The stumbling Engineers finished their final road trip of the season this weekend with a pair of late collapses, allotting them a loss to St. Lawrence and a tie with arch-rival Clarkson. The Engineers had ample opportunities to improve their record in both games, but ultimately were overwhelmed by an onslaught of questionable penalties and late game heroics on behalf of their opponents.
In Friday night’s shootout in Canton, N.Y. with the St. Lawrence Saints, the Engineers took the lead a mere 41 seconds into the first period when Oren Eizenman netted his first of two. However, the Saints equalized the contest with just under a minute left in the first period, and it would remain so through first intermission.
The Saints took advantage of the home ice in the second period, taking the lead at 10:52, and then extending it at 18:26. RPI appeared to be on the ropes, but when the Saints went shorthanded on a roughing penalty, senior captain Kirk MacDonald capitalized on the power play opportunity with just 50 seconds left in the second period.
Oren Eizenman would tie the game with his second goal five minutes into the third period, and the Engineers suddenly had new life.
But it seems this is not a season of happy endings for the Engineers. The hard-fought contest was overshadowed by the late stumbling of the Rensselaer defense and goalkeeping, when St. Lawrence managed to score three times in the last seven minutes of the game (once on an open net), proving yet again that a breakdown in focus or poise can essentially destroy 55 minutes of quality hockey. RPI opened the door, and the Saints came marching through.
Of note is that junior goaltender Jordan Alford, who allowed three goals over the first two periods, was replaced in the second period with sophomore Mathias Lange. However, Lange didn’t fare any better as he allowed two in the third.
It would fall to the men’s hockey team to make up for the disappointing loss the following night against Clarkson.
Saturday night’s game in many ways was similar to the St. Lawrence game. Oren Eizenman again opened up the scoring, providing the Engineers with the early lead. This lead was then promptly surrendered when Clarkson’s Nick Dodge equalized the contest less than a minute and a half later. Momentum, it seems, was not a contributing factor this weekend.
Six straight penalties in the second period handicapped the Engineers for nearly 10 straight minutes, and that was more than enough for the ninth ranked Golden Knights to seize the lead. Clarkson freshman Matt Beca netted the go ahead power play goal at 11:36.
But let’s put things in perspective: many of the penalties were questionable, with Coach Seth Appert supplying the officials with his differing opinion on most of them. After the fifth straight Rensselaer penalty, an alleged roughing penalty on Ryan Swanson, coach Appert threw his hands up in disgust and was promptly assigned an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The Engineers fell to a two-man disadvantage, just like that, and Beca’s goal followed. Throughout the first half of this frenetic second period, Clarkson was no innocent bystander, as their aggressive hockey play matched that of the Engineers. However, the Golden Knights were never penalized in this stretch of regulation and appeared to hold the favor of the officials.
So up against both a tough Clarkson squad, and seemingly the officials too, the Engineers entered the third period trailing by a goal. However, the hustle and determination of this Engineers squad led to a countering goal as they equalized the contest, this time a little later at 15:33, on a five-on-three power play. MacDonald earned the score, assisted by sophomores Seth Klerer and Andrei Uryadov. A mere twenty seconds after MacDonald netted his goal, Kurt Colling put the Engineers ahead of their bitter rivals, stunning the still shorthanded Golden Knights.
As any sports fan will tell you, a one goal lead is never comfortable, especially at the end of a game, but the Engineers withstood Clarkson’s last ditch attacks for the remaining five minutes. That is, until the last three seconds.
A costly cross checking penalty at 19:03 in the third period placed the Engineers at a one man disadvantage for the final minute of play, and the Engineers held the line until Matt Beca scored the game tying goal for Clarkson with just three seconds left. Needless to say, the game went into overtime, but there was to be no more scoring and the contest was resolved as a tie. Junior Jonathan Ornelas was given a 10 minute game misconduct penalty after the end of play. This, of course, did not have any impact on Saturday night’s game as it occurred after the final whistle.
Peter Merth’s cross checking penalty, however, appears not to have been legitimate. The general rule for officials in the last minute of play is, given that both teams are going all out and battling for the game, to let most everything save a blatant or brutal attack go uncalled. The assistant referee who made the call clearly did not feel this way, and to make matters worse, a tape review shows no illegal contact by Merth. Would Clarkson still have scored had the bogus penalty not been called? Impossible to say for sure, but unlikely. In the end, this may have been one of the rare instances where an official truly does make a difference in a game’s outcome but stepping outside the bounds of his jurisdiction and applying unjust penalties to help a seeded team avoid an upset.
Such were the circumstances that resulted in the Engineers 0-1-1 weekend trip up north. The Engineers showed fight and hustle through the entirety of both games. However, there is only so much a team can do when faced with strong opponents and (what appears to have been) hostile officials. For all intents and purposes, Rensselaer should have come home with a tie against St. Lawrence and a huge win against Clarkson this weekend, but unfortunately the results were quite different. There is still time left for a positive spin on an otherwise troublesome second half of this season for the Rensselaer Engineers but they will have to continue to work hard. On a positive note, it is unlikely that any official will employ any purposeful sabotage against the Engineers in the Field House this weekend.
The men’s hockey team will return home this weekend for their final two games of the regular season. They will face off against Brown on Friday and Yale on Saturday. Saturday is Senior Appreciation night, and both games are at 7:00. Come out and show your support for your Engineers.
