Preview: RPI hosts pair of North Country foes
SLU and Clarkson travel to the Capital Region for a pair of ECAC clashes
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 10th 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!