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Friday, November 04, 2011

1 Minute Left and

Any RPI knows how the rest of that goes. Well RPI travels to the North Country this weekend for another swing into the ECAC. Enough of that depressing NC schedule, let's get some ECAC hockey on with big rivals!

Sadly Clarkson is hot at the moment despite having beat up on "powerhouses" like Bentley and RPI is decidedly not. I am a big believer in momentum in hockey. I have seen one goal spark huge comebacks and I have seen teams get on huge win streaks. It is a streaky sport.

In college, streaks are tempered somewhat due to the 5-6 day layovers between games so momentum is tough to build. Minnesota State hasn't won a game since playing RPI for example.

It remains to be seen if Clarkson's early season success translates into ECAC success but given the way RPI has been playing recently, I don't see either teams trends changing. I do see RPI taking it to St. Lawrence on Saturday night though and splitting the weekend 1-1.

As always, here is USCHO's take:

Rensselaer at Clarkson
The Engineers' travail has been well-documented: injuries lead to minimal offense, which leads to mounting losses. Clarkson, on the other hand, has quietly amassed a 5-1-2 record, albeit against the dregs of Division I hockey (home sweeps of Sacred Heart and American International, a road win/tie at Bentley). I've said my piece about scheduling, but in Clarkson's case, a) at least the Knights are winning these games, which makes them a bit more palatable, and b) though the schedule was likely completed in advance of Casey Jones' hiring, it's not a bad way to get new systems in place before encountering the meat of the season. Plus, since Clarkson is winning these games, CCT should be feeling pretty confident about its abilities and its odds. I'll take confidence any day. 4-2 'Tech (that's Clarkson, newbies.)

Rensselaer at St. Lawrence
*Deep sigh* This is not a game I want to pick, because these are two teams that don't need any speck of negative energy to fall atop the mounting pile of suck that is the first month of the 2011-12 season. I'm going to make an admittedly (and deliberately) arbitrary decision: home-ice advantage; SLU, 3-2.

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