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COLLEGE HOCKEY: RPI completes second overtime…

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COLLEGE HOCKEY: RPI completes second overtime win in as many days

RPI beats St. Lawrence is 4-3 thanks to a Sutter Muzzatti overtime goal on January 21 at the Houston Field House. (Photo By Joe Boyle).
RPI beats St. Lawrence is 4-3 thanks to a Sutter Muzzatti overtime goal on January 21 at the Houston Field House. (Photo By Joe Boyle).
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By | jboyle@medianewsgroup.com | Troy Record
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TROY, NY — History repeats itself. That couldn’t have shown itself more in Saturday’s RPI overtime win over St. Lawrence.

“Muzz and I played on HoneyBaked when we were 12-13 in the Quebec peewee tournament and in the quarterfinals we were going down 2-on-1 in the same way but he had the puck and he found me backdoor and we scored in overtime,” said Max Smolinski on the history he and teammate Sutter Muzzatti have. “I had to get him back on that one.”

“He said, ‘just like old times,'” Smolinski continued.

The Smolinski-Muzzatti connection led to Muzzatti scoring the overtime game winner on Saturday night against St. Lawrence for the 4-3 win. The overtime win is a repeat in its own right of Friday night’s win where Smolinski scored the game winner on a feed by John Beaton.

“It’s really exciting,” said Smolinski. “Like we talked about last night, it’s tough to be on the loss side of the weekends prior so I think this one is a good one to build up on during this upcoming week but just a good feeling right now for sure.”

Muzzatti scored two goals in the overtime win including a game tying one-timer in the third period.

“It’s cool to see it all come together and having me and Smo come together from when we were younger,” said Muzzatti. “It was a big team win for us for conference points to help us in the standings. It’s a big team win.”

RPI’s Saturday win was eerily similar to their Friday night win. St. Lawrence and RPI were scoreless after the first period and after the second period RPI trailed 1-0 thanks to St. Lawrence’s Cameron Buhl capitalizing off of a blocked shot in the offensive zone.

“It’s hard to win every night,” said Head Coach Dave Smith. “Trying to build confidence in our game and what we do. I thought St. Lawrence played very well. They broke the puck out as well as any team has that we have played and it really was a back and forth, good play for good play, game. They made a mistake and we would score. We would make a mistake and they would score.”

After two periods, RPI trailed and generated just nine shots through two periods (on Friday they had generated ten shots through two periods).

“We tweaked the lines a little bit but I thought our game picked up after the unsuccessful 5-on-3 powerplay,” said Smith. “You’re not going to score on every powerplay and how you respond to the 70-80 percent powerplays you don’t score on is really important.”

The Engineers’ game changed drastically in the third period. After St. Lawrence took a two goal lead thanks to a Felikss Gavars snipe, RPI charged back with a Ryan Mahshie goal on an odd man rush and Muzzatti’s one-timer set up by Jake Gagnon.

“I had the easy job there,” said Muzzatti. “Braxton made a curl up pass to Gagnon and waited out the goalie, made him freeze, and got it over to me. It was a good play.”

RPI eventually even took a quick lead thanks to a Lauri Sertti powerplay goal from the point through a screen. Sertti’s goal was the only powerplay goal that RPI scored on their six powerplays.

“We talk about timely scoring. Mahshie’s goal to get it to 2-1 is really big,” said Smith. “We talked about Sertti’s powerplay goal, really important time. That makes us one-for-six. Could we have been better, did we want to do better? Yea, but that’s a huge goal. We talked about to continue to push and respond the way we are capable of.”

St. Lawrence responded a minute and a half later with a powerplay goal by Buhl through traffic in front of the net.

RPI’s overtime period was the similar to Fridays: controlled and patient, taking few chances at the net but not risking a forced play that could give St. Lawrence a break down the ice.

With 3:05 left on the clock, Smolinski hopped the boards and was fed the pass by Kyle Hallbauer to set up a two-on-one break for the net.

“We have talked a lot about possessing it so I knew as soon as I got on he was going to give it to me but when I looked up I was surprised with how much time I had,” said Smolinski. “Everybody on the bench was yelling at me to go.”

Smolinski broke for the net and generated a two-on-one chance that was capped off with Muzzatti’s goal.

“I’m not going to lie, I thought about shooting for a second,” said Smolinski. “But I think Muzz can put that one in. He went down on one knee and I knew I could put it through to him.”

“Part of knowing Smolinski and playing with him for a long time is I know he can make that pass,” said Muzzatti. “I kept going to the backdoor and I knew he could find the hole there and find me.”

RPI completes the weekend sweep for the third time this season. Thanks to the win, RPI moves to ninth in the ECAC standings and moves back ahead of Union in the conference standings.

“I am aware of the standings. I am aware of our record. I am aware of what we are doing on a day to day basis,” said Smith. “I feel like our team is still growing. We are going through injuries. Guys are playing and playing well that on most nights wouldn’t be playing. The character our guys is showing is tremendous. As we gain victories we need to continue inching forward and as we inch forward the standings will take care of themselves.”

Adding to the excitement of the win was Brett Miller picking up his first collegiate win of his career in a 20 save performance.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” said Miller. “My name was called this morning and I’ve been prepared. I didn’t treat it like any other game. I just tried to step in and do my job. It feels good to get the win.”

“Brett had a tremendous week of practice. He went through half the team in our shoot out and did not give up a goal, that was just one moment, but he has been dialed in and focused,” said Smith. “I thought he played well.”

Miller enters his name in a goalie battle with Carson Cherepak with Jack Watson being out with an injury.

“Watson is injured so we are now in a new competition phase,” said Smith.

Watson’s return is to be determined according to Smith.

RPI has just one game next weekend with Mayor’s Cup Weekend 2023 on the horizon. RPI and Union split their conference series back in October with Union beating RPI 6-0 at Messa Rink and RPI beating Union 2-1 at the Houston Field House.

ECAC Standings As of January 21

  1. Quinnipiac, 36 pts
  2. Harvard, 29 pts
  3. Cornell, 28 pts
  4. Colgate, 25 pts
  5. Princeton, 20 pts
  6. St. Lawrence, 18 pts
  7. Clarkson, 17 pts
  8. Brown, 16 pts
  9. RPI, 15 pts
  10. Union, 14 pts
  11. Dartmouth, 12 pts
  12. Yale, 10 pts

RPI sneaks out of Troy with a 3-2 overtime win over Clarkson

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute hockey has benefitted from two game misconduct calls against opponents in the last two series played at the Houston Field House.

Friday night’s call was one that ended up leveling the playing field.

“It comes with with confidence and wins give you confidence,” said Austin Heidemann on how RPI can beging to control games without major powerplays. “Hopefully we can use this win to roll.”

RPI parlayed their powerplay success into a 3-2 overtime win over the Clarkson Golden Knights Friday night. Max Smolinski tallied the Engineer game winning goal at 2:44 into overtime thanks to a great pass from the corner by John Beaton.

“That was a really cool moment. Probably one of the biggest goals of my career I’d say,” said Smolinski. “Beaton made an unreal play. He made a really special play and it just happened to hit my tape and the rest was a blur.”

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