“We went on the road and played the toughest road trip in the league and we looked really good out there,” explained senior captain Kirk MacDonald. “We are really close to getting over that hump and winning a lot of hockey games.”

Playing against traditional league powerhouse Cornell, the Engineers managed to build a multi-goal lead in the 1st period thanks to sophomore Seth Klerer’s two power play markers in the period. Seniors Oren Eizenman and Jake Luthi both assisted on both of Klerer’s goals. The Engineers took a 3-0 lead before a sold out crowd in Ithaca, NY, when Kurt Colling scored even-strength at the 18:47 mark of the period.

Cornell closed to 3-1 early in the 2nd period when they scored on the man advantage—the only one of 17 power plays they managed to convert on that night. The Engineers managed to hold off a slew of short-handed opportunities for the remainder of the period to take a 3-1 lead heading into the 3rd.

The two-goal cushion vanished in the final period as Cornell managed to come back and tie the game, the back-breaking equalizing goal coming with just 1:44 left in regulation. The Engineers were handed their 5th official tie of the season after the score remained 3-3 at the end of the 5-minute overtime period. Starting goaltender junior Jordan Alford had 30 saves on the night. While RPI gave up the 3-goal first period lead and were out-shot 33-19 during a game where they were assessed a whopping 45 penalty minutes, the Engineers were generally happy with the way they played. “People can say we blew the lead, I wouldn’t say it like that,” MacDonald said. “We really played well and had them on their heels for a lot of the night.”

As was the case in the Cornell game, the Engineers struck first the following night at Colgate. Freshman Paul Kerins tipped a shot by senior Jake Luthi past Raiders goaltender Mark Dekanich just 2:29 into the game. The Engineers increased their lead to 2-0 early in the 2nd when sophomore Andrei Uryadov beat Dekanich glove-side at the 2:48 mark of the period.

Colgate cut the lead to one when Jesse Winchester scored on a 5-3 advantage at 8:19 of the 2nd with junior Dan Peace and sophomore Reed Kipp—serving a triple-minor—in the box. Less than a minute later, Colgate senior Marc Fulton scored again on the power play to tie the game at two-all. A timeout by RPI Head Coach Seth Appert immediately after the second goal could not stop Fulton from giving Colgate a 3-2 lead they would never relinquish at 13:45 of the 2nd. Fulton’s marker, the last of the game, again came on the power play, as did every other goal in the game. Engineers’ goaltender sophomore Mathias Lange stopped 31 shots in a game where his team was outshot 34-22.

“If you compare the way we are playing now to two months ago I think you can say we are a much better team,” MacDonald explained. “It’s putting the entire team effort together over 60 minutes and putting all the pieces together.”