PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Sophomore
Owen Savory stopped 25 of 26 shots he faced to lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's hockey team to a 3-1 victory over Brown University, on Friday night at Meehan Auditorium. With the win, the Engineers improve to 10-11-1 overall (7-6-1 ECAC Hockey), while the Bears drop to 3-15-0 (3-8-0 ECAC Hockey).
Savory (6-7-1) saw his shutout streak end at 196:25, which was just 1:06 shy of the school record of 197:31, held by RPI Athletics Hall of Famer, Joel Laing '00, who posted his unyielding run during the 1998-99 season. Savory came just 12.8 seconds from becoming the first Engineers netminder ever to record three consecutive shutouts. His run included 90 consecutive saves.
After a scoreless first period in which RPI held a narrow 9-8 shot advantage, sophomore
Daniel DiGrande got the visitors on the scoreboard at 7:15 of the second. Racing up the right wing boards on a 2-on-1, DiGrande fired a shot over the right shoulder of Brown senior netminder Gavin Neito for his third goal of the season – all which have come in the second half. Classmate
Tommy Lee and freshman
Simon Kjellberg earned the assists on the play.
The Engineers finally doubled their lead at 15:46 of the third, when sophomore
Ture Linden found junior
Billy Jerry open in the slot for a one-time finish. RPI's second goal drew a secondary assist from senior
Jake Marrello.
Brown lifted Nieto for an extra attacker with over three minutes to play and the Engineers held their ground, before senior
Mike Gornall potted an empty-netter from the blue line with just 45 seconds to go.
James Crossman capitalized on a broken play behind the RPI net with 12.8 seconds left to break up the shutout. Luke Krys and Cole Quisenberry earned the assists on the Crossman goal, in which he jammed home his first collegiate tally at the left side of the net.
RPI finished 0 for 2 on the power play, while the Bears went 0 for 1. Savory had eight saves in the first and second periods, before turning away nine in the third. Nieto (2-12-0) had nine in the first, 10 in the second and nine in the third.
The Engineers are back in action tomorrow night, when they visit Yale (7pm). Brown hosts Union tomorrow (7pm).
