box, also for roughing. The Engineers were unable to capitalize on the man advantage, though, as Yale’s defense stiffened and the period ended without further scoring.

The second period began with some solid goaltending by both Yale’s Lombard and RPI’s Kevin Kurk, each of whom made several nice saves. Chris Migliore put the Engineers back on top by two as he scored at the 5:30 mark.

Soon after that, emotions began to boil over as several no-calls led to retaliatory penalties. Murley twice got called for hitting after the whistle as he reacted to being pummeled and knocked to the ice. Officials had their hands full keeping control and were forced to separate players more than once.

The teams traded goals, with Scott Basiuk, assisted by Barnes and Marc Cavosie, finding the back of the net for the Engineers. RPI was able to sustain good pressure in the attacking zone, and the period ended with Yale’s netminder thwarting a breakaway by Murley, who had left the penalty box seconds earlier.

RPI continued to play solid defense throughout the third period, limiting the Bulldogs to few good shots. Eric Cavosie seemed to be everywhere, and at one point Danny Eberly made a nice play to clear the defensive zone while lying on the ice. When Yale did threaten, Kurk was there, making one great save after another, including a big one on a short-handed breakaway and another on a four-on-two chance. Penalties to Murley and Marc Cavosie at the 7:53 mark resulted in a Yale power play, but RPI successfully killed it off. Down two goals, Yale desperately tried to get back into the game, pulling Lombard with two minutes remaining. Carson Butterwick notched an empty netter, and the Yale fans were again sent home disappointed as the Bulldogs failed in their sixth straight attempt to reach 1,000 wins.

The Engineers are now officially on a tear. They have won five straight and—just one month after a crushing loss at Union left them in last place in the ECAC—now hold sole possession of sixth place. They are just one point away from having home ice for the first round of the playoffs and only three points behind the second-place Dartmouth Big Green. Some shuffling of lines by Head Coach Dan Fridgen has balanced out the scoring—twelve different players had a point in the Yale game—and RPI appears to be peaking with postseason play just around the corner.