RPI Storms to Comeback Win in 48th Freakout!

A weekend split in the final home games of the Engineers '25-'26 season

Photo: Maggie Kelley RPI Athletics

Freakout magic is back once again. We have been preaching about progress, underlying metrics, recruiting, and other behind the scenes reasons that the fanbase should be excited right now. But Rainers Rullers hammering home that go-ahead slapshot on the powerplay Saturday night lit a spark in the Field House that we haven’t seen in a long time. Eric Lang had come real close to a few statement wins in year 1, wins he could take to a passionate but frustrated fanbase to say, “Look, better days are coming”. He thought he had it the MVP Arena before Union scored twice in the final 2 minutes of play and again in OT to win the Mayor’s Cup. Last week they came close to knocking off perennial power Cornell at the Field House. But in front of over 4500 fans at the Houston Field House, Rainers Rullers and this group of Engineers showed the culmination of a year’s worth of tremendous progress within the program. This fanbase truly has a reason to believe, and better yet, I think this recent hot streak is just the tip of the iceberg for what’s to come.

Friday vs. Dartmouth

RPI fell on Friday to a Dartmouth team that is having a dream year and a near lock for the NCAA tournament. Ethan Bono opened the scoring in the 2nd period but 3 straight Dartmouth goals would carry them to a 3-1 victory. The nation’s leading goal scorer, Hayden Stavroff, extended his lead to 4 with his 23rd and 24th tallies of the season. Bruno Bruveris got the nod for RPI and stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced. Underlyings suggest the game was about even, as the xG battle came out 2.4-2.3 in favor of RPI, and the Corsi was fairly close.

One could argue that Dartmouth is one of the programs RPI is looking to model in this rebuild. They are selling a very similar message to recruits: elite coach, elite education, improving conference, and hopefully sustained success in the years to come. Dartmouth is a few years ahead of RPI since Reid Cashman is in year 5, but they have used the “high cycle” (recruiting older players and staying old) to their advantage the way Lang says he hopes to.

Saturday vs. Harvard

There was no shortage of festivities on Freakout day with the annual alumni game, extensive media coverage, and all sorts of gatherings in Troy. Harvard took it to RPI in the 1st, and had a goal waived off that would have made it 2-0, thanks to a brilliant challenge by Lang. RPI finally drew even halfway through the 3rd on a goal from Ian Scherzer that appeared to go in off the skate of a Harvard player. The aforementioned Rullers goal came at 4v3 and was an absolute rocket of a shot. The Engineers were strong once they took the lead and finished it off with an ENG to win 3-1.

The Tyler Hotson goal in the final minute 2 years ago, and last year’s win were definitely exciting Freakouts, but this one is honestly my favorite one since the Polacek goal in 2011. To see how excited this group of guys were, a group that largely met for the first time in April and now seems so unified, was nothing short of amazing. This was a great day for all that are involved with the men’s hockey program.

5 Things

1. It would basically take a miracle, but RPI does have a path to playoff home ice.

   RPI is T-10th right now in the league, 1 point back from 9th and 6 back from 8th. Clarkson is 8th, whom RPI swept this year. If Clarkson is swept by Colgate & Cornell, and RPI sweeps Brown and Yale, they would be 8th as long as SLU doesn’t do the same.

2. Starts have been split, but Krawchuk clearly gives RPI the best chance to win.

   Nate Krawchuk has been a little banged up which is why Bruveris has seen some time, but it’s hard to argue with Nate’s production. His development this year has been incredible and is a huge testament to the work that Mathias Lange has done.

3. Freshman on fire

   3 assists for Thomas Klassek on Saturday, 3 points in the last 3 for Ian Scherzer and Matthew Buckley to go along with Krawchuk’s standout play. RPI has a nice group of freshmen that seem to be hitting their stride late in the year.

4. Scoring with depth is brilliant when it works.

   When a team lacks a true top batch of talent, they say that they will have to “score with depth”. Well, that was the narrative around RPI for the 1st half, and it was frustrating when they couldn’t score. Now? Production from nearly every line and D pair is making the Engineers a very well-balanced team.

5. Leave it all on the line.

   The last regular season weekend coming up, and RPI is set to face two teams that they are battling for position with. This should be a great weekend of hockey with a high level of urgency.