In the words of that famous hockey philosopher, Yogi Berra:
I love home openers, especially when they're at home.
 
After being blown off the ice last weekend at BU, the RPI Engineers
defeated UMass-Lowell 4-2 tonight at the Houston Field House.
 
For the first time (and the last time), I actually brought pen and paper
to the game to keep track of saves, scoring and penalties. I spent
so much time tracking the numbers that I really didn't get a good sense
of the game. So here is my run down of the game.
 
Scoring:
period 1   RPI 1-0  10:07   Matt Garver from Brian Tapper and Eric Healey
           RPI 2-0  10:46   Doug Battaglia   from Brad Tapper and Steve Caley
           RPI 3-0  16:45   Mark Murphy from Brian Pothier and Dan Riva (PPG)
period 2   RPI 4-0   6:17   Doug Battaglia from Steve Caley  (short handed)
period 3   UML 4-1   1:22   Anthony Cappelletti from Kevin Bertram and Kyle
Kidney (ppg)
           UML 4-2   7:16   Greg Koehler from Shannon Basaraba and Chris
Libett
 
Saves:
Prekaski (RPI) 9  - 10 - 8     27
Filion   (UML) 11 - 13 - 13    37
 
Penalties:
period 1 -  1:07  -  UML Shannon Basaraba - hooking
            5:26  -  RPI Chris Aldous     - hooking
            8:09  -  RPI George Murray, UML Nick Carso - hitting after the
whistle
            15:34 -  UML Anthony Cappelletti - cross check
                18:20 -  RPI Steve Caley - cross check
period 2    2:36  -  RPI Scott Prekaski, UML Jeffrey Boulanger - hitting
after the whistle
            4:16  -  UML Chris Libett tripping
            5:51  -  RPI Pete Gardiner - interference
                8:48  -  UML Chris Bell tripping
        9:06  -  RPI Scott Prekaski  delay of game
                9:52  -  UML Shawn Hebert   holding
                18:21   -  RPI Chris Aldous  hooking
period 3    5:59  -  RPI Dan Riva  hooking
                8:57  -  UML Kevin Bertram  holding
              10:09 -  UML Mike Nicholishen high sticking
                11:58 -  RPI Dan Riva, UML Kevin Bertram  roughing
                17:15 -  RPI Matt Garver tripping
 
At the start, RPI played a close, tight checking game which is Lowell's style.
After the 5 to 6 minutes of the game, RPI began to dominate the play when
they moved
into their own style of fast skating and quick passing.  Despite early
(preseason)
predictions of greatness and last week's humiliation at BU, it was obvious
early
that RPI is not as bad as BU made them look last week, nor are they top ten
caliber
yet. The potential for greatness is there. The consistency is not. The two top
lines of Battaglia,Brad Tapper and Caley and Healey,Garver and St. Hillaire
both
have the potential of being high scoring lines once the lines get used to
each other.
Even by the end of the game, you could almost see Healey and Garver pick up
where
they left off last year, one sensing where the other one was at all times.
 
The potential for a great year is there; whether it materializes or not
depends
on what kind of work ethic instills in his players. It was obvious tonight
that
after 2 games, the team is still not in game shape.  They'll have their
work cut out for them next Friday when UNH comes to town.
 
 
As for me, this ends my reporting career. Starting next Friday, I leave the
sports
reporting to others and return to editorializing where I'm not restrained by
facts.
 
 
 
 
Mark Lewin
RPI - class of '69
  when men were men
  and Engineers couldn't spell Rensselaer
 
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