Preview: RPI vs Mercyhurst
The Engineers open the regular season this weekend with a home series against Mercyhurst
After starting out with the two exhibitions, RPI returns to home ice this weekend to open the regular season against the Mercyhurst Lakers. Let’s get into it!
Mercyhurst Team Outlook
Last week, Mercyhurst had a series against Ohio State and got swept 2-4 and 1-4. It seems like Ohio State pretty much dominated the play in both games. The SOG were 45-28 on Saturday and 46-19 on Sunday, both in favor of OSU. It’s tough to dock them a lot for this series though since Ohio State is ranked in the top 15 right now. Last year, Mercyhurst went 16-19-4, finishing 7th out of 10 teams in Atlantic Hockey. They were picked to finish 7th once again by the preseason coaches poll. This seems like a team who will be bad, but not so bad that they won’t compete this weekend.
Biggest Threats
The Lakers lost a lot of talent from last year, but they still have some good players who the Engineers will need to account for. Up front, Mercyhurst is led by top-line center Carson Briere who had 27 points in 31 games last season. Their leading goal-scorer, Rylee St. Onge, is also back after scoring 15 goals and 23 points. Former RPI commit Jonathan Bendorf and Gueorgui Feduolov had 19 and 16 points, respectively, and will be counted on for more offense this season. All 4 of these forwards had points against Ohio State last weekend.
On the backend, Mercyhurst has 3 experienced defensemen who lead the way. Cade Townend and Owen Norton return after solid years last season with 16 and 13 points, respectively, and the two of them make up Mercyhurst’s top pairing. Brendan Michaelian comes in as a grad transfer after a great 4 years with both Robert Morris and Ferris State.
In net, Tyler Harmon got the start in both games and put up a 0.920 SV% on the weekend. He was very good, and RPI will have to test him early and often.
RPI Keys to the Series
That brings us to the keys for the Engineers in this series.
Shutdown the top line
St. Onge and Briere make up 2/3 of the top line, and both are Mercyhurst’s most dangerous forwards. The top pairing of Townend and Norton is very experienced and has two-way upside. Mercyhurst’s scoring depth looks poor, so neutralizing the top players should mute much of the Laker offense.
Rely on their depth
The Engineers push towards more speed and skill in the offseason was evident all of last weekend, and this is where that comes into play. RPI’s depth is a strength and much more talented than what Mercyhurst brings to the table. Winning this matchup and producing chances and goals will make life very difficult for the Lakers. Their top players are already expected to do the heavy lifting, and this would put even more pressure on them to produce. Conversely, it would take the pressure off RPI’s top players and allow the coaching staff to keep them fresh by rolling out all 4 lines.
Shoot for rebounds
This one might seem a little off, but just hear me out. RPI generated a lot of chances last weekend but had trouble finishing them. There were some cases where they didn’t even get the puck on net on quality chances because they were trying to snipe the puck. With the lack of finish, I think it’s better to shoot the puck hard and on net to force the goalie to make a save. If he makes the save, that’s fine because rebounds have good chances of going in. Until the lines gain more chemistry to lead to better finishing, they might be better off shooting for those greasy goals. They all count the same anyways. Plus, with Harmon looking really good last weekend, he might be tough to score on.
The games count this weekend. Let’s Go Red!