Box Score
TROY, N.Y. – Junior goaltender Mathias Lange stopped 34 shots to lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men’s hockey team to a 4-2 win over Harvard University in an ECAC Hockey contest at the Houston Field House. RPI, the 19th-ranked team in the nation, improves to 8-5-3 overall and 3-2-2 in the league. The Crimson, the 13th-ranked team, is now 6-3-1 and 5-3-1.
Lange made nine saves in the first period, 12 in the second and 13 in the third to improve to 4-2-2. His counterpart, Kyle Richter (Calgary, AB/Springbank), finished with 25 saves on 29 shots. He entered the game with the nation’s best goals against average (1.10) and save percentage (.964).
Harvard broke out on top with a power play goal at 18:01 of the first period when freshman forward Michael Biega (Montreal, PQ/Salisbury) scored from the bottom right corner off a rebound. The play started at the right point, where Doug Rogers (Watertown, MA/St. Sebastian’s) passed the puck to Brian McCafferty (Lexington, MA/Belmont Hill), who took a shot. Lange (Klagenfurt, Austria/New York Apple Core) made the initial save but the rebound slipped to Biega, who pushed the puck over the goal line.
RPI came right back to knot the score just 20 seconds later when defenseman Christian Jensen (Watchung, NJ/Chicago Steel) slapped home a loose puck from the blue line. Paul Kerins (Weston, ON/North York Rangers) and Tyler Helfrich (Calgary, AB/Prince George) earned the assists.
The Engineers opened a two-goal lead with a pair of goals in the second period. Their first came at 7:56 when freshman Chase Polacek (Edina, MN/Academy of Holy Angels) stuffed in the puck from the left side of the crease. Helfrich, who feathered a pass to Polacek from the right circle, earned the primary assist while senior Andrew Lord (West Vancouver, BC/Vernon Vipers) was credited with the secondary. Senior Jake Morissette (Fruitvale, BC/Williams Lake Timberwolves) put the home team ahead 3-1 when his fired a wrist shot into the upper left corner from the left circle. Andrei Uryadov (St. Petersburg, Russia/South Kent) took a pass from Jonathan Ornelas (Mississauga, ON/Milton IceHawks) and moved the puck across the slot to Morissette, who scored for the fifth time this season.
Harvard pulled to within one just 25 seconds into the third period when senior Dave Watters (Eden Prairie, MN/Eden Prairie) scored off a faceoff win by Jimmy Fraser (Port Huron, MI/Huron) but an Ornelas goal at 11:38 put RPI back ahead by two goals. Uryadov and Morissette earned the assists.
Rensselaer is idle this weekend and returns to the ice on December 15 when its hosts Miami, the top-ranked team in the nation, at 7pm. Harvard is at Vermont on Saturday night at 7pm.
