RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

We all notice Bergin and JFK but I think Merth, Burgdoerfer and Foss are all having solid years.

Now I only say a little surprised because it is not easy to choose one guy from this unit. I might throw my vote to Burgdoerfer since he is a senior and I think moves a little better out there than Merth. .

Burgdoerfer gets my vote for best blueliner...especially in the 2nd half he has been excellent. Jensen has pleasantly surprised as well. Coach Vines clearly desrerves some of the credit as well.

 

[knsmith]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

Colgate's pesky game in hand is officially out of the way now, which is nice.

If we can pick one result to get tomorrow (other than RPI over DU of course), would have to be Princeton over SLU. If we get those two things, would give us a 3-point lead for the bye.

 

[Red Cloud]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

If we can pick one result to get tomorrow (other than RPI over DU of course), would have to be Princeton over SLU. If we get those two things, would give us a 3-point lead for the bye.

Dartmouth's a university now?

Without A Peer has a succinct wrap up of tonight's action.

 

[jmhusker]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

Just back from the game. Gutty come back win. Lots of positives and a few negatives that we can all overlook. Game started out very weirdly. A shot from the right point by Harvard's Christian hit pipe and maybe net too. That is what I saw from the other end of the ice (I was behind the Harvard net for the 1st pd). Play continued for a few seconds and then the ref blew the whistle and they conferred for quite a while and awarded a goal. That's what I saw from 200 feet away too but the weird part is that there is a replay screen at Bright and they never showed the play. This despite replaying all subsequent goals about 5 times each. And the RPI players were arguing something against the goal - I'd love to know what. Maybe it didn't go in???

The 20 seconds later goal #2 is disallowed because it was redirected with a high stick (which again looked like the right call from 200 feet away).

Real goal #2 I did not see well but it started when AAG skated right past the puck on the left half board, leaving it for a Harvard forward to shoot toward net for a possible re-direction and in.

The the biggest goal of the game and the best one I've seen this year from Jerry made it 2-1. What a move and what speed. WOWWWWW.

Quickly Harvard got it to 3 on a point shot that was re-directed up over York. Thought Appert might pull York but he left him in. It's hard to say whether any of the 3 goals were his fault. Seconds later Harvard had a golden opportunity in close and York made an unbelievable stop. Good call coach.

From there we all know what happened. Polacek's 2nd goal was nearly as brilliant as D'Amigo's. He was in the left corner, spun around twice, stepd between 2 Harvard Dmen and fired it over Richter's right shoulder, just under the cross bar.

RPI controlled the 2nd and simply hung on in the 3rd. I think they were gased by then.

My take on some of the players being discussed on the game thread. Halpern is OK on the top line but he doesn't add much. Maybe coach has him there to think D while C&J try to create. He is a 4th liner IMO.

The 2nd and 3rd lines were great. Leave them alone.

On the 4th line, Helfrich was so so. IMO... He is hurt. Period. He was clearly favoring his right leg after crashing into the net. His shifts were short (he left the ice before his linemates usually). He has little speed. I even would say he almost looks out of shape. I'm not sure that he can even keep up on the 1st line. I think all of the healthy scratch stuff is BS to keep others from going after his leg maybe?

Vassel was skating funny too. Very long strides - too long really. He was gritting his teeth a lot even. Maybe he is hurt or I've just never noticed what a weird stride he has.

Cullen must be really in deep if he can't displace Helfrich or Vassel.

Those are my thoughts. Sorry for the book.

 

[Red Cloud]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

Those are my thoughts. Sorry for the book.

No no, don't be sorry. Much obliged for the first hand observations.

You said they looked gassed in the 3rd - was it bad? Can they bounce back do you think?

 

[jmhusker]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

No no, don't be sorry. Much obliged for the first hand observations.

You said they looked gassed in the 3rd - was it bad? Can they bounce back do you think?

Oh I think they'll be fine. HArvard got a couple of PP's and had red on their heels. They shortened the shifts and none of the boys tried any dashes up the ice (whereas D'amigo and Chase were flying in the first 2 pds). Coach called a TO with a bit under a minute left. Even though H has the EA, we spent almost the entire last minute in Harvard's end.

 

[rpi82]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

I got stuck in traffic driving up from CT so I missed D'Amigo's goal, but I'll second the kudos for Polacek's second. He wheeled out of the corner with the puck and looked like he was going to bring it out to the half-wing boards. Instead he spun again back toward the net while pulling the puck around with the toe of his stick to exploit a seam in the Harvard defense. When the final defenseman stepped toward him he snapped off a magnificent 20 foot wrist shot through the screen to the top corner. It was an All-American play and Richter never had a chance.

I agree that the team looked a little gassed in the third but they found their legs again during the empty net situation. They worked the puck deep into the Harvard end and by working the puck along the boards and cycling it down low they killed at least half of the remaining clock. It was a magnificent example of controlling the puck via aggressive play up front.

BTW: I see from the box score that Harvard announced an attendance of just over 2,000. Maybe there was a really killer chamber music concert going on in Cambridge that kept most of the Harvard fans away from Bright because the actual attendance wasn't even close to that level. The rink was at most 1/2 full and most of the noise came from the sizeable RPI contingent. In fact, the only group of fans that I thought were enthusiastically supporting Harvard were some young kids (presumably a youth team) sitting in front of one of the RPI sections. The few Harvard fans that bothered to show up sat on their hands. It must be hard to play in that (non-)atmosphere.

 

[Red Cloud]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

Gotta keep the pedal down. The next four games are against teams behind us in the standings. Quinnipiac we knew had the potential to flip the switch and to go into Canton and absolutely stomp SLU tends to make me believe that we need to keep our eye on them as much as the Saints. At the very least it makes the game next Friday in Troy that much more important.

Time to keep it going tomorrow in Hanover. To go up 4-0 only to lose 5-4 has got to be a kick in the nuts (and we know Union's good for delivering kicks in the nuts). We've got to make sure they are aware early on that it's going to be another long night for them.

From a standings perspective, we're rooting for Clarkson, Princeton, Brown, and Harvard tomorrow (although I would prefer from an esoteric standpoint to see the Capital District sweep). Yale/Cornell is an interesting one. On one hand, a Yale loss and an RPI win puts the Engineers only 2 points away from a tie with the Bulldogs that they would win. On the other hand, a Cornell loss and an RPI win puts the Engineers 2 points away from Cornell with a game still to be played against the Big Sped (albeit with Cornell having a game in hand). Personally, I'm going to bite the bullet (probably all the way through the bullet) and root for Cornell to win that one. Getting into a tie with Yale is as good as passing them.

Rooting for Cornell and Clarkson (and the Gophers) on the same night? Ugh. Kill me now.

 

[knsmith]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

Gotta keep the pedal down. The next four games are against teams behind us in the standings. Quinnipiac we knew had the potential to flip the switch and to go into Canton and absolutely stomp SLU tends to make me believe that we need to keep our eye on them as much as the Saints. At the very least it makes the game next Friday in Troy that much more important.

Time to keep it going tomorrow in Hanover. To go up 4-0 only to lose 5-4 has got to be a kick in the nuts (and we know Union's good for delivering kicks in the nuts). We've got to make sure they are aware early on that it's going to be another long night for them.

From a standings perspective, we're rooting for Clarkson, Princeton, Brown, and Harvard tomorrow (although I would prefer from an esoteric standpoint to see the Capital District sweep). Yale/Cornell is an interesting one. On one hand, a Yale loss and an RPI win puts the Engineers only 2 points away from a tie with the Bulldogs that they would win. On the other hand, a Cornell loss and an RPI win puts the Engineers 2 points away from Cornell with a game still to be played against the Big Sped (albeit with Cornell having a game in hand). Personally, I'm going to bite the bullet (probably all the way through the bullet) and root for Cornell to win that one. Getting into a tie with Yale is as good as passing them.

Rooting for Cornell and Clarkson (and the Gophers) on the same night? Ugh. Kill me now.

Thinking about secondary tiebreakers with Cornell ... assuming it ends up being RPI, Union, Yale, Cornell ...

RPI would be 3-3 (2 wins vs. Yale, secondary tiebreaker only matters if we beat Cornell), Cornell would be at best 2-3-1 (split with RPI, swept by Yale, tie with Union, assume a win vs. Union). If SLU gets in the top 4 over Union, RPI switches to 3-2-1 and Cornell stays at 2-3-1.

Long story short, we don't do too bad in tiebreakers against Cornell. Even if Cornell ties Yale, we still win the tiebreaker with the Big Red. Basically, any result in the Cornell/Yale game tomorrow is okay.

Edit: didn't realize that the second tiebreaker (before T4 record) is wins. Right now we'd tie Cornell on that metric and go to T4 record. If Cornell ties Yale most likely we at least tie them and go on to T4 record.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

Rooting for Cornell and Clarkson (and the Gophers) on the same night? Ugh. Kill me now.

Would you like your head cut off, or to be burned at the stake?

In any case, to the real point, as much as it pains me, it will be nice to see Q-Pac lose this one should it happen. Any advantage we can get over the teams just behind us is very good. And the closer we get to Yale, the better. The rivalry games are over. It's now time for us to take charge. We control our own destiny. Let's rule it!

 

[Red Cloud]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

Long story short, we don't do too bad in tiebreakers against Cornell. Even if Cornell ties Yale, we still win the tiebreaker with the Big Red. Basically, any result in the Cornell/Yale game tomorrow is okay.

A tie would semi-suck.

Would you like your head cut off, or to be burned at the stake?

Yes.

 

[yaledoc]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

Would you like your head cut off, or to be burned at the stake?

In any case, to the real point, as much as it pains me, it will be nice to see Q-Pac lose this one should it happen. Any advantage we can get over the teams just behind us is very good. And the closer we get to Yale, the better. The rivalry games are over. It's now time for us to take charge. We control our own destiny. Let's rule it!

Nice post, Flag Dude. You've got this all figured out, don 't you ?

 

[RHamilton]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

Finally back to Troy after tonight's game. I wore my voice out heckling Huxley the whole time. Quite a large RPI section behind the near the RPI bench. Seemed to be many alums who hadn't been to an RPI game in a while.

Just a couple brief thoughts:

York plays the puck FAR too often. There were several opportunities where York was badly out of position but Harvard fanned on passes. On another occasion, York ran into the goal trying to get back into position, throwing the goal off its posts and knocking the wind out of York. The first two minutes aside though, he played a solid game, combining the proper amount of flailing and actual goalie work to block an aggressive Harvard. But the puck is still loose in front far too often. The score easily could have been 9-5 Harvard if they were a bit luckier on bounces.

Halpern doesn't add much to the top line. It seemed like most of the top line's scoring opportunities were on breakaways by Polacek or D'Amigo, and Halpern didn't contribute. Kerins had a bit of an off night as well, bungling a lot of passes. Polacek and D'Amigo truly are stars, that much is certain. It's beautiful to watch their breakaways as they outmaneuver two or even three opposing players.

 

[vicious]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

first win at the Big H since 2004 (?) IIRC the media guide correctly. Question for those who saw this game in person: what did you see in the 3rd period? Box score said RPI had two shots on goal the entire period...I'm wondering if that "killer instinct" thing (or lack thereof) is still an issue or whether the team has shown improvement in that area.

Also, see that collegehockeystats.net had Polacek, Pirri, and Conor Morrison from Harvard as the three stars of the game. Yet D'Amigo led all scorers with three points (1-2-3). Conor Morrison over D'Amigo? Hmmm.....

 

[Red Cloud]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

Also, see that collegehockeystats.net had Polacek, Pirri, and Conor Morrison from Harvard as the three stars of the game. Yet D'Amigo led all scorers with three points (1-2-3). Conor Morrison over D'Amigo? Hmmm.....

Homer pick (since 3 stars is done by the statkeepers at the game). You'll notice that in the Yale game, the one where we whitewashed them 4-0, you had Allen York (for the shutout, although he didn't face a huge number of shots) and Jerry D'Amigo (a goal and two assists), and then Yale's Kevin Limbert who... uh... had two shots on goal and a -1. No love for Chase Polacek, who also had a goal and two assists, or Brandon Pirri who had a goal and an assist.

Homer picks.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

first win at the Big H since 2004 (?) IIRC the media guide correctly. Question for those who saw this game in person: what did you see in the 3rd period? Box score said RPI had two shots on goal the entire period...I'm wondering if that "killer instinct" thing (or lack thereof) is still an issue or whether the team has shown improvement in that area.

Also, see that collegehockeystats.net had Polacek, Pirri, and Conor Morrison from Harvard as the three stars of the game. Yet D'Amigo led all scorers with three points (1-2-3). Conor Morrison over D'Amigo? Hmmm.....

Granted I wasn't there (so yea, yea, not supposed to answer the question, but wanted to provide two cents anyways), but 4:20 of that we were killing. Add another minute with the pulled goalie. From the radio, it sounded like prevent D. We've been doing that since UA_, but at least tonight we were able to finish the job, and no late stupid penalties. It sounds like that kind of clean hard play is what Coach wants to see. We haven't performed a shallacking since probably the Fridgen era, but we don't need to. In the end, 5-4 is the same as 10-4.

 

[jstadts]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

first win at the Big H since 2004 (?) IIRC the media guide correctly. Question for those who saw this game in person: what did you see in the 3rd period? Box score said RPI had two shots on goal the entire period...I'm wondering if that "killer instinct" thing (or lack thereof) is still an issue or whether the team has shown improvement in that area.

Also, see that collegehockeystats.net had Polacek, Pirri, and Conor Morrison from Harvard as the three stars of the game. Yet D'Amigo led all scorers with three points (1-2-3). Conor Morrison over D'Amigo? Hmmm.....

I was there and didn`t feel RPI sat back so much as Harvard really brought it to us. I have taken more Road trips this year and it is amazing how differently teams play on the road vs in their own barn. It was a very entertaing game.

BTW aside from not having any idea weather the first Harvard goal went in or hit the post I thought it was one of the best officiated games of the year.

 

[ServinisScores]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

Here's my two thoughts on the game after pre and post game reviews at John Harvards...

Opening of the game - jmh captured it pretty well, very strange start. First goal didn't appear to go in, but the puck came out at a strange angle. The next 2 goals [one called off] we're just as bang-bang, and the boys look bewildered.

D'Amigo - He reminds me of my namesake as a freshman [right number too!]. Made a sick set of moves to score the first goal - from the red line to the net. He also made big plays on both of Polacek's goals. Fun player to watch.

Pirri - Seemed to be labored skating, or took shifts off, couldn't really figure it out. Has a great shot, great hands, great vision.

JFK/Burgdoerfer/Merth - Solid D play, especially moving the puck up the zone and getting plays started. Undeerrated skill in my book.

York - Seemed incredibly shaky. Letting rebounds bounce off his chest, reaction time a little slow, seemed low on confidence. Made big saves though at the end, and seemed to improve greatly after letting in 3 goals, which I don't think you could pin on him anyways. Would love to see him when he steals a game.

Seth - I was impressed w/ the overall game plan - forecheck and puck possession. Seth really outcoached Teddy on this and the goalie rotation -Seth kept York in, where Teddy D yanks his guy after a similar set of goals. Also gave a fist pump to the crowd at the end after the handshake line.

Only complaint - team D in their own zone. Not physical enough, too much running around. If they played positionally, at all, they could have eliminated minimum 2 goals. Harvard had a guy unmolested in front of the net most of the night.

ROTY - No way Leblanc gets this over D'Amigo. Leblanc starts plays, but couldn't finish. Plus he gets a TON of ice time. He's more physical, but I'd take D'amigo every time.

Overall - the boys have come a long way from 3-4 years ago, and were a lot of fun to watch. Guys like Lee and O'Grady can really skate and are going to get better w/ more time.

LETS GO RED

 

[engineerhockeyfan]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

No no, don't be sorry. Much obliged for the first hand observations.

You said they looked gassed in the 3rd - was it bad? Can they bounce back do you think?

We will be fine tonight.
I am not sure that we were so gassed as Harvard was just outstanding. They came in waves of five and supported each other very well.
If they played that desperate for the whole game it might have been different.
They were very good in the third. We did everything we could to keep them to the outside and York did the rest.
A very exciting game to be at.

 

[jstadts]

Re: RPI 2009-10 Part IV: The Boys are Back in Town

Crucial to take down what has to be a demoralized DC team tonight. I would be shocked if SLU doesn`t come out tonight and put a hurtin on princeton.