RPI vs. Brown University
Houston Field House
Troy, New York
officials:
Alex Dell
Brian Shea
(?) Torgerson
period 1
G 0:28 RPI (1-0) Gardiner(Caley,Shepherd)
P 1:47 RPI Senez (high stoicking)
P 5:25 Br Korbl (charging)
G 6:59 RPI (2-0) Pothier(Murley,M.Cavosie) ppg
P 13:55 RPI Reigstad (delay of game)
P 14:44 RPI Pothier (cross checking)
G 17:06 Br (2-1) Lawler(Kohansky)
P 17:43 Br Longfield (holding)
period 2
P 4:25 RPI Shepherd (interference)
G 6:16 Br (2-2) Duval(Esdale) PPG
G 10:54 RPI (3-2) Tapper(M. Cavosie, Senez)
P 15:26 Br Barker (holding)
P 17:34 Br Longfield (hitting from behind)
P 18:05 RPI Murley (roughing)
period 3
P 1:43 Br Warrington (holding)
P 8:51 Br Zielinski (holding)
P 8:51 RPI Gardiner (holding)
P 14:24 RPI Reigstad (roughing)
P 14:24 Br Korbl (roughing)
G 14:48 RPI (4-2) Gardiner(Caley,Pothier) 4x4
P 15:28 Br Warrington (high sticking)
P 16:07 RPI Murley (hitting after the whistle)
16:59 Br Timeout
G 18:35 RPI (5-2) Eberly(Tapper,M.Cavosie) eng
P 19:30 RPI Warrington (roughing)
P 19:30 Br LaBarre (roughing)
P 20:00 RPI Senez (slashing)
P 20:00 Br Cantini (slashing)
saves 1 2 3 T
RPI(Laing) 13 9 17 39
Brown(Stirling) 7 9 6 22
RPI moves to 4-2 in ECAC play by defeating Brown University
in a game that was much closer than the score indicates.RPI dominated the first 10 minutes of the first period, but the Bears adjusted and outplayed the Engineers for most of
the rest of the game. Only a stellar performance by RPI netminder Joel Laing kept RPI in the win column.
On paper, coming into this game, RPI had a huge advantage. Just 28 seconds into the game RPI got on the board when Doug Shepherd dug the puck out of the corner and fed Steve Caley behind the Brown net. Caley found Pete Gardiner streaking toward the net and hit him with a pass which Gardiner drove past Scott Stirling for the 1-0 lead.
At 6:59 of the first, the Engineers went up 2-0 when Matt Murley took a pass from Marc Cavosie and standing behind the net, found Brian Pothier cheating in from the right point unmarked. Murley put the puck on Pothier's stick and Pothier beat Stirling high on the short side. This was to be Murley's high point of the game (more about this later).
At this point, things started falling apart for RPI. More to the point, Brown coach Roger Grillo adjusted his defense by putting an extra man back at the blue line to keep the speedy RPI forwards from breaking out of the zone so quickly. RPI apparently was unable to adjust to this change and the RPI defense started having trouble clearing the zone. At 13:55 RPI defenseman Jared Reigstad was cited for delay of game when, in a wild scramble in front of Laing, he picked up the puck and threw it down the ice to clear the zone. Less than a minute later, Brian Pothier was sent off for cross checking giving Brown a 5 on 3. Although the Engineers held off the power play, Brown got on the board just after the second power play expired on a goal by Jeff Lawler.
The second period picked up where the first left off when Brown's Paul Esdale threw the puck into a crowd in front of RPI goalie Joel Laing. It was officially ruled that Brown's James Duval got his stick down and deflected the puck past Laing to tie the score. From where I sat, it looked
like it actually was deflected in off the skates of an RPI defensemen. But, regardless, the goal counted and the score was tied. Four and a half minutes later, RPI caught a break when Marc Cavosie spotted Brad Tapper, all alone in the slot. Stirling could have stopped the puck but chose to let it go through, apparently not seeing Tapper there. Tapper picked up the puck,deked Stirling right, left and slid it past him to give RPI a 3-2 lead. Several minutes later, behind the Brown net, RPI's Matt Murley went down, apparently slashed by a Brown defenseman. (At least that's what Murley later claimed. I couldn't see the play clearly from my vantage point). No penalty was called and the usually cool, calm Murley was outraged. Murley lost his cool and never really regained it. Several minutes later,in a retaliation move, Murley punched the "offending" Brown defenseman and was called for roughing. Only some spectacular gymnastics by Joel Laing kept Brown from scoring.
In one of the few shining moments of the 3rd period for the Engineers, Brian Pothier dug the puck off the boards in center ice and fed the puck to Steve Caley who sped up ice 2 on 1 with Pete Gardiner. Caley drew the defender to the left side as Gardiner dashed down the middle and took a perfect pass from Caley and beat Stirling up high for the 4-2 lead.
Several minutes later, after Scott Stirling made a routine stop, Matt Murley came streaking in, as if the puck was still loose and went running into 2 of Brown's defenseman who were standing in the slot protecting Stirling. A scuffle ensued and it looked as if several people were to be sent off. But only Murley was sent off for hitting after the whistle (much to the displeasure of the Field House crowd), but IMHO, the absolutely correct call to make. RPI scored again at 18:35 when RPI freshman defenseman Danny Eberly scored his first collegiate goal into an empty net.
But the real story of the second and especially the third period, was Joel Laing. No matter how
often the defense failed to clear the zone or gave up the puck in their zone (both of which happened
frequently), Laing managed to save them from harm.
A few good things came out of the game from RPI's perspective. Pete Gardiner broke out of his scoring slump scoring 2 goals in the game. Brad Tapper got back in the scoring column with 1 goal and 1 assist. Freshman Marc Cavosie is starting to get on track since moving to the Murley-Tapper line with 3 assists.
RPI comes out of the weekend with 2 much needed (albeit ugly) wins. Coupled with yesterday's win over Harvard, and 2 losses this weekend by Colgate and St. Lawrence's tie with Clarkson,
RPI is starting to edge up the standings going into semester break.
The Engineers next games are the RPI Invitational Tournament on 12/29-30 when they take on Bowling Green of the CCHA on 12/29 and either Union or Providence College on 12/30.
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