Preview: RPI at/vs Vermont
The Engineers have the rare Friday/Sunday series this weekend
Vermont Team Outlook
After starting out the season 0-4, UVM has gone 4-4-1 in their last 9 games. While the record as a whole is not impressive, they have played a difficult schedule that is ranked 20th in the country. In fact, they are actually ahead of RPI in the pairwise right now. Like Alaska, this is going to be another tough out of conference opponent for the Engineers.
Vermont’s strength is their defense. They only allow 2.7 goals per game and a large part of that is their very good goaltending. As a team, they have a 0.911 SV%, and that includes both goalies and empty netters.
However, they have struggled offensively so far with only 1.3 goals per game on only 23.2 shots per game. Their shooting percentage is pretty bad at 6.6%, so they’re having trouble finishing. The power play is also holding back their offense with that at 6.3%.
Overall, UVM looks like another team that likes to play a defensive style and low scoring games.
Biggest Threats
Gabe Carriere (#35, G) is the starter in net for the Catamounts, and he has been fantastic with 0.922 SV% this season. He is a large part of why the defense has been so good, and look for him to be tough to score on.
Joel Maatta (#9, C) leads the team in goals after being selected in the NHL draft this summer. He’s a big two-way center who is tough to play against.
Jacques Bouquot (#17, W) leads the team in points and plays LW on the top line with Maatta. He’s been a good forward for them for all 4 of years there and is their top offensive threat.
It should be another good non-conference series. Let’s Go Red!
