A tough loss to Union on January 16 followed by a break from conference play have put the men’s hockey team in last place in the ECAC despite a three-point weekend against Bowling Green.
The Engineers got off to a fast start at Union, as the Dutchmen were called for hooking in their own end of the ice less than three minutes into the match. Marc Cavosie controlled the face-off and passed the puck to Matt Murley, whose shot from the blue line beat Union’s Brandon Snee to put RPI on the board.
Union continued to take penalties throughout the first period, giving the Engineers an extended power play, with a two-man advantage for about 30 seconds midway through the period. Snee made several big saves but was eventually beaten by Ryan Shields from behind the Union goal, giving Rensselaer a 2-0 lead.
Penalties by RPI’s Andrew McPherson and Union’s Doug Christiansen set up a four-on-four situation, and the Dutchmen took advantage of the open ice—Nathan Gillies got a clear look at the net and blew the puck by Nathan Marsters to put Union on the board.
The fans at Achilles Rink nearly took their team back out of the game by showering the rink with oranges after the goal. After the ice was cleared, Referee Tim Kotyra assessed Union a two-minute penalty for delay of game.
Murley was quick to take advantage of the ensuing four-on-three, deking a Union defender and beating Snee on his stick side to reestablish the two-goal lead. Union closed the gap late in the period when Gillies intercepted the puck as the Engineers tried to clear their zone. He faked a shot to draw Marsters off then dished the puck to Marc Neron, who had an easy shot for the score.
Murley completed a hat trick less than 90 seconds into the second period on Cavosie’s fourth assist of the night, but Union kept the game close when Joel Beal and Jeff Wilson converged on Marsters untouched, with Beal netting the goal.
Three minutes later, Union tied the game on a highly disputed play. The Dutchmen’s Jason Kean took a hard shot from close range, and Marsters’ stick save deflected the puck straight upward. Kean swiped at the puck with his hand, and it fell on Marsters’ back and into the net. Marsters immediately went to Kotyra and argued that the goal should be disallowed because Kean knocked it in with his hand.
After conferring with the other officials, Kotyra judged that Kean had missed the puck and allowed the goal, drawing arguments from RPI co-captains Murley and Steve Munn, and eventually Head Coach Dan Fridgen.
In first half of the third period, Marsters came up with several big saves, and the offense created scoring opportunities, but Snee was solid for the Dutchmen. With nine minutes remaining, Doug Christiansen scored the game-winner for Union, taking a shot from the point that Marsters stopped, but then lost, and the puck dribbled over the goal line. RPI continued pressing Union right to the end, but could not tie the game back up.
A fight that broke out as the horn sounded was quickly broken up by the officials and Union Head Coach Kevin Sneddon.
The weekend games against Bowling Green—coached by Fridgen predecessor Buddy Powers—went better for the Engineers.
On Friday night, third-string Goalie James Palmer started for the Engineers. Though Palmer had never started a game in college and had less than eight minutes of ice time in the past three and a half years, he performed excellently, stopping all 12 of the Falcons’ shots in the first period.
Fridgen put Marsters back in net after the first, but the start by Palmer seemed to inspire the flagging Engineer defense, who shut out an opponent for the first time all year, defeating Bowling Green 3-0.
Powers credited that defense for giving RPI the win.
“If you don’t score, it’s tough to win. I thought they defended their end of the rink much better than the effort we were willing to put out to score a goal, and that was the theme of the game,” he said.
Murley had a goal and an assist in the game, Cavosie and McPherson scored a goal apiece, and Carson Butterwick had two assists for the Engineers.
In Saturday’s game, the Falcons got on the board early, as Steve Brudzewski lit up Marsters just over two minutes into the contest. However, Bowling Green took two penalties in the next half minute, and Murley and Jim Vickers fed Cavosie for a five-on-three goal.
RPI’s second goal also came on the power play. Butterwick scored midway through the second, assisted by Murley and McPherson. Later in the period, Falcon Goalie Jordan Sigalet fell into the net as a shot came in for an apparent Engineer goal, but the officials ruled that the puck had not crossed the goal line.
The Falcons tied the game early in the third period on a goal by Ryan Wetterberg, who sliced through the RPI defense to get a clear shot at the net.
After that, the goaltending took over. Sigalet had to leave the game with an injury, but replacement Tyler Masters was stellar, making several key saves to preserve the tie for Bowling Green.
This weekend the Engineers will play at home against Vermont and Dartmouth, and the following weekend RPI will go on the road to play those same teams. These are very winnable games for the Engineers—Vermont is arguably the worst team in the conference, and Dartmouth has only a .500 record—so the team will be under a lot of pressure to pick up some points while they can and reestablish themselves in the ECAC.
