RPI Head Coach Dan Fridgen could not have put it better when he said that the Engineers’ game last Friday against the UMass Lowell River Hawks was “interesting.”
The Engineers roared out of the gate in their Friday match-up, with captain Danny Eberly scoring with a slapshot from the point less than half a minute into the game.
However, the River Hawks’ defense showed signs of not wanting to take chances against RPI’s offense, stymieing any offensive chance the Engineers had by quickly moving the puck out of their defensive zone.
After much back and forth play due to the strong defensive sides on both teams, the Engineers’ inexperience was exploited when, at 5:32 into the first period, UMass Lowell’s Darryl Greene shot the puck past a screened RPI goalie Kevin Kurk to tie the game.
RPI began showing their physical prowess not long after, punishing the River Hawks at every opportunity with strong hitting. The referees picked up on this, and began administering penalties to both teams.
In the rush of physical play, Ben Barr caught his opponent in the corner of the offensive zone while fighting for the puck when the referee suddenly called him for crosschecking, much to the chagrin of the fans, who considered it a poor call.
This penalty would prove costly to the Engineers, as 34 seconds into the penalty kill, the River Hawks struck again with a quick one-timer in the slot from forward Darryl Greene for his second.
The RPI team, not backing down from the River Hawks, eventually came back with what was considered by many to be a fluke goal by C.J. Hanafin—but a goal nonetheless—as Hanafin dumped the puck on UMass Lowell goalie Chris Davidson and the puck caught a weird angle on Davidson’s blocker and shot straight over his shoulder into the net at the 17:10 mark of the first period.
Not to be outdone, the Lowell squad came back and scored two goals in a span of just over a minute—one from Anders Strome and another from Peter Hay—to take a commanding lead into the second period.
To the relief of RPI’s supporters in the stands, Coach Fridgen opted to pull Kevin Kurk, who was obviously shaken by the 4 goals in only 13 shots, in favor of last year’s starting goalie and crowd favorite, Nathan Marsters. When the period started, Lowell showed no signs of intimidation by the new goalie, immediately peppering him with shots.
The River Hawks broke Marsters early at 4:00, when uncovered man Mark Pandolfo tapped in the loose puck past the downed Marsters.
At 5:27, in what proved to be a sign of what the game would be like, Marsters was forced to fly out of his crease and cover the puck up, with two Lowell players left unattended by the young RPI defense not far behind. This play resulted in a penalty, and, moreover, showed just how vulnerable the defense was all evening.
The RPI offense picked up the slack in the second period, returning the volley-fire of shots towards Lowell’s net. However, at 13:48, Marsters showed that he could only do so much as Lowell scored again, this time from Danny O’Brien who shot the puck and caught Marsters off-center. The defense on both teams picked up again as they fought to get that extra marker before the period closed out.
The third period started off much like the second, with Lowell shooting on all cylinders again. On the other end of the spectrum, RPI’s offensive rushers were hesitant with the puck in the offensive zone, and didn’t have good scoring chances to begin with.
Once again, Marsters was left by his defensemen to cover more than his fair share of shooters as UMass Lowell’s Andrew Martin scored on a loose rebound at 9:38. Despite this goal, Marsters still showed fire, as he made several key saves throughout the period to try to keep his squad in the game.
In a positive turn for the Engineers, the River Hawk’s Peter Hay was called for hooking at 14:33. RPI finally cracked Lowell’s defense and goalie, when at 15:06, Nolan Graham scored on the power play after putting pressure on Lowell’s goaltender Chris Davidson. But, as was the story throughout the game, Lowell came right back with a shorthanded goal by Stephen Slonina at 16:49, who scored on a breakaway when a miscommunication between the RPI defense led to the puck being picked off and stolen.
Once again, Lowell’s undisciplined play cost them, as the earlier penalty assessed to Geoff Schomogyi for goalie interference led to a one-timer from promising freshman defense Brad Farynuk at 17:38. For the remainder of the game, the defense and goalies kept their opposition’s offense at bay to keep the final score at 8-4.
After the game, Coach Fridgen said that this was an interesting game, filled with atypical goals—goals you normally wouldn’t see in college hockey. He said that the defense needed work, especially on the gaps in the neutral zone. Fridgen continued by saying how the second period saw good pressure from the RPI offense, but the goals against them “took the wind out of their sails” each time, even more so since they were “fluky.”
When asked about what happened with Scott Basiuk, Fridgen said how he was proud to see the team rally around their comrade, but at the time was not fully sure of what exactly happened to him. Fridgen was positive about the game, but noted that the team still needed work. The more experienced Lowell squad capitalized on RPI’s excessive turnovers, and made it difficult for RPI to gain significant momentum.
Fridgen also said that, towards the end, he was looking for some good line chemistry, juggling around some of the lines to see if anything worked. He was quite happy with C.J. Hanafin’s line as well as Mikael Hammarstrom’s. Coach Fridgen also stressed how he won’t let the last two losses get to the team.
In what was a further blow to the Engineers, they lost a close fought game to the University of Massachusetts Minutemen on Sunday, 4-3.
RPI once again started the scoring, getting the first two tallies in the game from Nolan Graham and C.J. Hanafin at 11:51 and 14:31, respectively. UMass’ Thomas Pock netted a goal for his team in the later stages of the first period at 16:31 to draw the score closer. Eberly scored early in the second period at 5:53 on the power play to bring RPI back to a two-goal lead, only to be drawn back by a goal from Minutemen player Nick Kuiper just over a minute later at 6:58.
In the third period, UMass players Jeff Lang and Tim Vitek scored at 1:55 and 2:50, respectively, to edge out the Engineers. And in what seems to be the story of the season thus far, the Engineers were once again outshot by their opposition, this game 41 shots to 12. In their previous losses, the Engineers were outshot 39-30 and 41-15.
RPI has two more non-conference weekends before they begin ECAC league play. On Friday, they will take on Iona at home, and on Saturday, they will face Army at Army. Next weekend, they will travel to Minnesota to play St. Cloud State. On November 8, Clarkson comes to the Field House to kick off conference play. RPI will then take on the St. Lawrence Saints to complete the homestand versus the north country rivals.
