RPI travels to Yale, Brown in hopes of stealing ECAC points
TROY, NY >> RPI Hockey is at an exciting point in their season. The Mayor’s Cup is right off the corner, they are 3-1 in the new year, and are in a three-way tie for a fourth place spot in the ECAC with Colgate and Harvard.
The Engineers travel to Brown and Yale this weekend for a pair of ECAC Hockey contests this weekend before they can enjoy Mayor’s Cup festivities next week. RPI looks to sweep the season series with the Bears and even its mark with the Bulldogs. Puck drop is scheduled for 7pm on both Friday and Saturday nights.
RPI fell to then-second-ranked Cornell, 3-0, lastFriday night, before blanking Colgate by the same score the following night . Sophomore Owen Savory highlighted the weekend by posting his second consecutive shutout against the Raiders, stopping all 37 shots he faced. Three different players found the back of the night on Saturday, including seniors Patrick Polino and Chase Zieky.
Rensselaer seniors Will Reilly (7 goals, 8 assists) and Chase Zieky (6 goals, 9 assists) are tops in the team with 15 points apiece. Classmates Patrick Polino (7 goals, 5 assists) and Mike Gornall (4 goals, 8 assists) have 12 points each, while senior Jake Marrello (4 goals, 5 assists) and freshman Simon Kjellberg (4 goals, 5 assists) each have nine.
Sophomore Owen Savory (5-71) has a 2.68 goals against aver
and a .907 save percentage in 13 starts, while junior Linden Marshall (3-3-0) has a 2.91 goals against average and a .903 save percentage in seven games (6 starts). Transfer Alec Calvaruso (1-1-0) has a 2.04 goals against average and a .929 save percentage in three games (2 starts).
Rensselaer leads the alltime series with Brown 6431-8. Brown won the inaugural meeting, 5-0, on December 28, 1951, in Troy. Prior to RPI’s 2-1 overtime win in December, Brown had won the previous five meeting. RPI won 19 straight over brown from 1982-1991. Brown’s current five game winning streak is their longest against RPI. The Engineers have competed against Brown in 17 overtime games and owns a narrow 5-4-8 advantage in those contests. RPI has shutout Brown a total of 11 times. The 64 victories over Brown are the most against any ECAC Hockey opponent. RPI has maintained its second highest win percentage over any ECAC opponent against Brown (.679).
Brown comes into the weekend at 3-14-0 overall, including a 3-7-0 mark in ECAC Hockey play. Sophomore Justin Jallen (8 goals, 2 assists) leads the team with 10 points, while seniors Zach Giuttari (2 goal, 6 assists) and Brent Beaudoin (4 goals, 4 assists) have eight points apiece. Senior Gavin Nieto (2-11-0) has started 14 of the team’s 17 games in net, posting a 2.94 goals against average and a .903 save percentage.
Meanwhile, RPI leads the all-time series with Yale 57-53-6. The Bulldogs won the inaugural meeting, 3-0, on January 22, 1909, in Albany. Yale has won the last six meetings with RPI and the Engineers’ last win over Yale came on December 1, 2017, in a 2-1 victory. Last season, netminder Corbin Kaczperski made 30 saves to help then-20th-ranked Yale to a 3-2 victory over Rensselaer, in front of 4,179 at the 42nd Annual Big Red Freakout! The Bulldogs ended sweeping a twogame ECAC Hockey playoff series on March 8 and 9, by scores of 4-1 and 4-0.
Yale enters the weekend at 6-9-0 overall and 4-6-0 in ECAC Hockey play. The Bulldogs are led offensively by sophomores Curtis Hall (8 goals, 1 assist) and Justin Pearson (3 goals, 6 assists) with nine points apiece. Junior Tyler Welsh (5 goals, 3 assists) and Jack St. Ivany (8 assists) have eight points each. In net Senior Corbin Kaczperski has a 5-7-0 record in 13 games (12 starts), carrying a 3.29 goals against average and an .888 save percentage. Junior Nicholas MacNab owns a 1-2-0 mark, with a 3.90 goals against average and an .861 save percentage.
Savory became just the fifth RPI goaltender to register three shutouts before the end of his second season on the team, joining Nathan Marsters (5), Bill Sack (4), Jason Kasdorf (4), Daren Puppa (3) and John Stopen (3). Savory collected his second straight ECAC Hockey/MAC Goaltending Goalie of the Week award after stopping all 37 shots he faced in a 3-0 shutout of Colgate on January 11.
The Engineers are sixth in the league scoring, averaging 2.52 goals per game and the power play is eighth at 15.1%, while its penalty kill is second (86.7%). RPI is allowing 29.2 shots per game this season, which is good for fifth in the conference. They gave up 33.6 shots per contest last year. RPI is fifth in the league in face-off percentage at 51.4% after ending last season in 11th (47.2%).