Coming into this weekend, the men’s hockey team sat tied for third in the ECAC, and essentially controlled their own destiny, taking to the Houston Field House to play second-place Colgate and third-place Cornell. A strong showing would have all but locked up a first round bye for the team.
Colgate and Cornell, however, had other plans, bringing their best games to Troy, and handing the Engineers a pair of home defeats, each by one goal.
The Big Red brought their usual style of play, and with RPI’s commitment to defense and stifling chances, the game was slowed down, and both teams were hard-pressed to create offensively early on. Despite the slow pace of the game, referee John Murphy was hesitant to call penalties, preferring instead to let the teams play. With both teams struggling against the other’s defense, the first period ended scoreless.
The second period shaped up to be more of the same; clutching and grabbing, passing and shooting lanes blocked. It took 13 minutes for either team to find the twine.
Engineer co-captain Scott Basiuk, behind his own net, lost control of the puck. Cornell’s Mike Iggulden stole it, and quickly passed to Greg Hornby in front of the net, who swatted the puck past a diving Nathan Marsters to put the Big Red up 1-0.
Early in the third, with the Big Red on the power play, another strange miscue led to a Cornell goal. Basiuk’s clearing attempt hit Ben Barr’s leg, and deflected to Cornell forward and leading scorer Matt Moulson just inside the blue line. Moulson took a few strides toward the net and sent the puck top shelf over Marsters’ right shoulder.
RPI struck just five minutes later, when Vic Pereira, standing in front of the net, redirected a Conrad Barnes pass past Big Red goalie David McKee. The goal was Pereira’s third of the season. Any hopes of an Engineer rally late were dashed when Kirk MacDonald took a slashing penalty with 1:25 left in the game.
The game ended 2-1. Marsters made 21 saves, and McKee only needed to make 17. The low shot totals were a testament to the shutdown style that both teams play.
The Engineers looked to rebound against a surprisingly good Colgate squad on Saturday night, which was Senior Night for the Engineers, in which the team’s seven seniors were honored in a pre-game ceremony.
The Raiders, heading into Saturday’s game, were 9-2-2 in their last 13 conference games, including shutouts at Cornell and Union, and a 9-4 shellacking of Vermont. Colgate’s band made the trip as well.
Things started off poorly for the Engineers. Just 49 seconds into the game, Colgate captain Rob Brown found Adam Mitchell on a slam-dunk play, beating Marsters, and giving the Raiders a 1-0 lead. “The first goal that they got, I thought we were in practice because it was a tic-tac-toe play,” lamented Rensselaer coach Dan Fridgen.
Pereira tallied his second goal of the weekend just three minutes later. He took a pass from Keith MCWilliams, and put a quick wrist shot on net. The shot fluttered in mid-air, fooling Raider goalie Steve Silverthorn and finding its way across the goal line to knot the score. Conrad Barnes also had an assist on the goal.
The Raiders re-took the lead just minutes later, on the power play. With Oren Eizenman in the box for slashing, Colgate points leader Jon Smyth found Daryl McKinnon, who drove to the net and beat Marsters.
Smyth struck again in the second, with the Raiders on a two-man advantage. He one-timed a pass from Paul Kelley for his 19th goal of the season to give the Raiders a 3-1 lead.
RPI appeared to halve the lead late in the second, when the puck trickled through Silverthorn’s pads and over the goal line. However, referee Joel Dupree disallowed the goal because his whistle had blown. When asked about the disallowed goal, Fridgen merely remarked: “Nothing surprises me.”
The Engineers came out hard for the third period of Senior Night. Blake Pickett slammed a rebound past Silverthorn eight minutes into the final frame. Kevin Croxton and Barr were credited with assists on the goal.
The RPI offense bombarded the Colgate defense with shots, attempting 23 in the period, and completely controlled the flow of play. But the Raiders blocked six shots in the period, and Silverthorn made the saves he had to, leading the team to victory. All told, the Raiders blocked 16 shots in the game.
Despite the strong third period, the Engineers had a spotty effort in the rest of the game. “It’s unfortunate for the seniors that not everyone came to play on their night,” Fridgen commented regarding the loss.
Marsters made 27 saves on the evening while Silverthorn made 24 for Colgate.
The Engineers take to the road this weekend to finish the regular season at Princeton on Friday night and Yale on Saturday night.
The Engineers no longer control their own destiny in the quest for a first-round bye, needing a sweep and a poor showing by Cornell, Dartmouth, or Brown. However, since those teams would each win a tiebreaker against Rensselaer, the Engineers would need to take fourth place outright. RPI still received five votes in the USCHO poll and four votes in the USA Today Poll, but dropped out of the top 20 in INCH’s Power Rankings.
