First, the official press release from RPI's SID


MEN'S HOCKEY FALLS TO CORNELL, 2-1
Engineers remain in seventh place in ECAC standings


Cornell University used outstanding special teams to defeat Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 2-1, in an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division I men's hockey game this evening at the Houston Field House in Troy, NY.  A crowd of 3,764 saw the Engineers fall to 15-12-4 overall and 9-9-3 in the league.  RPI remains in seventh place, two points out of fifth place and home-ice in the first round of next week's playoffs.  The Big Red, who already clinched the ECAC regular season championship, are now 20-6-2 overall and 16-3-2 in the ECAC.

Rensselaer opened the game's scoring when they took advantage of a two-man advantage just 3:10 into the contest.  Junior Marc Cavosie ripped a shot from the left point that Cornell goaltender Dave LeNeveu got a piece of with his left leg pad but could not stop.  Juniors Danny Eberly and Carson Butterwick earned the assists.  With the goal, Cavosie extended his point-scoring streak to 16 games.  The ECAC's leading scorer, he now has 12 goals and 14 assists in that span.

Cornell, which entered the game with the nation's third-ranked penalty kill and fifth-ranked power play, tied the game with a power play goal of its own when junior defenseman Mark McRae scored from the top of the right face-off circle at the 12:49 mark.  Defenseman Doug Murray, the reigning ECAC Avaya Player of the Week, and Stephen Baby assisted on McRae's goal, his eighth of the season.

The Big Red, the nation's eighth-ranked team, scored their second power play goal of the game in the second period when senior Krzysztof Wieckowski scored from the left corner for his 11 th goal of the season.  Denis Ladouceur and Matt McRae assisted on the goal, which came at 4:27 of the second period.  Cornell's goal was the only one of the middle stanza.

Marsters finished with 25 saves while LeNeveu, who entered the game with the nation?s top save percentage (.935) stopped 32 of 33 shots he faced.

Rensselaer, which had two apparent goals disallowed, closes out the regular season on Saturday night against Colgate at the Houston Field House while Cornell travels to Union for their regular season finale.  Both games begin at 7pm.

===============================================================
Secondly, my own editorial comment.
Interesting that the SID mentions two apparent goals disallowed.
The first one was officially announced as going in after the whistle blew. However, the whistle didn't blow until 5-10 seconds later after two players scuffled and knocked the net off.  What really happened was that an RPI player took a blistering shot on net, the Cornell goalie couldn't handle it and it popped out into the crease just as Marc Cavosie was reaching the crease. Unfortunately, Cavosie was partially past the puck and couldn't reach it with his stick. So instead, he directed the puck into the net with his skates.  It was clearly not after the whistle. It was clearly no goal.

The second "apparent goal" was inconclusive. There was a scramble on the far side if the net. The RPI players started celebrating, the referee started to signal no goal but the goal judge turned on the red light. The ref and two assistant referees retired to the sideline to discuss the situation and then the referee asked the goal judge to come down to the ice to discuss things.  After all that, the referee skated to the scorer's table, then the RPI bench and then the Cornell bench at which point the faceoff was moved outside the Cornell zone and no goal was posted on the scoreboard.  There was never any announcement made.  I'd like to be righteously indignant about this one but honestly, I never saw the puck so I have no idea whether it went in after the whistle or whether it ever crossed the goal line.

Despite the loss, I felt that RPI played one of their best games of the season.  Granted that RPI came back several weeks ago  to beat Clarkson at the Big Red Freakout, but that was a wonderful 3rd period that masked two dismal periods prior.
RPI played a well balanced game for 60 minutes and was beaten by a stifling Cornell defense.  If RPI could play like this every game, they would have finished in 2nd or 3rd place
instead of needing a miracle on Saturday against Colgate to gain home ice in the first round ECAC.

On top of that, the RPI listserver is quoting a paragraph in this week's Sports Illustrated speculating that junior Marc Cavosie may be ready to leave after this, his junior year, to sign with the Wild. Together with Matt Murley's graduation, this could be devastating to RPI's chances next year. It would also be a mistake for Cavosie.  Having watched him play for 3 years, I don't think he is physical enough to move to the NHL. He relies on skating and stick handling which makes him shine in college (especially the ECAC) but needs more muscle to move to the professional ranks. But, who can argue when you're 20 years old and they dangle contracts in your face  with sooooo many zeroes on the end of it.