Team Notes: Rensselaer Continues Homestand

Photo by Tom Phillips

Rensselaer continues its homestand against Yale in the 7th Annual Black Friday. RPI will don special black jerseys that will be worn Friday night only. They will be raffled off to fans immediately following the game. The Engineers take on Brown on Saturday.

HOMESTAND ENDS: This weekend wraps up a stretch of six straight games in the Capital Region for the Engineers ... RPI split two games last weekend with a 4-3 OT win at Union on Friday and a 2-1 loss against Army on Military Appreciation Night ... RPI plays on the road for three games before returning for the 59th Annual RPI Hockey Tournament on Nov. 27 & 28.

ECAC HOCKEY: This weekend marks the first ECAC Hockey games of the season for Rensselaer ... League play continues next weekend as the Engineers travel north to take on league foes Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

BLACK FRIDAY HISTORY: The Engineers are undefeated on Black Friday, posting a 6-0-1 record since the tradition began on November 14, 2003 - a 7-1 win over Vermont ... RPI's lone tie came in a 1-1 draw against Yale on November 2, 2007 ... The Bulldogs are the only team the Engineers have played twice in Black Friday history.

• Nov. 14, 2003: 7-1 win over Vermont
• Nov. 5, 2004: 5-3 win over Clarkson
• Nov. 11, 2005: 4-2 win over Quinnipiac
• Nov. 3, 2006: 4-3 OT win over Princeton
• Nov. 2, 2007: 1-1 tie against Yale
• Nov. 7 2008: 3-2 win over Harvard

ALL-TIME VS. YALE: Rensselaer and Yale have met 93 times in their history, with the Engineers leading the series, 49-38-6 ... RPI's 49 victories are the fourth most against any one opponent ... The series first began on January 22, 1909 - a 3-0 win for the Bulldogs in Albany.

RECENTLY: The Bulldogs own a 7-2-1 record over RPI in the last 10 meetings ... In addition to five regular season wins in that time, Yale also claimed a pair of ECAC Hockey Playoff victories in 2008.

THE COMFORTS OF HOME: RPI has gone 30-16-3 against Yale at the Houston Field House ... The team's last home win over the Bulldogs was on February 10, 2006.

AGAINST YALE INDIVIDUALLY: A total of 11 players have posted points in their careers against the Bulldogs, including seven with multiple point efforts ... Juniors Tyler Helfrich (1 goal, 3 assists) and Chase Polacek (4 assists) lead the charge with four points each ... Seniors Paul Kerins and Peter Merth have each tallied three assists each against Yale ... Netminder Allen York has seen time against the Bulldogs, stopping six shots in a no-decision.

FAMILIAR FACES: Tonight's game is a matchup of former Green Bay Gamblers in RPI's CJ Lee, Christian Morissette and Yale's Sean Backman ... RPI goalie Allen York and the Yale's Ryan McDonald each played for the Camrose Kodiaks, while Rensselaer's Christian Jensen and Yale's Brian O'Neill and Andrew Miller all played for the Chicago Steel.

IN NOVEMBER AGAINST THE BULLDOGS: RPI is 6-2-1 all-time in the month of November against Yale ... Rensselaer is 4-0-1 at the Houston Field House in November contests against Yale.

ENGINEERS IN OCTOBER: Rensselaer ended the first month of the season with a 4-3-1 record ... Junior Chase Polacek was the team's leading scorer with eight points (5 goals, 3 assists) in eight games ... Freshman Brandon Pirri added four goals and three assists for seven points ... Sophomore Allen York played in six games, posting a 3-2-1 record with a 2.61 goals against average and a .906 save percentage ... RPI connected on 17.1 % (7 for 41) of its power play chances and killed 80% (36 of 45) while shorthanded. 

STREAKS SNAPPED: Freshman Brandon Pirri saw a four-game point streak (4 goals, 2 assists) snapped against Army last Saturday night ... Sophomore defenseman Mike Bergin had a three-game streak (1 goal, 3 assists) ended against the Black Knights. 

POWER PLAY: RPI has scored at least one power play goal in each of its last four games and six of the eight contests on the season.

REFEREES: The referees for the game are Jay Durfee and Nick Litterio ... The linesmen are Richard Patry and Andy Mann.

RING OF HONOR: During Saturday's game, Rensselaer will add Bob Brinkworth ‘64 to the prestigious Hockey Ring of Honor ... Brinkworth played 71 games for the Engineers from 1961 to 1964, leading the team in goals three times, assists once and points twice ... He compiled 110 goals and 106 assists for 216 points and currently ranks third in program history in goals, seventh in assists and third in points. 

BROADCAST INFO: Today's game - and all RPI games - are broadcast live on the radio on WRPI, 91.5 FM, and on the Internet at www.wrpi.org ... All home games can also be viewed via B2 Networks in conjunction with RPI TV.

LIVE STATS: Live statistics for all RPI home games can be found at http://www.sidearmstats.com/rpi/mhockey/

UPCOMING: The Engineers host Brown in an ECAC Hockey League game on Saturday night before embarking on a three-game road trip ... RPI travels to the North Country next weekend before making a mid-week trek to Niagara the following week.