RPI barely escpaed Colgate tonight in a very close, penalty filled game. At times the Engineers showed the brilliance that helped them beat Harvard but for the rest of the game they looked young, inexperienced, and even immature. If Friday's game was called too loosely this game certainly made up for it. I have no idea how many penalties were called in the first period suffice to say that there was maybe 2 minutes of 5-5 play. RPI got on the board quickly and seemed to dispel any doubts about Friday night. But that quickly changed as they started taking some very dumb penalties. Rob Hearn and Harry Ammian seemed to have decided that they were going to call everything tonight, and that they did. I have to admit, however, that they called a very good game and did a good job of keeping it in hand despite a minor brawl at the end of the game. It seemed that Colgate was going to revert to their old style of play that they showed when they were here two weeks ago. But it was actually RPI that took the brunt of the clutch and grab penalties. In fact, RPI went for about 5 minutes at the end of the first period being down by at least one man and several times by two. This continued for the first half of the second period and many of the fans were vociferously booing Ammian and Hearn though they did a good job. The good thing is that RPI killed off all these penalties until their luck finally ran out halfway through the second when a shot from the point on the power play was blocked by Neil Little before being knocked into the net by a Colgate player. But RPI didn't let up and finally decided to play hockey. They did for about 3 minutes and managed to get a goal out of it. But then they fell back on their heels, almost as if they were protecting the lead. The finished out the second period barely hanging onto the lead. The third period finally showed some great stuff from RPI. They played some of the best hockey I've seen them play for about 10 minutes and got a two goal lead and then a three goal lead as they went up 5-2. But then they again tried to protect their lead and nearly lost it. Colgate quickly managed a goal without about 10 minutes left to close to 5-3. Adam Bartell took a REAL stupid penalty shortly after that and it didn't take long for Colgate to bang one in to close to 5-4 with about 6 minutes left. Thoughts of St. Lawrence must have returned to the minds of many of the guys who were on last years team. But RPI hung on thanks to a couple stellar plays by Neil Little and some great defensive work by Brad Layzell. Layzell single handedly cleared the puck two or three times to keep Colgate out of the zone. As the buzzer sounded, much to the elation of all the RPI fans, a bit of a scuffle broke out between Cam Cuthbert (designated goon) and a Colgate player after one of them cross- checked the other one. Nothing arose from it, though both teams were on the ice and the referees were being distracted by another little skirmish in front of Neil Little and the RPI net. I hope the team learns some important lessons from this game. They need ot realize that if they're going to win championships they need to play 60 minutes of hockey. All the clutching and grabbing has to stop and they need to start skating the puck a bit more. This team certainly has the potential. I've said that all year. But in the last two games against Colgate they've shown that inexperience that everyone keeps talking about. Nonetheless, I expect to be planning a trip to Lake Placid by tomorrow evening to see RPI take on Clarkson. BTW, congratulations to both the Crimson and the Golden Knights for their wins tonight and advance to the semi-finals in Lake Placid. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Daniel Orchard-Hays Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute '95 "Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------