Box Score HARTFORD, Conn. – Junior
Chase Zieky scored two goals and assisted on another to lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's hockey team to a 5-2 victory over the University of Connecitcut, on Wednesday night at XL Center. With the win, the Engineers improve to 7-15-0, while the Huskies drop to 7-14-1.
Zieky (Avon, CT/Salmon Arm Silverbacks) opened the scoring at 5:40 of the first period, sticking home the rebound of a shot from the point by freshman
Jake Johnson (Bloomington, MN/Cedar Rapids RoughRiders). Junior
Jacob Hayhurst (Mississauga, ON/Cedar RapidsRoughRiders) picked the secondary assist – the first of his two on the night.
The visitors doubled their lead at 12:11 of the second, when Zieky buried a feed from behind the net by freshman Ottoville Leppanen (Espoo, Finland/Espoo Blues). Classmate
Jakub Lacka (Bratislava, Slovakia/Central Illinois Flying Aces) worked the puck down low for Leppanen, who found Zieky in front for the close range, power play tally.
UConn drew to within 2-1 a little over a minute later on a rebound goal of its own. Senior Max Kalter (Highland Park, IL/Sioux City Musketeers) threw a puck on goal that was turned aside by RPI freshman
Owen Savory (Cambridge, ON/St. Catharines Falcons), but the puck fell to sophomore Brian Rigali (Libertyville, IL/Sioux City Musketeers) for his third goal of the season.
Late in the second, the Engineers pushed their lead back to two goals (3-1), when junior
Patrick Polino (Buffalo, NY/Lincoln Stars) found classmate
Todd Burgess (Phoenix, AZ/Fairbanks Ice Dogs) at the top of the left circle. Burgess stepped in and picked out the top right corner of the net for his fifth goal of the year and third in the last five games. Hayhurst earned the secondary assist – his league-leading 20th of the season – on the power play marker.
The Huskies cut the deficit to a single goal once again, early in the third. Senior captain Miles Gendron (Shrewsbury, MA/Penticton Vees) collected a loose puck at the bottom of the right circle and lifted a shot over the left shoulder of Savory for his second goal of the year. Classmate Karl El-Mir (Montreal, PQ/Grande Prairie Storm) and freshman Jachym Kondelik (Budejovice, Czech Republic) picked up the helpers.
Junior
Will Reilly (Toronto, ON/Nanaimo Clippers) got on the end of a Zieky feed and flipped home his fourth goal of the season to push the RPI lead to 4-2 at 10:44 of the final frame. Burgess started the play in the neutral zone, sending a stretch pass to Zieky, who delivered the puck to a slashing Reilly for the finish past UConn freshman goaltender Tomas Vomacka (Trutnov, Czech Republic/Lincoln Stars).
RPI capped the scoring at 17:44, when senior
Brady Wiffen (St. Mary's, ON/Trenton Golden Hawks) backhanded home an empty-netter from just outside the offensive zone. The goal, which was Wiffen's fifth of the year, drew a single assist from junior
Jake Marrello (Slingerlands, NY/PAL Jr. Islanders).
Hayhurst's multi-point was his fourth in the last five game and third consecutive. He has nine points (1 goal, 8 assists) in five contests since the calendar turned to 2019.
Savory (2-7-0) finished with 31 saves, including 11 in the second period and 10 in the third to help seal the win. Vomacka (2-5-0) had 23 stops, with 12 coming in the opening stanza. RPI was 2 for 3 on the power play, while holding the Huskies to an 0 for 3 night.
The Engineers are back in action on Saturday, when they take on Union College in the Seventh Annual Mayor's Cup at the Times Union Center. Puck drop is scheduled for 6pm. UConn hosts New Hampshire on January 25, before visiting the Wildcats the following night.
