Fridgen discussed the record modestly, acknowledging that “it feels to good to get it out of the way, so now we can focus and concentrate on league play coming up next weekend,” adding, “I’ll probably appreciate it more when I’m a little grayer and have a little less hair than I do now.” Fridgen is 187-156-31 in his tenth season. Addesa was 186-124-9 from 1979-1989.

The initial bid to give Fridgen the record got off to a rough start. Lowell forward Ben Walter made a great move on the power play to get the puck at the side of the net. With RPI goalie Jordan Alford down on the ice, Walter put the puck to the twine for the early lead. The early goal hurt the momentum of RPI, who had been controlling most of the play.

Lowell forward Andrew Martin—not to be confused with RPI goalie Andrew Martin—got a five-hole goal just two minutes later, and Walter tallied another power play marker less than two minutes after that, giving Lowell the 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission. “We got ourselves in a hole, which is surprising,” remarked Fridgen, “because I thought we carried the better part of the play early.”

The River Hawks extended the lead early in the second. When Engineer defenseman Brad Farynuk tried to put a hit on Lowell forward Elias Godoy, Godoy recovered and found Walter in front of the net. Walter one-timed the puck and netted the hat trick goal, giving Lowell a seemingly insurmountable four goal lead.

RPI mounted an impressive comeback, however. Kevin Croxton found Keith MCWilliams on a two-on-one late in the second, and MCWilliams went top-shelf to break the shutout.

Two excellent plays set up by Alexander Valentin drew RPI within one. Early in the third, on a power play, he drew two defensemen towards him, then found Oren Eizenman, who was alone on the other side of the ice, and he buried it. Minutes later, Valentin carried the puck from the point, went behind the net, and took a wraparound shot. Kevin Broad scored on the rebound. After Broad’s goal, Lowell goalie John Yaros went down on the ice. He had to be helped off, favoring his right leg.

Despite Alford’s early struggles, he made some impressive saves to keep RPI in the game late. “Jordan did a good job battling back,” mentioned Fridgen. RPI pressed on for the rest of the third, but Ben Walter’s empty net goal with nine seconds left sealed the deal for the River Hawks. Alford finished with 20 saves. Yaros finished with 24 saves, and his replacement, Chris Davidson, had six.

RPI rebounded on Saturday night, and rebounded with force. After a scoreless first period that saw the Engineers outshoot Mercyhurst 13-2, a period-ending penalty on Mercyhurst forward David Wrigley for hitting from behind gave RPI a power play to start the second.

Chris Hussey wove around a defenseman on that power play and put the puck over the goalie’s shoulder. “[Hussey] is most effective when he has his feet moving, and he certainly had his feet moving there. He took it, threw it up top, and that’s starting to be a familiar sight,” noted Fridgen. Hussey’s goal was his fourth of the season, which is second on the team, behind Kirk MacDonald’s seven.

Croxton scored through the five-hole on a wrap around later in the period, and Valentin scored his first of the season on a one-timer from Scott Romfo on a power play. Shortly after the goal, RPI goalie Andrew Martin stuffed a Mercyhurst breakaway, in what was fast becoming a subtext for the game.

Martin blanked the Lakers through two periods, while only facing a small number of shots. MacDonald and Broad added goals in the third to give Martin plenty of room for error, and Romfo blocked a Laker one-timer with his stick. Martin finished the game with a shutout, the second in his career, and his first at RPI. “When you have defensemen that keep your shots down, it’s more of them . . . the three games I’ve been in, the most shots I’ve faced was 18,” commented Martin. “I had to make sure I stayed focused . . . in games like that, it’s easy for your mind to wander.”

Fridgen was pleased with the performance of Martin and the defense. “[Martin] made some big saves. They didn’t have a lot of shots, but they were quality shots,” he said.

With the weekend split, RPI runs its record to 4-2-1 on the year, with conference play beginning this weekend. RPI takes on Clarkson on Friday night at the Field House, for Black Friday. Friday’s game will feature a special ceremony honoring Adam Oates ’85, who has the most career points among NHL players who played at the collegiate level. The future Hall-of-Famer will be on hand, and a special jersey of his will be auctioned off in addition to the special black jerseys the players will wear.