While most RPI students went home and relaxed for Spring Break, it was business as usual for the men’s hockey team, as the ECAC playoffs began last weekend. RPI finished tied for fourth in the conference with the Dartmouth Big Green, but lost the head-to-head tiebreaker, and was seeded fifth for the tournament. The highly sought-after first round bye was out of RPI’s grasp, and they hosted last-place Princeton for a best-of-three series.
In the series opener, the Engineers started quickly and kept the pressure on steadily for the first two periods. Just five minutes into the first, Ryan Shields deflected a Scott Basiuk drive past Tigers’ goalie Eric Leroux. Early in the second, Kevin Croxton doubled the lead on a backdoor goal on the power play, with the assists going to Nick Economakos and Kirk MacDonald.
Princeton halved the lead when a Sebastian Borza shot that appeared to hit the post was ruled a goal by linesman Tom Lynch, much to the dismay of the crowd. RPI, however, seemed unfazed, and responded with goals by Brad Farynuk and Croxton to grab the 4-1 lead.
In the third, with Engineer goalie Nathan Marsters down on the ice, Princeton’s Patrick Neundorfer took a loose puck and fired it to the back of the net. Economakos made it 5-2 with six minutes left, and RPI staved off a Princeton comeback, winning 5-4, despite giving up two goals in the final three-and-a-half minutes, and being out shot 12-3 in the third.
Things looked bad for the Engineers in the series’ second game. Economakos put RPI up just 1:28 into the game, but Princeton pulled ahead with a pair of second period power play goals and played very much like they wanted to stay there. Leroux turned aside nearly 40 consecutive shots, and the Princeton team looked sharp, blocking shots and keeping RPI’s high-powered offense from creating many chances.
With 2:23 left in the third, Basiuk took a shot from the point which found its way under Leroux’s legs and into the net. Neither team scored in the remainder of regulation, and the game headed to sudden-death overtime.
In the extra session, the Engineers came out like a team possessed, controlling the puck in the Princeton zone the entire time. It took only 1:38 for Ben Barr to backhand a rebound in the net for the winner, and the brooms came out in the stands as RPI had completed the sweep. The Tigers finished their season without a win in 2004, on a 0-15-2 streak for an overall record of 5-24-2, and RPI headed to Dartmouth for a date with the Big Green.
Dartmouth, a place several players on the team acknowledged as their least favorite place to play, would challenge the Engineers in an excellent three-game series, in which the Big Green ultimately prevailed, earning a berth to the ECAC semifinals in Albany.
In game one, both teams had excellent scoring chances in the first, but only RPI’s MacDonald found the twine, firing a shot between Big Green goalie Dan Yacey’s pads. Dartmouth came on strong in the second period, but their momentum was slowed when their star player and first-round draft-pick, Hugh Jessiman, took a bad hitting after the whistle penalty.
And Basiuk made him pay for the infraction, scoring from the blue line on the ensuing power play to put RPI up 2-0.
Dartmouth responded with a power play goal of its own five minutes into the third, as Mike Ouellette backhanded a Lee Stempniak pass over Marsters’ stick to cut the lead to one.
Dartmouth felt momentum swing its way; they kept the pressure on, but Marsters kept turning them away. When Yacey left the net for an extra attacker, it only took RPI eight seconds to get an empty netter, when Economakos sealed the game with a shot from the blue line.
Game two would find Dartmouth’s fortune reversed. The Big Green completely dominated every aspect of the game; winning battles for the puck, blocking shots, giving Yacey a good view of shots, and otherwise humiliating an RPI team which may have thought the Thompson Arena jinx had been lifted. Six different players scored goals for Dartmouth, and 11 different players had points en route to a 6-0 victory.
The Engineers would need a serious team effort to rebound from such a discouraging loss. After two periods of well-fought, scoreless hockey, the bubble was about to burst on one team’s season. Twenty-one seconds into the third during a four-on-four situation, Big Green forward Eric Przepiorka came down the wing, one-on-one with Basiuk. Przepiorka slid the puck by Basiuk, and then fired a backhand that beat Marsters.
It would prove to be the only goal of the game, despite a late flurry of RPI offensive chances, including a hit post with under a minute remaining.
RPI’s season ended this weekend, and it was a season that exceeded all expectations, especially considering the Engineers were picked tenth and eleventh in two ECAC preseason polls. The ECAC Championship is this weekend, featuring Dartmouth vs. Harvard in one semifinal and Colgate vs. Clarkson in the other.
