A few mistakes by the Engineers and a hot goalie in net for the Raiders let Colgate take an early lead in both games which RPI never broke. In a best of three series for the first round of the ECAC men’s hockey league playoffs, Rensselaer couldn’t take the lead and walked away from its season after the first round for the second year in a row.
On Friday, March 2, the first 3-1 loss put RPI behind in the series but not even close to down for the count. The Raiders took a 2-0 lead in the first on a pair of power play goals, but it took senior Oren Eizenman just 25 seconds of the second period to score and cut the deficit in half. Colgate finished the game with an additional score to make it a 3-1 victory.
The next night, Colgate ended RPI’s season with a 4-1 victory amid some controversy between the goal-judge and the head referee. The questionable call came after junior forward Jonathan Ornelas tied up the score at one and an another RPI shot appeared to have entered to net to just about everyone in the arena, but the head referee conferred with the other officials and ruled a no-goal. The goal would have given RPI the all-important lead and helped to swing the momentum in the Engineers’ favor. “We were disappointed,” said Head Coach Seth Appert. The call and the unfortunate bounce off the glass the night before were all the more unlucky because, Appert said, “In a playoff series, where everything is so tight, it’s tough.”
“In the Colgate series, we played very well, and there were large stretches of both games when we felt we had the upper hand,” said Appert of the series. “But we ran up against probably the best goaltender in the league in Mark Denkenich, and Colgate took advantage of our miscues to take an early lead in both games.”
“At Colgate, we felt like we played pretty solid for most of the weekend, but both nights we got down early and it’s always more difficult to play from behind—especially in the playoffs,” said junior Jake Morissette. “In both games we felt like we had some good scoring chances, but we weren’t able to capitalize on ours. They made us pay for our mistakes, and I think that was the biggest difference in the series.”
The season was full of ups and downs from the early national rankings to the slow slide in the record and consistency of play to never catching a break from questionable officiating late in the season.
“One of the highlights from this season for our team has to be winning the early season tournament in Albany,” said Morissette. “That was the first tournament win in a while for our team, and it was a lot of fun to be a part of.” In the tournament, the team beat Colgate in a shoot-out to advance to the championship game.
“There are so many positives,” said Appert of the season; he singled out the team’s style of play, culture, and attitude being excellent. “The players do all they can to represent their school in a first class manner,” he added.
After listing all the positives the team is taking away from the season, he mentioned that “the only negative that diminishes the season was the record and bowing out in the first round—that’s not where we want to be in the future.”
“To improve next year we need to learn from this year,” stated Morissette. “Some of the things that didn’t go so well, and [we need to] build on the positives that there were. The main thing in preparation for next year is to work to get better over the summer through our off-ice training.”
Appert agreed, stating that the off-season will start this week and center on “getting stronger [with] better conditioning,” because “It’s time to crank it up a notch.”
“Now that they’re getting a sense of where we want to be, we want to increase conditioning so we can play at the pace that we want to in the future,” Appert said.
“We want to play in an up-tempo and fast style,” says Appert, and to do this a team can’t just match but needs to exceed the conditioning of the opponent.
“I really enjoyed the group of guys we had in our locker room this year,” Morissette said. “We have a very close team and we really enjoy being around each other. A big focus of our team was sticking together over the course of the year, and we want to continue that in the future and continue to believe in each other and gain more confidence in each other.”
“Our senior class this season was exceptional; they really held this team together throughout the year and we will miss them a lot,” said Morissette. Over the past three years they have been great friends and teammates and I thank them for everything they have done for our team and school during their time here.”
“They made our transition so much easier,” said Appert of the care and respect that he sees in the seniors for the program. “We as a staff are very appreciative of their efforts.”
“They helped lay our foundations for the future,” said Appert of the senior class. After the team brings home another championship banner to match those on the wall, he hopes that “our six seniors look back in fondness of what they helped build.”
“I think that Coach Appert and the whole coaching staff have come in and done a great job for our team” Morissette said. The players really enjoy working with our coaching staff and look forward to moving forward with them and continuing to improve our team so that this time next year we will still be playing hockey.”
Appert expressed his extreme appreciation of both the team and especially himself of the support that was shown for the team this season. “The student body and pep band support at home and on the road is special” he said adding that he’s been at other schools and can understand how much help we get from the band. “I’m very proud to be at a program at a school that has that type of pride in the student body and band as well.”
“We’re pleased at everything under the surface,” said Appert in summary—although he isn’t happy with the win-loss record or the early exit from the playoffs. Next year he has set a goal of not playing during the first weekend of the ECAC playoffs.
