Looking at the standings, one would think that the Engineers should have had an easy time with the Princeton Tigers this weekend, since the Tigers were the only team lower in the ECAC standings. However, what’s not noted in the standings is that one of the two wins that Princeton has is against RPI and, in fact, the Tigers hold two wins over the Engineers this season. The Tigers’ other win against the Engineers came in a non-conference game at the HSBC Holiday Tournament. Regardless, Princeton had edged out RPI both times the two teams have met this season.

The Tigers were the first to strike in this game, when Tigers’ sophomore Mike Patton slid the puck into the net at 4:47 into the first period to give his team the lead. Engineer goalie Nathan Marsters, who started the game, had been drawn out of the net by Princeton’s Steve Slaton, who made the pass to Patton for the easy goal. As the period closed out, RPI managed to bring the game to a tie as Nick Economakos netted a rebound off a shot by returning captain Danny Eberly, who played his first game since being injured eight games ago.

Carson Butterwick broke the tie early in the second period, as he scored on a shorthanded situation on Tigers’ goaltender Nate Nomeland. Butterwick came down on the wing and put the puck in the net with a wrist shot at 4:28 into the second for his fourth of the season.

RPI seemed to have the game under control and was looking for the victory, but the Tigers burst the Engineers’ bubble with just minutes left in the game. Princeton had won the faceoff in RPI’s zone, and the puck made its way to the stick of Matt Maglione, who managed to get the puck past Marsters with a hard wrist shot at 17:42 of the third period to tie the game at two apiece. Overtime saw no resolution to the tie, as both teams eventually skated to get a point each in the ECAC standings.

Just as soon as the Engineers finally broke out of their slump, they were hit with another roadblock in the form of the Yale Bulldogs.

Just like the previous night, the Engineers gave up the first goal of the game. This time, the goal came in the dying minutes of the first period, when Yale’s Christian Jenson scored from between the faceoff circles in the RPI zone on Marsters at 18:23 to give his team the lead.

It didn’t take the Bulldogs long to jump up their advantage from one goal to three. The second Yale goal came at 5:31, when the Bulldogs’ Ryan Steeves scored on a 2-on-1 situation. The Bulldogs struck again shortly after at 6:27, when Nick Deschenes scored on a one-timer from a feed which came from behind the net.

RPI finally got on the scoresheet at 10:13, when Economakos, who has been coming into his own in terms of scoring, potted his second of the weekend off a rebound from a Matt McNeely shot on the Engineers’ power play. The Engineers’ scoring leader Kevin Croxton got the team’s second goal at 15:53 of the second period after repeatedly swinging at the puck until it beat Yale goaltender Josh Gartner—again on the power play.

As quickly as RPI was looking to get back into the game, Yale had sent them straight back to square one as the Bulldogs’ captain Denis Nam skated between two RPI defensemen to score at 2:46 on Marsters to bring the score to 4-2. The Engineers attempted a comeback once more, when Kirk McDonald scored just below the crossbar to bring his team to within one at 5:51. But that was as far as the Engineers would get, as Yale’s Joe Zappala netted the team’s fifth goal at 9:44 with a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle. Kevin Kurk was put in for the remainder of the game, and both teams finished off the period without scoring to leave the final score at 5-3.