RPI 2025-2026

[sezenack]

That’s nuts. 8 straight losing seasons with a 0-33 season in there and well on his way to another losing season this year. Bizarre that bowers would want to keep this going?

It's especially bizarre considering how much worse it is than Smith did and he just got fired. At least Smith showed signs of life with 19-20 and 21-22. Vines has ONE top 8 finish, and they were 8th exactly because they got carried by Selander with a 0.941 SV%, insanely good (who he did not recruit btw and was left over from before). Of course, they squandered that performance by scoring only 1.33 goals per game. Then yeah as you mention, the 0-33 team was historically bad. They have shown no signs of life since.

I agree with some of the other messages. It's absolutely ridiculous to hold the women's program to such a low standard

 

[hab]

The lack of ambition for this team says it all. A few years ago I suggested they should aim to be in top 6 in
ECAC and coach thought I was being ridiculous. You cannot hit a mark you dont aim for. Before Vines that would have been a reasonable stretch objective.

 

[Engineers]

It's especially bizarre considering how much worse it is than Smith did and he just got fired. At least Smith showed signs of life with 19-20 and 21-22. Vines has ONE top 8 finish, and they were 8th exactly because they got carried by Selander with a 0.941 SV%, insanely good (who he did not recruit btw and was left over from before). Of course, they squandered that performance by scoring only 1.33 goals per game. Then yeah as you mention, the 0-33 team was historically bad. They have shown no signs of life since.

I agree with some of the other messages. It's absolutely ridiculous to hold the women's program to such a low standard

It really is ridiculous to hold them to such a low standard. I’m just dumbfounded by this move.

 

[Engineers]

It's especially bizarre considering how much worse it is than Smith did and he just got fired. At least Smith showed signs of life with 19-20 and 21-22. Vines has ONE top 8 finish, and they were 8th exactly because they got carried by Selander with a 0.941 SV%, insanely good (who he did not recruit btw and was left over from before). Of course, they squandered that performance by scoring only 1.33 goals per game. Then yeah as you mention, the 0-33 team was historically bad. They have shown no signs of life since.

I agree with some of the other messages. It's absolutely ridiculous to hold the women's program to such a low standard

I was going to say Selander basically Carried the team when she played for vines. Vines also goes through assistant coaches like crazy? Vines should have been fired years ago.

 

[DrDemento]

As most know, I have followed RPI hockey for decades. I have watched our girl's team so long that I was at most games back before they were even a Division I squad. So long ago that we had the mother of one of our current players (#15) starring on offense. Actually our best offensive player ever. I have refrained from making any comment about coaching but it has become obvious that something needs to change. When you lose your 2 top players (#91 and #89) to other teams, it is making an obvious statement that cannot be ignored. The team that we have had out there for the first 4 games is certainly not at the level of Wisconcin but they have far more ability than has been shown. And these girls are working hard and giving what they have. But it appears that they are playing as individuals and there is far less organization and team play than needed to compete at this level. It has been my experience over many years that when that is the case, the fault lies elsewhere. It has become just too obvious.

 

[25+years]

Just called the box office. The team schedule says tomorrow’s home game vs Sacred Heart is at 5 PM. Tickets say 6 PM. I left a message for them to call me back with the correct time. Want this ship to get on track? Getting the game time straight might be a good starting point here.

 

[rpi82]

Just called the box office. The team schedule says tomorrow’s home game vs Sacred Heart is at 5 PM. Tickets say 6 PM. I left a message for them to call me back with the correct time. Want this ship to get on track? Getting the game time straight might be a good starting point here.

The ESPN broadcast schedule says 5 PM.

 

[rpi82]

I'm surprised by the scheduling. I would have thought they'd book at least a few low-level NEWHA teams (Assumption, Post, etc.) to virtually guarantee a victory or two. Instead they scheduled the best team in that league. Nothing is guaranteed.

 

[25+years]

The box office called me this morning. He said “ some of the season ticket holder’s tickets were printed before the schedule was changed”. As noted it’s 5 PM

 

[rpi82]

Women played a strong second period. Up 3-0 heading to third. Frosh Mia Montanari with 1G 1A. She looks like a find.

 

[DrDemento]

Women played a strong second period. Up 3-0 heading to third. Frosh Mia Montanari with 1G 1A. She looks like a find.

They actually played well yesterday out shooting SH something around 45-12. But a deflected goal and an empty netter made it a 3-1 loss. We were the better team everywhere except on the scoreboard. Today they look just as good and are outplaying SH by a wide margin thius far. Understood that SH is not an ECAC level team but they did win their league title last year and are predicted to be the top of their league again this year. In any case, nice to see us put up 3 goals in the first 2 periods thus far today.

 

[DrDemento]

Ladies win 4-0 and played a very solid game. They are now 1-5 but perhaps with the way they have played might deserve to be 2-4 or with better luck 3-3. i doubt that any of these games can be used to predict how we will perform once we get into the ECAC part of schedule as there are some highly ranked teams there but nice to get our first win today.

 

[Ralph Baer]

RPI received a commitment from Corinne Leibowitz of the Bishop Kearney Selects 16U team for 2027.

29 Corinne Leibowitz F 10/13/25 Bishop Kearney Selects 16U 2027 01/xx/08 5'02" 155 Whitehouse Sta.,NJx.xx x

 

[25+years]

Attended Fridays Ice Breaker games in Schenectady until we had to leave so we could get dinner before the Men’s BC game in Troy. The arena in Troy is nice, but nothing to write home about. Acoustics are horrible. And, compared to RPI, they only have 1 Zamboni. ( I have to have one thing to feel good about. ) The parking there is also pretty poor.

Wisconsin women are exceptional. And to think in Madison the men and the women each have their own rink. And draw large crowds to their games.

What was highly disappointing with this was the attendance was horrible. The local media did nothing to promote this tournament which had one of, if not the best, women’s team in the country playing. Nothing about the results in the TU nor on WNYT although Ken Schott was there from the Gazette. Despite a local player (Maggie Scannell from Wynantskill) playing for Wisconsin. There was also no band and, interestingly, no Canadian flag nor anthem. And no one can cite the cost. The ticket price for each day (2games ) was a lofty $10.

 

[25+years]

Oops just realized I wrote “ the arena in Troy is nice”. Meant to say Schenectady.

 

[DrDemento]

25+ you are absolutely right about the Wisconsin women. We were able to get one in transfer for last year (Sophie Helgeson) and had we been able to sign her and her sister 4 years previously I think we could have had much more of a winning program for that time.

 

[hab]

anyone who has followed my posts here over the years will know that I have a reputation for being overly optimistic about the prospects for the Engineers. I am well beyond that now. We lost today 7-1 to Clarkson, at home, and outshot 57-10. This is no longer the competitive D1 team that it was a few years ago. We keep lowering our ambitions, and now it seems that the ambition is to avoid 12th place in the ECAC. Can we all please stop defending the status quo and start talking about how to turn things around....or...let's just go back to being a top ten D3 team.

 

[DrDemento]

anyone who has followed my posts here over the years will know that I have a reputation for being overly optimistic about the prospects for the Engineers. I am well beyond that now. We lost today 7-1 to Clarkson, at home, and outshot 57-10. This is no longer the competitive D1 team that it was a few years ago. We keep lowering our ambitions, and now it seems that the ambition is to avoid 12th place in the ECAC. Can we all please stop defending the status quo and start talking about how to turn things around....or...let's just go back to being a top ten D3 team.

Appreciate your thoughts. Today was a disaster in all phases of the game. But I feel Clarkson is truly a top tier team and played like it was exactly that today. They attacked for a full 60 minutes. It was only close for one period as we were able to hold a 1-1 tie at the end of the first. Their forecheck is just suffocating. But, yesterday we played a far better game against SLU and could have actually achieved a better fate. We were not grossly out played as we were today. there is some talent on this years RPI team but I fully agree that something is truly wrong. In my opinion a change has been needed for some time at the coaching level and for whatever reason, it has not been made.

 

[25+years]

Agree the women were totally outplayed. Their biggest problem is turning the puck over far too often.

An interesting thing developed in the third: Trnkova leveled back to back open ice hits on 2 RPI players when the score was 4-1, I think, and there were no calls on either. Then Taryn Rathwell gave Trnkova a taste of her own medicine and Trnvova left the game with an arm/shoulder injury and never returned . No call on that hit. I think Trnkova’s hits were unnecessary and very unsportsmanlike. I can understand why Trnkova was hit. I hope she is ok, but if I were an RPI player, I’d want a piece of her too. I think Rathwell should be commended for standing up for her teammates.

Trnkova jumps ship then has to be physical against her former teammates when the outcome of the game was a foregone conclusion. Her physicality is often over the top and excessive. She got lots of penalties when she was here that hurt the team. It’s one reason I did not like her when she played here. It clearly clouds her other talents. The game at Clarkson down the road might be very interesting.

 

[DrDemento]

Agree the women were totally outplayed. Their biggest problem is turning the puck over far too often.

An interesting thing developed in the third: Trnkova leveled back to back open ice hits on 2 RPI players when the score was 4-1, I think, and there were no calls on either. Then Taryn Rathwell gave Trnkova a taste of her own medicine and Trnvova left the game with an arm/shoulder injury and never returned . No call on that hit. I think Trnkova’s hits were unnecessary and very unsportsmanlike. I can understand why Trnkova was hit. I hope she is ok, but if I were an RPI player, I’d want a piece of her too. I think Rathwell should be commended for standing up for her teammates.

Trnkova jumps ship then has to be physical against her former teammates when the outcome of the game was a foregone conclusion. Her physicality is often over the top and excessive. She got lots of penalties when she was here that hurt the team. It’s one reason I did not like her when she played here. It clearly clouds her other talents. The game at Clarkson down the road might be very interesting.

There were several hits in that game that were not typical of what you see when the ladies get together on the ice. Late in the game with the score 6-1 Kylie Toye got in a major shot on a Clarkson player by hitting her high (not quite a head shot though) with her shoulder coming up to make solid contact (it was not an elbow). The ref did not originally make a call but a few seconds later when the player from CCT did not get up all that quickly, decided this one deserved a 2 minute call. Clarkson scored on the ensuing power lay but as Dan Fridgen called it during the broadcast, the goal probably should not have counted as it was hit in with either a hand or kicked in with a skate. But it was never even reviewed and it counted. Normally I do not condone this kind of retaliation but the Clarkson team was in on our goalie all game long and in many cases taking some late shots at her. This was a rough game and i, too, anxiously await the return match.