Friday night saw the Engineers travel to Ithaca to take on the Cornell Big Red, who are ranked second in the nation. RPI’s undisciplined play started early, with captain Scott Basiuk taking a hooking penalty just 41 seconds into the game. RPI’s penalty kill unit held strong, with good shot blocking and high pressure.

Cornell’s forwards kept digging for the puck, and were constantly winning the battles behind the Engineers’ net. The effort paid off at 5:20, when Cornell defenseman Mark McRae fired a puck from the slot which slid under Kevin Kurk’s arm to put the Big Red up 1-0.

Cornell continued to pressure the Engineers, as they spent the next two minutes in the RPI zone. The Big Red looked to take a two goal lead, but center Matt McRae fired his shot off of the post just minutes after the first goal. As RPI was breaking out of the zone, Cornell’s Matt Moulson hit the puck carrier from behind and took an uncharacteristic penalty for the Big Red.

Rensselaer looked to capitalize on the penalty, but the power play ended when Ryan Shield threw his player into the boards and took a boarding penalty from the linesman at 9:40. The teams played out the four on four evenly, and the Engineers looked to skate into the locker room only one goal down. The Big Red refused to quit, and with 40.4 seconds left, Cornell winger Shane Hynes pulled a puck around Kurk from the right circle to put the Engineers down 2-0 going into the first period break.

Rensselaer came out of the period break strong defensively, trapping Cornell in the neutral zone. The Big Red, getting frustrated with the Engineers’ pressure, started to get sloppy, and at 7:43, Cornell captain Stephen Bâby took a high-sticking penalty. Cornell killed the penalty with strong defense, often carrying the puck into the Engineers’ zone. The Rensselaer offense took control, but the attack was smothered by Big Red goalie David LeNeveu. The Engineers were getting flustered, and freshman Kevin Croxton took a sloppy hooking penalty at 11:25. The Cornell power play slathered RPI goalie Kurk with shots, and Kurk snapped back with an impressive streak of saves. Kurk couldn’t halt the Big Red advantage, as Moulson one-timed a puck with help from Daniel Pegoraro and Hynes.

Rensselaer was given another opportunity when Shane Palahicky took a hitting from behind penalty, but Cornell was again able to kill the penalty by clearing the puck well. The Big Red offense picked up at the end of the period and was rewarded at 1:32 when Matt McRae broke loose from the RPI defense and used a pretty deke to fool Kurk. Down 4-0, the RPI exasperation showed when Basiuk took another penalty with just 7.4 seconds remaining in the period.

Coach Dan Fridgen took the period break as an opportunity to pull Kurk in favor of Nathan Marsters. The goalie change sparked the defense to kick it up, but the discipline was still lacking for the Engineers. RPI forward Carson Butterwick took a slashing penalty at 2:56, and the Engineers managed to kill off the disadvantage by clearing deep into the Big Red zone.

Cornell kept up their pressure, though, and almost scored at 4:40, when Marsters wandered well out of his crease to retrieve a puck. The Cornell forward beat him to the puck, but fortunately for the Engineers, he could not connect the pass. The next five minutes passed without any real scoring chances for RPI, despite a penalty on Cornell’s Charlie Cook for obstruction-tripping.

The Engineers were holding strong on defense, but the Big Red got a break at 11:08, when Vic Pereria took an instigator penalty for protecting his goaltender. Cornell never let the Engineers back into the game, and after another RPI penalty Mark McRae tallied his second goal of the game to put the Engineers away 5-0.

After the game, Coach Fridgen made it clear how the game looked from his prospective. “It was the men playing with boys. Bottom line … [Cornell] played well, and we didn’t execute the way we wanted to execute.”

The Engineers looked to rebound against the eighth placed Colgate Raiders on Saturday. The Engineers dug an early hole for themselves, as Colgate jumped to a quick 2-0 lead on goals by Scooter Smith and Kyle Wilson. The Raiders almost put RPI into a three goal hole, but clanked a shot of the crossbar just minutes after the second goal. RPI stormed back, despite having their first apparent goal disallowed. Butterwick scored his fifth goal of the season, with help from Nick Economakos and Ben Barr at 14:32.

The Engineer power play was firing on all cylinders, and paid off on the second chance of the evening. Alexander Valentine scored his first collegiate goal, jumping in on the play at 16:46 to tie the game at two. RPI could not escape its penalty problems, though, as Brad Farynuk took a retaliatory cross-checking penalty with less than a minute left in the first period.

The carry over penalty hurt the Engineers, as they had to start the period with a man disadvantage. The Raiders didn’t take long to capitalize. Just 47 seconds into the period, Colgate forward P.J. Yedon tipped a shot past RPI’s Marsters to put the Raiders up by one. Nolan Graham tied the game again at three with a power-play goal going into the second period break.

Colgate’s Smith could not be stopped, and he rocketed a slap shot past Marsters to tally the game winning goal. Despite the feeling that RPI outplayed the Raiders, Fridgen remarked, “It has just been so frustrating all year. We’ve gone out and given performances that generally earn you a win, but we just can’t find a way to pull some of those games out.”