It isn’t so much that the men’s hockey team is inconsistent; it’s that two completely different teams took the ice for RPI this season. These two teams had the same coach, the same players, and the same uniforms, but drastically different results. With a resounding 4-1 win over Merrimack on November 11, the men’s team had reached a record of 5-1-3 and had both a Governor’s Cup trophy and a strong standing at 16th in the nation to show for it.
Seth Appert and his squad were at the top of their game right up until mid-November, and nothing in particular hinted at the possibility that fortunes were about to change. There was a rising sentiment that the 2006-2007 Engineers were going to situate themselves in the upper ranks of college hockey. They put together both upsets and dramatic overtime wins. They were susceptible to surrendering multiple goal leads, but they also had a penchant for storming back.
So what happened?
Perhaps the problem was stamina. Maybe there just wasn’t any more gas in the tank at the midseason stage. But then again, what team breaks down physically (injuries aside) after the first nine games? And given that RPI worked hard in the preseason to be primed and ready, fatigue prevailing over endurance should be ruled out. So, the questions linger.
What we do know for sure is that since defeating Merrimack on November 11, the Engineers are a dismal 4-12-4, dropping their record to an overall 9-13-7 (including the Governor’s Cup). Throughout this stretch, the Engineers suffered a seven game winless streak and dropped five straight losses before Freakout! weekend. These two horrific slumps were separated by a single 2-1 victory over UMass Lowell on December 16.
The Engineers showed some fight in sweeping two games on the road a little over a week ago, but then got themselves swept this past weekend, effectively killing any momentum they may have started to build. The good news is that the Engineers will finally return to the Field House this weekend for two games against Colgate and Cornell. The bad news, however, is that unless the men’s team can earn two wins at home this weekend, the playoff picture for Rensselaer men’s hockey will be looking pretty bleak.
The men’s team has six games left including this weekend’s set. It will take a tremendous collective effort and a minor miracle, but if the men’s hockey team can finish somewhere around 4-0-2 or, better yet, six straight wins, then they will get home ice for the playoffs. The stakes for each game have risen considerably.
It should be interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out. The team has the size, the speed, the skills, and they certainly have the home ice advantage when in the Field House. The only question is: how badly do they want it?
