RCNJ

It would have been a good weekend to be in Troy, as the Rensselaer men's hockey team split with Cornell and Colgate on the last week of the ECAC Hockey League regular season.

• Friday, February 25, RPI 2 - Cornell 0: Mattias Lange got his first ECACHL regular season shutout in a significant upset. Matt Graves said that there was a "playoff feel in Engineers' upset" in his article in the Times Union. Oren Eizenman and Kevin Croxton scored the goals for RPI about a minute and a half apart in the first period.

• Saturday, February 26, Colgate 2 - RPI 1: The USCHO headline says what you need to know about this game: Lucky Bounces Lift Colgate to Victory. Rensselaer dominated, outshooting Colgate 36 to 18. Colgate benefitted from a rule change that occurred this year, because the game winning goal at 6:19 of the third period deflected off their own player's skate into the Engineer net. The NCAA changed the rule this year so that a shot deflecting off an offensive player's skate counts as a goal as long as the puck is not intentionally kicked.

  Rensselaer lost the potential tying goal about a minute and a half later. With about 12 minutes left in regulation, Keith MCWilliams long shot appeared to enter the goal and bounce straight back out. Referee Alex Dell didn't see the puck enter the goal, and neither did the Goal Judge, so play was allowed to continue. Video replay is not used during the regular season of ECACHL Division I games.
  

Comments on the Colgate Game: From the descriptions I've read of this game, Colgate was extremely lucky to come away with the win. However, I can't blame the officials for RPI's loss in this case.

• The ruling on the Colgate winning goal was correct according to the NCAA rules. (Rule 6-18a on page 60 of the 2006 NCAA rules.)
• Any hockey referee will tell you that you can't call what you don't see. If Alex Dell didn't see the puck enter the goal and the goal judge and the linesmen didn't either, it shouldn't be called a goal.

Rensselaer's tying goal in the Princeton game last Friday night is an excellent example of how hard the officials try to get into position to see the puck enter the goal. Assistant Referee Dave Brown was in perfect position on the goal line to call Kevin Croxton's shot a goal after it trickled over the goal line.

The Assistant Referee's normal position is at the blue line, not the goal line. Dave Brown was on the goal line in that case because he was covering for the Referee who had been caught behind the play due to a Princeton turnover in the neutral zone. If the Assistant Referee didn't get to the goal line in that case to see the puck cross the line, RPI probably would have lost that game by one goal instead of tying.

That's why I think that luck still plays a factor in hockey, even at the Division I level.

Playoffs against Quinnipiac next week: The Engineers will take on the Quinnipiac Bobcats in ECACHL playoff action this weekend at Houston Field House. Quinnipiac finished tenth in the ECACHL this season, lost to Rensselaer on Black Friday in Troy back in November, and tied us in Connecticut last weekend. This is a best-of-three game series. Games games begin on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (if necessary) at 7:00pm.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A page one article in the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal is called Who's Going to Want Grandma's Hoard Of Antique Gnomes? It's about what happens to the artifacts that a collector accumulates during his life once he is no longer able to look after them.

One section of the article that may interest some Rensselaer alumni talked about Tom Wyman and his slide rule collection:

In Palo Alto, Calif., Tom Wyman, 78, has about 900 antique slide rules. Mr. Wyman belongs to the 430-member Oughtred Society, named for William Oughtred, who in the 1620s invented an early form of the slide rule. The group hosts lectures to entice youngsters to embrace slide-rule collecting. But Mr. Wyman says such "missionary work" is a hard sell. "It's quite a challenge to give a talk that keeps everybody awake -- both the 80-year-old collectors and the 12-year-olds in the audience."

I did a Google search and found that The Oughtred Society has an extensive website and has had East Coast meetings in East Windsor, NJ regularly. The most recent meeting in our area was in 2004.

If you have a collection of slide rules from your pre-calculator days, maybe you too would be interested in meeting fellow fans of "historical calculating instruments." [ Registration required to read most articles in The Wall Street Journal ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Rensselaer men's hockey team stormed back with two goals in the last 12 minutes of the third period to tie Princeton 4-4 last night at Baker Rink. Both teams played well throughout the game, although the momentum clearly swung from RPI to Princeton and back to RPI over the course of regulation time.

The Engineers took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Oren Eizenman and Chris Hussey. Patrick Neunborfer scored for Princeton with 2:53 left in the first to narrow the Tigers deficit to one goal. Princeton increasingly had the momentum in the second period, with goals by Kevin Westgarth and Darroll Powe-- both in the last three minutes of the period.

It looked bad for RPI when Sebastian Borza scored his first goal of the season with 17:57 left in regulation to make the score 4-2 Princeton. But Keith MCWilliams scored a power play goal about six minutes later to make it close.

With about six minutes left in the third period, Kurt Colling picked up the puck off a turnover, and fed it to Kevin Croxton who sped in on a semi-breakaway. Croxton's shot rebounded off of Princeton goalie Eric Leroux and went high in the air before landing in the crease area behind the goalie. The puck trickled over the goal line after it hit Leroux a second or third time. The linesman actually made the call that the puck had entered the goal, because the referee had been caught behind the play due to the Princeton turnover.

The remaining six minutes of regulation time and five minutes of overtime were scoreless. The teams played even hockey and aggressively tried to score on each other. Rensselaer arguably had the best chance in overtime when it was down a man due to a penalty late in the third period that carried over. A Princeton defenseman picked up the puck behind his own net and rushed a pass intended for a teammate that went off an agressive Engineer forechecker and nearly went into Princeton's goal.

Both goalies played very good games. Eric Leroux made 25 saves for Princeton. Mattias Lange saved 33 for RPI.

The Engineers remain in seventh place in the ECACHL, one point behind Union and one point ahead of Clarkson. They move on to play Quinnipiac tonight at 7pm

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Rensselaer takes on Princeton University in men's ice hockey at Baker Rink on Princeton's campus on Friday, February 17, 2006. Faceoff is at 7:00pm. Come join members of the RCNJ and the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Rensselaer Alumni Association at the RCNJ's best attended event of the year:

• Records: Rensselaer 13-14-4 overall, 7-7-4 in ECACHL, 7th place. Princeton 9-15-1 overall, 6-11-1 in ECACHL, 10th place.
• Game notes: from Rensselaer Sports Information (PDF) | from Princeton Sports Information
• This Week in the ECACHL: Feb. 16, 2006 from USCHO.com
• Driving Directions to Baker Rink may be found on the Princeton Athletics Web Site. Baker Rink is part of Sports Complex 2.
• Mass Transit: Take Amtrak or New Jersey Transit to the Princeton Junction train station via the Northeast Corridor Line. From there, change to the rail shuttle for the Princeton Station.
• Campus Map: Princeton University's Main Campus, map in PDF format.
• After the Game: Join us at Super Star East Buffet, 311 Nassau Park Blvd, Princeton, NJ, (609) 987-9168 for a post game meal and socializing (Chinese food). Directions via Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Rensselaer Men's Hockey Team has swept the weekend series with Yale and Brown at Houston Field House.

• Friday, February 10, RPI 2 - Yale 1: RPI Holds Down Yale as Matt Angers-Goulet scores two goals for the Engineers.
• Saturday, February 11, RPI 4 - Brown 2 in the Big Red Freakout. The men's team is now undefeated in the last 15 Freakouts. USCHO reports that Mathias Lange stopped 21 of 23 shots to cement the win. Campus.News reports that the team raised $10,000 for cancer research.

Next week: Rensselaer travels to Princeton on Friday night at 7pm. Hope to see you there at the best attended RCNJ event of the year. Saturday night Rensselaer vs Quinnipiac at 7pm at Northford Ice Pavilion in Northford, CT.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

RPIAthletics.com reports that the Rensselaer Men's Hockey Team will raise money for cancer research in honor of Kirk MacDonald at Saturday's 29th Annual Big Red Freakout. This gives the hundreds of alumni and thousands of students who will attend the game another opportunity to make a donation to the Lance Armstrong Foundation in Kirk's honor.

Why are members of the team shaving their heads and asking for donations to benefit testicular cancer awareness and cancer research? Kirk was diagnosed with metastatic testicular cancer right after the end of the 2004-05 hockey season. He endured four rounds of chemo therapy, an extended hospital stay, and several operations in order to rid himself of the disease. For more information, check out Background on Kirk MacDonald's Testicular Cancer Ordeal elsewhere on RCNJ.org.

The team has raised over $6,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation so far this season and hopes to double that amount this weekend.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kirk MacDonald: Senior forward
for the RPI Men's Hockey Team.
[ Photo: Rensselaer Athletics ]

Some Rensselaer alumni are only now hearing the story of Kirk MacDonald, the Rensselaer senior who lead the RPI Hockey team in scoring in 2004-05. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer just after the season ended last spring and had extensive medical treatement to fight the metatisizing cancer.

I wrote this email to members of the Rensselaer Club of New Jersey leadership committee on October 21:

Guys:

An article appeared in yesterday's Albany Times-Union headlined Cancer orderal sidelines RPI star that caught my attention. Kirk MacDonald, a senior who lead the men's hockey team in scoring in 2004-05, had a press conference on Wednesday to announce that he would not play this season because he is recovering from a serious case of metastatic testicular cancer.

According to the article, he had an orchiectomy at Albany Med in April, had four chemo cycles, and ended up in the hospital for 65 days in Vancouver BC for procedures to remove metastisies and deal with complications. He got out of the hospital two weeks ago, but was down to 160 pounds when he left:

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=410767&category=SPORTS&newsdate=10/20/2005

A member of my family had testicular cancer three or four years ago, so this is a personal thing for me. Testicular cancer is a terrible shock to a man in his 20s or 30s. Most men who get it have never seriously contemplated their own mortality.

I will make contact with the Hockey Office at RPI and try to get more details. Please respond if you want me to provide you with more information. I'm at least going to send Kirk a note telling him I'm raising money for cancer research and offering any help I can provide.

-- Dave Aiello '89

[ Note: I would have published this note on RCNJ.org, but our publishing system wasn't working at that time and didn't come back on-line until December 13. ]

Other articles that appeared on Internet about Kirk's cancer treatment:

• RPI's MacDonald Diagnosed With Testicular Cancer RPI's MacDonald Decides to Wait
• RPI's MacDonald To Apply For Medical Redshirt
• Black Friday Lives On (MacDonald's return to campus after treatment, RPI vs Quinnipiac, November 11, 2005)

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

RPI Hockey fell to 11-14-4 (5-7-4 in the ECACHL) by losing and tying games against crosstown rival Union College this weekend. On Friday night, Scott Seney's key goal and assist spoiled Kevin Croxton's return to the Engineer lineup in an extremely tight 3-2 game in Schenectady. Croxton had been out for almost a month with an ankle injury and said as late as Thursday that he doubted he'd be able to play this weekend.

Keith MCWilliams and Jake Luthi each scored second period power play goals for Rensselaer. Freshman goalie Mattias Lange made 19 saves. This was, unfortunately, RPI's fourth consecutive loss. They've played their last five games on the road.

On Saturday night, Mattias Lange and Union goaltender Kris Mayotte put on a show at the Field House. They stopped 57 of 59 shots and kept the game scoreless until five minutes into the third period. The game ended in a 1-1 tie after a five minute overtime.

Andrew Lord scored the Engineers only goal on a two-on-one about five minutes into the third period. Lane Caffaro scored about two and a half minutes later on a one-time that snuck through Lange's five hole.

RPI is now tied with Yale in seventh place. These two teams will face each other on Friday night. Saturday, Brown University will face Rensselaer in the 29th annual Big Red Freakout.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I received an email the other day announcing that the Delaware Valley Chapter of the RAA is being reactivated. Martin Kosto '99 is now chapter president. Check out their webpage on AlumServ for more information on an appearance by Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson at the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts on March 16.

For more info you can email Martin at kostom [at] alum.rpi.edu.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)