SCHENECTADY, NY -- Freshman
Wayne Simpson scored the game-winning goal early in the third period, giving the Union College men's ice hockey team a 3-1 victory against Rensselaer on Saturday night at Messa Rink in front of a standing-room-only, sellout of 2,341. The Dutchmen (13-4-5) moved its conference record to 7-0-3 -- the longest ECAC Hockey unbeaten streak in program history. RPI (12-11-1) goes to 5-5-0 in conference play.
Union's power-play, which entered the game ranked sixth in the nation at 23.4 percent, gave the Dutchmen their first lead of the game at 1:16 of the third period. Coburn tossed the puck towards the goal from the left point, Welsh deflected the puck on goal and Simpson cashed in on the rebound. The goal was his fourth of the season and first since scoring against RPI on Oct. 30.
Simpson, who scored his second career power-play goal, was joined on the scoresheet by junior
Adam Presizniuk and sophomore
Luke Cain, who sealed the win with a diving, empty-net goal with 1:02 remaining. Senior
Jason Walters moved his scoring streak to 13 games with an assist and senior
Mario Valery-Trabucco earned his team-leading 27th point. Freshmen
Jeremy Welsh and
Greg Coburn also had helpers.
Freshman goaltender
Keith Kinkaid turned away 22 shots to move his overall record to 7-2-2 and his conference mark to 6-0-1.
The Dutchmen had a prime opportunity in the first period with a 5-on-3 power-play for 35 seconds with about five minutes remaining. Walters had Union's best try and even snuck one past RPI's Allen York, but the puck trickled wide. As the first penalty ended the Engineers went on the attack shorthanded. A breakout by Peter Merth and Jerry D'Amigo led to Chase Polacek finding the upper-left corner at 16:33 for his team-leading 16th goal of the season.
Presizniuk put the Dutchmen on the board at 13:28 of the second period after a Walter's face-off win. Trabucco accepted the puck at the left hash and tipped to behind him. Presizniuk fired a shot past the glove of York.
Union outshot their cross-town rival 27-23 and went 1-for-6 on the power-play, while the Engineers were 0-for-3 with the man advantage.
The Dutchmen remain at Messa Rink for a set of ECAC Hockey games. Harvard arrives on Friday, Jan. 22 and Dartmouth comes on Saturday, Jan. 23. Both outings are scheduled for 7 p.m. starts. Tickets can be purchased at
UnionAthleticsTickets.com.
