A little more about the RPI-Union matchup from last night.  I did
think Union put in a good effort and it took some big plays from Mike
Tamburro and some shots that went just wide that cost Union a few
chances to tie it up.  Even so, Union's only goal came on a 5 on 3
power play advantage.  You can only say "we're just missing the net"
and "we ran into another hot goalie" so many times.  But it was still
a fun game to watch, and Union had some good chances to tie with a
power play and their net empty before Tim Regan hit the empty net on a
tough shot from center ice.
 
A few other things about the game and the rivalry:
 
- Oranges.  For those who don't know, this has been going on for at
least the 8 years I've been watching Union hockey.  Before Union
joined the ECAC, it was Union and Hamilton whose fans threw oranges at
each others' teams.  When that rivalry ended, I guess RPI became an
instant rival and the "tradition" continued.  While I've never thrown
one or even brought one in, I did take one home after one of the games
against Hamilton a few years back.  The goalie who was the target of
the oranges that night was Guy Hebert, who is just a little more
well-known today..
 
- Goalies being checked/crashed into.  I've never seen anything like
it.  Tamburro was checked or crashed into a few times and Shtrom at
least once.  A few resulted in penalties.  The last one, when Union's
Mark Szucs crashed into Tamburro as he skated from behind the net to
get back into his crease, seemed to be a fairly solid hit which
Tamburro apparently didn't see coming.  I'll admit that I don't really
know the rule, but isn't there some limit to how much a goalie can
come out to play the puck in traffic before he becomes fair game, at
least to unintentional contact?  Union's Trevor Koenig probably comes
out to play the puck as much as anyone, and I've never seen him get in
the way of the skaters.
 
- Nets coming off.  Anyone know how the net came off behind Tamburro
when the play was in the other end, only to be noticed as Union was
breaking in?
 
- Achilles Crowd.  It was a good crowd, and you could really tell the
people were into this one right from the beginning.  A far cry from
what we saw at the fieldhouse last week when it seemed that half of
the fans showed up late and didn't make a whole lot of noise until
late.  I have concluded that the DJ who plays music for Union in place
of/in addition to a band doesn't really pay a whole lot of attention
to what's going on in the game.  More than once, the crowd was doing
very well on its own getting into the game only to have their cheers
drowned out by YMCA blaring yet again.
 
--
Jim Teresco - [log in to unmask] - http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~terescoj/
Research Assistant, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Department of Computer Science, Scientific Computation Research Center
 
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