RPI earns road split against Dartmouth and Harvard
Sets up a final weekend with 6 potential landing spots in the standings
The Engineers had a successful road weekend with their split against Dartmouth and Harvard putting them in good position for home ice.
Watson came up huge against Dartmouth on Friday. Dartmouth has played a lot of really good teams close and were no doubt hungry to turn one of those close games into a win. They really controlled play with both scoring chances and corsi. RPI did well to finish on their fewer opportunities and play better on special teams, and a very good game from Watson earned them the win.
Harvard is a top 10 team in the country for a reason. I thought RPI actually had a very good first period and were unlucky to be down when it came to a close. After that, the game was all Harvard, and it seemed that the Engineers didn’t have the legs to keep up. I definitely thought that they showed good effort and played better than the numbers indicate. Sometimes, you just don’t bring your A-game though, and against a team as good as Harvard, that’s going to get you an easy loss.
Standings Breakdown
A quick standings breakdown which I will go more in-depth on in the previews for this week. Currently, RPI sits tied for 8th with Union, who they have the tiebreaker over due to more regulation and OT wins. Union picked up a shootout win earlier in the year, which is why RPI holds the tiebreaker.
This puts the Engineers in position for home ice with a 70% chance at it going into the weekend. However, they can finish anywhere from 6-11 in the standings, which is quite the range with only a week remaining. I’ll get into specifics in the preview, but as of right now, things are looking good!