RPI and Union wrote another chapter in their long, storied rivalry this weekend, a rivalry that RPI had made extremely one-sided of late. Carrying a 39-10-6 all-time record against the Dutchmen—and a 5-0-1 mark in the past six games—into this weekend’s contests, the Engineers had every reason to believe they would continue the trend. They even match up well against the Dutchmen on paper. But games aren’t played on paper; they’re played on ice—or inside television sets.
Whether or not RPI thought the outcome of the weekend was a foregone conclusion, they might have been guilty of playing like it. The Engineers were often outworked for the puck by the Dutchmen and frequently forced to backtrack by Union’s speedy fore-checkers. RPI fell behind early in both games as their defense scrambled and suffered a pair of defeats in the home-and-home series. Head coach Dan Fridgen was disappointed with the team’s effort. “We’re going to need to be a team that relies on our defense,” he said, adding, “We didn’t do a very good job in our end of the rink.”
Dutchman Scott Seney notched two goals in the opener, including the game-winner which came on a strange bounce just 37 seconds into the third period. Union’s early-period strike complemented another goal late in the second, with 41 seconds left. That goal, Joel Beal’s first of the season, snuck into the net with a pile in front, and gave Union its last lead of the game. “You can’t be giving up goals at the end of a period, and you can’t be giving up goals at the start of the period,” said Fridgen.
Union’s Casey Ftorek started the scoring just under three minutes into the game, beating goalie Jordan Alford with a clean wrist shot off a turnover. A Matt McNeely slap shot on a 5-on-3 knotted things at one, but Union took control.
The Dutchmen’s dominance was facilitated by their speed: winning the battles to the puck and keeping it. Jordan Webb gave them the lead when he roofed a shot into a wide-open net—with Alford down on the ice—on a 5-on-3, and Seney increased the lead when he buried a centering pass.
RPI crawled back into a tie with a pair of power play goals. Andrew Lord wired a shot top shelf over a sprawled Kris Mayotte, and Kevin Croxton took a Kirk MacDonald pass and cleanly beat Mayotte.
Late in the third, a pair of incredible skill plays kept RPI in the game. Nick Economakos charged to the net and batted a bouncing puck out of mid-air in an amazing display of hand-eye coordination. Then, with approximately five minutes left in the third, a prone Andrew Martin—Alford had been pulled after the third goal—stabbed his glove into the air and denied Webb his second goal of the game. Union, however, fended off RPI’s late pressure and held on for the win. “We reacted well, and in the third, we came hard,” said Martin. “It was a tough loss.”
Webb was not to be denied in the second game, however, plotting two goals, and Seney added two assists. Factoring in Joel Beal’s assist in the third period, three Union players had four-point weekends.
After a scoreless first, Webb’s second period heroics put the Engineers in an insurmountable hole. Martin made some huge saves in the second, but a shot off a cross ice pass and a clean wrister on the power play that went high to the short side, found their way to the twine, courtesy of Webb’s stick.
An RPI zone face off led to an Olivier Bouchard goal. Seney won the face off right to Bouchard, and he tucked the puck just inside the far post for the 3-0 lead. Kevin Broad and Lord drew the Engineers within one in the third period, but a pair of RPI penalties with 54 seconds left killed any hope for a comeback.
With the losses, RPI falls to 5-5-1 overall, and 1-3 in ECACHL play. With their first-ever regular season sweep of the Engineers, Union maintains a perfect record in league play. The Dutchmen stand alone in first place, one point ahead of Vermont. Fridgen seemed unimpressed by the sweep, remarking, “We’ll see who’s there in the end.”
Rensselaer takes to the road to play Yale and Princeton this Friday and Saturday. Both games are at 7 pm.
