The Rensselaer Red Hawks took on the Soaring Eagles of Elmira on Wednesday. The Soaring Eagles jumped out to a quick lead, with Elmira scoring quickly off the opening face-off. Keith Holmes scored just 46 seconds into the game to put the Eagles up one. Elmira kept the pressure up and 36 seconds later, Alex Karoly beat RPI goaltender Matthew Moog to put the Eagles up 2-0.

RPI fired back, managing several good shots on Elmira goalie Kevin Welinsky but the Soaring Eagles continued their successful first quarter. Ryan Mikula scored off of a Corey Ingram turnover to put the Eagles up 3-0. Mikula tallied his second goal of the game just minutes later when a pass from Scott McClelland found him to shoot into the empty net.

The Red Hawks did not let the 4-0 deficit bother them. Chris Treadway hit the iron with a shot and Luke Ruglis put in the rebound to tally the first Red Hawk goal. Just over a minute later Andrew Teichman picked up a ground ball and put it past Welinsky to close the gap to two goals.

The momentum helped the Red Hawks immensely, and less than a minute later, Ruglis scored on a man-advantage. Just 12 seconds later, James Gallucci won a face-off to Adam LoGiudice, who fired the ball to Nick Cullotti, who tied the game at four apiece. Ruglis scored again with 16 seconds left in the period to put the Red Hawks up 5-4 going into halftime.

Ruglis tallied his third goal of the game in the third quarter, putting RPI up 6-4. Mikula fired back for Elmira, and Chris Burt scored just three minutes later to tie the score up at six. LoGiudice scored with three minutes left in the quarter, and Treadway tallied again to put RPI up 8-6.

Elmira’s Andy Slotnick closed the gap, but Ruglis put the game out of reach with his sixth goal of the game. RPI went on to win the game 11-7 and looked to a big game against rival Union.

The Red Hawks outshot Union 17-2 in the first frame, and had a three goal lead to show for it. RPI tallied four more goals in the second quarter to put them up 7-1 at the half. The offense exploded for seven goals in the third period and added three more in the fourth to put away the Dutchmen 17-5.

LoGiudice led the way for the Red Hawks, scoring four goals. Culotti added three goals and two assists and Frisch added two goals and two assists. Moog made nine saves in the winning effort.

With the pair of wins, the Red Hawks improved to 9-2 overall and 4-2 in conference play.

The Red Hawks will play one more regular season game against Vassar on Wednesday at 7 pm. The UCAA Championships will take place on Friday and Sunday, with times and locations to be determined by regular season seeding.