Preview: RPI vs Niagara
The Engineers look to continue their good start in their home opener
RPI will return to the Houston Field House this weekend for the first time since February for the home opening weekend. It’ll be against the Niagara Purple Eagles, and despite Niagara being an Atlantic team, it will not be an easy weekend. They played Clarkson and SLU last weekend and made both of them sweat. Clarkson was a close game throughout and ended 4-2 after Clarkson hit an empty netter. Niagara lost to SLU 4-3 in OT and honestly should have won that game. They were ahead 3-2 until SLU scored an extra attacker goal with 12 seconds left to tie it up. Then, SLU was able to get the win in overtime. After that weekend, I think Niagara will be very hungry for a win and will play extremely hard.
Niagara was picked to finish 6th in the league in the coaches poll, so they’re expected to be a middle of the pack team in the league. However, they have a lot of young talent, which is why they can be dangerous. Tyler Wallace is their top line center; he had an outstanding freshman year with 30 points and will be looking to raise his game a level this season. Jay Ahearn had 43 points in 51 games across his first 2 seasons and is on his wing. Trevor Hoskin is a freshman rounding out the top line, and he’s a rare NHL draft pick playing in the Atlantic after putting up 2 points per game in the OJHL. The second line of Shane Ott, Glebs Prohorenkovs, and Lars Rodne all had 20+ points last year as well, and Niagara has multiple defensemen, such as Alex Murray, Braden Doyle and Noah Carlin, who move the puck well.
RPI will have to continue the strong play they showed last weekend. Moving the puck quickly in transition will be key against a skilled top 6 group like Niagara. You don’t want bad breakouts that will give that skilled group more time and chances with the puck. I’d also look for RPI to continue to roll out 4 lines with their depth. Niagara does have a good top 6, but their depth falls off after that. That’s an area RPI should have the edge, so I’d be looking for RPI’s 3rd and 4th lines to continue to see a decent amount of minutes. If they win those minutes, the Engineers will be in a great spot for a good weekend.
I expect RPI to put out a very similar lineup as last weekend unless Tonelli and/or Muzzatti return. We have not seen any updates to share there, so I’m assuming they will still be out of the lineup. The changes I could see happening are Bourgault slotting into the lineup and Tapper potentially moving up after his strong play to start. Here’s my projection:
Hotson - Tinling - Lee
Beaton - Rullers - Gagnon
Tapper - McNeil - Caron
Sullivan - Payant - Brackett
Bergmanis - Smolinski
McDermott - Gilson
Strom - Goffredo
Agnew
Let’s Go Red!!