Friday night, Rensselaer beat Brown 4-1 in Providence. This is RPI's first ECAC league game since December 9, and it's nice to see that they didn't sleepwalk through the entire game, although comments from RPI players indicate that they played a bad first period. The Engineers did not fare as well on Saturday, losing to Harvard 5-2. This game was decided on special teams, as Harvard converted on 3 of 4 power play opportunities, while RPI went 0-6.
This media accounts of these games were probably as interesting as the games themselves. Read on if you are interested in hearing about the subtleties.
Brown Coach to Media: It's the Ref's Fault
There isn't a lamer excuse for a loss than blaming the referee, but Brown Coach
Roger Grillo is quoted as saying, "Losing Keith {Kirley} {to a five minute major penaly} didn't help.... Not only did that call give them the game winner, it also messed up our lines and power play. Keith is a key offensive player for us."
So, did he deserve the penalty, Coach, or didn't he?
Times Union Claims RPI-Brown Game Was Actually Played at Clarkson
Here's a passage from the
Times Union article by Dan Hickling. See if you can spot the mistake:
But first, the Engineers (10-4-1 overall, 4-2-1 ECAC)
had to shake off some first-period blahs at Cheel Arena.
That they got out of the period in a scoreless tie was a
tribute to freshman goalie Nathan Marsters, who wound
up with 32 stops.
If you guessed that
Cheel Arena is at Clarkson not at Brown, you are right. Brown plays at
Meehan Auditorium. Hey, Times Union, we salute you when you write informative articles, but we're laughing right now. This is the kind of mistake you might expect to see in the Newark Star-Ledger's coverage of Princeton, not the Times Union's coverage of Rensselaer.
Is the US College Hockey Reporter at Harvard Biased Toward the Home Team? Or, Is RPI Just a Bunch of Poor Sports?
Apparently, there is something left unsaid in the
USCHO report about the RPI-Harvard game. Harvard forward
Dom Moore scored his first career hat trick to lead Harvard to victory. But, the USCHO reporter
Michael Volonnino must have thought that he was being treated disrespectfully by RPI coach
Dan Fridgen. Otherwise, why would the article say something like this?
All three goals by Moore came on very hard, accurate shots.
"I was feeling especially accurate in warmups today," Moore said. "It was my first
collegiate hat trick, that was something very special."
RPI coach Dan Fridgen tried, with futility, to downplay Moore's feat after the game.
"Harvard did a good job finding him when he was open," Fridgen said. "It doesn't take
Mario Lemieux to score the goals he did. You could've put them in with one arm on the
stick."
Sounds like Fridgen was upset with the outcome of the game, otherwise, why would he be so sarcastic? But, you have to ask yourself if the entire passage was accurate, because there is no way that Dom Moore said what he is quoted as saying unless he was told what Fridgen said before Moore had a chance to speak.
Also, what question did the reporter ask in order to get Dom Moore to say "I was feeling especially accurate in warmups today"? Is it possible that some or all of this part of the story was fabricated? Hmmm....