Alaska Goal Rush Preview: RPI

Renssalear Polytechnic Institute is the Seawolves first opponent this coming weekend up north. They have played 1 exhibition and 2 real games. They lost to Canadian school St. Thomas University of New Brunswick. Where's Old Brunswick? 

Anyway, then they lost to Lowell last week getting shut-out 3-0 but two nights later they upset #1 ranked Boston College Saw a comment somwhere on the internet where an RPI fan exclaimed that at this point they didn't know if their team was crap or great. Well, let's see if we can figure it out.

This season the Engineers are predicted to finish 10th by coaches and the media. Other's are more optimistic and see them contending for home ice.

They should have reasonably good goaltending this season with freshman stand-out now Jason Kasdorf who has spent much of his sophomore and junior seasons on the DL. He's reportedly healthy and should be one of their strengths.

They struggled to score last season and look to face the ssme problem in 2015-16. On the front-end sophomore #25 Drew Melanson looks to be the the player to watch. He had 73 points in two seasons in the USHL and as a freshman last year scored 9 goals with 11 assists.

The only other player that got my interest is #4 Tommy Grant. The 6ft 3in 210 defenseman had a real nice career at UAA playing forward from 2007-2011 and scored 44 goals. I thought he was playing in Denmark this season after 3 seasons in the AHL and 2 in the ECHL. These NCAA eligibility rules change so much but it's good to see Tommy back playing Division 1. We can cheer for him against UA_.

Odds for this game are about even in my mind. There's lots of reason to hope/believe that our guys can get

the job done on Friday. The Engineers will have had a long trip from Troy, NY. That's an advantage for us. The four hour time change could play a factor if they don't give themselves enough time and rest to adapt though the early start time tends to negate that as a major factor.

So is RPI crap or great? Pretty clear it's neither. The Seawolves will have to work hard, execute well and finish better than last weekend to get this important non-conference win. 

What's up with that hat on RPI's mascot? I know I'm not the most sophisticated person ever but I sure don't recognize what style of hat that is. Is that what engineering-types wear? Do you need a hat like that to calculate load strengths of i-beams? 

Seriously ... what's up with that? I know they're proud of their mascot as it's achieved some minor college hockey sub-culture fame so maybe we'll get lucky and someone will come here and tell us about it.