ENGINEERS ARE HOME

TROY, NY >> Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Hockey hits the ice Friday and Saturday night at home for the first time this season after splitting their opening weekend 1-1 with a loss to No. 4 UMass and a win over the University of Connecticut.

“We started real well and we were ready for all situations,” said RPI Head Coach Dave Smith after the opening weekend. “We were slow to start the second period in the first night and in the second night we were good from start to finish and I take those little lessons from them and move on.”

RPI hasn’t picked up a win in their opening weekend since the 2015-16 season when they beat Boston College at the Houston Field House 2-1. In 2017-18, they did pick up back to back ties against Ohio State University, but did not get a win until the second weekend of the season.

“There’s no different motivation from game to game,” said Smith on the differences in night

one versus night two. “We want to win every game. You have to have those experiences to draw upon and say, ‘Okay we did this well, let’s do it again,’ and ‘Oh, we didn’t do this as well as we had hoped, let’s try again or let’s try something different, or let’s try harder in accomplishing our goal for the game.’”

RPI lost to UMass on night one 5-3 before a quick turnaround allowed them to pick up a 5-3 win over UConn the following night. Freshman Zack Dubinsky and Ryan Mashie both scored in the loss to UMass, as well did Patrick Polino. Chase Zieky scored two against UConn the following night and added an assist. Mahshie scored again the second night to earn himself ECAC Rookie of the Week honors.

“That’s definitely something cool, but I think the win was a little bit more important,” said Mahshie. “It was great to get the first win of the year and hopefully keep it going into this weekend.”