Engineers Fall to Vermont in Quebec City
QUEBEC CITY, Que. - The #20 University of Vermont men's hockey
team scored three unanswered goals in the third period to break a
1-1 tie and went on to defeat Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
(RPI), 4-1, in the season opener for both squads. The Catamounts
have now won each of the last four meetings against the
Engineers.
With the score tied 1-1 after the first two periods of play,
Vermont opened up the scoring at 3:45 of the final period as
sophomore Chris Atkinson (Sparta, NJ/U.S. Development Camp) took a
feed from the corner of the net by Josh Burrows (Prairie Grove,
IL/Boston) and buried one into the open net from the bottom of the
left circle.
Junior Brayden Irwin (Toronto, ON/St. Michael's) made it a 3-1
advantage just over three minutes later on the power play as he
wristed the puck over the shoulder of RPI's Mathias Lange
(Klagenfurt, Austria/New York Apple Core) at 6:47 off a pass
from classmate Brian Roloff (West Seneca, NY/Green Bay).
Milo capped the scoring for Vermont at the 11:36 mark after he
found the puck on his backhand and centered it for a shot over the
blocker of the Engineers goalie for the 4-1 margin.
The Engineers struck first to open the game as freshman Patrick
Cullen (Washington, DC/Indianapolis Ice) scored at 17:33. Sophomore
Scott Halpern (Boca Raton, FL/Bay State Breakers) earned the
primary assist after his shot from the mid-slot banked off the pads
of Catamounts goalie Mike Spillane (Bow, NH/Omaha). Sophomore
Chase Polacek (Edina, MN/Holy Angels) earned the second helper.
Vermont came back in the second frame as Milo scored just 1:17
into the period. Collecting the puck from linemate Jack Downing
(New Caanan, CT/Omaha), Milo skated around the net and roped a shot
up under the crossbar for the goal. Senior Peter Lenes (Shelburne,
VT/Sioux City) was also credited with an assist.
In goal, Spillane stopped 20 shots to pick up the win. Lange made
24 saves on the night for Rensselaer. The Catamounts went 1 for 9
on the power play while the Engineers were 0 for 5 on the
night.
RPI returns to action tomorrow afternoon when it takes on the U.S.
National Under-18 Team. Face-off is set for 5pm at the Houston
Field House. Live stats are expected to be available at http://www.sidearmstats.com/rpi/mhockey/.
Vermont is back on the ice next Friday and Saturday when it
hosts Miami University.












