Some thoughts on last night's RPI victory:
 
1) Tripp Tracy played an amazing game until the middle of the second
period. I think it all went down when RPI went on the Power Play,
and then Harvard was called for another penalty and on the delayed call
Tim Regan put the puck in the net.
 
After this point, Tracy became really unnerved.  He seemed to be concentrating
more on the non-calls that Noeth and Melanson were not calling (is that right?)
than on the game itself. He was vehemently complaining on a lot of plays,
and seemed very upset that certain things were not called.
 
In my opinion, this did Tracy in.  As a freshman, you are not going to get
much slack from any official whatsoever.
 
2) Harvard's inability to click on the Power Play.
Harvard went 0-7 on the Power Play, and the seventh power play was shortened
because a Harvard player (Baird I believe) took a penalty to even the
situation up.  This seventh power play came with less than 3 minutes left,
and Harvard down by 2 goals, 5-3.
RPI's penalty killing unit stood their ground all night long, setting up a
box and letting Harvard take it to them.  Harvard was unable to get a man
loose inside of the box, and as a result spent most of their power play time
passing the puck on the perimeter, or chasing it down on their own end of the
ice.
 
On the 6th power play, Drury finally realized that they had to break down
RPI's box, and tried to use speed to do it, but was unable still to penetrate,
and eventually was stoned by Neil Little.
 
3) RPI's containment of Ted Drury.
 
Everytime Ted Drury stepped on the ice at even strength, RPI had Xavier
Majic's line or Tim Regan's line out on the ice. These two centermen did
a nice job of shadowing Drury, and didn't give him many opportunities
whatsoever to break loose.
 
4) The crowd.
 
Unbelievable noise level at Houston Fieldhouse last night. The fans were
credited by Buddy Powers as one of the main reasons that RPI came on as
strong as they did in the third period.
 
5) 6 unanswered goals by the Engineers.
 
At the midway point of the second period, RPI began to dominate by
forechecking, and containing, as well as playing havoc on the power play. WHile
 RPI was only 2-9 on the power play, the power play unit had many of
the greatest opportunities to score, and crashing the net certainly
helped to unnerve Tracy.
 
 
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Jayson Moy                              * One of the voices of RPI Engineer
[log in to unmask]                            * Hockey on 91.5FM WRPI, Troy
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