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RPI 2011-12 season

Re: RPI 2011-12 season

Stat Man said:
Seeing how we are in the NLI period I understand that so far we have 2 D, 2F and a goalie committed for next season. Has anyone heard anything else?
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I don't think that anyone has mentioned about a goalie yet. Does that mean that Shannon Ramelot's career is over?

Also the name of one of the D (from a prep school) has not been mentioned.
 
Re: RPI 2011-12 season

hkymom12 said:
Jennifer Godin.....D......Tabor Academy/MA Spitfires......Clarence Center, NY
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Great to see that this is now public. Jennifer Godin and Brandi Banks were the two recruits that I heard about back in August but I didn't want to provide the names until I was sure that the players or their teams were doing that.
 
Re: RPI 2011-12 season

Great to see the Engineers' offence come to life today. Final score 5-0, shots on goal 52-15, Cox got a hat-trick. Three points on the road is always a good weekend, even if it is at Brown and Yale.
 
Re: RPI 2011-12 season

hab said:
Great to see the Engineers' offence come to life today. Final score 5-0, shots on goal 52-15, Cox got a hat-trick. Three points on the road is always a good weekend, even if it is at Brown and Yale.
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Great for the offense and another strong weekend for the defense and goalies. Total of 9 goals against in 6 conference games is also pretty impressive.
 
Re: RPI 2011-12 season

Stat Man said:
Great for the offense and another strong weekend for the defense and goalies. Total of 9 goals against in 6 conference games is also pretty impressive.
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Agreed! Year in and year out RPI always ranks high in team defence, so I tend to take it for granted.
 
hab said:
Great to see the Engineers' offence come to life today. Final score 5-0, shots on goal 52-15, Cox got a hat-trick. Three points on the road is always a good weekend, even if it is at Brown and Yale.
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The Engineers were every bit as dominant as the stats indicated. Piper was rarely challenged. Smelker looks like the best player on the ice the moment she steps off the bench ( strong, fast and solid on her skates). Cox obviously looks like a scorer. Her penalty shot was beautiful - faked the goalie down on the forehand side and pulled it to the backhand for a tuck in. I don't even remember if she made the score sheet, but Taylor Horton also was very impressive in helping the Engineers control the play. It was probably the first time I've seen a women's team control the puck for extended periods by effectively cycling in the corners. Horton also stepped in to play the point on the PP (where was LeDonne?).

I know they were playing a weak opponent, but the strong fundamental way RPI played tells me they are going to be pretty good as the season evolves.
 
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A few more comments. The senior forwards Harrison, Guillamete and VanDeGrift also played very well. Alisa Harrison has been a stalwart since her freshman year, but I was impressed with how much the other two have improved. Guillamete even flashed a pretty impressive slap shot that I difn't know she had. The senior defensemen Vadner and Castignetti anchored a short-handed defense. It seemed that they were on the ice for at least 30 minutes.
 
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Re: RPI 2011-12 season

For those interested, WRPI is doing audio of the Wisconsin / RPI game: top notch play by play. Wisconsin is totally dominating in shots, 11-1, but RPI leading 1-0 on a goal by Cox from Smelker. www.wrpi.org
 
Re: RPI 2011-12 season

Game is tied 1-1 after 1, Wisconsin's goal on a pretty pass across the crease for an easy tap-in on the power play. O'Brien had no chance at stopping that one.

Shots are 18-7 Badgers but RPI is playing exactly the kind of game they need to play to stay in this one. Keeping shifts short, clogging up passing lanes, blocking shots, and taking advantage of the few opportunities Wisconsin coughs up to make plays. Smelker and Cox have had a very good first period, but also seeing a lot of Svoboda, Mahoney, and Sanders in the Wisconsin zone.
 
Re: RPI 2011-12 season

An amazing game so far with RPI now leading 3-2 after two periods. Engineers outshot the Badgers in the second period and went 2 for 2 on the power play.

RPI's second goal was Vandegrift from Mahoney on a hard working goal from right in front. The go ahead goal was Smelker unassisted on a 2-on-1 break with Eleeza Cox.

This is the best I have seen the Engineers play in a long time. Possibly one of the best performances I've seen from them so far through two periods. The key now will be keeping up with an extremely well-conditioned Wisconsin squad in the third period. RPI has gotten where they are by playing smart on defense but they put an impressive amount of pressure on in the second period. Hopefully they have the legs to keep that up in the third as it seems to have UW back on their heels a little bit. If RPI turtles and tries to hold on to the lead and stops playing aggressively in their own zone it will be a long third period.
 
Re: RPI 2011-12 season

Great effort by the Engineers tonight, coming up just short in a 4-3 loss to #1 Wisconsin, in a very even game. Hopefully they can carry this over into their ECAC schedule.
 
Re: RPI 2011-12 season

We will also have the game tomorrow, hab. This was an outstanding game by the Engineers, great defensive effort. O'Brien will be something special. She mad a point blank save on a Wisconsin forward to keep the game at 4-3. Their power play was outstanding, but toward the end the Badgers started to figure it out and shut down RPI. RPI was able to hang with Wisco until we saw alot of Knight, Decker, Ammerman, et al and RPI just didn't keep up with them, especially spending most of the first half of the third period in the penalty box, it seemed like it tired them out. Wisconsin was very luccky to come away victorious, as RPI capitalized on their chances very well. Hopefully for the Engineers you can come out tomorrow and take it to the Badgers and keep up with them.
 
Re: RPI 2011-12 season

hab said:
Great effort by the Engineers tonight, coming up just short in a 4-3 loss to #1 Wisconsin, in a very even game. Hopefully they can carry this over into their ECAC schedule.
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Indeed, if not for a pair of penalties early in the third which led to the tying goal and the go-ahead shortly after, this game was within RPI's reach the whole way. Those two penalties and the goals took the legs out from under the team and it was clear from there that Wisconsin had more in the tank. However RPI did get a few more chances late in the game including two power play opportunities. Unfortunately for the Engineers, Wisconsin was able to use their conditioning to kill the late penalties without too much trouble.

I have a feeling tomorrow's game will be a tougher affair for the Engineers. Wisconsin skated the third period with just as much energy as the first while RPI was clearly gassed. I would expect that disparity to become more evident tomorrow, especially in the second and third period.

If this team plays like they did tonight in ECAC play, the will win a large majority of their games. Tonight's game, played against any team but perhaps Cornell, would have been a solid win for the Engineers. The key will be to see if they can translate this level of competition into league play. We've seen both the men and women play up to big competition and struggle against teams similar to or weaker than them. I saw a lot of good things that I think should translate beyond this weekend.

The passing is much crisper, they are playing opportunistic hockey and taking advantage of mistakes, and we are seeing offensive production from more than the Cox/Smelker/Horton line. All 3 lines played very solid hockey tonight. The defense was solid for the most part, though I would say Vadner and Schilter in particular stood out. They still need to clean up the bad penalties; there were a couple tonight that there was no reason to take, and against good competition those penalties find a way to burn you.

All things considered there were way more positives than negatives to take away from tonight's game. Unlike last year's games where RPI was blown out of the water in both (which doesn't give you much of a learning opportunity), the coaches should be able to take a lot away from a game like tonight's and use it to improve play going forward.
 
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Re: RPI 2011-12 season

jericho said:
We will also have the game tomorrow, hab. This was an outstanding game by the Engineers, great defensive effort. O'Brien will be something special. She mad a point blank save on a Wisconsin forward to keep the game at 4-3. Their power play was outstanding, but toward the end the Badgers started to figure it out and shut down RPI. RPI was able to hang with Wisco until we saw alot of Knight, Decker, Ammerman, et al and RPI just didn't keep up with them, especially spending most of the first half of the third period in the penalty box, it seemed like it tired them out. Wisconsin was very luccky to come away victorious, as RPI capitalized on their chances very well. Hopefully for the Engineers you can come out tomorrow and take it to the Badgers and keep up with them.
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Good point about O'Brien, I forgot to mention in my thoughts but she played lights out. Was following the UW live chat and I think they were giving her less credit than she deserved, saying many of the saves were heavy on the luck. While that certainly plays a role, it was an excellent effort in net helped by the defense limiting most of the point blank chances. Wisconsin is loaded with the kind of talent that is going to score if they're left open (which they proved on at least two bang-bang tap-in goals), but even when you limit their chances they put 30+ shots on net and it takes a good outing to keep those in check.
 
Re: RPI 2011-12 season

If not for that one minute in the 3rd when Wisc. scored twice......great game though, really enjoyed their effort.
 
Re: RPI 2011-12 season

Wisconsin was definitely not on top of their game last night and RPI definitely took full advantage of it, playing very well and making a game of it. That was the kind of game you walk away from and even though you lost, you felt like you watched a fun game and it almost felt like a win in that perspective. Certainly the most exciting game I've been to at HFH all year. Went there hoping to see RPI score a goal and saw them go toe to toe with the best in the nation instead. When RPI had that late power play there was definitely a feeling of "wow, they could tie this up again." Had no expectation of that coming in.

That said, I think we're in for a beating this afternoon - we were gassed in the third, Wisconsin had plenty left in the tank. Mark Johnson is a master chess player and he'll make the adjustments necessary to make today rough for RPI, not to mention that the conditioning usually plays a bigger role on Saturday.
 
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