Following last night’s game, coach Jim Montgomery advised his team that RPI would be better tonight than they were on Friday night, and for the first few minutes, he was right. The Engineers had jump from the first drop of the puck and generated two early scoring chances on freshman goalie Tanner Jaillet in the first 40 seconds of the period.
However, the Engineers became a little over aggressive and took some costly penalties that cost Denver a couple of players and RPI three power-play goals.
While killing off a minor to Curtis Leonard for slashing, Zach Schroeder raced into the DU zone chasing a clearing pass and collided with Jaillet in the slot when both tried to play the puck. Jaillet left the game at just the 2:20 mark and Evan Cowley replaced Jaillet. Schroeder received a minor for goaltender interference. A shot off the post by Danton Heinen was as close as the Pioneers got during their five-on-three, but there were more man advantages to come.
Just under six minutes in, Craig Bokenfohr was called for kneeing on an offensive zone hit on Matt Tabrum of Denver. The major penalty also saw Bokenfohr receive a game misconduct and unlike Friday night, the Pioneers looked to cash in early.
At 8:03, Trevor Moore on a nifty give-and-go with Will Butcher beat Jason Kasdorf to the far side for a power play-goal and a 1-0 lead. Just two and a half minutes later, Matt Marcinew roofed a backhand over Kasdorf’s blocker and the Pioneers had two power-play goals on the five-minute major penalty. Assists on Marcinew’s goal went to Gabe Levin and Nolan Zajac.
The Pioneers weren’t done on the man advantage just yet. With Luke Curadi off for interference, Quentin Shore scored on a backhand at the near post off nice passes from Joey LaLeggia and Zajac. All three goals of the period came on the power play.
Denver had the momentum, and only saves by Kasdorf on Zac Larraza, Daniel Doremus, Moore, and Emil Romig in the final two minutes kept the game at 3-0.
Shots for the period finished at 16-2 for Denver, and RPI did not have a shot after the first minute of the game.
The second period opened with the Pioneers looking for more and just over three minutes, in Larraza beat Kasdorf high over the blocker off a pass from Heinen and Denver had a 4-0 lead. Kasdorf was replaced by Scott Diebold following the goal.
At 8:13, RPI’s Jake Wood was awarded a penalty shot when he was pulled down from behind on a breakaway. As further evidence of how difficult things have been going for RPI offensively, Wood lost the puck off his stick attempting to deke Cowley and never got a shot on goal.
RPI successfully killed off another Denver power play and started one of its own in the final minute of the period that carried over into the third period.
Denver killed off the remaining penalty time to start the third period, and with just under four minutes played, Heinen looked to add a goal to his two assists on the night when he picked up a loose puck in the slot, nutmeg’d the defenseman, and walked in alone on Diebold. The RPI goalie shut down the five-hole with a nice pad save and the score remained 4-0.
Midway through the period, consecutive power plays on penalties to Denver gave RPI man-advantage opportunities with the best chance to score coming off a blast from the point by Mark McGowan that struck the near post to Cowley’s left and caromed to the boards.
An exchange of power plays over the final eight minutes produced limited scoring opportunities. The best chance was a short-handed bid by Denver captain Grant Arnold, who faked a shot from the slot and tried to stuff the puck past Diebold from behind the goal line, but Diebold’s glove kept the puck out.
With just 35 seconds left in the game, RPI found the back of the net on a power-play goal by Chris Bradley, whose snap shot handcuffed Cowley and went in off the netminder’s catching glove, ending Cowley’s bid for back-to-back shutouts.
The final score was 4-1 for the Pioneers.
“There is a lot of pride in every locker room,” said Pioneers coach Jim Montgomery. “They came out hard and got a couple of chances early, but got a little too aggressive beyond the rules and that got us going with those power-play goals in the first period.”
