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Many of us watched RPI thoroughly dominate Princeton and Yale this weekend. On Friday night, Kevin Broad broke a 1-1 tie with a power play goal with 2:14 left in the first period. The Engineers never looked back, cruising to a 5-1 win. Kevin Croxton, Ryan Shields, Brad Farynuk, and Kirk MacDonald also scored for Rensselaer. Nathan Marsters made 31 saves, and deserved a shutout.

Saturday night, Rensselaer played a very similar game, this time against Yale. The game was scoreless for the entire first period and seemed even to many in attendance. However, Oren Eizenman and Kevin Croxton scored goals 16 seconds apart early in the second period, and RPI rolled to a 6-0 victory. Eizenman ended the night with two goals and two assists. Croxton had two goals. Vic Pereira and Matt McNeely also scored for the Engineers. Nathan Marsters made 36 saves to earn the shutout.

The regular season is now over. Rensselaer finished in a tie for fourth place, but fell to fifth as a result of head-to-head record against Dartmouth (0-1-1). The Engineers will open the playoffs at 7:00pm on Friday in the Fieldhouse, against ECAC 12th place finisher, Princeton.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This morning, Henry Scheuer submitted some little known facts about the RPI Men's Hockey Team:

This weekend dear ol' RPI will be playing Princeton and Yale at their respective venues in Princeton, NJ and New Haven, CT.

In an effort to make the hockey attendance experience more meaningful for all, I feel that the following statistics (courtesy of The Sports Network via COMTEX and accessed on my BLOOMBERG) highlights the team's strengths (on a national level!!!):

1. # 7 in Scoring Defense with a 2.31 goals against average (BC is #2 1.75; Cornell is #3 1.81; Brown #4 1.85; Colgate #5 2.19).

2. # 16 in Scoring Margin with a 0.63 advantage (BC is #2 1.91; Maine #3 1.84; Colgate #7 0.94; UNH #8 0.91; Brown & Cornell tied for # 11 0.74).

3. #13 in Power Play Percentage with 20.0% (39 out of 195). (UNH #3 22.9%; Dartmouth #5 21.3%; Providence #6 20.8%, Colgate #7 20.6%; Mercyhurst (!!!) #9 20.5%; Brown #11 20.3%;Mass-Lowell #12 20.3%).

4. # 12 Penalty Killing Percentage with 86% (22 goals scored against The Red Machine in 157 opportunities) (I'll spare you the details....getting bored with this blur of numbers.......).
   

In summary, watch RPI's defense and their special teams (power plays and penalty killing) and above all.......ENJOY THE GAME.

RPI at Princeton, 7:00pm on Friday. RPI at Yale, 7:00pm on Saturday. Hope to see you there.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "I've been extremely busy with work since I got back from vacation, so I was unable to point out last weekends men's ice hockey results until now."

"On Friday night, Cornell won a close game with RPI by a final score of 2-1. Everyone who saw the game said it was defensive in nature, with a lot of clutching and grabbing. In games like that, it's important to not retaliate when the opponent is about to receive a penalty. Rensselaer could have had a power play with 1:25 to go in regulation, but Kirk MacDonald evened things up by slashing Cornell's Chris Abbott back. Maybe that was the difference in the game."

"Vic Pereira scored the lone goal for RPI, on an assist from Conrad Barnes. Nathan Marsters had 21 saves."

"Saturday, Colgate came to the Field House and spoiled Senior Night, winning by a 3-2 score. Despite a furious rally in the third period, RPI probably lost this game because it took too many penalties. Colgate scored two power play goals, while Rensselaer went 0-for-4 in man up situations."

"Vic Pereira and Blake Pickett had the goals for the Engineers. Nathan Marsters made 27 saves."

"As a result, RPI falls into sole possession of fifth place. They must win both games at Princeton and Yale this weekend to earn a bye in the first round of the ECAC Playoffs."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Men's Hockey Team extended its winning streak to three with key wins against Harvard and Brown. On Friday night, the Engineers did to Harvard what other teams had been doing to Rensselaer: they struck for two unanswered goals to snatch a 3-2 victory from the jaws of defeat.

Scott Basiuk scored two goals for RPI including the game tying goal. Ryan Shields scored the game winner with 0:54 remaining in regulation. Nathan Marsters made 34 saves for the victory.

On Saturday night, RPI jumped out to a 1-0 second period lead against Brown on the strength of Scott Basiuk's power play goal. In the third period, the Engineers poured it on with three unanswered goals to score a dominating 4-0 victory. Kirk MacDonald, Ben Barr, and Ryan Shields scored the third period goals.

Senior goaltender Nathan Marsters made 30 saves to shut out the Bears, impressing a lot of people in the building who had expected this sort of dominating performance from Brown's goalie, Yann Danis.

Summarizing the weekend, RPI coach Dan Fridgen said:

This weekend was huge. We played hard for all 120 minutes this weekend, starting last night with Harvard. The guys are playing with confidence. After coming back the way we did last night, we had a lot of confidence coming into this one.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "Kathleen and I were able to attend all of the Alumni Hockey Weekend festivities at Houston Field House on Saturday. These events were focused on the 1954 NCAA Championship Team and honored its members and their families."

"In the morning, a breakfast was held for the players of the current team, the hockey alumni, and their families. Each of the members of the 1954 team had an opportunity to speak, including head coach Ned Harkness, now 82 years old. This breakfast had a very large turnout which made it difficult for me to meet everyone that I hadn't met before. I had the opportunity to talk to John Magadini, the only 1954 team member who lives in New Jersey, and Gord Peterkin, the member of the team who scored the game winning goal in the championship game. That was a very nice experience."

"The breakfast was immediately followed by the Alumni Hockey Game. Three of my classmates (from the Class of 1989) who played for RPI attended Alumni Hockey Weekend for the first time. Graeme Townshend played in the game and we played together on the same forward line at times. Steve Moore and Rob Schena also attended the game, but did not play. Steve Duncan also attended the game, but he has played in the Alumni Game previously. This was Rob Schena and Steve Moore's first visits to campus since we graduated 15 years ago."

"Gord Peterkin '55 played a few shifts in the Alumni Game, probably setting the record for on-ice participation. There were a number of strong performances in the game, by alumni like Tony Hejna, Dino Macaluso, Graeme Townshend, Mike Robinson, and Scott Prekaskie."

"There was time between the Alumni Game and the Big Red Freakout for people to relax and possibly attend the Alumni Ice House before the Big Red Freakout."

"The Freakout was totally sold out this year. John Cloninger told me that he was told that the seats that were not reserved for the hockey alumni had sold out several weeks ago. This was obvious because the Clarkson Pep Band was unable to attend, and relatively few Clarkson fans got seats."

"The pre game included a 30-minute ceremony honoring the 1954 team. Each member of the team was presented with an NCAA Championship ring by President Shirley Ann Jackson and Athletic Director Ken Ralph. The custom of awarding championship rings had not developed in 1954, but has since become a standard for national championship teams at the college and professional levels. I did not expect RPI to do this, and my wife and I were thrilled that the school made this gesture."

"During the first intermission, the remaining hockey alumni were introduced to the sell-out crowd. Each year that I have attended the Alumni Hockey Weekend, we've had more former players and managers return. This year we had more alumni to introduce than ever before, and I hope the trend continues." [Photo courtesy of Rensselaer Athletics]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "This past weekend, my wife Kathleen and I drove up to Troy to participate in the annual RPI Hockey Alumni Weekend. This year, the weekend included two men's varsity games against St. Lawrence and Clarkson, a breakfast for hockey alumni and their families honoring the 1954 NCAA Championship Team, and the annual Alumni Game."

"Due to work schedules and weather condition, we didn't arrive in time to see Rensselaer play St. Lawrence on Friday night. The Times Union reported that Engineers faied to capitalize on a number of scoring chances late in the third period, and lost to St. Lawrence 3-2. Although St. Lawrence is in ninth place, they swept the season series with RPI."

"Kevin Croxton and Nick Economakos each had a goal and an assist to lead RPI. Nathan Marsters made 28 saves for RPI. SLU's goaltender Mike McKenna made 31 saves for the victory and came up big down the stretch."

"On Saturday night, RPI scored three unanswered goals in the third period to win a convincing 4-2 victory over Clarkson in the 27th Annual Big Red Freakout. Unlike the 2002 Freakout when Rensselaer won in overtime, victory in this game was never in doubt in my mind. RPI has a lot more talent than Clarkson this year, and there was too much magic in the building for us to lose."

"Kirk MacDonald, Oren Eizenman, Ben Barr, and Kevin Broad scored for the Engineers. Nathan Marsters made 29 saves for the victory."

"For those of you who did not see the Freakout, it was one of the oddest college hockey games I've seen in a long time. Referee Dan Murphy called a lot of penalties, but it was not a particularly rough game or a mismatch. A lot of the penalties were obstruction and unsportsmanlike conduct fouls, which don't usually get called as often as they were in this game. As a result, the game almost resembeled an inter-squad scrimmage where both teams were working on power play and penalty killing situations throughout."

"RPI went 3-for-9 on the power play, and generated a lot of offensive chances. Clarkson went 0-for-10 in man advantage situations, although I think that several of their power plays were shorter than two minutes. RPI's special teams played very well this weekend. In fact, the biggest question I left Troy with is can they score goals consistantly when they are at equal strength?"

"Rensselaer ends the weekend with a record of 15-11-2, 9-6-1 in the ECAC. This is good for third place. The Engineers are in a three way tie with Cornell and Dartmouth, although RPI has more conference wins than either of them. The team hits the road for key games against Harvard and Brown next weekend. More of us will have an opportunity to see the team in person-- the Princeton hockey game is only two weeks away."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Albany Times Union ran a series of articles about this weekend's Alumni Hockey and Big Red Freakout festivities in today's edition. Chief among them are two articles about the 1954 NCAA Championship Team which is being honored on the 50th anniversary of their achievements.

• RPI glory frozen in time tells the story of how 82-year old coach Ned Harkness and 11 players from the 14-member team are expected to return. The players from the 1954 team are all about 70 years old.

• After RPI tells what each member of the team has done since they left Troy.
  

The "After RPI" article needs a bit of correction. John Magadini '55 who now lives in Far Hills, NJ, was a member of the 1954 NCAA Championship Hockey Team and the 1952 NCAA Championship Lacrosse Team. He is the head coach of the boys' varsity hockey team at The Pingry School in Martinsville, NJ.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN Money reports on the most valuable undergraduate degrees as reported in the 2004 survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. According to the survey of average starting salaries, these are the top 10 undergraduate degrees:

1. Computer engineering, $53,117
2. Chemical engineering, $52,563
3. Electrical engineering, $49,926
4. Mechanical engineering, $49,088
5. Computer science, $48,656
6. Industrial/manufacturing engineering, $48,283
7. Information sciences, $42,108
8. Accounting, $42,045
9. Construction science, $41,232
10. Management information systems/business data processing, $41,103

Do we have to point out that all of these degrees are offered at Rensselaer?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Friday, the Albany Times Union gleefully reported that Rensselaer's men's hockey team scored a 3.08 GPA in the fall semester with 20 of 27 players being named to the Dean's List. According to the article:

In fact, RPI's student-athletes posted an average GPA of 3.06, which ranked higher than the general student population of non-athletes (3.01).

Reports like this have occurred regularly during the tenure of Rensselaer Head Coach Dan Fridgen. Congratulations to the coaching staff, the academic advisors, and especially to the players.

The article goes on to point out that the women's hockey team achieved an even higher team GPA, 3.24. While this is also a wonderful achievement, the current players are not scholarship athletes.

Administrators from colleges and universities that opposed NCAA Proposition 65 often claimed that Division I athletes at Division III schools were not student-athletes in the truest sense of the word. The academic achievements of RPI's Division I athletes demonstrate that this reasoning is fallacious.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The RPI Men's Hockey Team almost got swept this weekend on a trip to Dartmouth and Vermont, but managed a split thanks to an overtime goal on Saturday night.

On Friday night, Rensselaer rallied from a 2-0 deficit to a 3-2 third period lead against Dartmouth. The lead was not safe, however, as The Big Green struck for two unanswered goals in the last two minutes of regulation enroute to a 4-3 victory. USCHO reported that Kevin Croxton missed a shot at an open net with five minutes to go in regulation that would have given the Engineers a commanding two goal lead.

Goaltender Nathan Marsters made 31 saves in the loss. Brad Farynuk, Scott Basiuk, and Matt McNeely scored for RPI.

On Saturday, Rensselaer capitalized on the aggressive play of Vermont in overtime and converted an odd-man rush into a Vic Pereira goal. The result was, as USCHO said, "a hard-fought {3-2} road victory over Vermont at sold-out Gutterson Fieldhouse."

Kevin Croxton came back from the frustration of Friday night with a two goal effort on Saturday. Nathan Marsters made 19 saves.

RPI ends the weekend with a 14-10-2 overall record. They're 8-5-1 in ECAC league play.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)