It was a clean goal, set up perfectly by a three-man rush, and struck well into the top left shelf by defender Merth. The RPI three-man attack, quickly developing into an apparent three-on-three, created the opportunity with a backwards pass. Merth, trailing behind, separated from his mark and found himself wide open for the shot.

The first period nearly closed on that note, but a scrum in front of the Colgate net with just 1:48 remaining resulted in a second Engineers goal. There was a moment of confusion as the cluster of five or so players cleared out; no one was quite sure where the puck was. But with Colgate goaltender Mark Dekanich sprawled out in front of the net, the puck appeared, sitting barely an inch behind the goal line, and the Engineer faithful erupted in excitement.

The Raiders had a few opportunities during the first period, including power plays, but the Engineers defense proved sturdy enough to blank them.

RPI entered the second period Saturday night with just as many goals as it needed to defeat Colgate in last year’s Cup Championship game. It was then junior Dan Peace who scored the go-ahead goal with just 48 seconds remaining last season on a tremendous individual effort. In that game, the Engineers found themselves in a tight battle against a strong and confident Colgate Raiders team. But on Saturday night, the Engineers proved to be the dominant team. An RPI penalty early in the second period put the Engineers in a bind, but Colgate again failed to capitalize on the power play. There was a distressing moment for the Engineers, as the puck disappeared into another madhouse in front of the RPI net, but it was cleared and taken out to no harm. The Engineers committed a plethora of penalties in the second, giving the Raiders a twinge of momentum, and there was an interesting moment when senior forward Jonathan Ornelas nearly got into it with more than one member of the Raiders, but ultimately RPI escaped the period unscathed.

In the third period, the Engineers looked to protect their two goal lead en route to the victory, and developed an early opportunity when the Raiders’ Jesse Winchester got two minutes for tripping at 2:09. The Engineers missed a blind side shot, however, and the Colgate defense stiffened—RPI was unable to score.

Immediately afterwards, an RPI penalty put the Engineers down, and Colgate only failed to score due to several outstanding saves by senior goaltender Jordan Alford.

The fight that almost was, between Ornelas and a few Raiders in the second materialized with 3:32 left in the third period, and RPI’s forward lost his helmet in a brief scuffle. The officials broke it up quickly, however, and nothing much came of it.

The Engineers maintained their 2-0 lead down to the last minute of play, and Colgate pulled its goalie for the extra man in a last-ditch effort to get on the board. But it would not be so. The six-man Raider attack proved fruitless and RPI’s Alford earned the shutout victory—his third on the season. At the buzzer, the Governor’s Cup champion Engineers mobbed Alford at the net before returning to center ice for the award ceremony that followed.

Along with the trophy, a few individual awards were handed out. Ornelas was named to the All-Tournament Team along with Alford, who gloved 21 saves in the winning effort. In recognition of his stellar play, Alford was also named Most Outstanding Player of the Governor’s Cup Tournament, and accepted the trophy in front of 3,800 at the Times Union Center.

Captain Jake Morissette next accepted the tournament trophy on behalf of the Engineers, who promptly saluted their loyal fans.

Rensselaer earned the title game berth with a thrilling effort against Union on Friday night. In that game, the Engineers found themselves down a goal entering the second period, but managed to tie it at 7:01. Almost immediately after that—just 36 seconds later—Union again took the lead, but freshman Tyler Helfrich knotted the score a second time at 7:51. Finally, it was senior Andrew Lord who put the Engineers ahead for good, depositing a hard shot from the slot shortly thereafter. The three RPI goals plus Union’s lone second period goal were scored in a 1:49 span midway through the second and proved to be the decisive events of the evening.

The title game Saturday night could have gone differently had Colgate’s two best chances materialized, but both of these first-period shots were hasty efforts and clanged harmlessly off the post behind Alford. Production aside, RPI certainly had the more organized attack. The goaltending was superb, and the defense did an excellent job against the power play, contributing over 20 blocked shots.

After the game, Coach Seth Appert spoke of the long road ahead and the importance of “making sure this is not the high point in the season.” He insisted the Engineers have “loftier goals” this year and were looking forward to the challenge.