The split weekend is becoming commonplace for the Engineers, having done so in four of their last five conference weekends; the exception, of course was the home-and-home sweep over Union. There were some stellar individual performances this week, as well.
RPI took to Thompson Arena in Hanover, N.H., to take on the Dartmouth Big Green on Friday night. The game was very streaky from the start.
Dartmouth struck first as forward Dan Shribman fired the puck at the net. RPI goalie Nathan Marsters made the initial save, but the puck bounced back to Shribman, who corralled the puck behind the net, and sent it to Mike Turner in the slot. Turner slam-dunked the puck past Marsters.
Dartmouth kept pressuring Rensselaer all period, frustrating their offensive rush and keeping the puck pinned in the RPI end. Late in the first, on a Dartmouth power play, forward Hugh Jessiman took a pass from Mike Ouellette, pinched from the left point, and shot the puck over Marsters to give Dartmouth the 2-0 lead.
Early in the second, it looked as though Dartmouth would strike again. About a minute in, there was a flurry of action in front of Marsters, who made two beautiful, sprawling saves.
The momentum quickly shifted in favor of the Engineers. On a power play, scoring leader Kevin Croxton held the puck in the Dartmouth zone as the rest of the team caught up. Two defenders swiftly moved toward Croxton, who dished the puck to an advancing Brad Farynuk. Farynuk wound up and shot from the blue line, beating Big Green goalie Dan Yacey. Kirk MacDonald also had an assist on the goal.
Later in the period, after a series of penalties, the Engineers found themselves with a 4-on-3 power play. Ben Barr dug the puck out deep along the end boards, and passed to MacDonald in the slot. MacDonald swung the puck around to Scott Basiuk at the point, who wired a shot past Yacey to even things up.
Things kept going RPI’s way early in the third. Matt McNeely found the rebound of a Conrad Barnes shot, worked his way towards the net, and put a shot over Yacey’s left pad to give RPI the lead. The Engineers started to clamp down defensively, even killing off a full minute of 5-on-3 midway through the period. Momentum shifted Dartmouth’s way, when on a four-on-two rush, Croxton missed an open net shot, hitting the side. The goal would have put RPI up by two, and quite possibly have sealed the game.
However, Dartmouth forward Tanner Glass tied things up with four minutes left in the game. Glass carried the puck from center, behind the goal line, past two defenders in front of the net, and slipped the puck under Marsters to tie things up.
Just two minutes later, Shribman moved past a defender with the puck to give himself a short breakaway, and put Dartmouth up for good. The game ended 4-3. Marsters finished with 31 saves and MacDonald had three assists. Dartmouth’s Yacey had 19 saves.
The Engineers looked to rebound against Vermont. Penalties cost the Catamounts early, as Croxton tallied a pair of power-play goals in the first period.
Assists on the first goal were credited to MacDonald and Nick Economakos, and Farynuk and MacDonald had assists on the second. Croxton has nine power play goals on the season, and is tied for first in the nation. Seven of Croxton’s nine power-play goals have occurred in ECAC competition, which puts Croxton in first outright in that category.
Vermont scored two goals in the last three minutes of the game. Senior captain Oriel McHugh scored with four seconds left on a power play to bring the Catamounts within one. Then, just as Vermont goalie Travis Russell was heading for the bench for an extra skater, Vermont scoring leader Brady Leisenring found the back of the net to knot things up at two apiece.
The game headed to overtime, where an unlikely hero struck for RPI. An aggressive attacking strategy by Vermont gave way to an odd-man rush to the opposite end of the ice.
Vic Pereira took a pass from Kevin Broad, and put the puck past Russell’s shoulder for the win.
With the weekend split, and a pair of Cornell losses, RPI moves into fifth place outright in the ECAC, with an 8-5-1 conference record. While they fell completely out of this week’s USCHO poll, they moved up to the number-20 spot in the INCH rankings from Inside College Hockey.
Kirk MacDonald was named ECAC Player of the Week, tallying five assists over the two games this weekend.
The Engineers are back home this weekend for what always prove to be two exciting and energetic match-ups with the two teams from the North Country. The St. Lawrence Saints visit the Field House on Friday night. The Saints won the first meeting with Rensselaer, 4-0.
The Alumni Hockey Game is Saturday at noon, and will feature members of the 1954 national championship team, and coach Ned Harkness will be present as well. Saturday’s events conclude with the Big Red Freakout against Clarkson, which promises to be loud and exciting, as always.
