Joe Fallon made 21 saves to extend his school record for shutouts to 15, and Corey Carlson chipped in two first-period power-play goals as No. 13 Vermont blanked Rensselaer, 3-0, Friday in the second semifinal of the Catamount Cup at Gutterson Fieldhouse.<\/p>\n
Vermont will face St. Cloud State \u2013 who defeated Union 4-2 earlier in the day \u2013 in the championship game.<\/p>\n
With the shutout, his second in as many games, Fallon has yet to surrender a goal in the Catamount Cup. The junior from Bemidji, Minn. posted back-to-back bagels (1-0 against Dartmouth and 3-0 versus Clarkson) helping UVM capture the trophy in 2005.<\/p>\n
“Fallon was great,” said RPI coach Seth Appert. “I mean he made a couple saves early that were very important in the first period, and he made probably four or five great saves in the third. A couple through traffic that he found; a backdoor play where our defenseman jumped up; another backdoor play on a scramble on the rebound.”<\/p>\n
The Cats (11-5-1, 6-2-1 Hockey East) opened a two-goal lead in the first period on the strength of the two Carlson strikes<\/p>\n
The first came at the 4:35 mark of the period. Carlson tipped a Mark Lutz shot from the point past RPI’s Mathias Lange. Kenny Macaulay also assisted on Carlson’s third of the season.<\/p>\n
He added his second of the night, 11:23 into the period, collecting a rebound and putting the puck in the net over Lange, who was down and out of the play.<\/p>\n
“The second goal was a scramble in front and [Colin] Vock shot one and I think it hit the pipe and it just ended up right on my stick \u2026 I just had two pretty lucky goals,” said Carlson.<\/p>\n
“That was pretty huge for us to get a quick two goals in the game tonight,” he continued, “because things weren’t really clicking.”<\/p>\n
Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon agreed that his team was a little rusty after playing its last game at St. Lawrence on Dec. 16.<\/p>\n
“I just felt like we gave up some 3-on-2s,” he said. “It was one of those things where you come of a break, our effort was there, but our minds weren’t always there.”<\/p>\n
In all, the Cats were 2-for-4 with the man-advantage while Vermont’s nationally top-rated penalty kill held the Engineers off the board on four power-play chances.<\/p>\n
Fallon was sharp in the period, with eight saves. He stoned Jake Morissette twice from the slot on the power play and flashed out the glove on Andrei Uryadov, with 3:17 left in the period.<\/p>\n
The middle period was scoreless and Lange played a big part in making it that way. Vermont controlled play for stretches of the period, holding an 11-3 advantage in shots in the frame. Lange made saves on Carlson, Dean Strong, and Viktor Stalberg, among others – all from close range.<\/p>\n
“I thought we played very well until kind of the end of that period,” Sneddon said. “If we can hold a team like that, who has some very skilled forwards, to three shots we give ourselves a good opportunity to come out ahead in a period like that.”<\/p>\n
Appert, who was happy with his team’s play considering the extended layoff, noted that RPI created some quality chances in the period, and throughout the game, but couldn’t finish them.<\/p>\n
The Engineers (5-5-6, 1-2-3 ECACHL) had a number of quality chances in the final 20, but again Fallon stood tall making some sparking stops.<\/p>\n
Strong put the game away in the final minute with an empty-netter from the top of the circles.<\/p>\n
Lange was named the Engineers’ Player of the Game and had 22 saves.<\/p>\n
RPI faces its Capitol District rival in the consolation game at 4 p.m. Saturday while the championship is slated for 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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