Preview: RPI at Minnesota State
RPI will look for its first win on the road at the #20 ranked Mavericks
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!!