Best games?  At the top of my list is the first college hockey game I
ever saw.  November 5, 1988.  I didn't want to go because as everyone
knows, hockey is a dumb game.  Other than the Olympics, I never even
watched any hockey, and didn't plan to start just because I was now
attending a college which had a hockey team.  But I was talked into it
by a classmate, Shayne White, who was a freshman goalie on the team.
 
This was the first game of the season and Bruce Delventhal's first
game at Union.  Division III Union was considered a heavy underdog
against a strong RPI team.  "If they can stay within 5 goals, it would
be a huge confidence builder" was the talk early on.  Union had never
beaten RPI in 9 meetings, and was thrashed 13-0 a year earlier.  The
Union team, skating nine freshmen playing their first collegiate game
and just one senior, fell behind three times, 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2, with
Kevin Mazzella scoring each of the Engineer goals.  Dan Gould's
shorthanded goal tied the game at 1 for Union in the first, and Marc
Goguen's second period goal tied it at 2.  RPI took a 3-2 lead early
in the third, and that score held up almost all the way.  Union killed
off two late RPI power plays and RPI killed off a Union power play.
With 70 seconds left, Union got a faceoff in the RPI zone, and
Delventhal decided it was time to pull goalie Ron Kinghorn.  The move
paid off with 33 seconds left in regulation, when Goguen deflected a
shot past Steve Duncan.
 
In the overtime, Terry Campbell sent a pass from his own blue line to
freshman Tim Cregan streaking up the left wing.  Cregan caught the
pass behind the RPI defense and came in on Duncan.  Cregan faked glove
side, Duncan bit.  Cregan was able to keep control of the puck as the
RPI defenders caught up to him and put a backhander just inside the
left post at 1:57 of OT.  Union 4, RPI 3.  To this day, I don't know
that I've ever heard Achilles Rink any louder.  And I must have liked
what I saw - I've missed a total of one home game since.
 
In second place would be February 2, 1992 - Union's second-ever ECAC
win, but the first I saw in person.  Well worth the trip out to Lynah
in a little rain and sleet.  Freshman Goalie Luigi Villa played a big
part, but it was Senior Dalton Menhall's empty netter, shot from his
own blue line and right in front of the Union fans in Section O that
put it away.  Union 6, Cornell 4.
 
Maybe these weren't the best-played or most meaningful in a
standings/playoff race point of view, but they're the kind of games
that keep you coming back year after year.  There are plenty more I
could list, but those two stand out for me..
 
--
Jim Teresco - [log in to unmask] - http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~terescoj/
Research Assistant, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Department of Computer Science, Scientific Computation Research Center
 
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