For the RPI men’s hockey team, it just isn’t getting any easier this year. A once-promising season has slowed, sputtered, and now turned ugly as the Engineers dropped their eighth and ninth straight games over this past weekend.
To their credit, the Engineers didn’t find any new ways to lose; they went about it the same way as they have all season: power plays. At Union College on Friday night, the Engineers failed to score on five power plays, exacerbating their already worst-in-Division I men’s hockey power play rating.
To figure out what they are doing wrong, they need look only as far as Union Friday night, as the rival Dutchmen scored two power play goals of their own en route to their 2-1 victory in Schenectady. RPI’s lone goal was the result of a freshman duo, with Bryan Brutlag connecting with Scott Halpern, who buried his first career goal early in the second period.
Also of note is the effort stalwart of senior goaltender Jordan Alford on Friday night. As the Engineers have faded, their effort has appeared to first ebb and now decline, accounting for Union’s incredible 43 shots on goal to RPI’s 22. Alford proved to be a formidable last line of defense, making 41 saves in defeat for a 95.3 percent save percentage.
But with two blown 5-3 advantages in a close defeat, one just comes back again and again to the fatal flaw of this hockey team:
Power plays, power plays, power plays.
On Saturday night, the contest switched to the Engineers’ home ice, and before 3,650 at the Houston Field House, the Engineers and Dutchmen again faced off.
But victory remained elusive for the Engineers.
Senior Jonathan Ornelas showed that the veterans could still be a force when he put the Engineers up early in the first period at 6:47. But the Dutchmen, riding a five-game winning streak and determined to make it six, clearly smelled blood.
Less than six minutes after Ornelas put RPI on top, the Dutchmen were flying high with a 2-1 lead, the result of two different freshmen goal-scorers. They would not relent.
As RPI struggled to put anything together, including going 0-5 on the power play, Union found the back of the net twice more in the second period to bury RPI underneath their sorrows and start the rush towards the parking lot a little earlier than usual.
With the loss, the once-ranked Engineers have fallen to an unthinkable 8-14-3, while Union has moved significantly ahead in the ECAC at 10-8-3. The Engineers only lead Dartmouth College and Brown University now, while arch-rival Clarkson University has since streaked to the top of the conference.
The Engineers return to action at North Country foes Clarkson Friday and St. Lawrence University Saturday, both at 7 pm.
