According to Bob Croce, in this morning's T-U, coach Dan Fridgen intends to
break his lines for tonight's match-up with Vermont.  Undoubtedly in an effort
to inject some scoring into the moribund offense, Croce reports that the #1 line
will be dispersed through three lines.  The new lines wil be:
 
       Healy-Richardson-Garver
       Battaglia-Riva-Regan
       St. Hillaire-Gosselin-St. Hillaire
 
Pairing Healy with Richardson would seem to make sense, with Healy needing a
strong set-up guy for his work around the net.  Garver, at least on paper, has
the speed to keep up with Richardson coming down-ice.
 
The number two line will feature scrappiness with Regan always trash talking
his way into the thick of it, and (hopefully) Battaglia supplying the muscle
to back it up.
 
The third line (sorry, that should be St. Hillaire/Gosselin/O'Connor will be an
unknown factor.  O'Connor will be looked upon to show the freshman what to do
around the net, although he had always depended heavily on Richardson's assists
for his own game.
 
Big freshaman Murphy may see his playing time reduced, as he hasn't seemed to
be able to keep up with the speed of the college game, so far.
 
Also in Croce's piece, Fridgen is quoted as saying that he looks forward to a
complete effort from the team this weekend (aside, I'd be happy with some
additional shots.)  "It's a situation where, from a team perspective, it's time f e
for us to put it all together.  There hasn't been an instance yet where we've
had the forwards play well, the defense play well, and along with goaltending,
gotten a whole effort."
 
Fridge added, "We have nothing to hold back for, we've played four games and now
we're into the meat and potatoes of our schedulel  We're into league play, and
the games that really count."
 
But nobody expects this year's Engineers wills cruise through the first part
of the ECAC schedule like last year's.  Realistically, the team would hope to
emerge with their initial victory this weekend, and perhaps reach .500 by
Christmas.
 
But tonight may turn into an ugly affair, unless the Engineers can somehow find
a way to make the light-checking Catamounts pay for their offensive-oriented
play.
********************************************************************************
Brian Morris                     RPI Engineers--1995 ECAC Champions
[log in to unmask]
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.