Union rains on Blackout parade in men’s hockey matchup

Rensselaer fell to the Union Garnet Chargers 4-3 on Friday night to open conference play. Over 2,700 fans, clad in dark attire, attended the match in the Houston Field House during the program's annual Blackout night.

A frightful first period

The first period was disastrous for the Engineers. Messy passes and zone entries plagued the Rensselaer offense, and Union time and time again found openings in the Engineer defense. While the Garnet Chargers only outshot the Engineers eleven to seven, Union excelled at manufacturing better chances. “I thought there were some nerves, maybe, in the first.” said sophomore Ben Yurchuk, “We weren't doing what we needed to do to be successful.”

Twelve minutes into the period, Union scored their first of the night off a power play, only the second time Rensselaer allowed a shorthanded goal this season. Less than three minutes later, an unmarked Garnet Charger slipped the puck past Engineer goaltender Nate Krawchuk to double the visitors lead. Union tacked on a third goal with just over thirty seconds left in the period to send the Engineers back to the locker room down 3-0.

Rensselaer rally falls short

Down three goals, the Engineers had their work cut out for them. “Our guys were disappointed…We didn't play as clean a period as we needed to, and we dug ourselves in a pretty good hole there.” said head coach Eric Lang after the game. “But the thing I like about our group is there was no panic. I went in there and said, ‘Hey, we can't do anything about what just happened. We can only do something about what's going to happen.’”

Slowly but surely, Rensselaer found their way back into the game. Four minutes into the second period, a shot from freshman Caleb Hadland clanged off the frame of the goalpost. Four minutes later, Rensselaer finally drew blood on a power play of their own. Yurchuk drove across the teeth of the Union defense before slipping the puck to Rainers Rullers, who scored his team-leading seventh goal of the season to put the Engineers on the scoreboard.

Rensselaer reduced the deficit to one with five minutes left to play in the second. Alfred Lindberg drove the puck into Union’s zone before dropping it off to forward Matthew Buckley. Under pressure, Buckley’s shot deflected off the Union goaltender and back onto the stick of Lindberg, who fired it into the back of the net, bringing  the fans to life. “I liked how we battled back, I thought we showed good effort and really good pushback at the end,” said forward Jordan Gavin. 

Rensselaer hopes to bounce back when the team travels to St. Lawrence University and Clarkson University this upcoming weekend. The box score can be found here.