Friday the team traveled to Canton, NY to begin another set of games away from home. The last time these two teams faced, the Engineers bested the Saints by a score of 2-1. This time around, the two teams skated to an equally close game.

The Engineers started the game off strong, getting plenty of shots on Saints’ goalie Mike McKenna. However, it was St. Lawrence who broke the scoreless tie at just 1:24 into the second period when the Saints’ Jim Lorentz capitalized on the power play.

Despite the deficit, RPI wouldn’t let up on their shooting on McKenna, and finally scored on him when forward Ben Barr made use of the man advantage and scored on McKenna’s short side at 13:59 to tie the game. Barr struck again later in the period, netting yet another power play goal at 18:01.

It seemed as though RPI had all the momentum in the game, despite not making good use of their shooting, as they only had two goals to show for over 20 shots in the first two periods.

The third period looked like an entirely different game. St. Lawrence’s John Zeiler caught a rebound of Engineer’s netminder Kevin Kurk at 2:16 into the third period to bring the game to a tie. This goal was quickly followed by a tally from the Saints’ Josh Anderson at 4:34, when he managed to redirect the puck just beyond the reach of Kurk.

Throughout the third period, the Saints heavily outshot the Engineers as they attempted to run away with the game. In the last minute of the game, RPI Head Coach Dan Fridgen opted to pull Kurk in hopes of forcing overtime, but those hopes were quickly squashed when Rich Peverley potted an empty-net goal at 19:51 to crush any hopes of a comeback by the Engineers, bringing the final score to 4-2.

RPI hoped for better luck on Saturday when they faced their rivals, the Clarkson Golden Knights. The last time the two teams faced off, Clarkson was just on the heels of a team controversy that inevitably led to the firing of their head coach. Suffice it to say, the Golden Knights did not let that detail get in the way of their play, as they edged out the Engineers 2-1.

The start of the game between the two teams was a good indication of how the rest of the game would follow, as Clarkson struck very early in the game when Chris Brekelmans fired the puck just past RPI’s Nathan Marsters to open the scoring at just 17 seconds into the game.

The Golden Knights’ Tristan Lush followed up this early tally at 6:29 off a centering pass from teammate Marc Zwicky to put their squad up two goals to none. Clarkson, showing no signs of slowing down, scored yet again at 9:08 in the first period when Mac Faulkner roofed a rebound over Marsters.

The second period looked equally as bleak, when Clarkson’s Joe Carosa scored on a short-handed situation just 56 seconds into the second period when he caught Marsters off-guard and backhanded a shot over the struggling goalie.

The deficit continued to grow as Clarkson’s Kevin O’Flaherty scored on the power play, making good use of a rebound at 4:36 into the second. Marsters, obviously struggling to find his game, was pulled immediately after Clarkson’s fifth goal in favor of Kurk, who did not fare much better. The Golden Knights took no heed of the goalie change, as Faulkner scored his second of the game at 14:33 on the power play. Clarkson capped off two brilliant periods when John Sullivan took advantage of the especially struggling RPI short-handed unit, as he netted a goal at 18:31 on the power play.

After just two periods, Clarkson destroyed RPI on the scoresheet, with seven goals to none, and a shot total of 29 to the Engineer’s measly 10 shots, only three of which came throughout the entire second period.

Perhaps there was some fire left in the hearts of the Engineers, as they finally broke Clarkson’s Dustin Traylen’s shutout bid, when RPI’s Chris Hussey scored on the power play at 16:37 into the third period.

To say that this effort was too little too late would be a gross understatement, as the Engineers dropped their sixth game in a row, this one in a mind-blowing fashion as they lost 7-1. Despite these shortcomings, Fridgen still remains as optimistic as he can about the team, stating that there is a lot of hockey left to play, and that they are looking for someone to step up to lead the team so that they can salvage some wins come the end of a long and arduous season for the Engineers.