The men’s hockey team was poised for big gains this weekend, with the teams at the top of the ECAC separated only by several points. The team certainly didn’t disappoint, taking to the road in New England, and emerging with four points from a pair of victories. The team came from behind to defeat Harvard 3-2, and dominated Brown on both sides of the ice en route to a 4-0 drubbing.

It was the team’s first road weekend sweep since last March at Union in the ECAC playoffs, and the first regular season road weekend sweep since February 2002.

Things looked good for RPI early; they outshot the Crimson 10-6, but the period ended scoreless, despite several good chances for both teams. Just 49 seconds into the second, however, Harvard’s Dylan Reese took a minor penalty for obstruction cross checking.

Captain Scott Basiuk made him pay for it, unloading a rocket of a shot past Crimson goalie Dov Grumet-Morris for the early lead. Harvard’s Brendan Bernakevitch beat Engineer goalie Nathan Marsters later in the period to tie things up.

RPI only had one shot in the second period, which was Basiuk’s goal. Harvard struck again in the third, with RPI’s Tommy Green in the box. Crimson forward Tom Cavanagh found Tyler Kolarik off a rebound for an easy power play goal to put Harvard up 2-1. Harvard couldn’t get much momentum going, however, as the Crimson crowd was almost silent, and the RPI contingent, including the band, was much louder than the Harvard fans.

Basiuk benefited from a little luck on his second goal of the game; he fired another hard shot from the point, and the puck deflected off of a Harvard player and past Grumet-Morris to knot things at two. Just three minutes later, with under a minute left in the game, the Rensselaer line of Kevin Croxton, Oren Eizenman, and Ryan Shields rushed down the ice, facing two defensemen.

After taking Croxton’s pass, Eizenman dropped the puck off for Shields, who quickly fired high over the goalie’s glove. The goal proved to be a death knell for the Crimson, as the game ended 3-2. Marsters played a great game, finishing with 34 saves. Grumet-Morris finished with 15.

Rensselaer faced a more formidable task at Meehan Arena, taking on the Brown Bears. Brown was first in the ECAC entering the game, with only three conference losses, only one of which came at home.

However, Marsters was up to the task, baffling the Brown shooters all night long, and the defense chipped in as well, blocking shots and taking the body. After a scoreless first period, Basiuk started the scoring again on the power play, rifling a one-timer from the point which found the back of the net, beating Brown’s goalie, Yann Danis. Interestingly enough, each of Rensselaer’s last five games has had scoreless first periods.

Kirk MacDonald found the twine early in the third, on a clean shot that Danis saw but couldn’t stop. The goal, MacDonald’s 13th of the season, was assisted by Brad Farynuk. Ben Barr made it 3-0 midway through the third, when, shorthanded, he slam-dunked a MacDonald pass past Danis on an odd-man rush.

The Croxton, Eizenman, and Shields line struck again with nifty passing just one minute later, when Shields buried an Eizenman pass to finish things off, making the score 4-0.

Any hopes for a Brown comeback were dashed when forward Sean Dersch hit Barr from behind as Barr was coming off the ice, receiving a major penalty, and a game misconduct. Brown seemed to concede victory at that point, skating around somewhat lifelessly for the rest of the game.

Marsters made 30 saves in the shutout, his fourth of the season, and his second in-conference. By scoring power play goals in both games, the Engineers extended their streak of games with at least one power play goal to 12.

With the sweep, RPI holds third in the conference, tied with Cornell. They are one point behind Colgate for second, and three behind Brown for first.

This weekend’s home games against Cornell on Friday and Colgate on Saturday will prove vital in determining the ECAC playoff picture, considering three of the teams fighting for the the top four spots will be in action.

RPI received 28 votes in this week’s USCHO poll, which put Rensselaer two spots out of being ranked. RPI also got back into the top 20 in INCH’s Power Rankings, reclaiming the number 20 spot.

RPI can all but clinch a first-round bye with a strong showing this weekend.