The crazy bounces keep coming for the men’s hockey team, but this weekend, they worked in RPI’s favor. The Engineers took the ice Saturday night against Atlantic Hockey’s Sacred Heart University, in their final non-conference game of the season.
RPI was looking to build on their momentum after shutting out the nationally ranked Big Red of Cornell last weekend. Sacred Heart, however, was simply looking for some momentum, having gone several months without a win. Their last victory was a 2-1 win over Holy Cross all the way back in November 2003.
Whether momentum, luck, or simply fate, the first goal of the game certainly qualified as a crazy bounce.
Just 28 seconds in, Nick Economakos held a Sacred Heart clearing attempt in the zone and sent the puck towards the net.
On its way there, it found sophomore Kirk MacDonald—not his stick, but his helmet—and trickled past Sacred Heart goalie Jason Smith. Smith sprawled out, attempting to stop the soccer-style redirection, but the puck crossed the line regardless giving RPI the early 1-0 lead.
Rensselaer doubled their lead in the second period, on yet another bizarre play.
With Sacred Heart player Chuck Metcalfe in the box for hitting from behind, RPI’s hot power play looked to strike. After taking a feed from MacDonald, leading scorer Kevin Croxton was behind the goal line and looked to give MacDonald a return pass.
On its way to MacDonald, the pass struck a Sacred Heart defender’s stick and deflected into the net. Croxton was credited with the goal, his seventh power-play goal of the season, which ranks him tied for fifth in the nation in that category. Scott Basiuk was also given an assist on the goal.
The goal has given the Engineers at least one power play goal in each of their last six games.
Ben Barr added a shorthanded, empty-net goal with 10 seconds left in the game, with help from Blake Pickett.
The game ended with the score 3-0, giving Nathan Marsters his second consecutive shutout. Marsters, a fifth-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Kings in 2000, now has a shutout streak of 146:17, last giving up a goal against Colgate on January 16.
As other teams got caught up on their conference schedules, RPI fell to a tie for fourth in the ECAC as Colgate and Dartmouth both passed the Engineers. In the Atlantic Hockey Conference, Sacred Heart sits at fifth with a 4-6-2 conference record.
In the latest USCHO.com poll, Rensselaer received seven votes, but remains unranked.
Marsters will look to extend his streak this weekend, as the Engineers hit the road for the first two of ten consecutive conference games to close out the regular season. RPI needs a strong showing to keep pace with conference leaders in the hopes of clinching a first-round bye in the ECAC tournament.
They head to New Hampshire to play the Dartmouth Big Green on Friday night, and then visit Vermont to play the Catamounts on Saturday night. RPI tied Dartmouth, 1-1, and beat Vermont, 7-1, in the teams’ previous meetings.
The team returns home next weekend, taking on St. Lawrence on Febuary 6, and Clarkson for the Big Red Freakout, on February 7. Tickets are on sale but are going fast for the Freakout. The games, as with all the Enigineers games, can be heard on WRPI-91.5 FM, and are broadcast on the web at http://www.wrpi.org.
