The Engineers and the Golden Knights kept pace with each other for most of the first half-period, exchanging rushes and scoring chances. At exactly ten minutes into the game, Clarkson’s Adam Campana broke the scoreless tie when he managed to knock in his own rebound past RPI’s Kevin Kurk. The Engineers showed some vulnerability after this goal, as Blake Pickett took an undisciplined crosschecking penalty only 31 seconds later. This proved to be a fatal error, as Clarkson capitalized on the man-advantage and scored at 11:37 into the first period with a goal by Randy Jones, who managed to get the puck through traffic from the point, over the shoulder of Kurk.

The tide quickly changed when Clarkson’s Chris Blight took a tripping penalty at 13:45. The Engineers made use of this power-play as they managed to reduce the Golden Knights’ lead by one at the 15:44 mark. Mikeal Hammarstrom found the loose puck in a mess of players in the Clarkson crease to net his fourth goal of the season, and his first in conference play.

The rest of the game was a standoff between the two teams. Both teams had numerous chances to change the tide of the game—for RPI, they were looking to tie the game using their momentum, while Clarkson was looking to put the Engineers away by scoring quickly and killing their momentum. Both teams were also hit with a myriad of penalties. It was evident that RPI was getting more and more frustrated as the game wore on, as Ben Barr was slapped with a game misconduct at 8:22 into the second period for hitting from behind. As the time wore down for the Engineers, they were hit with another rough penalty at 7:58 of the third period, when they were given a bench minor penalty as RPI coach Dan Fridgen verbally released some of his frustrations on the referee. Despite these penalties, RPI’s solid defense helped keep the Golden Knights at bay. Unfortunately, the Engineers were unable to ever find that equalizing goal, and finally fell to Clarkson by a final score of 2-1.

After the game, Dan Fridgen was understandably a little frustrated with the result. “You know, I thought we kept it pretty close, they didn’t get away on us, and, you know, we just couldn’t get that equalizer, and I thought that was going to be a real important part of the game,” he said. Despite not coming out on top, Fridgen was happy with the way his team played. He did note, however, that “it would have been nice to get more than just the one on the power play,” when commenting on the team’s overall performance. Coach Fridgen summed the game up by saying, “I thought we put some pretty good pressure on them and a bounce here or a bounce there, it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Saturday evening, the Engineers hoped to put a positive spin on their weekend as the Saint Lawrence Saints visited the Houston Field House. RPI started off their evening with a change in the net, as Nathan Marsters was chosen to start the game instead of Kurk.

The first noticeable thing about the Engineers on Saturday was that, despite their visible fatigue from playing their second night in a row, they seemed to be playing a smarter game. Little things that had plagued the team during the beginning of their season had seemed to be smoothed out. They were executing plays better, making smarter passes, and playing very sound defensively. Unfortunately, as with most cases, an early penalty by Keith McWilliams at 14:31 resulted in an SLU goal immediately after the penalty expired. Jim Lorentz scored at 15:33 on a rebound. After that point, the Engineers made it a point not to let another defensive lapse occur. This mindset was truly personified in the form of Vic Pereira, who was hitting like a monster towards the end of the first period.

The second period was rather uneventful, with RPI looking once again for the equalizer that eluded them in the previous game. The Saints were slowly getting under the skin of the Engineers, as hostility began to show between the two teams. Both teams took a number of undisciplined penalties, some of which were questioned by both benches. It wasn’t until the 3:10 mark of the third period that RPI finally got the equalizer they had been looking for. Freshman Kevin Croxton was fed a beautiful pass through the neutral zone and, while having a Saints defender draped all over him, put the puck on his backhand and put it just past Saints’ goalie Kevin Ackley’s blocker. Croxton came through again for the Engineers, when he scored his second of the game at 7:26 into the third period to lift RPI to their first lead all weekend. RPI’s McWilliams intercepted a pass from behind the SLU net and shovelled the puck through the crease, which found its way to Croxton’s stick blade, and then into the back of the net. RPI’s defense continued to shine as they held on to that lead to defeat the Saints 2-1.

Coach Fridgen was very happy with the way his team played on Saturday night. He commented that the Engineers had played hard both Friday and Saturday evenings. On freshman Kevin Croxton’s two goals, Fridgen also said, “we had a freshman step up in the third period and get a couple of goals for us when we needed it… and that’s what we’re all about this season.” He compared this game to last year’s Big Red Freakout, in that there were many opportunities that they never followed through on, but in the third period the scoring finally came.