A year ago, the RPI Engineers faltered late in the 2007 edition of Big Red Freakout! but managed to stave off defeat and run their unbeaten streak to 17 straight in the annual event. But all good things come to an end—oh, if only losing could—and the streak is now over.

The RPI Engineers were defeated twice more this weekend, dropping their dive-bombing record to a dastardly 9-17-3, and further cementing their place at the bottom of the ECAC barrel. Only Brown University (9) and Dartmouth College (7) have fewer points than Rensselaer (10), but Dartmouth has only 11 losses and one less win at 8-11-2.

The weekend got off to a bang on Friday night with the Engineers hosting No. 16 Quinnipiac University at the Houston Field House. The Engineers managed to score first, with senior Andrew Lord netting the first score on a power play at 10:48 in the first period. It was a rare event for the Engineers, whose predominant struggle this season has been the power play, but nonetheless put the hometown team ahead through first intermission.

Unfortunately, Rensselaer could not muster a competitor anywhere near the likes of Quinnipiac’s Eric Lampe on Friday night. Lampe, a sophomore, ignited the ranked Bobcats to a 3-2 victory with an electrifying and crowd-silencing hat-trick on the night.

Coming out strong in the second period, the Bobcats found their rhythm and entered into a crucial faceoff with RPI in Engineers’ territory. Lampe won the faceoff, getting the puck to teammate Dan Henningson who fired a shot off RPI goaltender junior Mathias Lange. The puck found itself back in front of Lampe, who promptly blasted it back past Lange to tie the game. Then just over three minutes later, Lampe succeeded in scoring on a wraparound to give the Bobcats the 2-1 lead.

The Bobcats would maintain the one-goal lead until 15:01 in the third period when Lampe again capitalized on a rebound off Lange and buried his third goal of the night. RPI’s freshman Bryan Brutlag would score with 59 seconds remaining in the game, but the Engineers could not muster any late magic and fell 3-2.

But of course, with Big Red Freakout! looming, and their history of Big Red Success on this night, the Engineers looked to pick up a win against Princeton University Saturday evening.

The first period was fairly eventless, with a total of only three penalties. The Engineers managed only five shots on net in the first 20 minutes, trailing Princeton’s 13.

But it would be the second period that would prove decisive on Saturday night. Further outshooting the Engineers 20-6, the Princeton Tigers scored three goals in the second period to knock RPI out for the night. The first came at 1:03 by Dan Bartlett. He then assisted Landis Stankievech at 5:07 to put the Tigers up 2-0, and Mark Magnowski capped the second period scoring at 11:11.

In the third period, RPI pulled goaltender Jordan Alford for over three minutes, but in the end it only resulted in another Tiger goal, this one by Keith Shattenkirk. With the loss, RPI falls to 9-17-3, while Princeton improves to 12-9-0.

Alford did reasonably well considering he was against the ropes all night, making 37 saves in the losing effort including 17 in the second period alone. Comparatively, his Princeton counterpart, Zane Kalemba, only needed to make a total of 16 saves on the night to earn the shut out.

The Engineers were noticeably booed in the second period, and a little further at the game’s conclusion en route to their 12th loss in their last 13 games. The Field House was completely sold out at 5,146 for the first Big Red Freakout! loss in 18 years.

However, the weekend was not completely without celebration: RPI Hockey Great, Frank Chiarelli, was honored with admittance into the Field House’s Ring of Honor in a brief ceremony before nearly 3000 on Friday night.

RPI returns to action Friday night, hosting ECAC cellar-dweller Dartmouth at the Houston Field House.