On a night that marked the return of senior captain Brad Farynuk to the lineup, it was a pair of freshmen that stole the show. Matt Angers-Goulet scored two power play goals, and Mathias Lange turned aside 28 of the 29 shots he faced to lead the Engineers to a 2-1 victory over the Yale Bulldogs on Friday.
Overall, RPI played a tight, assertive game and limited Yale’s chances. “I think guys have really settled into playing that aggressive style of hockey, and it certainly hasn’t hurt us whatsoever,” said Head Coach Dan Fridgen. “We’ve been real patient with our plays down low, and guys have been doing a good job defensively. We didn’t have breakdowns, and Mathias was there to stop the puck for us. I thought, overall, it was a real good team effort.”
Angers-Goulet’s first goal came at 6:24 in the first period, when his centering pass deflected off a body and into the net. He also scored on a one-timer 2:20 into the second period on a pass from senior Chris Hussey. “I had a big game, and I was happy to score those goals. Hussey made an unreal pass on that second goal,” said Angers-Goulet.
Angers-Goulet has been a key contributor to the Engineers’ second power play unit, which has had more success than the No.1 unit in the past few games. “Our unit is doing pretty good right now,” said Angers-Goulet. “We work a lot on it during practice with Coach Bretti. We try to work the puck around and put shots on net.”
“I think that line is just clicking on the power play,” added Lange. “They’ve been getting some good chances, and I can’t even stop them in practice.”
Despite a first period that saw the Engineers dominate much of the flow of play, they only out shot the Bulldogs 6-3. After taking the two-goal lead early in the second, the Bulldogs went on the attack, putting together 15 shots on goal in the period. Lange was there to save them all. “It’s harder to stay focused, for a goalie, if you don’t get many shots on net,” he said. “That’s just how it is sometimes. Once they started to roll a bit and get a few more shots, I started to get into my rhythm, as well.”
Yale tried to come back in the third, but penalties made it difficult. The Bulldogs put RPI on four power plays in the period, including one resulting from a five-minute major for charging, when Bulldogs forward Jean-Francois Boucher leveled senior Scott Romfo behind the Engineer net. Romfo was slow to get up but returned to play shortly thereafter.
A clearing attempt that failed to leave the Engineer zone led to the Yale goal late in the third. The puck was corralled by Boucher and sent to Jeff Hristovski. He snapped a quick wrist shot at the net that bounced off Lange and barely trickled over the goal line with 2:29 left in regulation.
“That shot, I thought it came straight on me,” said Lange. “I thought I had it under my armpit, but somehow it just sneaked through. It’s just one of those bounces that can happen in a hockey game.”
The Engineers withstood the final few minutes of Yale pressure, including 1:11 of extra attacker play when the Bulldogs pulled their goalie, to hold on for the win.
With the win—and the Big Red Freakout! victory over Brown—RPI stands alone in seventh place in the ECACHL, two points behind sixth-place Union and two points ahead of eighth-place Clarkson. If the playoffs began today, the Engineers would host Princeton, currently 9-15-1, in a first-round match-up.
RPI travels to play Princeton and Quinnipiac in its final regular-season road trip and penultimate regular-season weekend. The Engineers swept the teams at home in November, beating Quinnipiac 4-2 and Princeton 4-1 behind a four-point effort from junior Oren Eizenman.
