Entering last weekend’s games, a split outcome for RPI would not have been unexpected or surprising. Colgate had been hovering near the bottom of the ECAC, and Cornell had essentially owned RPI recently, winning the last seven meetings between the two teams.
Indeed, a split was the end result of this weekend, but the way in which it was achieved may have been unexpected: the Engineers lost to Colgate, but shut out the Big Red.
Friday night’s game was filled with bizarre circumstances—penalties, fluky goals, and bad bounces—which helped swing the game in Colgate’s favor.
The Raiders jumped out to a 1-0 lead late in the first period, when, on a Colgate power play, Kyle Wilson sprung Ryan Smyth on a give-and-go play, and was there to slam dunk the return pass past Nathan Marsters. Early in the second, RPI’s Nick Economakos put a sharp angle shot past Colgate goalie Steve Silverthorn to even things up.
However, things then became fluky. On another Colgate power play, Kyle Doyle fired a wrist shot towards the net, which deflected off an Engineer stick and over Marsters.
Just 25 seconds later, with the puck loose and bouncing around in front of Marsters, Dmitry Yashin swatted at it, and connected, edging the puck just barely over the goal line, but enough to count.
Silverthorn made the lead stand, turning aside 27 shots in the final two periods, and frequently bailing out the undisciplined and maligned Raider defense, which gave Rensselaer nine power plays.
The game was also marred by a scrum with 17 seconds left in the third, in which every player on the ice was sent to the penalty box.
Every player received a roughing double minor, except for Colgate’s Dave Thomas and Rensselaer’s Blake Pickett, who received high-sticking majors, and game misconducts.
Sixty-two penalty minutes were given out after the scrum, which resulted in a grand total of 106 for the game.
Silverthorn finished the game with 37 saves for the Raiders while Marsters finished with 24 for the Engineers.
At Lynah Rink in Ithaca, the Engineers looked to rebound to hold their lofty standing in the conference against the nationally-ranked Cornell Big Red.
Cornell typically plays a stifling defensive game, choking off open lanes and blocking shots, but the Engineers proved that they too can clamp down defensively.
Marsters made 22 saves, and the rest of the team blocked 16 shots en route to a 2-0 RPI victory. The shutout was Marsters’ second of the season (first in ECAC play), and it marked the first time that Cornell was shut out at home since February 28, 1998, against Union.
While the defense played phenomenally, RPI’s special teams also merited credit. They killed off all seven Cornell power plays, and put two power play goals of their own past freshman goalie David McKee, despite Cornell coming into the game having the top-ranked penalty kill in the ECAC.
On a 4-on-3 midway through the second, Kevin Croxton won a faceoff back to Brad Farynuk, who swung the puck around to Scott Basiuk. Basiuk blasted a slap shot to the back of the net.
And in the third, on a two-man advantage, Oren Eizenman took a cross-ice pass from Farynuk and wired a wrist shot from the right face-off circle past McKee’s glove, top shelf. Basiuk was also credited with an assist on that goal.
With the win, the Engineers moved into second place outright in the ECAC, with a 7-4-1 record.
They also have garnered multiple votes in both Division I men’s hockey polls, but remain unranked. Cornell, after the loss, dropped to 12th and 13th in USCHO and coaches’ poll, respectively.
The Engineers take a break from the conference games this weekend, playing only Sacred Heart at the Houston Field House on Saturday night at 7 pm. Sacred Heart is 4-12-3 overall, and is fifth in Atlantic Hockey, with a 4-6-2 conference record. Rensselaer historically had been undefeated against Atlantic Hockey teams until this year’s loss to Mercyhurst at the Holiday Tournament.
