Preview: RPI vs Dartmouth/Harvard
The Engineers look to get an upset win in the 48th Big Red Freakout!
This weekend, RPI will be renewing college hockey’s best tradition with the 48th Big Red Freakout! against Harvard. Before that though, they’ll take on a revitalized Dartmouth program on Friday.
Dartmouth
The Big Green have taken a huge step this year and are currently tied for 2nd in the league. They are also 11th in the NPI as one of the top teams in the country, and they appear poised to break their NCAA tournament drought that has lasted since 1980.
This year, Dartmouth has been pretty good in essentially every metric. They have a 56.1% close corsi, which is 10th in the country, and a lot of that is on the back of their defense. They only allow 22.7 shots per game, which is tops in the entire country. They score 3.7 goals per game and only allow 2.2, and that goal differential is also among the best.
Dartmouth is led by star forward Hayden Stavroff who has potted a whopping 22 goals in just 26 games, which leads the entire country. He has a total of 36 points on the year. His linemate is Hank Cleaves who has 30 points in 26 games as the top line center. The backend features 3 really good defensemen in CJ Foley, Eric Charpentier, and Colin Grable, while Emmett Croteau has taken control of the net with a 0.918 SV%.
Dartmouth is an extremely structured and talented team, and they won’t be an easy matchup by any means. They are going to be especially hungry in this one after tying Yale and losing to Brown, which dropped them a few spots in the NPI. They can’t afford to lose many more games and keep their spot in the NCAA tournament. RPI needs to bring their A game.
Harvard
This is definitely the more exciting matchup just because it’s the freakout, but it also is the more winnable game. Harvard is a good team too. They’ve been ranked in the top 20 at various points, and they are currently 23rd in the NPI. They are around average in most categories with 2.9 goals per game and 2.8 goals against per game. Their close corsi is 50.6%. They’re a solid team but not an elite one.
Harvard’s main issue this year is they lack the talent to boost their scoring to a good level instead of an average one. Mick Thompson is clearly their best player with 24 points in 25 games, but then it quickly falls off to Phil Tresca with 19 and Casey Severo with 16. In net, Ben Charette has been pretty reliable with a 0.911 SV% on the year, and he has played all but 10 minutes this season.
Harvard is a decent matchup for RPI stylistically because they are much less structured than Dartmouth and also less physical. RPI was able to compete hard and keep Harvard to the outside a lot in the first game, which is why it was close the entire 60 minutes. They will need to do the same thing again, except convert on more chances. Harvard is 1-3-1 this month and looks vulnerable. If the Engineers bring the same level as last weekend, and they get the needed boost from a huge Freakout! crowd in the HFH, they’ll have a shot in this one.
Can’t wait for the weekend coming up. LGR!