Senior Kevin Croxton scored a hat trick and added two assists against the RIT Tigers, while his linemates, junior Oren Eizenman and sophomore Jonathan Ornelas, notched four points apiece. RIT took three one-goal leads in the first period before falling behind 5-3 in the second. The Tigers would score two goals in a 1:05 span to tie the game at five, leading to freshman Mathias Lange replacing sophomore Jordan Alford in net after Alford surrendered the five goals on only 11 shots. The Tigers regained the lead soon after, but Croxton registered his hat trick goal on an assist from Eizenman 30 seconds later. “That was my first hat trick, so Oren grabbed the puck for me [to keep],” said Croxton.

Sophomore Andrew Lord gave the Engineers their last lead late in the second, and classmate Dan Peace added his first collegiate goal in the third. After a slew of late penalties, the Engineers emerged the victors by a 10-7 margin. “That’s not really the kind of game we wanted out there,” added Croxton, “but it’s good to know that if it does get up like that, that we have the firepower.”

The Engineers then traveled westward to Columbus, Ohio, for the Ohio Hockey Classic hosted by the Ohio State University. The tournament, which was held at Nationwide Arena, home of the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, also included Miami University and Holy Cross. The Miami RedHawks, whom RPI faced in the opening round, entered the tournament as the second-ranked team in the nation. After the RedHawks grabbed a two-goal lead in the first period, the Engineers’ defense tightened up and killed off three consecutive penalties in the second and third.

Ornelas scored a power play goal in the middle of the third period, and RedHawk defenseman Mitch Ganzak’s errant outlet pass took an awkward bounce and deflected back past goalie Charlie Effinger to tie the game at two. RPI began to dictate the tempo of play, but a failed clearing attempt led to a winning RedHawks goal with just 11 seconds left in the overtime period. “I don’t think there was communication going on,” said Head Coach Dan Fridgen. “We weren’t identifying who was open, and they made a good play.”

The Engineers met the Holy Cross Crusaders for the second time this season in the tournament’s consolation game. The Crusaders’ James Sixsmith scored two goals; five of his last eight have come against the Engineers. Junior Kevin Broad and freshman Kurt Colling scored for RPI, but the Engineers couldn’t close the gap, and the Crusaders won comfortably, 4-2. Senior defenseman Alexander Valentin suffered a tear to his anterior cruciate ligament in the game, ending his collegiate career.

“I thought we really took the play to Holy Cross, but I thought, at times, we made him look really good,” Fridgen said of Crusader goaltender Ben Conway. “The frustrating thing is that out of the six periods we played [during the tournament], I thought there were maybe two periods that we weren’t as sharp as we wanted to be ... Unfortunately, those are the periods that came back to haunt us.”

With the end of the tournament, RPI’s non-conference games were over, and the Engineers looked to rebound against Dartmouth in the first of 16 consecutive league games. RPI and the Big Green traded goals in the first period, but Dartmouth had the answer in the third. They got goals from three different players to take the 4-1 victory.

The next day, RPI played host to nationally ranked Harvard. After a scoreless first period that featured 16 minutes of penalties, Engineer senior Keith MCWilliams scored a power play goal at the 9:44 mark of the second. Broad scored later in the period and sophomore Jake Morissette added a slap shot goal in the third to put the Engineers up by three. They weathered a late Crimson storm that featured two goals in the last four minutes to come away with the 3-2 win.

Aside from the late goals, Lange made 20 saves. “For the most part, I held on to the puck and didn’t give up any rebounds,” he said.

The St. Lawrence Saints came to Troy ranked 13th in the nation and certainly played up to the ranking. Three defensive zone turnovers led to Saint goals. First, TJ Trevelyan picked the puck off and deked to fool Lange before flipping the puck over his pads. Kyle Rank intercepted a pass from senior defenseman Brad Farynuk and slapped a shot past Lange’s glove that rang off the post and went in. Later in the second period, junior Tommy Green caught up with the Saints’ Charlie Giffin and negated his breakaway chance, but Giffin centered a pass that hit traffic in front of the net and slipped past Lange. The Saints took a three-goal lead 1:48 into the third; the Engineers crawled back to within one, but could not get the equalizer late with the empty net.

The Golden Knights came to town toting a national ranking of their own, but they were also coming off a 5-0 defeat at the hands of Union. Clarkson’s scoring leader Nick Dodge gave his team the lead 3:15 into the first, but RPI rang up four goals in the second period, including a pair of great efforts from Colling. Colling picked off a neutral-zone pass and set up Peace for an odd-man rush goal, before he scored a goal of his own three minutes later. The Engineers withstood another opponent’s late-game rush; the Golden Knights scored two goals in the final eight minutes, but the Engineers came away with the 4-3 win.

“Kurt Colling played a heck of a game,” said Fridgen.

Injuries are beginning to take their toll on the Engineers. Croxton took a shot to his ankle in the Harvard game and did not play against St. Lawrence or Clarkson. Farynuk was injured during the St. Lawrence game and is expected to miss at least two weeks. As a result, Fridgen only dressed five defensemen against the Golden Knights. Additionally, Broad and sophomore Tyler Eaves both left the Clarkson game and did not return.

After the game, RPI is tied with Clarkson for sixth in the ECACHL. The Engineers hit the road this week for the first weekend of a five-game road trip. They play cellar-dweller Brown on Friday and ninth-place Yale on Saturday.