Beset by injuries that have forced the use of only five defensemen, the undermanned men’s hockey team took to the road against a nationally ranked Harvard squad and a Dartmouth club that has given RPI fits in recent years. Nine goals later—six of them surrendered in the third period—Rensselaer came back empty-handed. After dropping 3-1 to Harvard and 6-3 to Dartmouth, the Engineers fell to a tie for seventh in the conference with Clarkson and Union.
Junior Jake Luthi scored a goal on the power play late in the first to give the Engineers the 1-0 lead versus Harvard. “I had a clear lane,” said Luthi. “[Freshman Kurt] Colling was in front of the net and the goalie couldn’t see it. It went over his pads.” Though the Crimson had more scoring opportunities after the first period, the Engineers took the one-goal lead into the dressing room. The team made a number of adjustments for the second that kept the game tight and reduced Harvard’s chances. “We made an adjustment with regard to how we were forechecking,” said Head Coach Dan Fridgen. “We were leaving the middle of the ice open and they almost connected a couple of times.”
The second ended with the same score as the first, but Harvard broke the game wide open in the third. After the Crimson won an offensive-zone faceoff, Dylan Reese took a shot from the right point. It deflected off of his teammates, Dave Watters and Sam Mandes, and past freshman goalie Mathias Lange to knot the score.
Harvard took the lead for good on a sharp-angle goal by Dan Murphy at the 7:25 mark. Murphy, the Crimson’s scoring leader, surprised Lange with a shot from the right wing. Charlie Johnson doubled the lead just two minutes later with Harvard on a two-man advantage. Some quick passing caught Lange moving side to side and Johnson deposited the puck in the net. “It was a nice quick pass across the crease,” said Lange. “Right on his tape. All he had to do was put it in there.”
“They came out with more energy and we didn’t do what we needed to do in order to hold the lead,” said Fridgen. “You have to play smart. You have 20 minutes, the pressure’s on them, and we didn’t handle it very well. We took some bad penalties.”
Despite being a defenseman short again, Luthi didn’t think fatigue was much of an issue. “I think the guys felt pretty good,” he said, “but mental mistakes were the problem tonight.”
RPI would need to curtail those mistakes against the Dartmouth Big Green on Saturday. They had an 11-2-2 record against RPI since the 2001 playoffs. The only two losses came in the playoffs. The Big Green have not lost a regular season game against the Engineers since February 2, 2001, when Matt Murley, who now plays for the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, netted a hat trick for RPI in a 4-2 victory. That game marked the last time RPI scored more than three goals against Dartmouth as well.
Dartmouth took a two-goal lead in the first period. Captain and scoring leader Mike Ouellette got things going 3:53 into the first, and Kevin Swallow doubled the lead shortly after with his first collegiate goal on an odd-man rush. Senior Keith MCWilliams scored his seventh goal of the season—and fifth in 10 games—to bring the Engineers within one. Jarrett Sampson had the only goal of the second period to give Dartmouth a two-goal edge once again.
Senior Scott Romfo scored on the power play for the Engineers 1:35 into the third, but then the floodgates opened for the Big Green. Grant Lewis scored on the power play at 5:41 and J.T. Wyman put Dartmouth up by three a minute later.
Sophomore Jordan Alford was sent in to relieve Lange. Alford, who hadn’t seen any action since the RIT game on December 10, gave up a goal to Swallow at 10:05, on one of the first shots he faced. Sophomore Jake Morissette scored with 1:52 left, giving the Engineers their first goal from a forward since classmate Jonathan Ornelas scored against Brown on January 20. Frustrations boiled over for RPI as the final seconds wound down, when Luthi rocked Sampson with a neutral zone hit that popped his helmet off. The ensuing scrum resulted in 52 minutes in penalties being handed out, including 10-minute misconducts to Luthi and Ouellette.
The Dartmouth game saw the Engineers struggle; the forwards botched on scoring opportunities, the team defense conceded many odd-man rushes, and Lange, who has been solid for most of the season, surrendered five goals on only 32 shots in just under 47 minutes of action.
The injury problems continue to be a factor for the Engineers, and Fridgen is unsure when the team will be back to full strength. “There’s always hope,” he said, “but not on this trip and probably not next weekend as well. That’s the way the ball’s been bouncing. You’ve got to keep on going and play with what you have. That’s all you can do.”
RPI plays a home-and-home series against rival Union this weekend. Friday’s game is in Schenectady and Saturday’s will be at Houston Field House. The Dutchmen have the same ECACHL record as the Engineers, 5-6-3. Last year, Union swept RPI during the regular season.
