Box Score

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Five different player tallied a goal, including four with multiple points, to lead Union to a 5-1 victory over the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men’s ice hockey team in the third-place game of the Sheraton/TD Banknorth Catamount Cup at Gutterson Fieldhouse. The Engineers fall to 5-7-6 on the season, while the Dutchmen are now 8-8-2 overall.

Union opened the scoring in the first period on junior Torren Delforte’s (Shortsville, NY/Boston) first tally of the season. Sophomore T.J. Fox (Oswego, NY/Chicago Steel) took a shot at Rensselaer netminder Jordan Alford (Red Deer, AB/Canmore Eagles), who made the initial save, but the puck rebounded out to Delforte. Shaking off an RPI defenseman, Delforte pushed the rebound under Alford for the goal at 8:47.

The Dutchmen doubled their lead later in the frame when freshman Jason Walters (Renfrew, ON/Pembroke) scored unassisted at the 15:21 mark. With the Engineers on the power play, Walters stole the puck in the RPI zone and took a quick shot on goal which deflected off the stick of Alford and into the net for the 2-0 lead.

Sophomore Lane Caffaro (Slave Lake, AB/Ft. McMurray) gave Union a three-goal lead early in the second stanza after one-timing the puck over the shoulder of Alford. On a 5-on-3 power play advantage, junior Josh Coyle (Brooklyn, OH/New Hampshire) passed the puck from behind the net to Caffaro, who sent a shot past Alford at 4:11.

Matt Cook (Belle Mead, NJ/Tabor Academy) made it 4-0 in favor of the Dutchmen when he scored on a wristshot at 15:36. Classmate Chris Potts (Phillipsburg, NJ/Tabor Academy), who chipped the puck up to Cook, and junior defenseman Michael Beynon (Nepean, ON/Nepean) were credited with the assists.

A power play goal by junior Jonathan Ornelas (Mississauga, ON/Milton IceHawks) got the Engineers on the scoreboard at 6:54 of the final period. Freshman Peter Merth (New Westminster, BC/Burnaby Express) was awarded the primary assist after his shot from the top of the slot was redirected in by Ornelas. Sophomore Andrei Uryadov (St. Petersburg, Russia/South Kent) earned the secondary assist.

Despite being outshot, 10-5 in the final frame, Union added another goal at the 15:11 mark from Coyle to round out the scoring.

Junior Justin Mrazek (Regina, SK/Estevan Bruins) earned the victory in goal by stopping 21 shots. Alford also posted 21 saves in, including 12 in the first period, and nine in the second.

RPI's Merth and Union's Cook were both named to the All-Tournament Team along with Casey Borer (St. Cloud), Joe Fallon (Vermont), Corey Carlson (Vermont), and Nate Dey (St. Cloud), who was named the tournament MVP.

Rensselaer returns to action on Friday and Saturday when it hosts Harvard and Dartmouth at the Houston Field House. Both games begin at 7pm and can be heard live on can be heard live on WRPI, 91.5 FM, and www.wrpi.org.  Live stats will also be available for both contests at http://rpiathletics.com/live/mhockey/xlive.htm.  Union is also back on the ice next weekend, hosting Dartmouth and Harvard, respectively.