The men’s hockey team found itself facing heavy odds this weekend against conference rival Dartmouth College. Entering Friday night’s contest, the Engineers led the Big Green in the ECAC by only three points and were coming off last weekend’s crushing Big Red Freakout! defeat against Princeton University.
The Engineers have struggled to find their rhythm since early December, riding a 1-12-0 record over their past 13 games, and did themselves no favors against the Big Green on Friday night. With freshman Bryan Brutlag serving a two minute minor for holding, the Big Green’s sophomore Josh Gillam beat senior Jordan Alford for the game’s first tally at 11:10.
Dartmouth would hold onto that lead until early in the second when their own junior Rob Pritchard extended the lead to 2-0 at just 1:41. Then, following a junior Matt Angers-Goulet interference penalty, freshman Kyle Reeds put the Big Green up 3-0 at 4:17 for their second power play goal of the game.
In response, RPI Head Coach Seth Appert pulled Jordan Alford, the Engineers’ starting goalie, in favor of junior Mathias Lange after Alford stopped just nine of 12 shots through 24:17.
And so, not even half way through the game, RPI was looking at a new goaltender, long odds, and further grief. To exacerbate matters, freshman Danny Markowitz’s shot beat Lange at 7:05, presumably the nail in the coffin, and the Engineers were forced to make a choice:
Roll over and die, or make something of the night’s contest. Thankfully for the Engineer faithful, they chose the latter.
All night, RPI had been matching the Big Green shot-for-shot, and despite trailing 4-0, the Engineers were finding their offensive rhythm.
Rebounding from Markowitz’s goal, Angers-Goulet and junior Andrei Uryadov set up freshman Scott Halpern for Engineers’ first goal of the night at 7:54 in the second. Thirty seconds later, Brutlag and freshman Tyler Helfrich connected with classmate Chase Polacek to get the Engineers within two. Just about three minutes after that, at 11:40, Helfrich scored his own goal (assisted by Polacek and Halpern) to pull the Engineers within a single goal.
It was the sixth goal of the second period.
Dartmouth held on 4-3 throughout the rest of the second period, but ultimately could not defend their seemingly invincible lead. At 5:37 in the third, Uryadov flipped a backhand shot past the Big Green’s sophomore Joe Grossman for the game-tying score and averted disaster for the Engineers.
The rest of the third period and overtime would remain scoreless, ending the game in a tie.
Mathias Lange kept the Engineers in the game, saving 15 of 16 shots in relief of Alford.
With the draw, the Engineers improved to 9-17-4, with 11 points in the ECAC. Dartmouth improved to 8-11-3 and now has nine points in conference. RPI hits the road this weekend to take on Colgate University and Cornell University, while the Big Green travels to Union College for a lone game on Saturday night. All games are scheduled to begin at 7 pm.
