RPI Engineers 24-25

[DrDemento]

Agree with everything here from Dr.D and 25+, with one significant edit. We have 3 great D players. People seem to underestimate the ability of Taylor Larsen. She is a rock back there...punishes people when they need to be punished , and makes a strong contribution to the offence.

Glad you added her. She has been very solid this year and in the past. Defense has not been our problem so far this year. Goal tending has been very impressive so far this year as both girls have shown they are capable. We simply need to develop scoring up front.

[hab]

A new goalie commitment, not sure which year...https://www.instagram.com/p/DCCSa6HODEj/. Sadie Bellissimo.

[rpi82]

A new goalie commitment, not sure which year...https://www.instagram.com/p/DCCSa6HODEj/. Sadie Bellissimo.

Cushing Academy lists her as a ‘26. I don’t know how good their girls team is, but Cushing has a very strong program on the boys side.

[DrDemento]

Girls put out tremendous effort just now at SLU. Got off to a 2 goal lead before giving up a late first period goal on an SLU power play. Late in the second Trnkova called for a 5 minute major for boarding but this one was very questionable. SLU scored once in the second and again early in the third on this extended power play. Looked like doom and gloom but the girls played most of the third extremely well and Keating was a wall in goal. Got a goal to tie on a perfectly executed 2 on 1 from Bailey and we went to OT. Scoreless for the OT and we went to a shootout which we were able to win 2-0. if you looked at this game 5 on 5 we were at least equal to a very good SLU squad and actually would have been up 3-0. All 3 of the SLU goals scored on the power play. Very exciting and satisfying game on the road. Tomorrow they face a tough task at Clarkson at 3 PM.

[25+years]

Watched both games this weekend. No question in my mind Keating kept them in both games. Against SLU this allowed them to tie and “win” in the shootout. Was not enough versus Clarkson. Far too many turnovers and compared to earlier games I watched their breakout from their own end was anything but crisp.

[DrDemento]

Watched both games this weekend. No question in my mind Keating kept them in both games. Against SLU this allowed them to tie and “win” in the shootout. Was not enough versus Clarkson. Far too many turnovers and compared to earlier games I watched their breakout from their own end was anything but crisp.

Against Clarkson we played without one of our most potent weapons - Trnkova. Considered our best defensive player we did quite well to only give up a power play goal for almost the entire 60 minutes until allowing an empty net goal at the end. With her out of the line up the offense suffered considerably as she is also one of our best at bringing the puck up ice from our own end. We gave up no even strength goals in the North Country which is something I would usually never expect from either the men's or women's teams. You are correct that we turned the puck over far too often in our own zone and the breakout plays were disorganized but I think missing #89 was a big part of that. These were 2 exciting games and we had several offensive chances that could have made the final results a bit better.

[hab]

I agree with Dr. D....the Engineers have been exceeding my expectations regarding how competitive they have been in the ECAC so far, given how lackluster they seemed against weak non-conference opponents.
However, as a big fan of Trnkova I think that she needs to step up as a team player and turn down the aggressiveness just a notch. She leads the entire NCAA in penalty minutes by a wide margin and the team does not have a great PK percentage so far. Her penalties have hurt the team, and say what you will about some of the calls, she cannot continue on this path if the team is going to win close games in the ECAC.

[DrDemento]

I agree with Dr. D....the Engineers have been exceeding my expectations regarding how competitive they have been in the ECAC so far, given how lackluster they seemed against weak non-conference opponents.
However, as a big fan of Trnkova I think that she needs to step up as a team player and turn down the aggressiveness just a notch. She leads the entire NCAA in penalty minutes by a wide margin and the team does not have a great PK percentage so far. Her penalties have hurt the team, and say what you will about some of the calls, she cannot continue on this path if the team is going to win close games in the ECAC.

Spot on. This team has shown already that no one (perhaps with the exception of Wisconsin) can take them lightly. They had one really bad defensive effort (Cornell) but have shown up well defensively virtually every other game. i have watched all the games except two non-televised and Trnkova has indeed taken some rather ill advised penalties. Agree that some of the calls have just been more based on reputation than the actual contact involved but she has to be aware of this and play with a touch less aggressiveness. Hard to do when you have been laying with and against boys before coming to Troy. I remember well a similar situation with Cindy Acropolis back 25+ years ago. She played for our local boys team here in NJ and played 4 years at RPI with a wee bit of an edge. Her accomplishments in Troy however, will probably never be matched in both goals and penalty minutes. I suppose there will be a fine line for Trnkova to tread for the entire time she is at RPI to do something similar. I have not seen any defensive player on the girl's side with her skill level and can only hope that she can spend enough time on the ice instead of in the box for the next 2+ years to be the player she can be. Perhaps exposure to Sophie Helgeson this year. who plays an extremely solid defensive style without taking many penalty minutes, will help in that regard.

[hab]

To further illustrate the point that Dr. D. has been making about how well RPI has been playing 5 on 5 (i.e. excluding PP goals and ENG goals), here is what their ECAC record would look like based just on 5 on 5:
Home W vs Dartmouth 3-0
Home W vs Harvard 3-0
Road Loss to #5 Colgate 3-1
Road Loss to #10 Cornell 6-0
Road Win over #9 SLU 3-0
Road Tie vs #6 Clarkson 0-0
That would be 3 wins, 2 losses and a tie after completing their two toughest road trips on their schedule. Not too shabby, if not for penalties and a weak PK.

[hab]

And to be clear, I am not suggesting that RPI should move away from it's tough style of play. It is part of their success formula. They want to be a tough team to play against. I think that opposing forwards know when Trnkova or Larsen are on the ice, and that makes a difference. Also, love the way that some of our forwards are willing to get on top of the blue paint in the opposing end (thinking of Christof in particular) and wish we had more of that. Tough to balance that style of play while staying out of the box...but that is the challenge.

[DrDemento]

And to be clear, I am not suggesting that RPI should move away from it's tough style of play. It is part of their success formula. They want to be a tough team to play against. I think that opposing forwards know when Trnkova or Larsen are on the ice, and that makes a difference. Also, love the way that some of our forwards are willing to get on top of the blue paint in the opposing end (thinking of Christof in particular) and wish we had more of that. Tough to balance that style of play while staying out of the box...but that is the challenge.

One of the problems is that officials at times make calls based on reputation. While a team that takes a ton of penalties might get called for something that is borderline, another team that is rarely in the box often gets the benefit of the doubt. Saw this many times over the years with our men's team. There is a lot of gray areas in penalty calling in the game of hockey at all levels. i do think i today with all the video reviews and with 4 officials on the ice to see things, we should expect less of that but so far this season I am not so sure that is the case.
We have been playing a tougher brand of hockey than in many previous years, but following this team has become quite exciting and if we are able to develop a bit more offense from the front lines, we will see that reflected in the final scores.

[DrDemento]

Just watched the ladies win 3-2 in a rather even and tough game with Merrimack. The girls were playing a bit short handed with several ladies out with injuries including the much needed #89 on defense. The fourth line though came to play. They were the best line on the ice for virtually all their shifts and responsible for 2 of the 3 goals. Lots of up and down action and not a single power play opportunity provided for either team. Just one set of matching penalties giving rise to some 4 on 4 play. Keating was again very solid in goal making some difficult saves. Biggest criticism remains - fr too many defensive zone turnovers. And far too many mistakes in not clearing the zone when given the opportunity often setting up some good scoring changes against us. The two teams play again tomorrow afternoon and should be very competitive again.

[DrDemento]

RPI sweeps the weekend series with a 2-1 win. The only goal against came with 21 seconds left in the game after we simply missed on at least 3 clearing attempts that could have kept the shutout for our freshman goalie who played a very strong game and made some tremendous stops. Unlike yesterday a much more penalty filled game but without a power play goal. Although playing well overall, the weakness remains in being able to clear out of our defensive zone against any sort of aggressive forecheck. N ice to have 2 more wins from this weekend the seaosn moves on for a Tuesaday early game with Union.

[25+years]

I was at both games this weekend and once again the goaltending assured both wins. But I would add the DCorp played great even without Trnkova. As I have said earlier, this team is fun to watch. They work hard, support each other, and never give up. I look forward to attending more games.

[25+years]

Watched both games this weekend. No question in my mind Keating kept them in both games. Against SLU this allowed them to tie and “win” in the shootout. Was not enough versus Clarkson. Far too many turnovers and compared to earlier games I watched their breakout from their own end was anything but crisp.