RPI men beat rival Union, 5-3
Comeback win is first of season
TROY >> Coming into the locker room after Friday night’s first period, RPI had barely any shots on net and looked down right slow in the first period.
“I asked them if the choices they were making on the ice were what we had practiced and the standard that we are capable of,” said RPI Head Coach Dave Smith. “‘You guys have a choice’ and I pointed at Jacob Hayhurst and said ‘that guy is playing winning hockey.’ You can play like that or you can choose to play some other way. They chose to play hard.”
RPI picked up their first win of the season against ECAC rival Union 5-3 after trailing 2-0 after the first period.
“We took our foot off the gas and didn’t take advantage of the opportunities that were presented to us,” said Union Head Coach Rick Bennett. “They gave us every chance in the world, we just didn’t take it. There’s no urgency.”
“It’s always hard to score in college hockey,” said Smith. “I really liked the demeanor on the bench after we got one. It was excitement, but it wasn’t uncomfortable or uncontrollable excitement.”
The first period was pretty messy for the Engineer’s. Aggressive, sure, but one that was causing some running around.
The Engineer’s had one shot in the period to Union’s 15 and fell down early 2-0 due to a power play goal from Union’s Sam Morton and a short handed goal from Sean Harrison right off the faceoff from the left circle.
“We started slow again,” said Smith on the first. “This group wants to have success so bad. We were amped up and we talked about playing with our hair on fire and playing hard, and allowing us to do that and not chase the game. We chased them the whole first period, it was not how we wanted to play.”
That running around led to penalties to be taken. RPI gave up nine man-advantages to Union Friday night, but after the first power play goal, the Engineer’s were able to shut Union down every single time and go zero for eight on the penalty kill for the remainder of the night.
“I thought they did an excellent job over there on their penalty kill,” said Bennett. “They knew what we were doing before we even did it, but we also made it easy too. We wanted to zip it through seams and put it on their tape so they could ice it or have a rush or whatever. We just weren’t plugged in.”
The second period was a completely different team for RPI. Just 37 seconds into the period, RPI’s Patrick Polino scored his first of two on the night, shorthanded of course. Meirs Moore sniped one in on a beautiful shot from the right circle 11 minutes later. Suddenly, RPI and Union were tied at two going into the final period.
“I though they came out really well, especially at the end of the second,” said Bennett. “They got some breaks. The first goal was a terrible bounce for us, but it happens, that’s life.”
“When your tenacious on the puck good things happen,” said Smith.
In the third, it was Patrick Polino’s second of the game and Ottoville Leppännen’s first career goal that pushed the game ahead by two.
Leppännen’s goal was the eventual game winner.
“The first win against Union is amazing,” said Leppännen. “It’s an amazing feeling.”
Jack Adam’s tried to fight back with a goal of his own for Union not even two minutes following Leppännen’s, but too little too late.
Ture Linden iced the game with an empty netter and a leap into the bench.
In the net, RPI goalie Engineer Linden Marshall was credited with the win with a 32 save performance. Union’s Darion Hanson made ten saves in the loss.
“Player of the week, last week,” said Bennett of his goalie. “Player of the week... last week. I’ll leave it at that.”
Union and RPI are back in action with game two of the home and home tomorrow night, Saturday October 27, at Union College.
“We won that game on the penalty kill and timely scoring,” said Smith. “It feels good but more importantly it lets them address how to win.”