One of the best rivalries in eastern college hockey, RPI and Clarkson, will be renewed this Friday night at Cheel Arena in the ECAC Hockey playoffs. The Engineers swept the season series and also won at Cheel in the 5-12 game two years ago, but this will by no means be easy. Not only is Clarkson a very talented team, but the trip to Potsdam is a tough one and the building figures to be raucous. They seem to be finding their footing at the right time with 4 wins in a row prior to Saturday’s loss at Cornell. RPI is peaking too with a record of 5-2-1 in their last 8 and will certainly make things tough on Clarkson. Let’s break down the two rosters and the matchup:

Clarkson

Record: 15-16-3 (8th in ECAC)
Head Coach: JF Houle (2nd Year)

Clarkson lost a bunch of guys and elected to lean heavily into the CHL rather than the portal to replace them. The results were a bit disappointing despite those players producing, as they fell from 2nd to 8th in the league. Their underlying metrics are still good though, which is why this has been a confusing year. Ethan Langenegger put up a save percentage of .914% last year while getting the lion’s share of play, but Shane Soderwall has only given them a .900% this year.

Secondly, while they are talented, they lack experience. 9 of their 12 available forwards last weekend are underclassmen and 6 of the 7 defensemen are as well. With wins over Penn State and North Dakota but some bad losses to go with it, it’s fair to say this has been a confusing year for the Knights. With a good offseason, I expect Clarkson to be one of those teams picked to jump back into the top 4 next year. I think RPI could be constructed similarly next year with the talented recruiting class they have lined up.

Players to Watch:

Ryan Bottrill (Sr, Forward): 34-9-27-36
Owen Van Steensel (Fr, Forward): 34-12-13-25
Tristan Sarsland (Sr, Defense) 34-6-10-16
Shane Soderwall (Jr, Goalie) 31-2.68-.900%

RPI

Record: 11-22-1 (9th in ECAC)
Head Coach: Eric Lang (1st Year)

RPI’s lineup has completely stabilized over the last few weeks, including the insertion of Landen Hilditch for Trevor Russell, who seems to be hurt. The Rullers line with the two grads has really gelled, and Sitar centering the two freshman is probably RPI’s most talented line. Thomas Klassek just won his 2nd straight (!) ECAC defenseman of the week and has a real case for the all-rookie team. And how can you not mention Nate Krawchuk, the reigning ECAC goaltender of the week with one of the hottest hands in college hockey right now. The freshman is giving RPI a chance to win every night right now and is not a guy anyone wants to face. We know the book on this group by now: stay out of the box, be opportunistic, and get good goaltending. It’s working brilliantly right now.

Players to Watch:

Luciano Wilson (Gr, Forward) 33-8-14-22
Thomas Klassek (Fr, Defenseman) 33-3-15-18
Filip Sitar (So, Forward) 34-8-9-17
Nate Krawchuk (Fr, Goalie) 23-2.85-.908%

Assessing the Matchup

Team Statistics:

As I alluded to earlier, Clarkson has a talented team and struggled to get the results they wanted all year. On the other hand, RPI has the better goaltender, is more disciplined, and frankly has a coach with an incredibly amount of postseason success. This is much more evenly matched than it was 2 years ago when RPI won at Cheel in the playoffs. Clarkson is slightly more skilled, but RPI is red hot with a lot of self-belief right now.

Season Matchup:

RPI swept the season series despite Clarkson out chancing them in those games. It’s not easy to beat a team for a 3rd time and I reckon Clarkson is motivated to change the narrative around the series.

Keys to the Game:

1. Play your game

   RPI is 5-2-1 in the last 8 and 2-0 against Clarkson. Lang said on his radio spot this week that the team plays a playoff style already and isn’t searching for how to defend harder. The emphasis will be to stick to their tight checking style on Friday.

2. Get pucks to the net

   Simply getting pucks towards the goaltender and getting bounces and deflections worked brilliantly against Yale. RPI needs to test Soderwall and keep the puck in deep.

3. Be the more urgent team

   I spoke before about Clarkson being motivated to prevent a sweep, plus they will be on their home ice. RPI will need to be completely locked in and play intelligently to win the effort battle.

This weekend, RPI will be renewing college hockey’s best tradition with the 48th Big Red Freakout! against Harvard. Before that though, they’ll take on a revitalized Dartmouth program on Friday.

Dartmouth

The Big Green have taken a huge step this year and are currently tied for 2nd in the league. They are also 11th in the NPI as one of the top teams in the country, and they appear poised to break their NCAA tournament drought that has lasted since 1980.

This year, Dartmouth has been pretty good in essentially every metric. They have a 56.1% close corsi, which is 10th in the country, and a lot of that is on the back of their defense. They only allow 22.7 shots per game, which is tops in the entire country. They score 3.7 goals per game and only allow 2.2, and that goal differential is also among the best.

Dartmouth is led by star forward Hayden Stavroff who has potted a whopping 22 goals in just 26 games, which leads the entire country. He has a total of 36 points on the year. His linemate is Hank Cleaves who has 30 points in 26 games as the top line center. The backend features 3 really good defensemen in CJ Foley, Eric Charpentier, and Colin Grable, while Emmett Croteau has taken control of the net with a 0.918 SV%.

Dartmouth is an extremely structured and talented team, and they won’t be an easy matchup by any means. They are going to be especially hungry in this one after tying Yale and losing to Brown, which dropped them a few spots in the NPI. They can’t afford to lose many more games and keep their spot in the NCAA tournament. RPI needs to bring their A game.

Harvard

This is definitely the more exciting matchup just because it’s the freakout, but it also is the more winnable game. Harvard is a good team too. They’ve been ranked in the top 20 at various points, and they are currently 23rd in the NPI. They are around average in most categories with 2.9 goals per game and 2.8 goals against per game. Their close corsi is 50.6%. They’re a solid team but not an elite one.

Harvard’s main issue this year is they lack the talent to boost their scoring to a good level instead of an average one. Mick Thompson is clearly their best player with 24 points in 25 games, but then it quickly falls off to Phil Tresca with 19 and Casey Severo with 16. In net, Ben Charette has been pretty reliable with a 0.911 SV% on the year, and he has played all but 10 minutes this season.

Harvard is a decent matchup for RPI stylistically because they are much less structured than Dartmouth and also less physical. RPI was able to compete hard and keep Harvard to the outside a lot in the first game, which is why it was close the entire 60 minutes. They will need to do the same thing again, except convert on more chances. Harvard is 1-3-1 this month and looks vulnerable. If the Engineers bring the same level as last weekend, and they get the needed boost from a huge Freakout! crowd in the HFH, they’ll have a shot in this one.

Can’t wait for the weekend coming up. LGR!

RPI. Union. Mayor’s Cup. For the season series. First of the Lang era. Does it get any better than this?

It was before COVID when RPI won their last Mayor’s Cup. This series has been all Union for the better part of the last decade, but the outlook finally looks bright for both of these programs. Josh Hauge has his program humming in year 4 with the Garnet Chargers, as they roll into the Mayor’s Cup at 14-8-2. Things are looking up for Eric Lang’s Engineers in the 2^nd half, even if the results haven’t quite come yet. RPI got the better of Union on the first night of their season series but came out completely flat on Saturday leading to the split. Tonight’s Mayor’s Cup game will be the tiebreaker in the season series and will hold all the bragging rights until next season.

There were two very different tones in these interviews, the latter being amongst the most frustrated Coach Lang has been with his team all season. I would note that statistically Union was the better team in the game that RPI won, but RPI benefitted from good goaltending and opportunistic scoring that night. It will need more of the same tonight in what will certainly be the biggest moment of Nate Krawchuk’s young career.

The Garnet Chargers can hurt you from all angles, and it has two goalies who have chipped in a lot this year. Brandon Buhr leads the team with 15 goals and Colorado College transfer Tyler Dunbar has held down the back end. Union is a possession dominant team, they have a 58% Corsi and a NxG of 1.2, meaning their underlying metrics suggest they should win a game by 1.2 goals on average. RPI is going to have to play with smart hockey sense, get good goaltending, and not shoot themselves in the foot with mistakes.

This new era of RPI hockey needs a culture and that starts with winning big games. Before you can be relevant nationally, you have to be relevant on your campus, in your community, and in your conference. Lang’s first Mayor’s Cup is a big chance to set the tone in all 3 of those departments. The Engineers need to play with a high sense of urgency and make nothing easy for Union in this one. Let’s Go Red!!

This weekend, RPI concludes the first half of their season with another ECAC series. This time they will host Quinnipiac and Princeton.

Quinnipiac

Prior to the season, I pegged Quinnipiac as a national championship contender. So far, they’ve looked the part… mostly. Quinnipiac has been inconsistent this season, but they’re still a top team in the country.

Like a typical Quinnipiac team, they are dominant at controlling the puck with some of the best puck possession metrics in the country. They are also elite at winning the scoring chance battle. They generate tons of offense and chances and are excellent at defending the high danger areas.

The main issue with Quinnipiac is their inconsistency. At their best, they look like they can win a national championship with dominant wins against BU and BC. At their worst though, they have played down to the level of some of their weaker opponents with confusing losses to Yale, Alaska, and Merrimack.

Some of the inconsistency is tied to finishing and goaltending. Despite generating a multitude of chances pretty consistently in their games, they have not finished those chances as well as you would expect. Additionally, both Dylan Silverstein and Matej Marinov have struggled in net, with both below a 0.900 SV% on the season.

Given their firepower offensively, they have lots of big threats. Ethan Wyttenbach leads the team in points with 22 as just a freshman. He has been outstanding from the jump for them. Chris Pelosi leads the team in goals with 10 his sophomore season. Markus Vidicek, Mason Marcellus, Jeremy Wilmer, Aaron Schwartz, and Antonin Verreault are all other forwards already in the double digits in points to give Quinnipiac some major scoring depth.

Princeton

Princeton has been pretty solid to start the year, albeit with a pretty weak schedule. They’ve actually scored pretty well with very hot starts from upperclassmen Kai Daniells and Brendan Gorman, and they’ve done a good job controlling play and protecting their net front.

It’s a little hard to draw too many conclusions about Princeton since they are still so early on in their season. The goaltending has been struggling with all 3 netminders seeing time, and none of them have really taken control in the net. Their biggest threats outside of Daniells and Gorman are Jake Manfre, Jaxson Ezman and David Jacobs, who is averaging a whopping 23 minutes of ice time a night, crazy numbers for a forward. Kai Greaves has been great on the back end with 6 points in 9 games as their primary offensive defenseman.

One last noteworthy area for Princeton is their special teams have been weak thus far this season. The power play is operating at 12.4% while the penalty kill is at 72.2%. This is an area RPI needs to take advantage of since they have been doing much better on special teams recently, and Princeton has been pretty solid at even strength.

Let’s Go Red!!

Fresh off a split in the Route 7 rivalry, RPI returns to the ice with a pair at the Houston Field House against SLU and Clarkson. Last weekend helped establish a baseline for the Engineers and provided early insights on where they stand in the ECAC early on. Stephen touched on it in his recap, but Friday’s win at Union saw the Engineers finally get the goal scoring and goaltending that they so desperately needed in the non-conference. They were slightly outplayed by Union, but Union projects in the top group of the league so this isn’t the end of the world. Saturday was not an encouraging game for the group, and Coach Lang seemed very displeased with the effort in the postgame. Sweeps are hard in college hockey so the team will need to learn how to match their effort coming off a big Friday win. I’d expect Lang will have the group ready to go for the weekend matchups off a disappointing effort last time out. Let’s break down what SLU and Clarkson bring here:

Friday vs. Saint Lawrence

Saint Lawrence is among the weakest teams in the ECAC and a team that RPI needs to handle at home. Stephen picked them 10^th in his preseason preview, and so far this is proving to be about right as they are out to a 1-6-1 start. St. Lawrence has played a tough schedule but not quite to the degree RPI has. The numbers look somewhat identical for both teams, but on paper RPI has a bit more talent.

Brent Brekke is still the head guy at SLU, but it was tough sledding last year. Similar to RPI, the best pieces of the roster were pried away in the offseason. Felikss Gavars, Greg Lapointe, and Tomas Mazura have all departed now, and it has left SLU struggling to score.

Key Players:

Tyler Cristall (F, 6 Points): Cristall has led the way in scoring so far for the Saints and was highlighted by Stephen before the year as their top returner.

Filip Juricek (F, 4 Points): The freshman from Finland has made an immediate impact and is one to keep an eye on for the Engineers.

Mason Kucenski (G, .909 Sv%): I don’t quite know what to make of this goalie room, but Kucenski seems to be the guy. They have 4 guys vying for time in net, with Kucenski taking the lion’s share so far.

Coach Lang has spoken at length about wanting to make the Houston Field House a difficult place to play. RPI has struggled a lot at home recently and fell to Union on Blackout last week. With a strong Clarkson team looming on Saturday, I’d argue there is some early season pressure to get a win at home Friday night. If all goes right Friday, this will give the Engineers a do-over from last weekend. A chance to come out with their hair on fire and nothing to lose going for the sweep Saturday, knowing Clarkson is a very good team and a win is not expected. But first, take care of business Friday.

Saturday vs. Clarkson

The story with Clarkson is quite the opposite, as Clarkson boasts one of the best pound-for-pound rosters in the league. The North Country pair is always difficult on RPI because of Clarkson’s prowess and the difficulty of the road trip. It really only leaves home vs. SLU as the game you typically circle as one you need to win. Clarkson benefitted from the CHL expansion given its proximity to Canada, with a league high 9 CHL and USports players. Its year 2 for JF Houle, and he is coming off a successful first year where they were 1 game from the NCAA tournament. The roster looks a lot different as stalwarts Ayrton Martino, Ellis Rickwood, Trey Taylor, and Ryan Richardson all moved on. They look young and talented though, and I expect Houle is looking for this freshman class to be the defining recruiting class of his early tenure. Oh, and they had an assistant change… Welcome aboard Cory Schneider.

Key Players:

Ryan Bottrill (F, 8 points): The former Brown transfer hasn’t found the net yet, but he has 8 apples thus far. He had 19 points last year and figures to be a big piece for the Knights.

Owen Van Steensel (F, 5 points): Former Barrie Colt who has tallied 4 goals thus far. Looks to be the cream of the crop in the ECAC freshman class.

Shane Soderwall (G, .882 Sv%): Goaltending has been Clarkson’s achilles heel so far. After losing Ethan Langenegger, Houle opted for the D3 route nabbing Soderwall from Curry College. He has struggled so far, let’s see if he turns it around.

Clarkson looks young but really talented up and down the roster. The goaltending has let them down, but RPI has struggled to finish its chances too. This has been a one-sided rivalry for way too long, but there is certainly no love lost between these programs. I’d like to see it re-ignite a bit under Lang, especially as the CHL figures to make them recruiting rivals as well.

Keys To The Weekend:

1. Someone besides the Wallace-Sitar-Buckley line

RPI scored 5 times last weekend, but 2 of them were ENGs and one was a short-handed goal Friday night. They were shut out Saturday and the powerplay looked like a mess. As I hit on last week, it’s exciting to see a young top-line blossoming, but they need scoring from more places. The Wilson-Rullers-Tapper and Scherzer-Lindberg-Tinling lines are plenty talented to pitch into the scoring and form a formidable top 9. I expect we see them revert to the mean soon.

2. Specials

RPI has one of the worst combined PP and SH %’s in college hockey right now, but luckily so does St. Lawrence. This is the bottom 10 shown here, which you’ll see RPI has only outperformed Mercyhurst on special teams. This is going to need to improve for the team to be remotely competitive in league play.

3. Hard Working or Hardest Working?

I am reusing this one from a few weekends ago because I think it will be a key all season long. Every team needs to be hard to play against, but RPI’s relative lack of talent this year means they need to play cohesively and with intensity. That is going to have to be a staple all year.

Big chance here for RPI to pick up some league points early on. RPI was picked 11th in the poll and does not have super high expectations in the league this year. Having already grabbed a big win over Union last weekend, this is an opportunity to improve on that position and find their way into the middle 4 of the ECAC this year. We will have coverage all weekend long and pack the Field House if you are local this weekend. Let’s Go Red!

RPI makes their first road trip of the year this weekend when they head to Mankato to take on Minnesota State. They are currently ranked #20 in the country off a 1-1-2 start against some difficult teams. They split against Omaha to start the year, while last weekend, they got two ties against Wisconsin. I was at their Thursday game against Wisconsin, and they got outplayed pretty much the entire game, but Alex Tracy was stellar in net to keep it to a tie.

Major Turnover

Minnesota State had an offseason with almost as much turnover as RPI, which I don’t need tell you all how much that means. They lost 8 out of their top 10 scorers from last year. They only return ONE forward who had more than 2 points in Luigi Benincasa who had 24 points.

On the blue line, they actually return all the key they return Evan Murr, one of the best defensemen in the CCHA, and Ralfs Bergmanis who is a great two way defenseman. Additionally, Mason Wheeler and Campbell Cichosz returned for their senior years on the blue line, and both play key minutes.

To fill the gaps at forward, Minnesota State hit the portal hard as you’d expect. Charlie Lurie and Liam Watkins joined from Omaha and have 3 points apiece. Tristan Lemyre and Ean Somoza joined from Western Michigan and have 2 points apiece. Alex Zetterberg joined from BU, Sawyer Scholl joined from Wisconsin, Jack Smith joined from Minnesota Duluth, and Felikss Gavars joined from St. Lawrence. Their strategy was clear: get good players who weren’t getting the ice time they wanted at bigger schools. Every player except for Gavars follows that strategy. It’s only 4 games in against stronger schools, so it’s tough to say how well it is working.

Team Profile

As expected given all the returners on the blue line and star Alex Tracy in net, Minnesota State is a defense first team. They do a great job of keeping opponents to the perimeter and limiting chances. Tracy is super consistent and ready to shut the door on most chances that the opponents do manage to get. They’re a tough team to play against, and I expect it will be a grind.

Overall, this is shaping up to be a low-scoring and gritty game given Minnesota State’s play style as well as RPI’s. Goals will be at a premium. The Engineers will need better goaltending than they have received the first 4 games to win either of the games. Tracy is just so good in net that they cannot afford to give up easy or medium level chances. Let’s Go Red!!

RPI dropped a pair at the Field House last weekend against an improved Miami Redhawk team and welcomes in even steeper competition this weekend in the form of BC and Providence. This is the return trip from 2023 when RPI played these two programs on the road. Dave Smith’s teams generally played an Atlantic Hockey heavy non-conference schedule, but 2023 was the exception to that. A lot of the return trips were scheduled for ‘25, which is why we have seen such a stacked lineup of programs coming to the HFH this fall. This probably isn’t how Coach Lang would have drawn it up given he has so many new faces to assimilate, but the stiff competition should get the team more than ready for ECAC play in two weeks. Let’s take a look at the matchup and how RPI stacks up to this Providence team.

Providence Outlook:

Providence finally got back over the NCAA tournament hump last season, a feat that had alluded them since their 2019 team that made the Frozen Four. The team was largely built around VGK 1st-rounder Trevor Connelly, who mostly flopped in his year in Friartown. Providence graduated its top 4 defensemen, namely CBJ pick Guillaume Richard and Chicago pick Taige Harding. Senior D Austen May left for Northeastern, leaving PC with just one remaining regular from last year’s defense. Nate Leaman attacked the CHL hard to fill these gaps and pretty much avoided the transfer portal entirely. As a result, this year’s team looks a lot younger than in year’s past, but it likely boasts more talent than before. This inexperience was on display last weekend as the Friars dropped two at home to Michigan somewhat uncompetitively.

Providence’s roster looked fairly solid heading into the summer, but their cornerstone piece fell into place late, as Roger McQueen announced his commitment in August. McQueen went 10th overall to the Anaheim Ducks in this year’s NHL draft, which is the highest draft pick in program history. He was somewhat quiet last weekend but keep an eye out for his big 6’6 frame on the ice if only because you may see him in the big show very soon.

John Mustard is probably the 2nd most prolific piece on the roster behind McQueen, and he lit the lamp twice last weekend. He is a 3rd-round pick of Chicago and looking to build on his strong freshman campaign (20 points). Providence is very talented up front with a wealth of NHL draft picks like Hudson Malinoski, Logan Sawyer, and Julius Sumpf leading the attack. RPI will need to shore up its defensive troubles from last weekend to hang with this group. Philip Svedeback is the lone senior on the roster and has been the starter all 4 years of his career at PC. He got the victory against RPI 2 years ago and is one of the better goaltenders in Hockey East. I expect him to be in net given it is PC’s only action this weekend.

RPI’s Keys to the Game:

1. Possess the Puck (Again)

Brendan did a great piece on Tuesday breaking down how improved RPI’s puck possession has been in the first 3 games of Eric Lang’s tenure. Frankly, I care more about this than almost anything else this year. Seeing a system where RPI keeps shots and chances near even against top programs like BU makes me feel confident about what the staff is putting into place. Goaltending and finishing will come in more recruiting cycles, but puck possession is an important baseline to build off of. I’d like to see them sustain it against top competition this weekend.

2. Special Teams

There were very few whistles blown in the past two weekends (a very, very welcomed sight), but RPI is -2 on special teams to my count thus far. Obviously, BC and PC will have star-studded PP’s, but RPI is not good enough to spot them 2 a night in specials. Have to keep this even or win if they want a chance to win.

3. Hard-Working Team or Hardest Working Team?

Early front runner for my favorite Eric Lang phrase. “Never let ‘em know” is a close 2nd. I promise you, RPI won’t out skill a team full of NHL draft picks. This weekend is a great chance for the group to play with their hair on fire and wreak havoc all over the ice. Protect home ice and show that a new culture is being taught in Troy.

I am keeping a super big-picture view to the 2025-26 season, the first with Coach Lang at the helm. The program is going through an incredible amount of change, and we must be patient for results. Under the hood, it is very, very clear that a new day has dawned in Troy, but that is slowly trickling out onto the ice. This weekend will be a tall task for RPI, but it is a great chance for the group to fight hard on home ice and give the fans something to get excited about. Let’s look for the team to continue the progress with possession and underlying metrics, and improve finishing/goaltending for a successful weekend. Make sure to get out to the Field House this weekend, and let’s go red!

RPI will welcome the #9 ranked Boston College Eagles into the Houston Fieldhouse tomorrow night for the first time in 10 years, when they pulled off an upset over the #1 ranked team.

This year, BC is off to a 1-1-1 start against a really difficult schedule. They lost to Quinnipiac on opening night, and then last weekend, they won and tied on the road against Minnesota. They’re expected to be an NCAA tournament team that should stick around in the top 10 for pretty much the entire season.

BC is once again a team that is loaded with high-end talent. They have 6 players that were selected in the first 3 rounds of the NHL draft on the roster and 12 NHL picks in total. Despite losing some players from last year to the pros, there’s still lots of talent that returned.

James Hagens is the centerpiece of this team after a draft year with 11 goals, 26 assists and 37 points leading to a 7th overall selection by the Boston Bruins. Teddy Stiga also returns after 30 points as a freshman. Senior forwards Andre Gasseau and Oskar Jellvik have both been steady top 6 presences throughout their careers and will be counted on to do the same this year.

The blue line for BC is very deep. Drew Fortescue is excellent in his own end and has some offense to go along with it. He will play major minutes all year. Aram Minnetian is a great skater with more of a two way game than Fortescue. Lukas Gustafsson has had a great career at BC and would be #1 or #2 in minutes for practically any other team in the country. Will Skahan is a big shutdown defenseman who rounds out their excellent top 4.

In net, I expect Louka Cloutier will get the start. He had an excellent weekend at Minnesota with a 0.942 SV%, so I think they will stick with him given his hot start. There is some skepticism surrounding his game since he really struggled with the Chicago Steel last season, but there’s no doubt he played great last weekend.

Keys to the Game

1. Limit the top line.

Simply put, RPI has no chance of winning this game if they let BC’s top line run wild like Miami’s did last week. This BC top line is way more talented than Miami’s, and they need to be limited. If they get 2+ goals in the game, RPI is not going to overcome that. Stiga and Hagens are studs who look improved in their sophomore campaigns thus far, and Ryan Conmy rounds out that line after two 30+ point years with UNH. It’s probably one of the best lines in the country, so I don’t think they can truly be stopped in full, which is why I say they need to be limited to one goal at most.

2. Take advantage of BC’s lack of structure.

Like many extremely talented teams with tons of skill, BC does not play a super structured game, and that can get exposed by really gritty and puck possession based teams. BC struggled a lot against Quinnipiac two weeks ago because of this. RPI needs to take advantage of this weakness and play a heavy puck possession game.

3. Look to counterattack a lot.

Another area that high skill teams tend to struggle with is defending against quick counterattacks. Because they like to get tons of offense off the rush and attack that way, they tend to be less prepared to defend off of turnovers with less defensive support. BC is no different here with multiple defensemen who like to jump into the offense frequently and a very rush based attack. RPI should look to use quick ups and very quick puck movement off of turnovers because they will get opportunities to counterattack, and those looks will be dangerous if they can execute.

It’s exciting to have such a good team coming to Troy. While BC is the clear favorite in this one, it’s an opportunity for RPI to measure themselves against a top team, and you never know what can happen in hockey. Maybe we get an upset for the ages just like the one 10 years ago.

Well that was a disappointing ending to the game last night. After fighting to tie it back up 3-3 against Colgate, and drawing a penalty with 30 seconds left, RPI didn’t score on the powerplay, and Colgate scored after it expired to take the game in OT. You really have to take advantage of that and score on the PP to win. Instead, RPI was really passive on the power play and only had a couple shots after passing it around. You have to play with more urgency in that situation.

That didn’t ruin RPI’s chances at getting into the top 8 though, not totally. They’re 3 points behind Brown and have the tiebreaker locked up. Beat Cornell in regulation, and Brown loses in regulation, and they’ve got it. Obviously a lot easier said than done.

For the teams below them, RPI locked up 10th last night, but they’re tied with Princeton and have that tiebreaker locked up as well. They just need to match or beat Princeton’s points tonight to clinch 9th. The simplest way for that to happen is for Clarkson to beat Princeton in regulation, and then it doesn’t matter what RPI does against Cornell.

Don’t let Cornell’s place in the standings fool you; they are still an elite team. They are elite in virtually every metric but have been incredibly unlucky. Ian Shane has been a rock for them his entire career, but for whatever reason, he has struggled mightily this year with a 0.891 SV%. It has really cost them; despite being the best team in the country at limiting shots against and chances against, their even strength defense is 20th in the country. While that’s still good, that’s a big difference that adds up.

Another big issue has been their power play. Cornell has been putrid on the power play with an 11.5% success rate. That has limited their total offense despite being excellent at scoring at even strength. If the power play was even just average, they’d be scoring at least 0.3 more goals per game. Again, those seemingly small differences add up.

RPI is going to need their best effort of the season to come out and win this one. Luckily, when they played a few weeks ago at Cornell, RPI actually played well overall. They won the xG battle 4.5 to 3.9 and lost a close game. They’ll need that type of effort and then some to win this one and have a chance at home ice. Let’s Go Red!

We’re onto the last weekend of the regular season, and RPI will take on Colgate tonight. It should be a good game, but before we get into it, let’s go over the ECAC standings first.

RPI sits in 9th right now. They’re 4 points behind Brown for 8th and 2 points ahead of Princeton in 10th. Currently, RPI has the tiebreaker against both teams. They have locked in the tiebreaker against Brown due to getting 4/6 points head to head. Against Princeton, they have 7 wins in regulation or OT, while Princeton only has 5. That essentially locks in the tiebreaker, but there are likely some weird and unique scenarios that could flip it.

RPI will likely need to sweep the weekend to get 8th above Brown. The only way RPI can get 8th without a sweep is if they split and the loss is in OT, while Brown gets 0 points on the weekend. If RPI can get the sweep, they’ll need Brown to only pick up 2 points max on the weekend. Since they have the tiebreaker, that’d be enough to get it. It’s pretty unlikely now that RPI will be able to get that since both Colgate and Cornell are top 6 teams, but there’s still a chance.

To stay in 9th, RPI can clinch if they get at least one more point than Princeton tonight. So a Princeton regulation loss and RPI OT loss, RPI OT win and Princeton loss, or an RPI win and Princeton doesn’t win in regulation would all clinch 9th for them.

Colgate is a team with really good results, but they haven’t had the underlying process to match those results. RPI actually matches up with them fairly well overall.

Colgate really struggles with possession and scoring chances. Offensively, they don’t get very many shots, and they are below average in generating scoring chances. Their saving grace offensively is that they have been extremely lucky. They have the second highest shooting percentage in the country at even strength, and that has propelled them to having a top 10 offense. Colgate does have talent and good finishing ability, but second best in the country? I don’t think it’s at that level. It’ll be important for Giesbrecht to be at his best.

Defensively, Colgate struggles in every area except the penalty kill. Their defensive metrics are worse than RPI’s across the board, so with RPI’s strong offense, they should be able to score tonight. The penalty kill is solid in terms of goals allowed, but that’s been mostly on the back of good goaltending with a man down. In terms of chances allowed and xG against, they struggle as well.

With the strong finishing and a 10-7 record in 1 goal games, Colgate has managed to be a good team despite not always looking that strong. RPI will need to continue their strong recent stretch of play where they have had more xG than their opponents in 4 of their last 6 games. They’ll also need a good game from Giesbrecht. If they can do that, I like their chances tonight. Let’s Go Red!

After last night’s tough overtime loss to Brown, RPI enters tonight’s game in must win territory. All the teams between 8 and 12 in the ECAC are tightly grouped together with only 2 points separating them. RPI could jump as high as 8 with a win, but a loss would leave them in a tie for 11th at best.

Yale has continued to struggle this season on both sides of the puck. They’re averaging 2.4 goals per game while giving up 4 per game. The penalty kill in particular has been a real weakness, operating at 66.7%. They are one of the worst teams in the country in puck possession with a 42.3% even strength corsi, which is only ahead of Mercyhurst and Northern Michigan.

Yale being a bad team isn’t exactly a surprise, but the defense and goaltending is definitely a surprise. The goaltending was viewed as a strength heading into the season with Jack Stark returning after a stellar freshman year and Luke Pearson returning from injury. Yale’s team save percentage sits at 0.873, which is second worst in the country. It’s difficult when what was supposed to be your biggest strength is actually a weakness, and that’s especially the case with goaltending.

Key contributions from Ronan O’Donnell, Zach Wagnon and Micah Berger up front as freshmen has played a role in Yale being able to pull out some wins. They’ve helped the offense be more respectable even if it’s still a weakness. David Chen has also been excellent since returning from injury.

RPI needs to win this one as it’s a very winnable game at home in front of a big crowd with a big standings impact. Yale is one of the teams that RPI will be fighting with for a home ice spot and only 2 points ahead of them.

Sorry for the shorter preview; been a busy week. Let’s Go Red!

RPI will take a break from ECAC play this week to play their final non-conference game of the season when they take on Union in the annual Mayor’s Cup game. After a tough weekend at home against Harvard and Dartmouth, they could use a momentum boost, so a big win against the rival would be a nice shot of adrenaline for the team as it enters the home stretch.

I have to be honest though: this year I’m having a tough time caring about this game. Maybe it’s because I’m now a few years removed from school, I’m not flying out to the game this year, it’s not going to count for the ECAC standings, or it’s not televised. Likely, it is some combination of the four.

I do feel the need to speak up though that I think it’s difficult to take this seriously as a big rivalry game when it is not even televised ANYWHERE. Year after year, this has been the case, and every time, it is an absolute joke. The reason that I was always told while I was a student was “we want to promote in person attendance” for the game.

There is ZERO empirical evidence to support that televising it would hurt attendance, and I certainly think it is inaccurate. From my point of view, if you are planning to attend the game, you are going to watch a great rivalry with a fun atmosphere. The viewing experience on television is not, and never will be, nearly as good as going to a game in person. If you’re going to the game, I think you’re going regardless of options on TV (or streaming). The only exception is if there’s really bad weather, but if there’s bad weather, people might not go anyways.

In the process of this unsupported theory, people outside of the region are being alienated. How do you expect to grow the brand and profile of the game to get more people to come in future years if you’re not showing it on television? How do you expect a kid who loves hockey or could love hockey to actually discover the game? Their choice is actively preventing the game from growing. Then there’s the fact that the vast majority of alumni don’t live in the Capital Region. Many are not in driving distance and require a flight, and even for the ones who could drive 2-3 hours to see the game, they shouldn’t be locked out from seeing it if they choose not to. This will be the first year I miss out on watching the Mayor’s Cup because if I want to see it, I have to hop on 5 hours worth of flights since you can’t get a direct flight to Albany from basically anywhere. As much as I love the team and the program, I’m not going to do that every year.

The Beanpot is televised every year on NESN and draws huge ratings. Sometimes the Beanpot even outdraws the Frozen Four in TV ratings. It’s definitely a huge success from a TV standpoint. Guess what doesn’t suffer as a result? In person attendance! They sellout the TD Garden with all 17k seats every year. I don’t expect the Mayor’s Cup to become the Beanpot, but it’s seriously embarrassing to not televise a game in 2025.

We can switch gears to the actual hockey now that I have that rant out of the way.

Union profiles pretty similarly to RPI but is just slightly better overall.

On offense, they are a little better at puck possession and controlling scoring chances. RPI makes up for that gap, and then some, with excellent finishing ability, which also probably in part comes from prioritizing quality instead of quantity of chances. The power plays are both pretty prolific, with both sitting in the top 20 of goals per 60 minutes.

Both penalty kills are also weak and towards the bottom of the country. With how good both power plays are, staying out of the box will likely be a big factor for both teams. You don’t want to give the other team a lot of opportunities if the penalty kill is weak, and that’s even more true with both teams being strong on the power play.

Defensively, there’s a big gap between Union and RPI. Union is pretty good at preventing scoring chances, but they’ve had bad goaltending. They’re a little below average overall because of the weak goaltending. RPI obviously has struggled defensively, so this is still an advantage for Union.

Overall, it shapes up to be a good game with the edge to Union, but it’s not a huge gap. This is a winnable game for the Engineers if they stay out of the box, play well defensively, and capitalize on their chances. I hope everyone who attends has a great time. Let’s Go Red!

That was a great win last night! RPI did exactly what they needed to pull that one out on the road. They controlled the puck very well and generated lots of chances in the offensive zone. The power play scored twice, and Jack Brackett had a SportsCenter worthy shorthanded goal. The only real negatives from that game were the multiple times that RPI had an easy clearing chance that they couldn’t get out of the zone. Those led to 2 of Yale’s goals. All in all though, that was a good performance to get the 5-3 win.

Tonight, the Engineers will face a hungry Brown team coming off of a loss to Union last night. Brown will be a tougher test for them as they have more talent and a better defense. One thing to watch for is Ryan St. Louis, arguably Brown’s top forward, left last night’s game with an injury. Brown’s other top scoring threats are freshman Brian Nicholas, who has a point per game, and sophomores Tyler Kopff and Max Scott who are building off of their great freshmen years. The biggest and most important player in the game will be sophomore goaltender Lawton Zacher though. He is 2nd in the entire NCAA in SV% with a whopping 0.944. RPI will need to generate a lot of opportunities again tonight against a goalie as good as him.

.Offensively, Brown is struggling, and it mostly has to do with a lack of depth scoring outside of their top forwards that I mentioned above. They are basically a 2 line team, and those lines aren’t good enough to pull Brown’s offense up. RPI will have to focus on shutting down those lines, and then their bottom 6 should be able to outplay Brown’s bottom 6.

Defensively, Brown is actually a weak team. They give up a ton of shots and chances, but Zacher has been one of the best goalies in the country. That tends to solve all your problems as the goaltending has vaulted Brown up to a top 5 defense in the country at even strength. The PK has been pretty solid as well, so RPI can’t rely on the power play like last night. RPI will have to figure out a way to solve Zacher; they’ll need to be aggressive generating chances in all phases.

Brown profiles pretty similarly to Yale overall. They are a little better offensively, and the defense is only better due to goaltending. RPI will need another strong performance tonight to get the sweep. A sweep would be huge given that Brown is also near RPI in the standings currently, and it would move the Engineers into either 8th or 9th place. Let’s Go Red!

RPI will hit the road this weekend to begin the stretch run of their ECAC schedule. Currently ranked 12th in the league at 1-5, the Engineers need to start picking up wins to move up the standings, and luckily for them, they still have almost 3/4 of the league schedule remaining. This weekend against Yale and Brown presents a great opportunity to do just that against two teams who are near them in the standings.

Yale is up first on Friday night, and they are riding high after a huge upset win over BU last week. Despite that win, make no mistake about it, Yale is once again one of the worst teams in the country, and this is a must win game for RPI. They cannot afford to be dropping games they should win anymore. However, they also can’t expect to sleepwalk through this game and come out with the win. Yale’s win against BU is a great reminder that anything can happen in a game.

Offensively, Yale is one of the worst teams in the country. They struggle with puck possession, generating chances and putting those chances in the net. It’s the trifecta of bad offense. Now, this obviously isn’t a surprise given how much they have struggled on the recruiting trail, but it is pretty startling to see that they are near the bottom of the country in nearly every offensive category. One positive is that the majority of Yale’s top forwards are young. Three out of the top 5 scorers on the team are freshmen, and a 4th is a sophomore. That at least gives some hope that Yale can build towards the future, but the present is pretty bleak offensively.

The one thing Yale has going for them is the power play actually isn’t too bad. It’s below average, but they’ve been able to score enough to be respectable there. With RPI’s penalty kill being a huge weakness for the team, that’s an area that Yale is going to have to capitalize to win this game.

Defensively, it’s not a whole lot better, but Yale has gotten enough goaltending to stay out of the bottom 10 of the country in goals against at even strength. Recently, Noah Pak has had a couple of good games in net; he got the win against BU in relief. I wouldn’t be surprised if they ride the hot hand and roll with the freshman.

The penalty kill is the worst in the country, however, and they have been very leaky there. RPI has had a solid power play this year, but it has gone pretty cold recently. This is a great opportunity to get the PP rolling again for the Engineers.

RPI should win this game if they can bring even just their B game. They are much better at controlling puck possession, controlling the scoring chances, and they put the puck in the net A LOT more. Special teams will be important as always with both power plays being pretty solid while both penalty kills have struggled. It’s time for the Engineers to start banking some points in the league. Let’s Go Red!

Well, that was a disappointing weekend. RPI is competitive in essentially every game, but too often, they are letting games get away from them. That was the case in both Maine games and the Princeton game last weekend. Against Princeton, they were actually heavily outplaying the Tigers with a 2:1 shot advantage, but once Princeton got their 3rd goal to go up 3-0, it fell apart.

This weekend, RPI gets a bad Mercyhurst team to try to “apply the lessons they have been learning” as Coach Smith put it on the radio this week. Mercyhurst is 2-14-2 and is last in the country in the pairwise. If there was a team to play to try to get your mojo back, it’s them. Coach Smith also noted this in his weekly radio appearance with Rodger Wyland. He said he doesn’t care if he gives Mercyhurst bulletin board material, and he expects RPI to go into their rink this weekend and dominate both games. Let’s hope we see that because ending the first half with a strong showing this weekend can give the team some confidence as they hit the second half. Even though they’re in last in the league, they have only played 6/22 ECAC games; there’s lots of hockey left to be played.

I feel like the stats kind of speak for themselves here, but I’ll do a bit of a summary.

With RPI’s offense going cold recently, the numbers have declined from elite and very good to about average in most areas. The goal numbers are still strong overall though. The defensive metrics continue to decline as well since the Engineers have been more leaky there recently, especially on the PK. Overall though, the numbers aren’t too bad for them.

For Mercyhurst, it’s pretty clear why they’re the worst team in the pairwise. The only thing that they do well is they can score on the PP. Every other area, they are close to the bottom of the country. There’s no disputing that this is a team RPI should and needs to beat. Let’s hope they do just that!

After last night’s close loss against Quinnipiac, RPI needs to pull out a win tonight against a tough Princeton team to split the weekend. Luckily for them, Princeton isn’t as strong as Quinnipiac.

Princeton is an interesting team. They started out 1-4-1 with the only win against a bad Yale team. The past two weekends they have totally turned it around though. They came out of nowhere to sweep a top 20 Ohio State team last weekend with a pair of 3-1 games, and then they won a close one against Union last night. Princeton is riding high with this 3 game winning streak.

One thing they’ve done well in particular in this stretch is playing good defense. They have allowed only 1 goal in each of these 3 wins with Arthur Smith heating up in net. He now has a 0.934 SV%. RPI has been struggling offensively recently after a really hot start. They have scored only 7 goals in the past 5 games, and they’re going to need to snap out of that tonight

Princeton’s strategy is pretty clear. Win low scoring games. They are a weak offensive team that’s averaging only 2 goals per game, and that’s not due to bad luck. They really struggle to generate scoring chances in all phases of the game. With RPI’s defensive struggles to begin the season, this needs to be a game where they take advantage of a team with a weaker offense.

Defensively, Princeton has been middle of the pack overall. They have been up and down during the year, but as I said, they have been excellent the past two weeks. RPI needs to raise its level offensively compared to their recent play to channel more of the explosiveness they showed at the beginning of the year.

I’m expecting another close, low-scoring game since both teams have been playing that style recently. RPI is going to have to improve on its recent showings on both sides of the puck to win a tough road game. It is imperative they do this though because starting 1-5 in ECAC will be quite a large gap to overcome.

RPI hits the road this weekend to get back to ECAC play with games against Quinnipiac and Princeton. First, they’ll take on the Bobcats who are once again a great team that’s ranked in the top 20. However, this year, they actually look a little vulnerable as they have a bit of a rebuilding year following losing many top players.

As you can see, Quinnipiac is not as dominant as they have been in past years. Offensively, RPI actually matches up quite well and has been more effective. Quinnipiac generates slightly more shots and chances, but RPI scores much more due to their excellent finishing ability, ranked 2nd in the nation. After a couple years in a row with a top tier offense, Quinnipiac has taken a step back to be about average at even strength.

The power plays are very evenly matched with Quinnipiac landing just one spot ahead of RPI. Both of these teams have been dangerous on the power play, and they’ll both want to stay out of the box as much as possible.

Quinnipiac’s top offensive threat is Jeremy Wilmer who transferred from BU in the offseason. He was one of the top players in the portal, and it’s no surprise he is leading them in scoring. Outside of him, sophomores Andon Cerbone and Mason Marcellus are both scoring at about a point per game rate along with Travis Treloar who returned for his 5th year. Lastly, Aaron Schwartz and Tyler Borgula have made big impacts as freshmen and have given Quinnipiac good secondary scoring.

Defensively is where Quinnipiac has a big edge. RPI has struggled defensively this year both at even strength and on the penalty kill, while Quinnipiac has excelled. They rank in the top 20 in every even strength defensive category and are great at suppressing scoring chances in particular. They’re not quite as strong on the penalty kill, ranking only 26th in the country, but that’s still pretty solid overall.

Quinnipiac clearly has been the better team this season compared to RPI, but the numbers show that the Engineers have a chance in this one. They’ll need to be explosive offensively to crack Quinnipiac’s vaunted defense, and if they can play a full 60 minutes defensively, they can win this one. RPI showed that they can play with a top team in the country when they played Maine last weekend, but in both games, they let close games get away from them in the 3rd period. RPI needs to play strong all game to win against a tough opponent, but if they do that and stay out of the box, I honestly like their chances! Let’s Go Red!

Let’s get back to hockey! I don’t know why this two-week break has felt like a lifetime, but I feel like I haven’t seen the Engineers on the ice in forever. They will make their return to league play this weekend as Clarkson and St. Lawrence venture their way to the Capital Region for two. Let’s look at the matchups and check back in on where the Engineers stand so far in this young season.

Clarkson Preview:

I reckon Clarkson has had this one circled on the calendar for 8 months now, more specifically after RPI ended their season at Cheel last March. There has been quite a bit of turnover in Golden Knights land since we last saw them, headlined by a new bench boss, J.F. Houle. Houle is a Clarkson hockey guy through and through, he played at Clarkson in the 90s and assisted there for several years after his pro career. He bounced around minor league hockey before landing a gig with the Laval Rocket of the AHL a few years ago. Clarkson hired him this summer after the surprise departure of long-time coach Casey Jones, and the news was praised in hockey circles.

Houle retained a good amount of Clarkson’s roster, so a lot of the faces we have come to know (Martino, Taylor, Richardson) are still around. Transfers Ryan Bottrill from Brown and Garrett Dahm from Mercyhurst have both contributed for the Knights, as has goaltender Ethan Langenegger who came over from Lake Superior State. Their scoring has been very balanced so far and they have gotten shutdown defense like you would expect of a Clarkson team.

Clarkson sits at 6-3-1 with a resume so far indicating that they are a top-half team in college hockey this year and confirmed by the USCHO poll where they received 20 votes this week. Their most notable wins were a road weekend sweep of Michigan Tech, who is also receiving votes, and a road win at UVM. They pose a tough test like always for RPI, and a win over the Golden Knights to get on the board in ECAC play would be a big deal.

SLU Preview

Brent Brekke’s Skating Saints figure to be one of the middle-of-the-pack teams that RPI will compete with all year for those coveted home playoff games. They got off to a nice start at 3-1 and 4-2 but dropped three consecutively including an ugly loss to Stonehill. Stephen picked them 10^th in his preview and cited a lack of offense as a main reason that they could be held back. They’ve gotten some production from the top of their lineup including Tomas Mazura and Gregory Lapointe, but they lack the depth Clarkson has. Felikss Gavars is probably their top offensive talent and figures to be a big piece for the Saints as the year goes on.

I admittedly have not watched the Saints yet this year, but I am a bit confused by their goaltending situation. Ben Kraws was excellent last year before signing a contract, so they brought in Dominic Basse from St. Cloud State to replace him. Basse hadn’t seen any action until their last game against Stonehill, instead it had been Mason Kucenski in the first 8 games. Kucenski played very well, but it did seem before the year that it was Basse’s net. I am assuming he is working back from an injury, but this will be something to monitor this weekend.

Regardless of who is in net, on home ice this is absolutely a game RPI can pick up. There should be a high degree of urgency no matter the outcome Friday. Either the Engineers upset Clarkson and can bid for a home ice sweep and get a big win streak going, or they will come into the game 0-3 in league play and should be desperate to get on the board.

Keys for RPI

1.      Health, Health, Health

This year has been tough to get a gauge on because I think there have been a ton of flashes of great play to get excited about. I am very pleasantly surprised by the contributions of the newcomers so far. Will Gilson has been one of the best defensemen in the country statistically. Elliott McDermott has not been far behind. Rainers Rullers, Felix Caron, and Jagger Tapper have made immediate impacts up front. But the Engineers have had a LOT of injuries. Sutter Muzzatti was returning from surgery and then suffered a scary cut in the Union game. Dovar Tinling got hurt against Niagara and has missed time. Mat Bourgault and Jordan Tonelli haven’t played. Nate Sullivan has missed time. Lucas Matta and Brody Maguire have had to play on the 4^th line numerous times, and line combinations have had to jumble. I think there is a lot of potential especially offensively for this team, but we need to see them closer to full strength to truly have a full assessment.

2.      Defense and PK

The defense has done a much better job helping the forwards generate offense, specifically Gilson, McDermott, and Smolinski. But RPI is still giving up too many goals and needs to have fewer breakdowns in its own end. The PK is at 73%, which has become a concerning theme the last few years. Clarkson especially plays a tight defensive game and I wouldn’t expect RPI to put up 5 goals against them, so they will need to improve in their own end to win. Furthermore, allowing 4 PP goals like they did against Union will not lead to success in league play. This needs to be a point of emphasis.

3.      Find One More Line

When the injuries started to pile up, I was concerned RPI wouldn’t have enough depth in the middle 6 to produce offensively. That has thankfully not been the case, mostly because the Beaton-Rullers-Gagnon line has been so effective. Hotson and Lee’s line has produced, especially when they have Tinling who should hopefully return soon. In the top 9 that should leave Tapper-Muzzatti-Caron or something close to it as the last group. Without a doubt it has been tough to generate chemistry with all the injuries. But if the staff can find the right combination to support a hopefully healthier Muzzatti, the team will benefit a great deal.

As always, I do not have any knowledge of who is healthy and who isn’t, but I will give two lineup combinations I would like to see:

With Tinling:                                                            With Sullivan: (No Tinling)

Hotson-Tinling-Lee                                                 Hotson-Lee-Caron

Muzzatti-Tapper-Caron                                          Brackett-Muzzatti-Tapper

Beaton-Rullers-Gagnon                                          Beaton-Rullers-Gagnon

Brackett-McNeil-Payant                                         McNeil-Payant-Sullivan

McDermott-Gilson

Bergmanis-Goffredo

Ozolins-Smolinski

These league points are valuable and very important to build momentum early in the year. RPI is 4-1 in non-conference, but league play is of course the priority. Let’s get some momentum going at home and carry it the rest of the way into Christmas break! Let’s go red!

Well, the leaves have turned, the Halloween costumes have been bought, and the non-conference schedule has been shelved for now. That can only mean one thing. It’s time for the Route 7 Rivalry to be renewed and for RPI and Union to open ECAC play again. It is one of my favorite weekends of the year, and it is one that has been favorable to the Engineers, who have held the Capital Skates Trophy since 2018. Throw the records out the window for this one, it will be a dog fight.

Checking in on the Engineers

1.      19’s Back.

That feels good. RPI’s prized player and Nashville Preds property, Sutter Muzzatti, will return to the lineup this weekend per Coach Smith. This is obviously a big deal for a couple reasons. First being, the RPI forward group is very banged up, so just getting another body back to plug into the top 6 will go a long way. Second, Sutter is a physical force and RPI’s best all-around player. I am excited to see what he can do at full health again; he was playing through injuries almost all last season. And finally, I think his game is a great fit with Felix Caron, who has been solid but not unleashed just yet. Adding Muzzatti (and eventually Tonelli) to Caron’s line will give RPI a better top 6 complement to the Hotson-Tinling-Lee line.

2.      Most Goals per Game in the Country

It is hard to argue with the offense RPI has put up so far, which is spread throughout the lineup about as much as it can be. That is an encouraging sign for its sustainability, especially given that Sutter Muzzatti and Jordan Tonelli haven’t played yet. I am a little concerned that they didn’t outshoot Canisius or Niagara in either game, so that will be something to keep an eye on.

3.      Odds and Ends

I am not ready to panic on RPI’s defense so far, despite giving up 3.42 per game thus far. There have been some real flukey goals including skate deflections, 3v3 goals, and final minute of a blowout type plays. I think they are moving pucks better and turning plays into offense. The powerplay has looked great and the PK has generally been good, especially when you add in the UMass game. Union will obviously be a big test for it though.

Checking in on the Dutchmen

Union is off to a very strong start thus far. They sit at 4-1 with the lone loss coming at powerhouse Boston University. Josh Hauge has done a nice job accumulating talent in Schenectady, headlined by preseason 1^st-team All-ECAC defenseman John Prokop. He seems to have connected on a few freshmen as well, namely Ben Muthersbaugh out of Cedar Rapids, who leads the team with 9 points on the young season. Part of what makes this time of year so interesting is that teams have all taken a wildly different approach to their non-conference scheduling. You have the Ivies who haven’t played, years where RPI plays grueling Hockey East Schedules, and years where they roll through Atlantic Hockey. In my eyes, Union’s strong showing at BU says more than their wins over Army, Stonehill, and Mercyhurst. Union is a solid, middle of the pack ECAC team this year, who RPI would benefit from picking up points against. But the point still stands, it is very difficult to make equal the varying non-conference schedules we’ve seen so far when the sample size is so small.

What is a successful weekend?

I want to see a sweep as much as anyone. I hate Union, I want to blow them out on Blackout night at the Field House and then go out of Messa in style with one last win there. It would kickstart this season the way we want it and push away the demons of last year. But, there are other ways in which this weekend will be successful for RPI that don’t require 6 league points.

1.      Keep the SOG battle close. The numbers last year indicated that Union was a better possession team and RPI finished more chances. If the scoring chances in both games are close, RPI will be set up well.

2. Earn at least one win. Union should be a solid, middle 4 team this season. A split will keep RPI right on pace with where we would expect them to be.

3.      Get better goaltending than Union. I have liked the goaltending tandem so far and think Noah Giesbrecht got a bit unlucky on Saturday night. Chauvette and Watson have squared off a bunch now, and this one could come down to which goalies play better

4.      Come out flying. The crowd should be electric on Friday. Go show that this year is different and set the tone right from the jump.

Lineup

If Muzzatti returns, Tinling is out (left game on Saturday), and Sullivan is okay, here is my best guess at RPI’s lines:

*Disclaimer: I have no more knowledge of injury updates than anyone else*

Hotson-Lee Gagnon

McNeil-Muzzatti-Caron

Beaton-Rullers-Tapper

Brackett-Payant-Sullivan

Bergmanis-Smolinski

McDermott-Gilson

Strom-Goffredo

Watson (Friday) – Giesbrecht (Saturday)

I linked a few classics from this rivalry, in case anyone needed any extra motivation. This is one of the best weekends of the year on RPI’s calendar. There are reasons to be excited about both teams this season. Let’s get the Field House jumping on Friday Night and set the tone for the rest of the season. As always, follow the blog and on X with us throughout the weekend. Let’s Go Red.

RPI will return to the Houston Field House this weekend for the first time since February for the home opening weekend. It’ll be against the Niagara Purple Eagles, and despite Niagara being an Atlantic team, it will not be an easy weekend. They played Clarkson and SLU last weekend and made both of them sweat. Clarkson was a close game throughout and ended 4-2 after Clarkson hit an empty netter. Niagara lost to SLU 4-3 in OT and honestly should have won that game. They were ahead 3-2 until SLU scored an extra attacker goal with 12 seconds left to tie it up. Then, SLU was able to get the win in overtime. After that weekend, I think Niagara will be very hungry for a win and will play extremely hard.

Niagara was picked to finish 6th in the league in the coaches poll, so they’re expected to be a middle of the pack team in the league. However, they have a lot of young talent, which is why they can be dangerous. Tyler Wallace is their top line center; he had an outstanding freshman year with 30 points and will be looking to raise his game a level this season. Jay Ahearn had 43 points in 51 games across his first 2 seasons and is on his wing. Trevor Hoskin is a freshman rounding out the top line, and he’s a rare NHL draft pick playing in the Atlantic after putting up 2 points per game in the OJHL. The second line of Shane Ott, Glebs Prohorenkovs, and Lars Rodne all had 20+ points last year as well, and Niagara has multiple defensemen, such as Alex Murray, Braden Doyle and Noah Carlin, who move the puck well.

RPI will have to continue the strong play they showed last weekend. Moving the puck quickly in transition will be key against a skilled top 6 group like Niagara. You don’t want bad breakouts that will give that skilled group more time and chances with the puck. I’d also look for RPI to continue to roll out 4 lines with their depth. Niagara does have a good top 6, but their depth falls off after that. That’s an area RPI should have the edge, so I’d be looking for RPI’s 3rd and 4th lines to continue to see a decent amount of minutes. If they win those minutes, the Engineers will be in a great spot for a good weekend.

I expect RPI to put out a very similar lineup as last weekend unless Tonelli and/or Muzzatti return. We have not seen any updates to share there, so I’m assuming they will still be out of the lineup. The changes I could see happening are Bourgault slotting into the lineup and Tapper potentially moving up after his strong play to start. Here’s my projection:

Hotson - Tinling - Lee

Beaton - Rullers - Gagnon

Tapper - McNeil - Caron

Sullivan - Payant - Brackett

Bergmanis - Smolinski

McDermott - Gilson

Strom - Goffredo

Agnew

Let’s Go Red!!