ROUTE 7 RIVALRY
The Engineers begin ECAC Hockey play this weekend, when they take on area-rival Union College in a home-and-home series, which begins on Friday night at Messa Rink in Schenectady ... The Engineers and Dutchmen then get together on Saturday night at the Houston Field House ... Puck drop on both nights is set for 7pm.

EARLY LEADERS
Rensselaer senior Patrick Polino paces the team with six points on three goals and three assists ... Four players have four points, including Simon Kjellberg (2 goals, 2 assists), Chase Zieky (2 goals, 2 assists), Will Reilly (1 goal, 3 assists) and Ottoville Leppanen (1 goal, 3 assists) ... Senior Jake Marrello (2 goals, 1 assist), freshman Zach Dubinsky (1 goal, 2 assists) and sophomore Nick Bowman (3 assists) all have three points.

GOALTENDING
Sophomore Owen Savory (1-1) has a 3.02 goals against average and a .910 save percentage in two starts, while junior Linden Marshall (1-1) has a 4.00 goals against average and an .886 save percentage in two starts.

ALL-TIME VS. UNION
RPI owns a 53-40-11 advantage in the all-time series, which dates back to February 26, 1904 – a 6-2 victory for the Engineers in Albany ... The 115-year history has been highlighted by a number of streaks, including early RPI winning runs of nine and eight games ... The Dutchmen put together a seven-game unbeaten streak (5-0-2) from 2004 to 2007, before beating the Engineers in 10 straight – the long unbeaten in series history – from 2011 to 2013 ... After ending the dry spell, RPI quickly ran off wins in 6 of 7, before Union swept the three-game season series over the last two seasons.

VS. UNION IN 2018-19
The Engineers opened ECAC Hockey play by sweeping then-11th-ranked Union in a home-and-home series ... RPI was victorious, 5-3, at the Houston Field House on October 26, before downing the Dutchmen, 4-2, in Schenectady he following night ... Junior Jacob Hayhurst recorded three assists in each game, while sophomore Donovan Ott (2 goals, 1 assist) and senior Brady Wiffen (1 goal, 2 assists) had three points apiece in the two contests ... Sophomore goaltender Linden Marshall stopped 68 of 73 shots, including 24 of 25 while the Engineers were shorthanded ... In the seventh playing of the Mayor's Cup on January 29, RPI and Union played to a 0-0 tie, with Owen Savory recording his first collegiate shutout on 43 saves ... Darion Hanson had 20 stops at the other end ... The Dutchmen won the shootout for the unofficial win and rights to the trophy.

SWEEPS ONLY
The last time RPI and Union split a weekend ECAC Hockey series was November 12 and 13 of 2010 ... The Dutchmen won in Schenectady, 2-1, while the Engineers were victorious in Troy, 4-3 in overtime, the following night.

SCOUTING THE DUTCHMEN
Union is off to an 0-6-0 start, including losses to nationally-ranked Northeastern (x2) and UMass (x2) ... Senior Anthony Rinaldi (1 goal, 2 assists) leads the way offensively with three points, while four others have two points, including junior Sean Harrison (2 goals) and sophomore Sam Morton (2 goals).

UNION IN NET
Junior Darion Hanson (0-6-0) has started all six games for the Dutchmen so far this season, posting a 4.09 goals against average and an .885 save percentage ... Freshman Merek Pipes has a 15.52 goals against average and a .667 save percentage in just 3:52 of action.

GOALS? YOU BET!
Prior to the 0-0 tie at last year's Mayor's Cup, both teams had a scored at least one goal in the last 30 meetings and 25 of those games have seen at least five total tallies ... Union's Corey Milan was the last goaltender to register a shutout in the series, stopping all 31 shots he faced in a 3-0 victory on February 6, 2009 ... RPI's last shutout in the series belongs to RPI Athletics Hall of Famer Joel Laing, who made 31 saves in a 5-0 win at the Houston Field House on January 15, 2000.

POLINO IS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Senior Patrick Polino was named ECAC Hockey Player of the Week after leading the Engineers to a 1-1 weekend, recording two goals and three assists for a team-high five points ... Both of his tallies came on the power play, while one was a game-winner ... In RPI's 7-2 victory over Canisius on Saturday, he posted one goal and three assists for four points.

PLUS/MINUS LEADERS
Senior captain Will Reilly is a team-best +3 through four games this season, while classmate Jake Marrello is right behind him at +2 ... Four players are +1, including freshmen Ryan Mahshie, Simon Kjellberg and Tristan Ashbrook.

FAMILY MATTERS
Three incoming freshmen have fathers who saw success in the National Hockey League ... Patric Kjellberg recorded 160 points in 394 games between the Canadiens, Predators and Ducks ... Steve Dubinsky notched 70 points in 375 games while suiting up for the Blackhawks, Flames, Predators and Blues ... Ken Klee played in 934 games and registered 195 points and 880 penalty minutes for the Capitals, Maple Leafs, Devils, Rockies, Braves, Ducks and Coyotes.

JUST HOW YOU DRAW IT UP
Rensselaer is off to a fast start in the face-off circle, winning 55.0% of its draws as a team ... Leading the way is freshman Tristan Ashbrook, who has gone 34-21 on draws for a 61.8% winning percentage ... Sophomore Ture Linden is right behind him at 60.0%, while junior Billy Jerry rounds out the top three at 59.6%.

DROUGHT ENDS
Junior Billy Jerry put a halt to his 23-game pointless streak with an assist on Saturday against Canisius, which spanned 595 days ... His last goal came against Union in the 2018 Mayor's Cup on January 27, 2018 – a 30-game spell.

MAHSHIE HONORED
ECAC Hockey announced its weekly award winners Rensselaer freshman Ryan Mahshie has been named Rookie of the Week ... He netted goals in each of his first two collegiate games to help the Engineers to a 1-1 week, scoring the eventual game-winning goal on three shots in RPI's 5-3 victory at UConn on Saturday afternoon ... In Friday's season opening 5-3 defeat at No. 4 UMass, he netted his first collegiate tally, while recording one shot and posting a +1 rating.

DEJA VU?
Last season, Jakub Lacka scored in each his first two collegiate games ... He also netted his first collegiate tally against the Minutemen.

TOP RETURNERS
RPI welcomes back four of its top five scorers from 2018-19, including goal-scoring leader Chase Zieky (8 goals, 6 assist), who had 14 points in just 21 games after joining the team for the second semester ... Sophomore Ottoville Leppanen (4 goals, 15 assists) had 19 points as a rookie, while playing in 36 games ... His -2 rating was good for third on the club and 12 of points (3 goals, 9 assists) came in ECAC Hockey play ... Senior Will Reilly led all blueliners in scoring with five goals and 13 assists for 18 points in 33 games ... He enters his final season with 46 career points on 14 goals and 32 assists.

BACK BETWEEN THE PIPES
All-Rookie Team netminder Owen Savory is back after posting a top-10 save percentage in program history last season at .926 ... He went 5-15-3 with a 2.46 goals against average in 25 games (23 starts) with one shutout ... Junior Linden Marshall has played 43 games coming into the season, going 10-28-2, with a 3.31 goals against average and a .900 save percentage ... Newcomer Alec Calvaruso went 19-6-3 with the Sioux Fall Stampede last year, sporting a 2.63 goals against average and an .890 save percentage.