The Golden Knights came to town, and were soundly beaten by the Engineers
in both teams ECAC openers.
 
The keys to this game for RPI had to be:
 
1) Skating room, and avoiding the trap.
2) Offense on the power play or at all
3) Scoring early nd playing with the lead
 
RPI was able to skate through the neutral zone and were able to beat the
Clarkson defense through it.  This set up numerous chances offensively,
and the Engineers capitalized.
 
2-7 on the power play.  Not bad at all.  But the Engineers finally able to
put some goals on the board in the man advantage situation.  Good passing
movement, as well as execution on the power play.
 
Eric Healey scores early, and just a fantastic feed from Craig Hamelin
who does the 360 on the Clarkson defensemen, and feeds Healey at the goal
mouth.  Then 24 second later, Kwasnieski breaks in 3 on 2 and the puck is
shot wide, and forced wide, and the feed to Tapper at the right point who
blasts it home.  The Engineers never looked back, up 4-0 after 1, then
5-0, 6-1 and finally 7-1.
 
For Clarkson the keys were:
 
1) Take advantage of the inexperienced defense.
2) Score on the power play
3) Skate and skate and setup
 
The RPI defense never let Clarkson setup.  The RPI defense played 5 last
night as Pat Brownlee was dressed but still nursing the sprained ankle.
The slot was clear in front of Mike Tamburro all night, as the defense
cleared everyone out.
 
0-11 on the power play were the Golden Knights.  They were not allowed to
setup, and Mueller was attacked every chance possible so he couldn't
quarterback.  Even a short handed goal for the Engineers.
 
RPI never let Clarkson skate, and when they were able to, they scored.
Mike Tamburro and the defense took care of everything in the neutral zone.
 
Rough debuts in the ECAC for Dan Murphy and Claude Morin.
Dan Murphy looked unsharp, and was letting off a lot of rebounds.  Claude
Morin took an early penalty, and continued to be in the box, and was never
able to stup on the power play as the right point man.
 
RPI hosts St. Lawrence tonight, and hope for a sweep of the North Country
teams.
 
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* Jayson Moy  RPI '89 '93  *  One of the Voices of Rensselaer Engineer      *
* [log in to unmask]             *  Hockey, Baseball, Football, and Basketball    *
* The "Asian Invasion"     *  on Crystal Clear 91.5FM  WRPI, Troy *EASM*    *
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