RPI opens playoffs tonight vs. Clarkson

The 11th-seeded RPI men’s ice hockey team visits fifth-seeded Clarkson tonight for the start of a best-of-three ECAC Hockey First Round playoff series. The puck drops at 7 p.m.

The Engineers (8-26-1) enter the contest off a victory.

Two goals third period goals,

27 seconds apart, earned RPI a 3-2 win at Colgate in the regular season finale, last Saturday in Hamilton.

Seniors Jimmy DeVito and Parker Reno erased a one-goal deficit, midway through the third for while sophomore goaltender Chase Perry made 27 saves for RPI to earn the win.

Senior captain Riley Bourbonnais (15 goals, 12 assists) and sophomore Evan Tironese (7 goals, 20 assists) are tied for the team lead with 27 points apiece for the Engineers. Freshman Jacob Hayhurst (7 goal, 13 assists) rounds out the top three with 20 points and junior Jared Wilson (10 goals, 5 assists) leads all blueliners with 15.

Coming into the weekend, sophomore goaltender Chase Perry is 6-18-1 as the starter in 25 of RPI’s 35 contests in 2016-17. He has a 3.21 goals against average and a .911 save percentage. In 18 ECAC Hockey contests (17 starts) he is 6-11-0 with a 2.82 goals against average and a .921 save percentage.

This year’s playoff match-up means RPI and Clarkson will play at least five times this year. The Golden Knights took 2-of-3 during the league season, including a 6-1 non-conference victory in Lake Placid on January 7.

Clarkson also won at the Houston Field House, 5-2, on November 12, while the Engineers came away with a 2-1 victory in the most recent meeting, January 28, in Potsdam.

Game 2 is schedule for Saturday (7:30pm) with Game 3 (if nec.) set for Sunday (7pm).

Men’s college basketball

UALBANY 100, HARTFORD 71 » There was no repeat of 2016 for the UAlbany men’s basketball team, Wednesday night.

In fact, the Great Danes played one of their most complete games of the season.

Led by David Nichols tying a program single game record 40 points, UAlbany defeated Hartford 100-71 at SEFCU Arena to advance to the America East Tournament semifinals.

It was a rematch of last season’s quarterfinal contest won by Hartford in an upset.

UAlbany (20-12) shot 61.4 percent from the field to earn its first 100-point game since Feb. 14, 2016. It is the first time since 2001 that a team has scored 100 points in an America East Tournament game. UAlbany shot 52 percent from three-point range and outrebounded Hartford (9-23) 37-26.

“I thought it was important that we came out with a lot of energy early,” UAlbany head coach Will Brown said. “Our guys have been focused the last few days, and we’ve been talking about the conference tournament since we had that slow start to the conference season.”

With the win, 3-seed UAlbany moves on to the America East Tournament semifinal. UAlbany will tip off against 2-seed Stony Brook on Long Island on Monday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m.

The winner of that contest takes on the victor of 1-seed Vermont and 4-seed New Hampshire.

Men’s college lacrosse

UALBANY 17, UMASS8 » The No. 9 UAlbany men’s lacrosse team took down UMass 17-8 in its home opener on Wednesday afternoon thanks to a 7-1 scoring advantage in the second quarter.

Up 5-4 into the second, UAlbany (2-1) scored the next seven goals into the second half to grab an eight-goal advantage over UMass (0-4).

The Great Danes held its opponent to single digit goals for the second consecutive game.

“We executed a bit better in the second quarter,” said UAlbany head coach Scott Marr, who earned his 150th career win with the program.

“TD (Ierlan) was great on the faceoffs, and JD (Colarusso) got us going with his saves.”

UAlbany won 20-of29 faceoffs, with TD Ierlan winning 20 off 28 attempts, and picked up 10 ground balls. As a team, the Great Danes outshot UMass 49-40.

Women’s college lacrosse

SIENA 12, VERMONT 10 » Three Siena women’s lacrosse players notched hat tricks as the Saints were able to take down Vermont 12-10 in their 2017 home opener.

This is the first win over the Catamounts since 2010.

Reigning MAAC Rookie of the Week Alexis Deaken recorded her first collegiate hat-trick and notched the game-winning goal for the Saints (1-3).

She also had three ground balls and four draw controls in the win.

Fellow freshman, Julia Sardella also had a hattrick in the victory while also dishing out two assists.

She picked up two ground balls, had one draw control and went 1-1 in free position shots.