RPI vs St. Lawrence
Houston Field House
Troy,NY
officials: Mike Noeth-Brian Bouyea-Tim Crowley
attendance 4532
period 1
P 1:18 StL Clarke (hooking)
G 8:06 StL (0-1) Lorentz(Marchetti)
G 10:05 StL (0-2) Fyfe(DiLauro)
P 10:46 RPI Butterwick (cross check)
P 14:37 RPI Reigstad (holding)
G 15:17 StL (0-3) Carruthers(Clarke,Daniels) ppg
P 16:03 StL Harney (boarding)
G 16:40 RPI (1-3) Gardiner(Murley,Pothier) ppg
P 18:29 StL DiLauro (roughing)
P 18:29 RPI Gardiner (roughing)
period 2
G 4:49 StL (1-4) Gellard
4:49 RPI goalie change (Prekaski out; Laing in)
P 10:36 StL O'Brien (interference)
P 13:40 RPI E. Cavosie (tripping)
P 14:01 RPI Munn (spearing-major + game DQ)
P 19:45 RPI Butterwick (hit from behind-major + game misconduct)
period 3
G 4:34 StL (1-5) Anderson(Carruthers,Daniels) ppg
saves 1 2 3 t
RPI(Prekaski,Laing) 7 19 13 39
St. Lawrence(Gustafson) 12 3 11 26
Just several weeks ago, RPI was solidly entrenched in 3rd place in the ECAC, challenging Colgate and St. Lawrence for 1st of second place and ranked in the top ten in the national polls.
Today, that's just an ancient memory as the Engineers drop their fifth straight ECAC contest, falling into a 4 way tie for third place with the possibility of dropping into fourth later on Sunday depending on the outcome of the Cornell game. Instead
of looking ahead to possibly appearing in the NCAA East regionals to be held in Albany in late March, the Engineers must consider the possibility of losing home ice for the first round of the ECAC playoffs in 2 weeks.
Despite the score (5-1), I thought that RPI played a much better game on Saturday against St. Lawrence than they did against Clarkson the night before. The results were due to the usual
albatross of taking too many penalties, some strange calls but mostly due to the fact that they were outplayed by a better team.
Referee Mike Noeth (America's favorite referee) endeared himself yet again to the Field House fans by making some inexplicable calls and non-calls alike. More on that later. However, the referees did NOT determine the outcome the game. By the time Noeth had his effect on the game, it was pretty much over anyway. This was definitely a St. Lawrence win and they earned every bit of it.
The Saints got on the board first at 8:06 of the first when Jim Lorentz and Andy Marchetti broke in on RPI netminder Scott Prekaski 2 on 1 with Lorentz getting the goal. Just 2 minutes
later, Ray DiLauro took a shot at Prekaski from the high slot. His shot missed the net but the puck took a strange bounce off the back boards and came out to Prekaski's left onto the stick of the chargin Alan Fyfe. Fyfe threw the puck toward the crease from a steep angle and the puck ricocheted off the skates of Glenn Coupal and went up and over Prekaski's shoulder for the Saints second goal. The Saints scored their
3rd goal on a power play at 15:17 after a flurry of shots in close. A rebound came out to Prekaski's right onto the stick of a waiting Robin Carruthers who lifted it into any empty net.
The Engineers finally woke up scoring their goal at 16:40 of the first when Pete Gardiner scored with assists to Matt Murley and Brian Pothier giving some hope that the Engineer's were not about to give up.
But early in the second, the Saints went up 4-1 when Mike Gellard broke in on Prekaski and beat him for an unassisted goal. At that point, Prekaski was pulled and Joel Laing brought in. Laing played extremely well stopping St. Lawrence from close in on any number of occasions but the damage was done and the stingy St. Lawrence defense was not about to give up a 3 goal lead. The icing on the cake came at 14:01 when Noeth called RPI defenseman Steve Munn with a 5 minute major for spearing and a game DQ knocking Munn out for the third period and next Friday night's game. Together with an injury to Danny Eberly, RPI was now down to 4 defensemen. I have no comment as to whether this was a good call as I didn't see it at all. The WRPI announcers said they didn't see it either. However they watched a tape replay between the second and third period and commented that there was a spear. RPI killed off the 5 on 3 advantage and went on to kill the remaining time on the major. At 19:01 the Engineers returned to 5 on 5
hockey and for a short burst really started applying some pressure. Meanwhile the Saints looked like they were just trying to get out of the period. At 19:45, Noeth
called Carsom Butterwick with a hitting from behind major putting RPI down for another 5 minutes. I don't deny my bias toward RPI but I do consider myself a knowledgable hockey viewer
and I do call them as I see them (whether for or against the Engineers). I doubt that this should have even been called as a minor penalty when compared to other hits in the game. There was no way this should have been a major penalty.
Still, the Engineers did a credible job of killing off the major
until St. Lawrence scored their 5th goal with just 12 seconds left in the major. With a 4 goal lead, one of the best defenses in the ECAC and the Engineers down 4 men (2 majors + Eberly and
Marc Cavosie out with injuries) and exhaustion from having to kill 2 consecutive major penalties, the game was pretty much over.
The Engineers go into the last weekend of the season on the road against Harvard and Brown next weekend with a crowd in the middle of the ECAC pack. The Engineers can still finish third but could fall as far as 10th unless they get their act together.
Mark Lewin
RPI class of '69
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