Sometimes the bounces go your way and sometimes they don’t. After rallying from a two-goal deficit to tie Sacred Heart and force overtime, the men’s hockey team fell victim to an unfortunate bounce and lost, 4-3, on Friday night. Pioneers forward Bear Trapp centered a pass that bounced off of senior defenseman Alexander Valentin and into the net for the win.
Trapp, who bore the brunt of crowd taunting for much of the game, also had a goal in the second period.
“You’ve got a bounce that goes off of a guy’s shin pad and into the net,” said RPI Head Coach Dan Fridgen, explaining the loss. “The guy’s shooting it from behind the goal line. It’s just a bad bounce in that situation. You’re in overtime and one ends the game,” he added.
Peter Ferraro gave the Pioneers the lead 4:38 into the first period when he scored on a two-on-one after he stole the puck in the RPI zone. The Engineers tied it late in the period on a goal from junior Oren Eizenman.
Sacred Heart got a pair of power play goals in quick succession in the second, both of which were set up under similar circumstances. For the first, defenseman Scott Marchesi took a slap shot from the point that beat freshman goalie Mathias Lange over the left shoulder. Lange never saw it. “I just went down on my knees. I don’t even know how it went in,” he said.
The next goal started on a point shot from Bernie Chmiel that hit the crossbar. Trapp poked the rebound in before Lange could react. “The second one hit the crossbar, then it hit my skate,” Lange said. “I saw it when I was turning back, but he was putting it in already.”
RPI halved the lead on a play set up by sophomore Andrew Lord. Lord, who has been playing on the Engineers’ top power play unit, took a pass in front of the net from senior Kevin Croxton. With his back to the net, Lord tipped the puck across the crease to Eizenman, who handily scored his second of the game.
Ornelas tied the game on the power play with 4:27 left. He whiffed on a cross-ice pass while he was standing near the left faceoff dot, but got the puck back to Croxton at the point. Croxton passed to senior Brad Farynuk, who crossed it back over to Ornelas in the same spot. Ornelas beat goalie Jason Smith over the shoulder. “I had an open lane to the net and I put it in that top corner.”
RPI killed a late penalty to senior Chris Hussey that carried over into the overtime, but the bad bounce happened just nine seconds after Hussey came out. Trapp held the puck behind the goal line and tried to flip it out front. Instead, it hit Valentin and went in.
“I was trying to shut the passing lane off,” said Valentin. “It hit my skate and went in the net.”
With the loss, RPI’s record drops to 7-6-3. The Engineers take on the RIT Tigers this Saturday at the Houston Field House. The game is the last before Christmas for RPI; the Engineers will resume play in the Ohio Hockey Classic in Columbus, Ohio, on December 29-30. After that, RPI returns home for consecutive league weekends against Dartmouth and Harvard, and then versus St. Lawrence and Clarkson.
