5 Things: RPI Ties and Loses in OT to Niagara
Discussing the injuries, refereeing and general level of play from the Engineers
It was a bit of a disappointing weekend for RPI with a tie and an overtime loss to Niagara. Both games were very close and could have gone either way, so it is a bit disappointing that they didn’t come of it with at least a split. Let’s talk about some key takeaways.
Sloppy play and bad penalties hurt them on Friday night. I’d say RPI was generally the better team that night. They had a good first period where they controlled the play. The second period is where it got really sloppy, and Niagara took advantage with lots of chances. Then, Hotson’s butt-ending major is probably the reason RPI didn’t win this game. I think it was an extremely soft call for a major; Hotson barely even touched the guy, which you can see on replay. Nonetheless, it was a terribly stupid move regardless of if it should or should not have been a major. There was just no reason to engage or make that contact at the end of the period; there was no scrum or anything of the sort that warranted it. That put RPI on a 5 minute major kill to start the 3rd period, and when Gilson took a bad penalty, they had to kill off a full 2 minute 5 on 3. They did well to get out of that with only one goal. More penalties in the period made it tough for RPI to control the play, and after not converting good chances in OT, this was a tie. It hurts because RPI probably should have won that game, but without Muzzatti and Tonelli in the lineup, they’re not good enough to get away with being that sloppy right now.
Injuries are already hitting the Engineers hard. RPI started out Saturday night with only 11 forwards and dressed Maguire at forward (he only had 3:21 of ice time and didn’t see the ice the entire second half of the game though). The problem got worse when Tinling went out for the game after only 1:37 of ice time. That brought them down to only 10 forwards in the lineup pretty much right away, and after reviewing the stats, Payant only got 7:10 of ice time and didn’t see the ice after his assist in the 3rd period. He didn’t appear to be injured, so that was weird to me since that essentially meant RPI was playing with only 9 forwards. I knew immediately after Tinling went down they might be in for a tough night, and if they don’t get a couple of forwards back soon, it is going to be a rough stretch.
RPI’s compete and battle level was impressive on Saturday. With only 10 forwards in the lineup, they looked pretty tired starting in the second period, and I wasn’t expecting too much. I was extremely impressed with the way RPI battled all game though. They fought back from a 2 goal deficit in the third period to send the game to overtime, and if it wasn’t for some terrible refereeing, they could have won this game too despite being so shorthanded. You can look at the loss and say it’s a bad result, but in my opinion, getting that game to overtime and having a chance to win is a good result given the circumstances. That compete level and ability to fight back into the game will bode well for the remainder of the season and shows strong leadership.
Speaking of the refs… man was that a horrendous showing on Saturday. The penalties were ridiculously lopsided, and while I think RPI was a bit undisciplined again, it was not nearly to the extent of that penalty discrepancy. I also have multiple gripes with specific calls. I complained about Caron’s penalty and misconduct on twitter, but after seeing the replay, that was a deserved penalty. If they weren’t down to 10 forwards, that penalty should have gotten him benched honestly. The part that was absurd though was giving Coach Smith a bench minor for asking for an explanation; apparently asking the officials for an explanation is simply too much for them. All he did was clap at them after they kept refusing to come over to the RPI bench to talk; it’s not like he screamed at them or anything. They handed Niagara a full 5 on 3 that they scored on, and it played a key role in the game.
Then, the ending of the game made no sense whatsoever, and what the refs did was actually against the NCAA hockey rulebook. Niagara made contact with Giesbrecht just before the goal, and it got waved off immediately for interference. You can make the argument that Giesbrecht wouldn’t have made the save anyways, but as the rule is written, that doesn’t matter. If a player makes contact with the goalie in a manner that prevents him from playing the position, it doesn’t count, and that applied here. Directly after the goal, Jake Lee shoved the Niagara player towards the net and he ended up going directly into the crossbar. Lee got called for a deserved penalty for that, and Niagara was going to get a 4 on 3 PP. The refs reviewed the goaltender interference call and came out to talk to the captains without signaling. Then, Niagara challenged the penalty for a major, but when the refs came out from the review, they signaled good goal. THIS IS AGAINST NCAA RULES. I already posted why on Twitter, so here’s that explanation for those who didn’t see that.
The paragraph stating this is written as follows:
"When any aspect of the video replay criteria is challenged, it allows the referee to utilize all aspects of the review criteria of that specific situation to be judged (e.g., high stick challenged, but video shows the puck was kicked into the goal). A play challenged for goaltender interference, for example, may not be reviewed for a potential offsides infraction.”
This essentially means that for goal challenges, you can review all aspects of a goal that could overturn it (goalie interference, high stick, kicked puck, thrown puck, etc.). However, you cannot review unrelated infractions on a coaches challenge as it explicitly states. You can’t review offsides or a major penalty on a goalie interference challenge, or vice versa, as examples.
I also cannot for the life of me figure out how the goal was overturned even with the review. There was clear contact by Niagara directly before the goal; there was zero grey area. The only thing I can think of is they think the RPI defender initiated contact with the Niagara forward which led to contact with Giesbrecht? I don’t see that at all though. On my watch and re-watch, the Niagara player initiates contact with McDermott, loses his balance, and then makes contact with Giesbrecht and scores. I would love to hear some explanations about the goal and the bench minor on Coach Smith, but the ECAC never publicly announces anything of the sort. They did not follow NCAA rules on the goal call and screwed RPI. At minimum, RPI is owed an explanation and an apology for clear violation of the rulebook that caused them to lose in overtime. The only way we get any sort of explanation is if Coach Smith talks about it with Rodger Wyland on his weekly radio appearance Tuesday morning, so I will be tuning in for that.Overall, my long term outlook on the team doesn’t even remotely change after this weekend. They need to clean up the penalties for sure, and that probably changed a win to a tie on Friday. I don’t think there’s anything you can take away from Saturday’s game though. When a team is that injured to the point they can’t dress a full forward group, I don’t care if it’s Denver, RPI or Stonehill, they are not going to play well. The officiating was bad too, and they still had a chance to win despite all of that. Now, they need to get healthy ASAP, so they are not still down forwards when they take on Union this weekend for games that matter much more.
