Rensselaer jumped out to a 3-0 lead over No. 14 Harvard and hung on to win 3-2. With the win the Engineers climb back to the .500 mark at 9-9-2 overall and 3-2-3 in the ECACHL. Harvard falls to 10-7-2 and 7-6-1 in the ECACHL.
Following a scoreless first period, the Engineers got two second period goals for a 2-0 lead after two. Senior defenseman Keith MCWilliams broke the ice with a power-play goal on a wristshot from the top of the right circle at the 9:44 mark. Freshman Matt Angers-Goulet started the play when he collected the puck against the boards and fed it to defenseman Brad Farynuk at the left point. MCWilliams then beat a screened John Daigneau for his fourth goal of the season. Junior Kevin Broad doubled RPI’s lead when he scored on a low shot to the glove side of Daigneau. Junior Oren Eizenman earned the primary assist while freshman defenseman Reed Kipp earned the secondary.
RPI went ahead 3-0 with a Jake Morissette goal at 15:10. Morissette took a long head-man pass from senior Scott Romfo. He made one move and then snapped a wrister that beat Daigneau over his glove hand. MCWilliams also assisted on the play.
Harvard responded with a goal just 64 seconds later to make it 3-1. At 16:14 Dylan Reese took a wrist shot from the blue line that made it to Mathias Lange. Lange got a piece of it, but it trickled past him and over the goal line. Jimmy Fraser and Steve Rolecek were credited with the assists. The point was Rolecek’s first collegiate point.
It took the Crimson 2:29 to cut the deficit to one goal with an extra attacker as Daigneau was pulled. The puck was put in front of Lange where the Crimson outnumbered the Engineers. In the end it was sophomore Alex Meintel that swatted the puck past Lange. Fraser and Kevin Du were credited with assists.
The Crimson pulled Daigneau with 40 seconds remaining but could not get one past Lange, who made 30 saves on the evening, 15 in the third period, to improve his record to 8-7-3. Daigneau made 23 saves in the loss and dropped his record to 9-5-2.
Rensselaer returns home for two league games next weekend when St. Lawrence and Clarkson visit the Field House on Friday and Saturday nights at 7pm, respectively. The Crimson are idle until January 27 due to final exams. Their next game will be at home against RPI in a 7pm contest.
