The Engineers looked to keep momentum from their win on Senior Night by coming out of the locker room strong. Rensselaer was skating harder than Union, but referee Dan Murphy slowed the pace by calling a tight game. C.J. Hanafin took a high-sticking penalty at 4:45, but the special teams unit came through with the kill. Mikael Hammarstrom took a holding penalty for RPI 12 minutes later, and just before killing the man-advantage captain Danny Eberly cross-checked a Dutchman into the boards, taking another penalty. Union failed to convert on the power plays, and neither team could find the net in the first period.
Penalties continued to be the story of the game, this time with Union being the victim. Dutchman Chris DiStefano held up an Engineer in the neutral zone and Union forward Brian Kerr took an undisciplined slashing penalty, but RPI could not convert on either power play.
Rensselaer finally broke through the Union defense at 7:21, when Vic Pereira took a feed from Keith McWilliams and sped toward Dutchman goalie Kris Mayotte. Pereira put a great fake on the goaltender and slid the puck past Mayotte to put the Engineers up 1-0.
The choppy pace of the game continued, with Union’s Scott Seney and RPI’s Ben Barr taking minor penalties at 8:36, and Dutchman defenseman Randy Dagenais interfering with an Engineer skater 37 seconds later. RPI finally capitalized on the power play, when Kevin Croxton sped out of the Engineer zone on a breakaway and deked around Mayotte to put Rensselaer up 2-0.
Union fired back in the third period, when Chris Konnick solved Engineer goalie Nathan Marsters at 6:40. Marsters made a great save minutes later, stopping an open net opportunity after losing both his stick and his catching glove. Union looked to have a power play chance at 8:35, but the Dutchman extra skater jumped on too early, causing a too-many-men penalty. The RPI defense held strong through the rest of the game, and the Engineers took game one 2-1.
RPI goalie Marsters was upbeat about the game one win and optimistic about game two. “The puck was finding all night,” he said on his performance. “[Tomorrow] I just have to make sure I stop the shots I’m supposed to.”
Game two started out with much the game pace of game one. Murphy, who would referee the whole series, called 12 penalties in the first period. Neither team could overcome the irregular tempo in the first period, and the game remained scoreless into the second period.
Union took advantage of the Rensselaer penalties in the second period. Less than a minute after a tripping call on RPI’s Blake Pickett, UC’s Seney pushed a puck past Marsters with help from Nathan Gillies and Kris Goodjohn. The Engineers responded, as Carson Butterwick fooled Mayotte 11 minutes later to knot the game at one.
Penalties continued to hamper the Engineers in the third period. Hammarstrom took an obstruction-interference penalty, and Union immediately capitalized. Just four seconds into the man-advantage, Goodjohn snapped the puck past Marsters to put the Dutchmen up 2-1.
The Engineers looked to dig themselves out of the hole, but were hindered by a roughing call on Pickett at 11:31. Scott Basiuk feathered the puck into the Union zone, and UC goalie Mayotte came out of net to play it. Engineer forward Nick Economakos came to pressure the puck and Mayotte hurried to play the puck off the boards. Economakos intercepted and fed Barr, who stuffed the puck into the empty net to knot the score at two.
Forty seconds later, Economakos again lofted the puck into the Union zone. Mayotte again attempted to play the puck, but hesitated, perhaps with the last goal weighing heavy on his mind. Barr got the puck as Mayotte shot it, dropped it onto the tape of his stick, and fired it into the gaping net off of the far post. “I got lucky. He shot the puck right into me, and it fell right onto my stick,” commented Barr after the game. “I had a bad angle and the whole net … I hit the far post and it trickled in.”
Union looked to tie the game and send the series to a third game. After pulling their goalie in favor of an extra skater, the Dutchmen clustered around the RPI net and appeared to score the game tying goal with 20 seconds remaining in the game. The referee lost sight of the puck, though, and blew the whistle before the puck crossed the line. “[The puck] went through my legs, off my stick. I could feel it hit my … bum … and slide through,” said Marsters after the game, “I looked back to see [the referee] Murph wave it off.” Union could not muster another scoring chance, and the Engineers took the game 3-2, and the series 2-0.
The resurgent Engineers took their first round win over the Dutchmen to Ithaca, to take on the Cornell Big Red, the second-ranked team in the nation.
RPI wanted to stun the Big Red early using momentum from the Union series, but two boarding calls quickly took the wind out of the Engineers’ sails. With a five-on-three, it was only a matter of time before Cornell found the net. After cycling the puck well, Cornell forward Ryan Vesce beat Marsters from the bottom of the left circle to put the Big Red up 1-0. The Engineers’ hard work and hustle paid off later in the period, when Barr out-hustled a Cornell defenseman and pushed a puck through Big Red goalie David LeNeveu’s five hole to tie the game up at one.
Cornell kicked off the second period with a retaliatory slashing penalty on captain Doug Murray. The Big Red special teams cleared the puck well to kill the penalty, even holding it in the RPI zone. Cornell kept the pressure high, but Marsters came through with some big saves. Rensselaer forward Conrad Barnes took a boarding penalty at 5:16, but RPI’s defense cleared the puck well to kill the penalty.
The Big Red were taking advantage of their size, and at 9:34 it paid off. With two players camping in front of Marsters, Stephen Bâby fired a puck into the scrum, and freshman Matt Moulson pushed the puck into the net. The teams skated evenly for the rest of the period, and Cornell went into the break up 2-1.
Big Red forward Greg Hornby put Cornell up by two when he picked up a loose puck off of the shot from Charlie Cook. The two goal lead would only last for four minutes. After Cornell’s Chris Abbott took a hooking penalty, Brad Farynuk took a huge one-timer from the point that went over LeNeveu’s glove and under the crossbar for RPI’s first power play goal of the weekend. Cornell started hitting the Engineers harder, as Murray hit enforcer Pereira into the boards. Pereira needed help getting off the ice, and would not return.
The score remained 3-2, and with one minute remaining RPI Head Coach Dan Fridgen pulled Marsters to get an extra skater. The Engineers got several good opportunities but failed to get a puck past LeNeveu and fell to the Big Red by a final of 3-2.
Saturday did not go as well for the Engineers. Despite holding the Big Red scoreless for the first 15 minutes, they could not keep the puck in the Cornell zone and could not muster any shots on Big Red goalie LeNeveu. The Big Red’s hits continued hard along the boards, as Bâby slammed Farynuk in the boards. Farynuk remained down but got up with help and continued playing.
Cornell put a puck past Marsters at 18:39, when Bâby broke away from the RPI defense. Marsters stopped the initial breakaway, but Vesce pushed the puck in with his skate.
Hard hits around the boards were beginning to phase Fridgen, who yelled lividly at the referee after Matt McNeely was injured by Murray. No penalty was called, and the Big Red continued with the big hits.
Cornell’s Mike Knoepfli pushed the lead to two in the second period when pretty passing led to Marsters being out of position. After the second goal, both teams played evenly and skated into the period break with the score 2-0.
The Big Red found the net quickly in the third period when Abbott intercepted an errent pass in the RPI zone and fired a puck past Marsters. The Engineers started to get more frustrated, especially after RPI’s Scott Romfo was hit hard into the boards. The extra intensity did not help the Engineers, and Cornell put RPI away when Shane Hynes scored in a scrum in front of the crease.
Big Red goalie LeNeveu stopped all 16 shots he saw as Cornell won the game 4-0 and the series two games to none.
The Big Red will go on to the ECAC semi-finals to face Brown on Friday. The winner will face the winner of the Harvard/Dartmouth semi-final on Saturday.
Rensselaer ended the season at 12-25-3. The Engineers will hope to take this year’s experience and apply it to next season. “[Next year] we’ll add to the foundation,” commented Fridgen. “We’ve got some good young players here and some good young players coming in.”
