Game Time: RPI at Union

No Bounties on Anyone's Heads, OK?

The Union Athletic department must have figured that the best way to break the student body out of the winter doldrums was to schedule a game at (Frozen) Fenway Park, immediately followed up by a prime-time Saturday matchup versus rival RPI. The fans will be excited, that's for sure, but can the players carry over some of the effervescent energy that was on display last night in Boston?

Coach Bennett is counting on it, sending in a carbon copy of last night's lineups to the printer tonight. Tonight's lines are as follows:


#14/13 Union (11-5-6 overall, 5-2-3 ECAC)
15 Matt Hatch - 19 Kelly Zajac (A) - 21 Wayne Simpson
9 Daniel Carr - 27 Jeremy Welsh (A) - 7 Josh Jooris
16 Kevin Sullivan - 12 Kyle Bodie - 29 Trevor Mingoia
23 Cole Ikkala - 10 Mark Bennett - 11 Sam Coatta

28 Shawn Stuart - 22 Mat Bodie
14 Shayne Gostisbehere - 20 Greg Coburn
2 Nolan Julseth-White (C) - 4 Taylor Reid

1 Troy Grosenick
30 Colin Stevens
31 Dillon Pieri

RPI (4-16-1 overall, 1-7-1 ECAC)
22 C.J. Lee - 23 Brock Higgs - 7 Zach Schroeder
9 Mat Neal - 21 Mark McGowan - 39 Ryan Haggerty
15 Jacob Laliberte - 27 Marty O'Grady - 28 Matt Tinordi
24 Josh Rabbani - 13 Joel Malchuk (C) - 14 Greg Burgdoerfer

10 Curtis Leonard - 8 Mike Bergin (C)
3 Guy Leboeuf - 29 Nick Bailen
5 Luke Curardi - 4 Pat Koudys

34 Scott Diebold
32 Bryce Merriam



Lineup Notes:

• Coach Bennett is finding his preferred lines, or so it seems. These are virtually the same lines from the 7-1 win against Dartmouth, save for some slightly different defensive pairings. (Also, Charlie Vasaturo played instead of Greg Coburn last Saturday).
• It's important to have Troy Grosenick in there as much as possible--after all, the Man with the Golden GAA has been outstanding. Bennett is banking on the Wisconsin native to follow up last night's shutout with a typical Troy effort. Except, if Colin Stevens was ever to get a start, tonight would be the night. The Niskayuna native would not only play in front of a raucous Capital Region crowd, but could provide some needed relief after an emotional game and long ride back home. (If Grosenick is anything like me, he needed 12 hours in bed to recover from the drive to-and-from Boston. But there's a reason I'm not a Division 1 athlete...)

Intellectual Smack Talk:

The inimitable RPI blog Without A Peer throws the gauntlet for tonight's game. Ah, the beauty of rivalry.

There's a natural way of things. The ratio of a Euclidean circle's circumference to its diameter is pi. When gravity equals drag, terminal velocity is achieved. And the hockey program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is superior to that at Union College. Some things in nature, of course, get upset from time to time, but there's a reason the expansion from 10 to 12 teams in the ECAC playoffs was referred to as the "Union rule," and why RPI's record is presently described as "Unionian."

Editor's Response: 

I'll abstain from my own two cents. If you have nothing nice to say, don't type it at all, right? Whatever the outcome tonight, we can take solace in the fact that one thing will always be as "constant" as Euclidean Geometry: the fact that RPI and Union have one of the best rivalries in college hockey. 

USCHO.com Prediction:

Culled from Nate Owen's picks:

Union goalie Troy Grosenick is tops in the nation in goals-against-average (1.74) and third in save percentage (.932). RPI meanwhile, simply can’t score, averaging 1.52 goals a game, second to last in Division I. Union 5, RPI 0

Programming Notes:
We'll post the game recaps from tonight and last night's win against Harvard tomorrow in one neat package of weekend recaps.

Tweet of the Day:
Matt Hatch works the public relations angle: