After an exciting trip to Minnesota to see our Engineers take on both the powerhouse University of Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey team and the two-time national runner-up Boston College Terriers, the return to the Houston Field House was all the sweeter; the game at West Point against the Black Knights the night before only stood to reinforce that feeling.
The 5,050 RPI faithful watching the game made the atmosphere a vibrant environment conducive to playing aggressive hockey and made the home ice advantage clear. The fast-skating Engineers played their part and although they may have blown several chances at an early victory during power plays, stretched the game into a crowd-pleasing sudden death overtime. And that fourth period was capped by a baseball style swing by freshman Tyler Helfrich for a controversial but legal game-winning goal.
Hard hip checks by classmate Bryan Brutlag enraged fan “favorite” Bear Trapp enough to send him to the sin bin. The energy in the Field House might have been matched only by the Gopher fans in the giant Xcel Center in St. Paul, but that was from a crowd three times as large, RPI students have pride in their Engineers.
At West Point, where football games are mandatory of cadets, the Tate Arena was dead­—save for RPI fans and a single cheer by army plebes. The fact that it was Family Weekend and homecoming the same night probably helped to some degree but the support for the Red was undeniable and it felt good to be among that lively crowd.
I know that larger state schools can have that atmosphere every game, but the victory on Saturday night was very possibly influenced by the eruption from ecstatic RPI supporters that muffled the complaints by Sacred Heart University skaters over the legality of the goal. A look at the video showed the stick was a good eight to 10 inches below the cross-bar when contact was made but officials who work without video replay in the ECAC hardly had an ear for the visitors protests with 5,000 shouting fans celebrating an exciting victory. Alex Dell was feeling confident in his decision that the goal was clean and there was no high-sticking.
So thank you for showing your support of a team still self-admittedly in the re-shuffling stages and, when in two years you watch the Red and White skate away with an ECAC championship, you can fondly remember the beginning of the legacy brought around by Head Coach Seth Appert.
