A year ago, the RPI men’s hockey team won on Black Friday with a last-second overtime goal. Then-sophomore Seth Klerer hit the winner that night, propelling RPI over Princeton in dramatic fashion just a week after the 2006 Engineers won the Governor’s Cup.
Such was the stage for this weekend, this Black Friday home stand. Fresh off a Governor’s Cup championship victory, the then-17th ranked Engineers—RPI moved up a spot to #16 in the USCHO/CSTV poll—entered Friday night’s contest on a four game winning streak. Facing off against Yale University, the Engineers fell behind early when they surrendered a goal in the closing minutes of the first period.
And 1-0 it would remain throughout the second period, and deep into the third. But RPI had been applying pressure all night, dominating the game, committing few penalties, and taking a great many shots, and the feeling of “sooner or later” was in the air.
“Sooner” it would not be, but “later” on, with 46 seconds remaining to be specific, RPI pulled junior goalie Mathias Lange. With the benefit of the extra attacker, senior captain Jake Morissette knotted the game 1-1 by burying a ricochet in the top shelf.
As he was in the Governor’s Cup final, sophomore defenseman Peter Merth was a fundamental part of the attack. It was his hard shot from the outside that deflected off Yale goalie Billy Blasé into the zone of the captain, who promptly finished.
Morissette’s goal ignited the Houston Field House and sent the Engineers and the Bulldogs into overtime; however, nothing came of it and Black Friday ended in a 1-1 lock. On the night, Lange was outstanding in protection, making 29 saves, many of them difficult and impressive. Yale’s Blasé had 31.
So with their unbeaten streak increased to five games, the Engineers hit the ice again on Saturday night, this time against Brown University. The end result would be the same, a draw, but this time the circumstances were reversed. That night, it was RPI who took the early lead, building a 2-0 cushion entering the second intermission.
Engineers’ senior Andrew Lord scored the first goal after classmate Jonathan Ornelas sent a long pass to sophomore Christian Jensen, who quickly centered it to Lord.
The speedy Ornelas then tallied his own goal, burning a Brown defender and depositing a quick wrist shot at 14:18 in the second period. The assist was credited to freshman Bryan Brutlag and Lord, giving Lord and Ornelas both two points on the night.
It looked good for the Engineers on Saturday night, with ace senior goalie Jordan Alford tending the net. Alford was sensational in the Governor’s Cup, earning him the tournament’s MVP award. So when Brown’s Matt Vokes beat Alford to cut the lead to 2-1 and end Alford’s shutout streak at 172:01, it was still not cause for alarm. But Brown, as it turned out, was not done, and the third period belonged to them.
In similar fashion to Morissette’s dramatic goal on Friday night, Brown’s Jeff Prough equalized the contest with under a minute to play, at 19:42 in the third period. The goal was the reward of Brown pulling its goaltender to add an extra attacker—just as RPI had done against Yale the night before.
Again the game went into overtime, and yet again nothing came of it, ending the night in a 2-2 tie.
With the draw, RPI extended its unbeaten streak to six games and now has an overall record of 5-2-2. Brown’s first win of the season remains elusive, but it gained a point in the league standings, and now stand at 0-1-2.
Of note are the similarities between the two games: both game-tying goals came with under a minute to play, both teams resorted to pulling their goalies (successfully), and both overtimes proved fruitless. Also, strangely enough, Friday night’s Black Friday, where students wearing black got in for free, had an attendance of only 3,719. On Saturday night, attendance was up to 4,783 with no special event in progress. Go figure.
