In the war of the capital district teams, RPI defeated Union tonight
3-1 in a hard fought battle. My comments that follow are from memory;
I'm sure the details will be posted by others later or tomorrow.
 
The game opened as expected, with both teams playing tentatively,
feeling each other out, testing and probing at each others defense
and goalkeepers. Although RPI and Union were 1-1-1 this season,
RPI had not seen Trevor Koenig since Union beat RPI at the Knick
back in November. Koenig missed both the RPI victory in Troy
and the tie in Schenectady in late January. This was the first
time Koenig played at Houston since last season. After the first 5-6 minutes,
the speedy RPI forwards made their move. IMHO, RPI dominated the play
for the remainder of the first period. At approximately 10:45 into
the period, RPI scored. I don't remember whether Eric Healey got the goal
and Allain St. Hillaire got the assist or the other way around. Four
to five minutes later, RPI went up 2-0 when an RPI winger (Danny Riva, I think)
pushed a pass into the slot where Pete Gardiner was being tied up by a Union
defenseman (I wish they'd put names on their uniforms). Gardiner somehow
managed to get his stick on the puck, deflected it into the air over
Koenig's head and it came down on the crossbar, dropped into the crease
and trickled across the goal just as Koenig reached it. RPI continued
to dominate the 1st period offensively but the period ended 2-0.
 
Union managed to solve RPI's offense in between periods. The Union
defense shut RPI down in the second period and their offense took
over. While parts of period 2 were even, the Dutchmen had the upper
hand for most of the second period. RPI had 4 shots on goal in period 2,
none  of them quality shots while the Union offense seemed to be
living in the RPI defensive zone most of the period. But the Union offense
couldn't solve Joel Laing and the Engineers got out of the period still
up 2-0.
 
The third period started out as a defensive duel, with 6 stoppages in play
in the first minute and a half. At that rate,I was afraid they would
 resurface then ice after period 3 and go right into game 2. But finally
the pace picked up. The RPI offense came back somewhat
in the third, and took some of the pressure off the defense and Laing.
This was probably due to the fact that Union, down 2-0 had to generate
some offense and took some chances that allowed the RPI forwards to
break out of their zone a little easier. The game got real interesting
about mid-way through period 3 when Union defense (Adam?) Will scored
his 3rd goal of the season on a nice shot from the face off circle
beating Laing cleanly. This seemed to spark the Dutchmen as well as
their fans. When play continued after the oranges were picked up
(I hate those damn oranges), the advantage seemed to see-saw back and
forth with RPI seeming to control the puck more often but not getting
many shots off due to the smothering nature of the Union defense.
The Union offense started to gel, breaking into the zone, finding the
open man but just couldn't seem to finish their plays.
 
The game wasn't really decided until Eric Healey scored an empty netter
with 53 seconds left.
 
The story of the game for RPI was Joel Laing. Although Koenig looked
cool and calm, he wasn't really called upon to work hard tonight
(although he did steal a goal from Healey in the third with an
unbelievable glove save at point blank range. Laing on the other
hand looked a bit tentative (maybe it was nerves) but got the job done.
 
The referree tonight was (Drew?) Taylor and he called an interesting
game. In the first period, an RPI forward was assaulted from behind when
a Union  defenseman thought he too close to Koenig after a shot. Taylor
called Union for the play (cross check?) and RPI for unsportmanlike
conduct. Several minutes later, RPI's Mark Murphy checked a Union winger
into the RPI bench on what I though was a clean check (but it was across
the ice and partially obstructed from my view) and RPI was called
for charging and the Union player for unsportmanlike conduct.  For
most of the first period, there were only matching penalties and most
of the calls were garbage calls. I guess I shouldn't complain since
Taylor called things poorly but evenly so no-one had any advantage
but it must be difficult for the players trying to figure out what
they can and can't do when the ref seems to be watching a different game.
 
An earlier post suggested that the top referree gets assigned to the #4-#5
matchup since this ostensibly is the most even match. If that's true,
I just hope Taylor was having a bad day because I was most unimpressed.
 
Tomorrow night, game 2. RPI is up with 2 points but not assuming they've
got this wrapped up. No-one expects Union to roll over and give up now.
On the contrary, the game promises to be even more intense tomorrow.
Maybe I'll bring my juicer tomorrow night. No use letting all those
oranges go to waste :-)
Mark Lewin
Class of '69
 
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