Before the Thanksgiving break, the Engineers hosted a powerhouse team, the St. Cloud State Huskies for a weekend series. The Huskies, who hadn’t lost a non-conference game and had only lost one conference game all season, were the heavy favorites to win the match by most hockey enthusiasts.
Their first meeting at the Field House proved to be a sign of things to come for the weekend. The Huskies drew first blood in the contest in a four-on-four situation, when St. Cloud captain Matt Hendricks edged the puck past RPI goalie Nathan Marsters for the goal at 3:25 into the first.
Just past five minutes into the second RPI replied with a goal of their own. Ben Barr, with the help of Mark Yurkewecz, created an odd-man situation which the Engineers capitalized on as Barr netted the tying goal.
However, this triumph would be short-lived when the Huskies roared back to score on the powerplay at 8:13 when St. Cloud’s Matt Gens rifled a shot from the blue line beyond Marsters and returning the lead to St. Cloud.
The Engineers refused to back down, though, as they came back with their own power play goal at 14:49 of the second to once again tie the game. RPI’s Alexander Valentin fired a shot at Huskies goalie Jason Montgomery, who deflected the shot away from the net right to Kirk MacDonald, who made Montgomery pay for his error by netting the easy rebound.
St. Cloud, sensing a bit of pressure, began firing on all cylinders in the third period. Marsters played brilliantly protecting the Rensselaer goal, giving his teammates an opportunity to put the game away. With just under four minutes left in the game, Vic Pereira did just that.
Pereira chipped a loose puck by past Montgomery at 16:32 to give the Engineers their first lead of the game. This goal would prove to be the game-winner, and RPI pulled off a huge upset over the then-fifth ranked Huskies.
The second game of the weekend was a strikingly similar game ending in another one goal victory for Rensselaer.
Although the Huskies opened the game’s scoring, RPI again battled back.
Just 4:58 into the second Matt McNeely put a slick move on Huskies’ goaltender Tim Boron, scoring on his backhand.
Later, on an RPI power play Kevin Croxton took the puck into the Huskies zone and shot it right past Boron for the game winner.
During the Thanksgiving weekend, the Engineers made a road trip, and made their first stop at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, to face the River Hawks.
The first period was a defensive battle and ended in a scoreless tie.
It wasn’t until early in the second that the tie was broken, when Croxton scored the game’s first goal at 2:34 into the second. Kirk MacDonald followed Croxton’s goal with a power play tally when he popped the puck right over UML goalie Paul Mammola to give the Engineers a 2-0 lead.
The third period, the Engineers held off the River Hawks for most of the period, with RPI netminder Andrew Martin, who was making his first start of the season, making crucial saves. However, River Hawk Erik Johansson fired a puck that just eluded Martin’s grasp, and the loose puck slid to UML’s Danny O’Brien, who broke Martin’s shutout bid at 15:37 into the third.
This goal gave the River Hawks the determination to pull Mammola for the extra man. Despite their efforts, though, the Engineers stifled the opposition to hold on for their third upset win in as many games.
The second and final stop of the Engineers’ road trip brought them to the University of New Hampshire for a contest against the Wildcats.
UNH got the first goal of the game at 7:19 in the first, when they took advantage of a delayed penalty call and Wildcat Preston Callander scored with a deflection in front of Marsters.
RPI was the beneficiary of an odd twist of refereeing. RPI defenseman Scott Romfo shot the puck at UNH goalie Jeff Pietrasiak, and was awarded the goal during the power play at 17:55 as the referee had signaled that a goal was scored, despite the fact that the goal light never came on.
New Hampshire took the lead back early in the second, as UNH captain Steve Saviano scored at 5:22 of the second. Not to be outdone, RPI’s Nick Economakos made full use of another RPI power play and banked a shot off a UNH defender to tie the game at 9:04.
Rensselaer then took their first lead in the game when Conrad Barnes scored in the dying seconds of the second at 19:41 to bring the game’s score up to 3-2.
UNH snatched it back, as Saviano scored in spectacular fashion at 3:41 into the third to tie the game up. Soon after, after a series of passes back and forth, UNH’s Justin Aikins shot the puck at Marsters, to have the puck fly in and out of the net giving the Wildcats the lead at 6:45.
The Engineers close out this half of the season when they host both Yale and Princeton this weekend at the Houston Field House, both games are at 7 pm.
