TROY, N.Y. – The stars aligned around graduate student goaltender Amanda Rampado and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's hockey team on Friday evening, as the Engineers defeated the No. 14 nationally-ranked Yale Bulldogs at the Houston Field House. In addition to the win, Rampado made 41 total saves, surpassing 3,000 saves for her career - becoming just the second goaltender in program history to reach the milestone mark.

Rampado joins former netminder Lovisa Selander as the two lone goaltenders in the program's history to reach 3,000 saves. Selander surpassed 4,000 career saves, finishing her career in Troy as the NCAA Division I all-time leader with 4,167. The win for the Engineers is also the program's first win over a ranked opponent since they defeated No. 9 Providence on Oct. 23, 2021 at the Houston Field House. The result of that game was a 2-0 shutout victory, led by strong performance in net from  then-junior Rampado.

As it seemed the first period would come and go without a score, RPI jumped on the board first period, as Maddy Papineau scored on a shot to the upper left corner of the net. She was the beneficiary of a pass on a 2-on-1 situation from Sabrina Beaudoin, as the Engineers took the early lead. Ellie Kaiser put a bow tie on the period, scoring with less than a minute to play to give RPI a two-goal advantage heading into the first intermission.

RPI didn't find the back of the net in the second frame, as Yale collected their lone tally of the night during the 20 minute period. After an initial save from Rampado, a puck got through and sat inside the crease where Anna Bargman poked it in to bring the Bulldogs back within a goal.

However, Rampado remained strong for the Engineers on the backside, maintaining a lead throughout the third period until Nyah Philip and Kaiser put the finishing touches on the win. Philip made a strong move and finish to extend the RPI lead out to 3-1 before Kaiser collected the empty netter to seal the win. Rampado made her career milestone save with just under six minutes to play in the third period.

Freshman Andrea Trnkova had three assists on the night, while Kaiser finished with her pair of goals in the win. Yale goaltender Pia Dukaric made just 12 saves in the loss, as the Bulldogs outshot the Engineers 42-16.

RPI returns to action tomorrow on Saturday, Feb. 3 when they play host to Brown at 3 p.m. in the Houston Field House.