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TROY, N.Y. – Chase Polacek and Jerry D'Amigo had a goal and two assists apiece to lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's hockey team to a 5-3 victory over Quinnipiac University in an ECAC Hockey contest at the Houston Field House.

With the victory, the Engineers improve to 17-13-3 overall and 10-7-2 in the league and clinch home-ice in the playoffs. They remain in fourth place and have a chance for a first-round bye. The seventh-place Bobcats fall to 15-14-2 and 9-10-0.

RPI opened the scoring at 4:18 of the first period when freshman Brandon Pirri (Toronto, Ont./Georgetown Raiders) buried a wrist shot from the bottom of the right circle. Linemates Marty O'Grady (London, Ont./Wellington Dukes) and Paul Kerins (Weston, Ont./North York Rangers) picked up the assists on the goal. The goal was Pirri's tenth of the season. Quinnipiac needed just over three minutes to tie the game as sophomore Scott Zurevinski (Saskatoon, Sask./Vernon) knocked the puck out of mid-air and past Engineers netminder Bryce Merriam (Bethel Park, Penn./Topeka RoadRunners). Zack Currie (Victoria, B.C./Cowichan Valley), who had his shot from the right point blocked, had the primary assist, while Eric Lampe (Madison, Wisc./Chicago) earned the secondary.

Polacek (Edina, Minn./Academy of Holy Angels), the nation's leader in goals and points entering the evening, put the home team back in front at 17:48 when he scored from between the bottom of the faceoff circles. D'Amigo (Binghamton, N.Y./U.S. National U-18 Team) set up the goal by driving around a defenseman near the right-wing boards and toward the net. The puck skipped off his stick to Polacek, who scored for the 24th time this season. Tyler Helfrich (Calgary, Alb./Prince George Spruce Kings) also had an assist on the play.

The Engineers increased their lead to three goals, 4-1, with a pair of tallies just 56 seconds apart with both teams skating four aside. D'Amigo scored his tenth of the year on a rebound of a Polacek shot at 14:07 and Alex Angers-Goulet (St. Augustin, Que./Langley Chiefs) scored on a one-on-one situation with Quinnipiac goalie Dan Clarke (Belleville, Ont./Bowmanville). On Angers-Goulet's goal, RPI defenseman Jeff Foss (Moorhead, Minn./ Moorhead High School) stole the puck just inside the blueline and fed the sophomore, who was all alone in front of Clarke.

Quinnipiac got one goal back when Jean-Marc Beaudoin (St. Paul, Alb./Bonnyville) scored on a deflection at the corner of the crease with just 28 seconds left in the middle frame and the Bobcats on a power play. Brandon Wong (Victoria, B.C./Merritt) earned the primary assist when he sent the puck from the right corner to the net, where Beaudoin was stationed and chipped it over Merriam.

The Bobcats pulled to within one goal, 4-3, with a power play goal at 4:52 of the third period on Zurevinski's second goal of the night. The score remained that way until an empty net goal by junior defenseman John Kennedy (Saginaw, Mich./St. Louis Bandits) – the first goal of his career – with only 29 seconds remaining in the period. Polacek and D'Amigo had the assists.

Merriam, who was making his first home start since November 27, stopped 24 shots for the victory. He is now 4-3-0. Clarke had 16 saves to fall to 10-12-2.