In a season of change for the Engineers, Black Friday remains a constant as the men’s team improved their record on the relatively new tradition to 4-0-0—with an overtime win over the Princeton Tigers Friday night at the Houston Field House. A tie the following night with Quinnipiac gave RPI three out of four possible points in the opening weekend of ECACHL play. The Engineers’ play thus far this season has not gone unnoticed, as the USCHO.com/CSTV poll of coaches ranked them an impressive 18th in the nation. Other national polls have the team ranked at 17th and, unofficially 16th, the former of which predicted the team would finish 11th in the ECAC at the season’s conclusion.
Sophomore Seth Klerer, picking up where he left off from last weekend, was the hero yet again for the Engineers, when he scored with less then 13 seconds left in overtime against Princeton. With players for both teams scrambling in front of the net, Klerer managed to grab the puck near the bottom of the circle and shoot it over Tigers’ goalie Zane Kalemba, sending the crowd into a frenzy. The late-game heroics added a nice ending for the Engineers in a game where they were outplayed during the crucial third period.
For the sixth consecutive time in this young season, the Engineers allowed the first goal, this time on a bizarre play at 9:30 of the first period. Princeton forward Cam French flipped the puck over the back of the net and starting goaltender Jordan Alford quickly tried to reposition himself to grab it, but as he spun, the puck bounced off his glove and then trickled into the net before he could recover. The Engineers responded just over a minute later when sophomore Andrei Uryadov banged home a rebound opportunity after an initial attempt from freshman Peter Merth and a long shot from junior Jake Morissette. Only a minute and a half later, at 12:07 of the opening frame, the Engineers took the lead after senior Captain Kirk MacDonald deflected senior Jake Luthi’s power play shot from the point over the Princeton goalie’s glove.
In the second, Morrisette gave RPI a 3-1 lead when he beat out a sprawling Kalemba on a quick wrist shot from the inside corner of the left circle at 8:05 of the period. Late in frame, the frustrated Tigers finally made good on one of the 17 shots they fired at Alford, who came into the game with a sparkling .938 save percentage, seventh in the nation. The goal came on the powerplay, as Princeton’s Kyle Hagel redirected his own rebound into the net.
The Tigers went on to dominate the third period, holding the Engineers to a single shot on net while peppering Alford with 13. Their efforts finally paid off after Peter Merth was given a holding penalty at 18:37 of the third. After pulling their goalie for an extra attacker, Kevin Westgarth exploited the 6-4 advantage when he slid the puck past Alford’s diving left-side with just 40 seconds left in regulation. Klerer saved the Engineers with his late goal, however, extending the Engineer’s unbeaten Black Friday streak and continuing a strong start to the season.
The following night’s performance against Quinnipiac was much stronger, but the Bobcats struck first when they intercepted the puck in their own zone shorthanded and scored on the ensuing odd-man rush at 14:22 of the first period. Senior Kevin Broad tied things up for the Engineers early in the second period when he managed the beat Bobcats’ goaltender Bud Fisher to his right on a crafty backhander.
Just over two minutes later, with two Engineers in the box, Quinnipiac took the lead again on a nicely-worked 5-3 advantage as the puck was fed across the crease to Bryan Leitch who beat a sliding Mattias Lange, a sophomore. At 12:36 of the second, with an extra RPI attacker on the ice with a delayed penalty, Jake Morissette took a deflected puck off an initial Jake Luthi attempt to beat Fisher and tie the score.
The game remained tied for the remainder of the game despite back-and-forth action until the end. Mattias Lange finished with 25 saves as compared to his counterpart, Bud Fisher, who turned aside 16 for his team. The Engineers next play this coming Sunday against Merrimack at 5 PM at the Houston Field House.
