Monday, October 22, 2012

Okay, But Still…

The Engineers blew two third period leads at Minnesota State this weekend leading to a tie and overtime loss (Mankato Free Press)
Yeah, I know. It wasn’t quite the weekend we were hoping for out in Mankato. Especially since the Engineers had two-goal leads both nights that somehow slipped away. But the upside of that is that they actually HAD two-goal leads. How often did that happen last year, especially early in the season?

In the first 20 games of last season, RPI had a two-goal lead exactly once (against Minnesota State, as it happens). In fact, over the first twelve games, there were only two in which they even scored two goals! In the current young season, they’ve already been up by two in three of their four games. C’mon, that’s definitely progress. They can TAKE the lead, now they just need to learn how to HOLD the lead! (Hmm… I think there’s a Seinfeld episode somewhere in that.)

Seriously, the season is very young yet and, as Dave pointed out in his comment below, it’s one game at a time. And for now, it’s enough that there are some positives to build on. Senior leadership, as Bob mentioned, is one. The power play is a very respectable 6 for 17 and the penalty kill an even more impressive 12 for 13. And, best of all, there looks to be some strong scoring potential, especially in the sophomore class. Matt Neal and Jacob Laliberte both have three goals already and Ryan Haggerty has two.

Read the rest of the post on RPIHockey.net.

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