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RPI wins second overtime win in as many days – a Trojan record

bynewsdesk
January 22, 2023

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TROY, NY History repeats itself. It couldn’t have been more evident in Saturday’s RPI overtime win over St. Lawrence.

“Muzz and I played HoneyBaked when we were 12-13 in the Quebec peewee tournament and in the quarterfinals we were down 2-1 the same way, but he had the puck and found me in the back door and we scored in overtime,” Max Smolinski said of his and teammate Sutter Muzzatti’s history. . “I had to get him back into it.”

“He said, ‘Just like the old days,'” Smolinski continued.

The Smolinski-Muzzatti connection led to Muzzatti’s overtime winner Saturday night against St. Lawrence in a 4-3 win. The overtime win in itself repeats Friday night’s win, where Smolinski scored the game-winner off a feed from John Beaton.

“It’s really exciting,” said Smolinski. “Like we talked about last night, it’s hard to be on the losing end the weekends before, so I think that’s good to carry over into this coming week, but it’s definitely a good feeling now.”

Muzzatti scored twice in overtime, including the game-tying third period.

“It’s great to see it all come together and that me and Smo met when we were younger,” said Muzzatti. “It was a big team win for us for conference points that helped us in the rankings. It’s a big team win.”

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

“It’s hard to win every night,” said head coach Dave Smith. – We are trying to build trust in our game and our activities. I thought St. Lawrence played very well. They broke the puck as well as any team we’ve played and it was really back and forth, good play for good play. They made a mistake and we scored. We’d make a mistake and they’d score.”

After two sets, RPI trailed, making just nine shots through two sets (on Friday, they had taken ten shots through two sets).

“We changed the lines a little bit, but I thought our game picked up after a failed 5-3 power play,” Smith said. “You’re not going to score on every power play, and how you react to those 70-80 percent power plays where you don’t score is really important.”

The Engineers game changed dramatically in the third period. After St. Lawrence took a two-goal lead thanks to Felikss Gavars’ sky-high, RPI stormed back with a goal by Ryan Mahshie on an odd-man steal and Jake Gagnon’s one-timer by Muzzatti.

“I had an easy job there,” said Muzzatti. “Braxton made a spin pass to Gagnon and waited for the goalie, froze him and got it to me. It was a good play.”

In the end, RPI even quickly took the lead thanks to a powerplay goal from Lauri Serti’s point through the screen. Sert’s goal was the only power play RPI made on its six power plays.

“We talk about timely scoring. Mahshie’s goal to make it 2-1 is really big,” Smith said. “We talked about Sert’s powerplay goal, really important time. That makes us one for six. Could we have been better, did we want to do better? Yes, but it’s a big goal, we talked about continuing to push and react the way we can.

St. Lawrence responded a minute and a half later with Buhl’s power play goal in front of the net.

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

With 3:05 left on the clock, Smolinski jumped the boards and was fed by Kyle Hallbauer for a two-on-one break into the net.

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

Smolinski burst into the net and created a two-on-one situation that ended with Muzzati’s goal.

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

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

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

“I’m aware of the rankings. I’m aware of our record. I’m aware of what we’re doing every day,” Smith said. “I feel like our team is still growing. We’re dealing with injuries. Guys are playing and playing well that most nights you wouldn’t. The character our guys are showing is great.” .When we get wins, we have to keep moving forward, and when we move forward, the investments take care of themselves.

Adding to the excitement of the win was Brett Miller, who picked up his first career varsity win with 20 saves.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” Miller said. “My name was called this morning and I’m ready. I didn’t approach it like any other game. I was just trying to step in and do my job. It feels good to get a win.”

“Brett had a great training week. He went through half the team on our penalty kick and didn’t give up a goal, it was just one moment, but he’s been involved and focused,” Smith said. “I thought he played well.”

Miller enters the goaltending battle with Carson Cherepak in the absence of Jack Watson injured.

“Watson is injured so we’re in a new phase of the race now,” Smith said.

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 in October, with Union beating RPI 6-0 at Messa Rink and RPI beating Union 2-1 at Houston Field House.

ECAC standings on January 21

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

Sources

1/ https://Google.com/

2/ https://www.troyrecord.com/2023/01/21/college-hockey-rpi-completes-second-overtime-win-in-as-many-days/

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