After traveling nearly 4,500 miles, the Engineers were poised and ready for the Nye Frontier Classic, the University of Alaska-Anchorage’s annual debut tournament. After dropping the first-round contest to UAA, 6-3, RPI rebounded against the Michigan Tech Huskies with a 4-3 victory.
UAA’s Mat Robinson, a defenseman, picked up four assists, and six different players scored in the UAA victory. RPI’s Chris Hussey, a senior, had a pair of goals in the loss, and sophomore goalie Jordan Alford made 28 saves.
Like last week at Lowell, RPI struck first. Hussey swatted his own rebound under goaltender Nathan Lawson. Lawson set up the scoring sequence when he misplayed the puck behind his own net and the defense couldn’t clear the puck. Senior defenseman Scott Romfo held the puck in at the blue line, and gave it to sophomore Andrew Lord. Hussey’s initial shot came off a Lord rebound.
The Seawolves got a pair of goals in the first. After a scoreless second period in which RPI was out-shot 15-10 and killed off a major penalty to Keith MCWilliams, the Engineers struck again. Hussey raced up the ice on a shorthand two-on-one. He looked to senior Mark Yurkewecz, then fired a slap shot to the top corner. “I just decided to shoot as hard as I could,” said Hussey. “I don’t think I aimed; it just went there.”
Shortly after the goal, Romfo took a hooking penalty, and the Seawolves took over. They scored three goals in a six-minute span, the first of which came during Romfo’s penalty. “I think we really got the momentum when Hussey scored that shorthanded goal to tie it up 2-2,” said Head Coach Dan Fridgen. “Next thing you know, we go back in the box, and then they got a power play goal and took the momentum back and just rode it from that point on. It was a legitimate penalty; we’ve just got to be smarter.”
With the score 5-2 late, RPI notched another shorthanded goal. Romfo found freshman Seth Klerer with the puck, who burst up the ice and in on Lawson on a breakaway. He made a nice deke and put a backhand shot over the goalie’s stick. The Seawolves also added a late goal to make it 6-3.
RPI killed off seven of eight UAA power plays. The extended penalty kill presence tired out the Engineers as the game went on. “I think guys lost their legs a little bit, but we killed off a lot of penalties,” said Fridgen.
RPI rebounded against the Michigan Tech Huskies on Saturday. Senior Kevin Croxton had a goal and two assists and freshman Andrei Uryadov scored the game-winning goal on the power play in the third period en route to a 4-3 Engineer victory.
The Huskies had a two-goal lead early, after Chris Conner slipped between defensemen Brad Farynuk and Reed Kipp, scoring on the ensuing breakaway, and Jimmy Kerr doubled the lead at the end of a three-on-two rush.
Just 11 seconds after Kerr’s goal, RPI struck back. Croxton found sophomore Jonathan Ornelas with a pass across the goal mouth, and Ornelas fired the shot high to the net to halve the deficit.
Conner gave Michigan Tech a two-goal lead again, when he stripped senior Alexander Valentin of the puck in front of freshman goalie Mathias Lange and slipped the puck past the far post. “It was just a mistake that should not have happened, but it does happen sometimes,” said Lange. “I thought he was going to go across all the way. As I was going to make the next step, he put it at the far post and in. He’s a great player.”
This time, though, it only took RPI eight seconds to cut the lead in half again. Croxton put a backhand shot over Husky goalie Rob Nolan to bring RPI within one, and junior Oren Eizenman scored a deflection goal 22 seconds after that. “They showed great character tonight, coming back from a two-goal deficit,” said Fridgen.
“My line was fortunate enough to get some breaks and get a couple of goals, but it really was the lines before us that set the tone and put them back on their heels,” said Eizenman. “They rattled them a little bit so that they coughed the puck up. If you look at our goals, they were just cough-ups. Their defense got a little nervous because they knew someone was coming to hit them.”
RPI got a little luck in the third to get the game-winner. After Michigan Tech took two penalties in a 15-second span, RPI was in a five-on-three situation. Valentin threaded a pass across the high slot to Uryadov, who ripped a one-timer to the twine. “[Valentin] saw me and passed it right to me for the one-timer, and I got it in,” said Uryadov. “Not too hard, you know; but it went in, and I’m pretty excited about that.”
“I think we outplayed them today as a team,” he added.
With the split, RPI’s record moves to 1-2-0 on the season. The Engineers play at Boston University on Friday night and host Army for the official season opener at Houston Field House at 2 pm on Sunday.
