Preview: RPI vs Boston College

The Engineers look to get their first win against the #9 team in the country

Photo: Boston College Athletics

RPI will welcome the #9 ranked Boston College Eagles into the Houston Fieldhouse tomorrow night for the first time in 10 years, when they pulled off an upset over the #1 ranked team.

This year, BC is off to a 1-1-1 start against a really difficult schedule. They lost to Quinnipiac on opening night, and then last weekend, they won and tied on the road against Minnesota. They’re expected to be an NCAA tournament team that should stick around in the top 10 for pretty much the entire season.

BC is once again a team that is loaded with high-end talent. They have 6 players that were selected in the first 3 rounds of the NHL draft on the roster and 12 NHL picks in total. Despite losing some players from last year to the pros, there’s still lots of talent that returned.

James Hagens is the centerpiece of this team after a draft year with 11 goals, 26 assists and 37 points leading to a 7th overall selection by the Boston Bruins. Teddy Stiga also returns after 30 points as a freshman. Senior forwards Andre Gasseau and Oskar Jellvik have both been steady top 6 presences throughout their careers and will be counted on to do the same this year.

The blue line for BC is very deep. Drew Fortescue is excellent in his own end and has some offense to go along with it. He will play major minutes all year. Aram Minnetian is a great skater with more of a two way game than Fortescue. Lukas Gustafsson has had a great career at BC and would be #1 or #2 in minutes for practically any other team in the country. Will Skahan is a big shutdown defenseman who rounds out their excellent top 4.

In net, I expect Louka Cloutier will get the start. He had an excellent weekend at Minnesota with a 0.942 SV%, so I think they will stick with him given his hot start. There is some skepticism surrounding his game since he really struggled with the Chicago Steel last season, but there’s no doubt he played great last weekend.

Keys to the Game

1. Limit the top line.

Simply put, RPI has no chance of winning this game if they let BC’s top line run wild like Miami’s did last week. This BC top line is way more talented than Miami’s, and they need to be limited. If they get 2+ goals in the game, RPI is not going to overcome that. Stiga and Hagens are studs who look improved in their sophomore campaigns thus far, and Ryan Conmy rounds out that line after two 30+ point years with UNH. It’s probably one of the best lines in the country, so I don’t think they can truly be stopped in full, which is why I say they need to be limited to one goal at most.

2. Take advantage of BC’s lack of structure.

Like many extremely talented teams with tons of skill, BC does not play a super structured game, and that can get exposed by really gritty and puck possession based teams. BC struggled a lot against Quinnipiac two weeks ago because of this. RPI needs to take advantage of this weakness and play a heavy puck possession game.

3. Look to counterattack a lot.

Another area that high skill teams tend to struggle with is defending against quick counterattacks. Because they like to get tons of offense off the rush and attack that way, they tend to be less prepared to defend off of turnovers with less defensive support. BC is no different here with multiple defensemen who like to jump into the offense frequently and a very rush based attack. RPI should look to use quick ups and very quick puck movement off of turnovers because they will get opportunities to counterattack, and those looks will be dangerous if they can execute.

It’s exciting to have such a good team coming to Troy. While BC is the clear favorite in this one, it’s an opportunity for RPI to measure themselves against a top team, and you never know what can happen in hockey. Maybe we get an upset for the ages just like the one 10 years ago.