OXFORD, Ohio — It was Riley Bourbonnais that shined in RPI’s first contest since mid-December, scoring his 11th and 12th goals of the season in his team’s 3-2 victory over Miami.
An extra attacker kept things interesting at Steve “Coach” Cady Arena, but the Engineers held on to improve their record to 10-6-3.
The hockey-less holiday season took a visible toll on the Engineers in the early going and the RedHawks capitalized with Josh Melnick converting a high-quality chance in front of the net on a feed from fellow freshman forward Jack Roslovic.
RPI responded emphatically in the closing moments of the third, though. Bourbonnais received a pass from Lou Nanne in transition and wired a clean wrist shot past Miami goaltender Ryan McKay to tie the game at one.
“It was a great response,” Rensselaer coach Seth Appert explained. “I thought our guys were great the rest of the first period. The Zach Schroeder line with Lou Nanne and Bourbonnais had great compete shifts, and obviously [Bourbonnais] got two goals.
“In my mind, the last 10 years Miami has been the benchmark for playing the right way: hard, physical, winning stick battles. I know their record isn’t where it usually is, but that’s a good hockey team and that’s the kind of game we’re going to have to play if we’re going to be a national tournament team this year. It took that kind of effort tonight.”
The two teams traded chances and a pair of goals again in the second frame as well. Bourbonnais notched his second of the night about six minutes later on a mini breakaway opportunity by beating Chris Joyaux with speed to the outside. McKay got enough leather on the glove-side snap shot to slow the puck down, but not enough to keep it from crossing the goal line to give RPI the 2-1 lead.
“Coach always says move your feet and take the defense low,” Bourbonnais said of his latter goal. “I got a jump on the defenseman and kept my feet moving, and good things happen when you move your feet.”
At the 12:53 mark of the period, Roslovic potted his ninth of the year on a nifty give-and-go with Anthony Louis in which he waited out goaltender Jason Kasdorf to tie the game at two, but Miami would never again regain that early lead.
After both teams struggled to find much in the way of offensive puck possession – and the RedHawks hit three posts during one flurry in RPI’s zone – Kenny Gillespie bull-rushed the net at 15:12 of the second period and found a way to get the puck past two defensemen and a sprawling McKay to take the lead.
It was a lead that would stand, as both teams combined for just 10 shots on goal in the final frame and the RedHawks didn’t register a single shot with the extra attacker in the last 90 seconds.
“When you step on the ice, you’ve got to play a good brand of hockey and make good decisions with the puck,” Miami coach Enrico Blasi said. “And you’ve got to work away from the puck, and we still refuse to [do all three] at times. There were times in this game when we did that, but few and far between.”
The win moves the Engineers one step closer to achieving a Top 20 berth, as they received votes in last week’s USCHO.com poll. The RedHawks are now winless in their last seven games, and have yet to score more than three goals in a single contest this year. They’ve held the lead in 13 of 17 games this season, and have only maintained a two-goal lead once and have a 5-10-2 overall record to show for it.
“We’ve got to stick with it after we get the goals,” RedHawks captain Sean Kuraly said. “Every single day, you’ve got to do the little things right. We’re doing some of them right, but not all of them right. We’ve got to get a lot better at that.”
