Well a weekend is gone and there are plenty of questions to be asked.
 
Let's start with the Army-Union game at Achilles Rink on Friday evening.
Union came out on fire at the beginning of the 1st period, but could
not put anything past Brian Bolio until late in the first pepriod, and
then the floodgates opened on Bolio.  By the time the 1st was over, it
was a 3-1 Union lead.  The most vivid memory of the 1st period was
Andrew Will on the power play.  He takes the puck at the left point,
skates towards center point, then walks in to the slot and fires one
past Bolio.  He walked by all 4 Army PK'ers.
 
The power play did in the Dutchmen.  The let Army have 9 of them and
then proceeded to allow 3 PP goals.  Army is a constant blur on the
power pllay.  This Army team looked different offensively than they
did last year.
 
Eventuallly Union's speed killed Army, and they won it 4-3.
 
Then Army went on to a date with the Engineers at the Fieldhouse.
 
The Engineers had 4 starters out.  Pat Brownlee with a sprained ankle,
Jeff Brick with a deep thigh bruise, Jeff O'Connor with a sprained knee
and Jeff Matthews with a twisted knee.
 
This had the Dan Fridgen stretch his lineup and he only dressed 17 skaters
for the game, opting not to dress Kobie Boykins, but dressing Ken
Kwasniewski.
 
The Engineers tried to use the speed to their advantage but were unable
to pass crisply and efficiently.  Bryan Richardson lifted them immediately,
but Bill Morrison comes roaring back 33 seconds later.  Then Richardson
scores on the power play, and the RPI schneid was over on the power play.
 
Army comes back and ties it in the second.  Then 33 seconds into the 3rd
they take the lead, and begin to stun the Engineers as they take a 5-2 win.
 
One word describes this from an RPI standpoint. FUGLY.
 
No offensive was generated whatsoever, though there were signs of brilliance.
 
One bright spot was Kelly Askew on 3 breakaways, and 1 2 on 1, and Bolio
stoned him 4 times.
Bryan Richardson continues to be a force, but he can't keep it up and hope
that the Engineers win.
 
Questions to be asked from this game:
1) Why only dress 17 skaters?  If you can dress 18 why not? You never know
what your injury situation might be on the ice.  No Kobie Boykins was a
crime in my opinion.
 
2) Where will the offense come from?  About 14 minutes left in the game,
and Dan Fridgen continued to use his same lines of:
Clarke-Hamelin-Healey, Regan-Richardson-Battaglia, Maye-Askew-Perardi
Why not mix it up to find a combination that might work?
 
3) What is wrong with the power play?  Where are the Power play goals going
to come from?
 
4) Why won't the defense hit anyone?  The defense played a lackluster game.
4 of the 5 goals Bryan Masotta allowed were the direct result of RPI
defensive miscues.  It seems that the Engineers refuse to hit anyone in the
slot and are unwilling to stand in the slot to clear men out.  Instead
they wind up chasing a lot of the time and get caught.  I continue to
be impressed with Bryan Tapper's offensive ability, but the young man will
not hit anyone! Chris Aldous had another shaky outing as well.
 
5) There is no inspired play on the RPI team. Where will they get it from?
 
Take nothing away from the Black Knights.  They played a magnificent
game.  The keys to this game for Army were to be physical, force the
Engineers to move the puck when they did not want to, and capitalize on
the power play.  They did all three.  Army was physical, and loosened up
the puck.  They made the Engineers force themselves through the neutral
zone, and they were 2-4 on the power play.
 
Brian Bolio had a spectacular weekend in the nets.
 
There are a lot of questions to be answered for the start of the RPI
ECAC season, especiallyu with Clarkson and St. Lawrence coming to town.
 
Let's go over the numbers again.  The Engineers have scored 6 goals
in the last 17 periods against Division I opponents.  1 against
Clarkson in the ECAC Semi, 0 against Harvard in the ECAC Championship
game, 0 against UNH in the NCAA tourney, 1 against BU, 2 agaisnt Merrimack,
and 2 against Army.
 
The Engineers are 1-39 on the power play since the latter stages of the
3rd game of the ECAC quarterfinal against Union.  0-3 then, 0-7 against
Clarkson, 0-2 agasint Harvard, 0-7 against UNH, 0-4 agaisnt BU, 0-9 against
Merrimack, and 1-7 against Army.
 
With the offensive firepower that Clarkson has, and the tough physical
defense that SLu plays, how will the Engineers play it?
 
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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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