Preview: RPI at Yale
The Engineers return to ECAC play to begin the heart of their conference schedule
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!