TROY, N.Y. - Senior TJ Walsh had a hat trick, Jakob Lee scored once with two assists and Jack Agnew tallied three helpers to lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's hockey team to a 7-4 victory over Army West Point in a non-league game at the Houston Field House. The Engineers improve to 4-0-0, while the Black Knights drop to 0-3-1.
 
Rensselaer needed just 4:15 to get on the scoreboard after drawing a pair of penalties that gave it a two-man advantage. Following the face off on the second Army infraction, RPI peppered 10 shots toward the goal, the last of which found the back of the net off the stick of Walsh. Standing just outside the crease near the right post, the senior picked up a rebound of a Max Smolinski shot and beat Gavin Abric, who had made six saves in the sequence.
 
Army tied the game when Joey Baez scored a power play goal for the visitors 1:42 later, but Jake Gagnon, who also had an assist on the first goal, put RPI back in front at the 7:07 mark. Lauri Sertti, who had the lone goal in RPI's win over LIU on Friday night, started the play from his defensive zone. His outlet pass to John Beaton allowed the forward to skate down the left side, curl, and send a backhand pass to Gagnon, who collected the puck and snapped off a shot from the bottom of the left face off circle into the top right corner.
 
The Engineers added two more goals in the second period for a 4-1 lead. Freshman John Evans scored his first career goal at 5:31 and Walsh recorded his second of the contest with 2:14 to play in the frame. The goal from Walsh came after an Agnew shot from near the blue line was stopped but not controlled and the rebound found Walsh, who was again stationed at the bottom of the right circle. He wristed a shot into the back of the net.
 
Army came out in the third period and scored twice in the first 2:13 to make it a 1-goal game. Brett Abdelnour tallied while on the power play just 54 seconds in and Jake Felker got one at the 2:13 mark. RPI answered almost immediately, however, with Lee scoring on a deflection of a Smolinski left point shot at 4:49 and Walsh finished his hat trick 1:11 later. Both Engineers' goals came on the power play.

Michael Sacco scored a shorthanded goal for the visitors at 16:39 but Austin Heidemann got it back for the Engineers when he found an empty net with 1:10 to play. Sertti earned his second assist of the game on the play.
 
Sophomore Jack Watson made 14 saves for his fourth win of the season, while Arbic stopped 26 shots.
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