Engineers Seek Continued Momentum vs. Top Guns

By Ed Weaver

Troy Record, February 24, 2006

TROY - Quick, among the other 10 teams in the ECAC Hockey League, name the only one that hasn't lost to either Cornell or Colgate, the two teams that have battled for the league lead all season.

Some couldn't come up with the right one among several guesses, including Engineers seniors Scott Romfo and Chris Hussey.

"Harvard," Romfo said, even though the Crimson lost at Colgate just one week ago.

"Princeton," both players said, remembering the Tigers did beat both teams six weeks back (but lost to both earlier).

"St. Lawrence (the Saints went 1-2-1)," Hussey suggested.

"The only other..." Romfo began to say.

"No, the only team in the league that hasn't lost to either Cornell or Colgate," he was told.

"Oh, us," he said, finally remembering the 1-1 ties RPI played at both Colgate and Cornell on Nov. 18-19 among their six ECACHL ties this year.

The Engineers hope they can still make the above statement come Sunday after they conclude the regular season by hosting league-leading Cornell (12-5-3, 17-6-4) tonight and runnerup Colgate (12-6-2, 16-10-6) on Saturday night.

The 13-14-6 Engineers are 7-7-6 and sit in seventh place with 20 points by tie-breaker over seventh-place Clarkson (9-9-2). They can finish as high as fifth if they sweep but will need big help even to move past sixth-place Union. A couple points, though, would help in their effort to stay ahead of Clarkson, which has tough games at Dartmouth and Harvard.

Against Cornell, the Engineers will be playing a team that's been beatable (2-2-1) lately but RPI will have to reverse some painful trends to come out on top.

Rensselaer has lost five straight home games to Cornell since a 5-4 overtime victory on Nov. 5, 1999.

Scoring goals against the Big Red - and their succession of All-American goalies Matt Underhill, David LeNeveu and David McKee - has been most difficult for RPI in recent seasons. During that tie at Lynah Rink, Jonathan Ornelas' sharp-angle goal seconds after a Cornell penalty ended early in the third period is the only goal the Engineers have scored against the Big Red in the past 192 minutes. Cornell blanked RPI, 5-0 and 3-0 last season.

Since that 5-4 win, RPI has just 16 goals in 15 games against the Big Red - playoffs included - and never more than two in one game. Rensselaer is 2-12-1 in those games.

Beating Cornell certainly could help the Engineers come playoff time.

"Absolutely," Romfo said. "With them being 1-2 in the league, beating (either) would be a real good win, especially since we're probably going to have to beat them in the playoffs to move on."

The Engineers haven't faired much better against Colgate, as the earlier tie ended a seven-game losing streak to the Red Raiders.

The high-scoring Raiders have four players with 30 or more points.