Friday, March 11, 1994
Houston Fieldhouse, Troy, NY
ECAC Playoff Quarterfinal
Union 2 2 0 - 4
RPI 0 1 2 - 3
Scoring:
1st Period:
1) Union, Chris Ford 19 (Monteith, Stevens) 14:15
2) Union, Ford 20 (Stevens, Monteith) 16:31 (pp)
2nd Period:
3) Union, Shane Holunga 1 (Sicinski, Prentice) 2:04
4) RPI, Richardson 19 (Regan, Askew) 8:52
5) Union, Jon Sicinski 10 (Simonton, Prentice) 9:56
3rd Period:
6) RPI, Majic 10 (Rochon, Perardi) 9:28
7) RPI, Richardson 20 (Regan, Brick) 17:18
Power play: Union 1 of 3, RPI 0 of 2.
Shots on goal: Union 8-7-6--21, RPI 12-8-17--37.
Goalies: Union, Mike Gallant, 10-8-2 (37 shots, 34 saves)
RPI, Neil Little, 15-8-4 (21 shots, 17 saves)
Attendance: 4709
Summary:
Union won their first-ever ECAC playoff game by a 4-3 score over RPI.
The Dutchmen took leads of 3-0 and 4-1 then held on for the 4-3 win.
A win or tie tonight earns Union a trip to Lake Placid for the ECAC
Championships.
RPI came out quickly and dominated play early. They had some decent
scoring chances early on, but Mike Gallant came up big. The Dutchmen
got rid of the butterflies and got their act together. 2 Chris Ford
goals at 14:15 and 16:31 gave Union a 2-0 lead after 1.
The second period was one of the best periods of hockey I've seen
Union play. Shane Holunga's first goal of the year at 2:04 gave the
Dutchmen a 3-0 lead. RPI got on the board on a Craig Richardson goal,
but Union's Jay Prentice answered back with a huge goal just over a
minute later. Prentice caught Neil Little sleeping and beat him on
wraparound to regain the 3-goal lead. Union's defense was great in
this period, breaking up just about every RPI attempt to set anything
up.
In the third, Mike Gallant took over. He stopped 15 of 17 RPI shots
in the period, including some on spectacular saves. With Union
holding a 2-goal lead, he stopped Ron Pasco's breakaway attempt, and
then with Union's lead down to 1 and the RPI net empty, he made a few
more big saves to preserve the win.
Maybe someone who could actually see most of the ice can fill everyone
in on more of the details of the game. From where I was, I really
couldn't see much. The goals looked much nicer on TV later on..
The win extends the Dutchmen's unbeaten streak to 10 games (8-0-2) and
their overall record to 15-9-4. Ford's 2 goals give him 10 on the
season - the first Union player to score 20 goals since Guy Logan back
in 1989-90. The win is Union's first over RPI since joining the ECAC.
The Dutchmen beat RPI by the same 4-3 score back in 1988 when Union
was still in Division III.
Plenty of Union fans made the short trip up Route 7. The 1000 tickets
that were sold at Achilles for this game were all sold out by
Thursday. The blocks of Union fans had a lot of fun. My favorite
cheer they came up with was the "Overrated" chant. Unfortunately, the
RPI folks gave the Union people some really lousy seats. The Union
fans were in 4 main blocks. All of section 1 (behind the West goal),
a small block behind a pole in the northwest corner, and the 2
sections which face the band instead of the ice. I bought a block of
8 tickets and they didn't even seat us all together. The 6 regular
price tickets were in section 1 (below the glass so we could only see
half of the ice) and 2 student priced tickets in section 10, about as
far away as you could possibly get. When I picked up the tickets at
the fieldhouse I couldn't pick where I wanted my seats. They wouldn't
even let me switch my tickets so that we could all sit together.
These were certainly the worst possible seats you could get. Why
those of us who waited 3 hours in line at Achilles to get these
tickets were given such terrible seats, I don't know. Do other
schools give such bad seats to the visiting fans? Do other schools
even have seats which face the wrong way or have obstructed views? I
know at Union the visiting tickets are always behind the visiting
bench and in section 2. There are no bad seats at Achilles so that's
probably not a fair comparison.
The RPI crowd was big, but very quiet. I've seen 3 games up at RPI
this year (Merrimack, Union during the regular season, and this game)
and the crowds have not impressed me at all. With RPI down 4-2 with
about 6 or 7 minutes left, people were heading for the exits in
droves. C'mon people, you missed a great ending! Don't these people
have any confidence in their team? Even with RPI attempting its
comeback, the crowd really didn't seem into the game all that much.
Another big group of people ran for the doors with about a minute to
go when RPI pulled the goalie to go for the tie. Their loss, I guess.
The area media is really into this series. Everyone knew that the
rivalry between Union and RPI would grow, and now it's here and big.
Not many of the TV sports people noticed Union until this week, but
now they have. A story on the game was the top news story (not just
top sports story) on at least one of the 11PM newscasts. Maybe now we
can get some equal billing instead of the usual live report from RPI
followed by a Union score flashed on the screen for a few seconds.
The teams go at it again tonight at 7. RPI needs a win to stay alive.
If RPI wins, the 2 will meet again Sunday night to decide it all.
--
Jim Teresco, Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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Home: (518)347-0967, School: (518)276-4849, Sage 1112
Union College C.S. Department Graduate Assistant (retired), Union '92, '93
Owner/GM, Amsterdam Ice-9 - Senior Owner in Bitnet Fantasy League Baseball
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