Two periods of RPI dominance were not enough to topple the college hockey powerhouse University of Minnesota Golden Gophers in front of 14,127 Gopher faithful at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. in the Ice Breaker Invitational. A rash of RPI penalties in the third period gave Minnesota the opportunity to rally for four unanswered goals and escape from a major upset 4-3 to give Head Coach Don Lucia his 500th career win.
In the first game the two teams met since meeting in the NCAA regionals 12 years ago, the play was lopsided for most of the game with RPI almost entirely dominating the first two periods while the Golden Gophers were able to control the puck in the third as RPI struggled to kill off 23 minutes of assessed penalties.
Everything went right for the Engineers the first two periods as they back-checked effectively and used their speed efficiently to shut down a fast, talented, and intimidating offense. Junior Matt Angers-Goulet led off for the ECAC representative; his second goal of the season at 9:36 came from an amazing one-handed pass from linemate freshman Tyler Helfrich that had the crowd buzzing after watching the replay on the scoreboard. The second period saw Minnesota natives and high school teammates—freshmen Chase Polacek and Bryan Brutlag combine for a goal at 11:49 when Polacek tipped in a shot by defenseman Brutlag. RPI’s lead grew to three when senior Andrew Lord got a hold of the puck and knocked a backhander off the post at 15:12.
With Minnesota playing uninspired hockey, RPI was in control before a late second period cross-crease one-timer goal that seemed to spark the Maroon and Gold crowd.
The call that made the hometown crowd, announcers, and even coach make a double take was a whistle on senior Andrew Lord for checking Brian Schack from behind, and the automatic five-minute major with 4:29 left to play in regulation and both teams tied at three apiece. “He made the call that he thought was proper in that situation,” said Head Coach Seth Appert. “I have a lot of respect for the officials and the work that they do, and they call the game as they see it. They saw it a certain way, and that’s their judgment. We don’t mean to question their judgment; they’re doing a tough job out there and I respect them for it.”
“I didn’t even see the hit, and I didn’t realize we were even getting a five until the power play started and they announced it,” Gophers’ Lucia said of the major. “We have some guys that can make some plays, and they finally did at the end.”
The Engineers were amazingly able to hold off the relentless Minnesota attack for three minutes of the penalty kill, but as they were in their 11th straight minute of playing short-handed, the fatigue caught up with them without one of their best penalty-killers Lord on the ice. The Gophers made an identical play to the game-tying goal, this time with Kyle Okposo connecting for the slick one-timer at 1:11 left to play for the game-winner.
Although Appert was composed after the game, it was clear to all that he wasn’t happy with the repeated whistles by the officials during the game. “You don’t expect to get any calls coming into this rink, playing Minnesota with WCHA refs; we came out on the short end of some unfortunate calls in the third period,” said Appert. “Without looking at the tape it’s tough to say, but I’m surprised at how many we had in a row,” he said of the outbreak of penalties at the end of the close game. By the end of the game, several students were discussing the best way to make mock-head referee “THUL” jerseys for the next night’s championship game against the Michigan Wolverines to support the hometown refs.
Even Lucia was impressed by the Engineers’ desire to win, and thought the intensity might have surprised his players, “I thought we were tight when the game began, I don’t think we had the sense of urgency that you have to have, and you know what, I thought they outworked us, especially for the first two periods.”
The loss put RPI up against second-ranked Boston College the next afternoon. The two time runner-up Eagles took advantage of the quick turnaround for the Engineers and the bruises from 23 shots blocked the night before didn’t help the puckmen either. Freshman Ben Contini scored in the first but RPI lost 4-1 as they blew another lead and suffered serious third period penalties troubles.
