And lost 2 games. Many people believe the ECAC is light years behind the power conferences and while there is a kernel of truth to this, RPI had a good showing against Minnesota and should have won that game. The BC game, I think you can contribute to a let down after the first game.
What became clear from the game summaries on USCHO is that RPI took way too many penalties which directly lead to penalties. Minn scored 3 PP goals. With BC- 9 penalties in the third period????? Yeeesh.
I have every confidence in Appert, I don't think RPI is quite to the level of the big boys yet, I am much more interested to see how they fare in the ECAC conference this year.
2 comments:
First of all I was impressed with how RPI played this weekend. They controlled the majority of the Minnesota game and got screwed on what was pretty blatant home ice officiating.
However, it was obvious that Appert's upbeat, fast paced style drained RPI and left them struggling late in both games (RPI vs. BC was tied 1-1 into the 3rd) which lead to alot of the penalties. I by no means think Appert should rethink this strategy because it was this style that let us control the games early on, but there needs to be emphasis on imporving the system so that it can be carried throughout the game. If RPI can play an entire game like they played the first 2/3 against the Gophers, RPI will be surprising alot of critics and finishing significantly higher than they are projected.
I was at the game and boy oh boy was it painful to watch the refs give the game away to the Gophers. 12 penalties for RPI, 5 for the Gophers. Sure looked fixed to me. Having said that I would agree that Seth should stick to his game plan despite the team loosing some steam in the third. Perhaps the players need a little more work in the way of conditioning. Some of the lagitimate penalties were takin by guys to tired to keep up with the play. As for RPI's future? I believe that Appert, Kurulak and Montgomery are all awesome at recruiting and that things can only get better for RPI.
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