Here is the post for the consolation game of the RPI Xmas tourney from the RPI SID.  Since I spent most of the day stacking firewood  and digging out from our first Nor'easter
of the season, I didn't attend the games on Saturday. Judging
from the WRPI announcers, the combination of weather and the fact that RPI lost the first night kept the crowd to a small number.

Or, as Yogi Berra used to say: "They stayed away in droves"


  MEN'S HOCKEY KNOCKS OFF NOTRE DAME
  Engineers win consolation game of RPI/HSBC Tournament

 The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's hockey team used a four-goal second period and a balanced scoring attack en route to a 6-2 victory over Notre Dame in the consolation game of the 50th Annual Rensselaer/HSBC Holiday Tournament at the Houston Field House in Troy, NY.  With the victory, which
came in the oldest college hockey tournament in North America, the eleventh-ranked Engineers improved to 9-4-1.  The Fighting Irish are now 4-14-3. Rensselaer junior Jim Henkel gave the Engineers the game's first lead late in the opening period when he skated into the offensive zone with the puck and scored on a wrist shot.  A native of Hazlet, NJ, Henkel beat Notre Dame
goaltender Tony Zasowski from the bottom of the right face-off circle.   Defenseman Hamish Cunning, who hit Henkel with a pass at center ice, earned the lone assist on the goal.

RPI broke the game open with four goals in the second period.  Leading scorer Matt Murley gave the home team a two-goal lead just 16 seconds into the middle stanza when he broke in alone  and notched his team-best thirteenth goal of the year.  Nolan Graham and Jim Vickers assisted on the power play goal.  The Fighting Irish cut the lead in half at the 2:59 mark when Brett
  Lebda tallied a power play goal of his own.  Lebda, a freshman, scored his third of the year from the edge of the crease after taking a pass from Dan Carlson.  Ryan Dolder also assisted on the goal. The Engineers came right back, however, when freshman Ben Barr slammed home a rebound of a Conrad Barnes shot for his first collegiate goal just 51 seconds after Lebda's goal.  Carson Butterwick made the score 4-1 when he deflected a Danny Eberly shot over Zasowski for a power play goal at the 15:20 mark.   McPherson then picked up a loose puck and found the back of the net just 23 seconds later for a 5-1 lead. The Irish pulled to within three goals at 4:31 when Dolder scored from the bottom of the right circle.  RPI again bounced right back when freshman Scott Basiuk scored on a slap shot that found it's way through Zasowski's pads and across the goal line.

Eleven different players scored for Rensselaer, including four multiple-point producers, including McPherson and Barr, who had a goal and an assist each. Engineers netminder Kevin Kurk earned the victory by making 27 saves while Zasowsky stopped 37 shots.

The Engineers, who are 6-1-1 in their last eight  return to action next weekend when they resume their Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) schedule at Brown (Jan. 5) and at Harvard (Jan. 6).  Both games will begin at 7pm.  Notre Dame hosts Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) foe Ferris St. in a pair of games next weekend.

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  Kevin Beattie
  Sports Information Director
  Rensselaer