Achilles Rink, Schenectady, NY
Saturday, 1/25/92
 
R.P.I.     3 2 0 - 5
Union      0 2 1 - 3
 
Scoring:
1st Period-
1) RPI, Hamelin 14 (from Gabriel and Robitaille) 0:59
2) RPI, Kummu 5 (from Layzell and Majic) 4:36 (pp)
3) RPI, Majic 9 (from Bartell and Pasco) 15:46 (pp)
 
2nd Period-
4) RPI, Askew 3 (from Dargaty and Hilditch) 6:14
5) Union, Clifford 5 (from Flowers and Albert) 9:46 (pp)
6) Union, Clifford 6 (from Eccleston and Flowers) 11:17 (pp)
7) RPI, Hamelin 15 (from Robitaille) 11:34
 
3rd Period-
8) Union, Menhall 7 (from Railton and Burchill) 8:39 (pp)
 
Shots on goal: RPI 10-9-11--30, Union 7-15-10--32
 
Power Play Opportunities: RPI 2 of 7, Union 3 of 7.
 
Goalies: RPI, Little (W,7-6-0) (32 shots, 29 saves)
         Union, Villa (L,2-5-1) (30 shots, 25 saves)
 
Attendance:  2504/2504
 
Summary:
 
It was an embarassment for Union College at Achilles Rink on Saturday
night, and the hockey team had nothing to do with it.  First of all,
the RPI fans outnumbered the Union fans, who let 400 FREE tickets go
to waste and get sold to the RPI fans.  Then it was the revival of the
orange-throwing tradition, which cost Union a power play chance and
led to RPI's 5th goal.  But first for the game...
 
RPI came out strong.  They brought the puck right into the Union zone
early, and just 59 seconds in, Craig Hamelin beat Luigi Villa to give
RPI a 1-0 lead.  Tim Cregan took a penalty for the Dutchmen in the
offensive zone, and it cost them when Allen Kummu scored on the power
play at 4:36 (with just 3 seconds left on Cregan's penalty).  A Union
power play during the middle of the period was cut short when Rick
Burchill was sent off.  Union took another bad penalty, and Xavier
Majic made it 3-0 with Scott Whitney in the box.  At the end of the
period, Union was finally able to generate some offense, but goalie
Neil Little was ready.  Little stopped all 7 shots he faced in the
period, with 4 or 5 of those coming in the final 2 or 3 minutes of the
period.
 
The second period had to be one of the roughest, and easily the
longest, I've seen Union play.  A total of 20 penalties (for 75
minutes) were called in the period by referee Dan Murphy, including
four 10-minute misconducts, one 5-minute major, a double minor, and a
triple minor.  The scoring started with the teams skating 4-on-4, when
Kelly Askew came in on a breakaway. He beat Villa easily, who barely
even moved.  The first long delay of the period came after the 4th
goal, as the rink staff patched up a broken piece of glass behind the
Union net with some tape.  They waited until the period break to
replace the glass.  As they've done many times this year, Union waited
until too late to start their comeback.  Union got a chance to get
back into the game when Hildtch was called for a major slashing
penalty.  This caused the second delay of the period, while Jayson
Flowers shook off the injury from the slash.  When play finally
started, the Dutchmen had the 5-on-3 advanatage.  Rick Clifford scored
at 9:46, bring Union within 3 and bringing hundreds of oranges onto
the ice.  This again delayed the game while the players and rink staff cleared
the ice of the oranges.  When play resumed, Union still had a 4-on-3
power play going, and Clifford was able to score again at 11:17.
Although it was announced that anything thrown onto the ice would
result in a bench minor on Union, some very dumb fans still decided to
throw oranges onto the ice.  The bench minor was called, and the teams
skated 3-on-3, instead of the 4-on-3 power play that Union should have
had.  The faster Engineers took advantage of the open ice, and took
only 17 seconds to get the 3-goal lead back.  The scuffles and late
hits continued, and Murphy was not afraid to call them.  The second
period lasted almost an hour.  Union ended up outshooting RPI 15-9
during the period.
 
Union had 3 power plays, and RPI had 2 during the third period.  Union
was able to score on the power play at 8:39, on about the 4th rebound.
That was as close as Union would get, as Little kept them off the
board for the final 11 minutes.
 
The Dutchmen played two very good periods.  Unfortunately, they were
down 4-0 before they got into the game.  And when they did, the fans
didn't help out either.  Union outshot RPI 32-30, something they have
had trouble doing all season.
 
The oranges were an attempt to continue a tradition from the Division
III days.  Union's biggest rival in the ECAC West was Hamilton.  Every
season, the teams played twice, once at each rink, and usually seemed
to meet up again in the playoffs.  During the regular season games,
everyone knew the oranges were coming, always on the first goal by the
home team.  A few years ago at Achilles, Hamilton goalie Guy Hebert
skated right back into his net as soon as Union scored.  This rivalry
was one that everyone hated to see come to an end.  Apparently, many
of the Union fans decided that RPI would be the new "orange game."
Too bad some of them were dumb enough to throw oranges again after the
warning had been announced.
 
With so many RPI fans at the game, the Engineers must have felt they
were playing at Houston Field House West, not Achilles Rink.  About
half of the crowd was RPI fans.  They brought a very large band, hung
banners, and made a lot of noise.  It was a lot like the Cornell game,
except this time there was no excuse for Union.  Union is in session now, so
they can't say people were away and couldn't make it to the game.
Achilles Rink sets aside 1250 tickets to every game (Half of the
rink!) as free tickets available to Union students, faculty, and staff
members.  400 of those tickets were not picked up!!  And this for the
biggest game of the year!  After the ticket pick-up times Monday and
Tuesday, those 400 tickets went on sale to the general public, and
most were sold to RPI fans.  RPI brought their band, which I'd guess
had 30+ members, comapred to the 9 who bothered to show up for Union.
We couldn't really play much, since the RPI band overpowered us any
time we tried.  I heard there was also some kind of fight in the
crowd, but I don't know what that was all about.
 
Achilles Rink used to be a place opposing teams hated to come, but now
it seems that it's becoming everyone else's home rink.  I just hope
things improve when Union hosts Dartmouth and Vermont in 2 weeks.  A
win at home would definitely help.
 
Union falls to 1-10-1 in the ECAC, still good for 11th place, and
2-12-1 overall.  RPI is now 4-8 in the ECAC, 10-10 overall.  The teams
will travel to Brown and Harvard next weekend.  The Dutchmen will be
at Brown and the Engineers at Harvard Friday, and will switch
opponents on Saturday.
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| Jim Teresco			Union College                                 |
| [log in to unmask]	Schenectady, NY 12308			      |
| [log in to unmask]	Owner/GM - Amsterdam Ice-9 of the BBL         |
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