Preview: RPI vs Yale in the Freakout!

The Engineers have a must win game tonight to maintain their home ice chances

Photo: Yale Athletics

After last night’s tough overtime loss to Brown, RPI enters tonight’s game in must win territory. All the teams between 8 and 12 in the ECAC are tightly grouped together with only 2 points separating them. RPI could jump as high as 8 with a win, but a loss would leave them in a tie for 11th at best.

Yale has continued to struggle this season on both sides of the puck. They’re averaging 2.4 goals per game while giving up 4 per game. The penalty kill in particular has been a real weakness, operating at 66.7%. They are one of the worst teams in the country in puck possession with a 42.3% even strength corsi, which is only ahead of Mercyhurst and Northern Michigan.

Yale being a bad team isn’t exactly a surprise, but the defense and goaltending is definitely a surprise. The goaltending was viewed as a strength heading into the season with Jack Stark returning after a stellar freshman year and Luke Pearson returning from injury. Yale’s team save percentage sits at 0.873, which is second worst in the country. It’s difficult when what was supposed to be your biggest strength is actually a weakness, and that’s especially the case with goaltending.

Key contributions from Ronan O’Donnell, Zach Wagnon and Micah Berger up front as freshmen has played a role in Yale being able to pull out some wins. They’ve helped the offense be more respectable even if it’s still a weakness. David Chen has also been excellent since returning from injury.

RPI needs to win this one as it’s a very winnable game at home in front of a big crowd with a big standings impact. Yale is one of the teams that RPI will be fighting with for a home ice spot and only 2 points ahead of them.

Sorry for the shorter preview; been a busy week. Let’s Go Red!