The Engineers’ record now stands at 1-3 after dropping a pair of games by one goal each to the University of Minnesota at Duluth.
Penalties were the downfall of the Engineers in Friday’s 4-3 overtime loss—all four of the Bulldogs’ goals came when RPI had only five men on the ice.
The Engineers got on the board first on a power play of their own. Matt Murley, the ECAC player of the week, got assists from Nolan Graham and Carson Butterwick to give RPI a lead less than three minutes into the contest.
Midway through the first, both teams were a man down and Duluth took advantage of the open ice to cash two goals just 10 seconds apart, putting them up 2-1.
In the second period, the Bulldogs took almost twice as many shots as the Engineers, but Nathan Marsters came up with 16 saves in goal to keep Duluth off the board. Meanwhile, Chris Migliore connected on assists from Jim Henkel and Nick Economakos to tie the game.
RPI had the advantage in shots in the third, and they retook the lead on a Ryan Shields goal midway through the period. But Judd Medak tied it back up on a Bulldog power play, and the Engineers could not even muster a single shot in overtime. Another Engineer penalty at the 2:13 mark of the extra session was promptly converted into the game-winning goal by Duluth’s Mark Carlson.
On Saturday, the Engineers again got off to a good start, converting on two of their first three power plays for a 2-0 lead early in the second period. Duluth’s offense kicked it into high gear then, peppering Kevin Kurk with 23 shots in the second period alone and scoring the next four straight goals. Graham stopped the streak with his second power-play goal of the game, and Steve Munn tied the game back up with five minutes left in the period.
Duluth regained the upper hand with a minute to go in the period, and an RPI penalty as the second-period horn sounded allowed them to cushion that lead with a key power-play goal to start the third; this proved to be the game winner. Murley got the Engineers within one with 11:25 to play, and RPI had several opportunities to tie but could not connect on any of them and fell to Duluth, 6-5.
Murley was the leading scorer for the weekend with three goals, and Marc Cavosie was a huge offensive catalyst, picking up five assists.
The Engineers’ next matches are November 9 and 10, when they begin their ECAC schedule at Colgate and Cornell. Following that, RPI has a nine-game homestand that stretches into January.
