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by Ryan Fay
ALBANY -- There are some things that never seem to change.
Take the RPI-Union series. After losing to their route 7 rivals, 3-2, in Saturday's inaugural Mayor's Cup game, RPI's loss was just more of the same.
Earlier this week, I asked RPI head coach Seth Appert about Union's success against his team. One the things he said was "we've taken some ill-advised penalties against them and they have an absolutely lethal power play."
Saturday's loss, RPI's eighth in a row against 19th-ranked Union, was a continuation of that. RPI's Nick Bailen, a senior, took what most would call an "ill-advised" penalty when he went off for interference with 97 seconds left in regulation of a tie game. After the game, Appert offered "no comment" on the penalty.
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| Wilkins (Union Athletics) |
Matt Wilkins, who turned 22 on Saturday, proved why Union's powerplay is "absolutely lethal" when the freshman forward scored the game-winning goal on the powerplay with 37 seconds left in the game.
"I was driving the net, I saw Jooris go wide, and their defensemen was sort of flat footed," Wilkins said of the game-winning play. "I drove the net and Jooris made a great pass."
Said Appert of the goal, "at the end of the day, [Wilkins] made a play. We had two guys that didn't execute very well. It was a play that should have been pretty easily defended. We had two guys that made mental mistakes in big moments and they have to grow up from that."
It was the second goal of the night for the Union powerplay, which finished 2-for-4. After Guy Leboeuf was called for cross checking just two minutes into the game, Daniel Ciampini opened the scoring by knocking in a rebound at 3:34.
"It always seems like we take a penalty early and get scored against them, and we did,” Appert said after the game. “It played out, pretty much, how you anticipate [it]."
Earlier this week, Appert also pointed out Union's penalty kill as another reason why Union has had its run of success against his club. On Saturday night, the Dutchmen killed off all five RPI powerplay opportunities, including two in the third period. The Engineers, who outshot Union 38-20, had 15 of their shots on the powerplay including 11 in the first.
Troy Grosenick stopped all 15 powerplay shots and 36 of the 38 overall. When I spoke with him on Tuesday, Appert credited "very good" goaltending as yet another factor behind Union's recent edge in the series.
Grosenick was the biggest reason Saturday's game came down to the third period. For a good portion of the night, RPI was outskating the Dutchmen. The junior netminder kept Union in the game with several spectacular saves, including a couple on Ryan Haggerty, RPI's top goal scorer. The sophomore, who has ten goals this season, did beat Grosenick on one of his five shots, a goal that tied the game at one only 16 seconds into the middle period.
Union head coach Rick Bennett graded Grosenick's performance as "exceptional" and added Grosenick "kind of bailed us out when we needed him to."
Bennett also came away impressed with RPI (8-11-5, 3-6-3).
"That's a good hockey club," he said of RPI, which won the faceoff battle, 37-25. "They've been making strides this season just like they did last year. Whoever faces them in the playoffs better buckle up."
Greg Coburn scored Union's other goal, a long-range rocket early in the third period that momentarily gave the Dutchmen a 2-1 lead.
Union (13-8-4, 6-4-3) resumes play on Friday night at Messa Rink against #12/13 Dartmouth (11-7-2, 7-5-1). The game, a 7:30 pm faceoff, will be nationally televised on NBC Sports Network.
POSTGAME VIDEOS
Scoring Summary
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