Eagles fly off with victory, Engineers remain winless

The Engineers lost 5-1 last Friday in a grueling match to #9-ranked Boston College, pushing back a potential first-win date to Halloween weekend or later. The Eagles were set to be a formidable opponent for the Engineers from the beginning, fielding a team composed of several NHL prospects including top draft pick for the Boston Bruins James Hagens.

From the puck drop the Eagles put the pressure on Rensselaer’s defense, forcing a quick-pass game that kept Rensselaer chasing the puck up and down the ice. Engineer goalkeeper Bruno Bruveris held down his end of the ice, making 15 saves over the first period off of 16 shots on goal. The single Boston point, scored by Hagens, came immediately off of a power-play before the fifth Rensselaer skater made it back to the action. Four minutes later, Engineer forward Tyler Wallace responded with a power-play goal up close to even the score to 1-1.

However, one of Rensselaer’s big areas for development this season is maintaining stamina throughout the game, this match being no exception. After the first period, the Engineers would take a total of four more shots on goal while fending off 25 from the Eagles. Boston scoring started to speed up, and only stopped when Engineer Carson Dorfman stepped in as a relief goalkeeper. The junior blocked all 15 shots taken by Boston in the third period, but not before the Eagles netted an additional four goals to cement the final score at 5-1 for a Boston win.

The following day, Rensselaer suffered another 5-1 loss at the hands of #14-ranked Providence College, bringing their record to 0-4-0. Their next games will be a series against yet another ranked opponent, Minnesota State, October 24 and 25, before starting league play against Union College the weekend after. The box score for this game can be found here.