CAMBRIDGE, Mass - The Harvard Crimson, (2-0) who are coming off an impressive win over Dartmouth, looked to get their second win in the early season against a struggling Rensselaer Engineers team (1-5-1). The game itself was dominated by penalties and great goalie performances. Ten penalties were called on each team, with each team going just one for ten on the power play.

Harvard’s freshman goalie Matt Hoyle turned aside 27 shots, while his counterpart, RPI senior goalie, Mathias Lange turned away 33 Harvard shots. Lange would have faced many more shots if it weren’t for Rensselaer’s defensemen, who blocked numerous shots, freely giving up their bodies to stop the puck.

“Lange played great,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato. “He had five or six great saves, hats off to him, and Matty was excellent for us again. He gives us a real boost and had some huge saves.”

In the first period, Harvard clearly outplayed RPI yet their only goal came off an Engineers' player stick. Senior defenseman Ian Tallett, let loose a hard shot from the point deflecting off a stick and past RPI’s senior goaltender Mathias Lange, for his first collegiate goal.

Although, RPI did show resilience in out-shooting Harvard 11-8, a hardworking Harvard club outplayed them. Most of the RPI shots were either at bad angles or at low percentage scoring chances. When needed, freshman goalie Matt Hoyle was up to the task of stopping RPI’s shooters.

The second period was dominated by penalties. Harvard managed to collect six penalties, giving RPI 12 minutes of power play time, including 79-seconds of being down five-on-three. Fortunately for Harvard, RPI’s power play has yet to get all the wheels turning. Through the first six games, RPI is a pathetic 1-29 (3.4%) with the man advantage.

“We need to capitalize on our power play,” said RPI coach Seth Appert. “I think guys are just gripping sticks a little too tight, we need our young guys to translate their scoring touch from juniors to the college level.”

Rensselaer accounted for only two penalties in the second, and Harvard was unable to capitalize. With no scoring in the second, it left many questions if Harvard would be able to close the door on RPI. Rensselaer had fought hard to stay only down 1-0 heading into the third and didn’t seem to be going down without a fight.

But yet again, the third was filled penalties but this time it was RPI’s turn. Harvard had 19 shots on the RPI net, 11 of those shots were on the power play. With Harvard on the power play, the Crimson controlled the play, winning the battles along the boards.

Sophomore forward, Pier-Olivier Michaud, passed the puck to defensemen Alex Biega, who then fired the puck into the back of RPI’s net.

“We had a lot of attempts but not a lot of shots were going through, so I just saw a seam, and there was a great play by P.O. He gave it to me, I was right over, and I got a shot, and when you get a shot, you just take it, and it went in,” said Biega.

“Our execution has been really good so far, but I think once we get going here, we’re going to start finding more success on the scoreboard if we just try to get more shots through.”

Being down 2-0 in the third, RPI continued to fight as they did throughout the entire game. Harvard ended up taking another penalty; this time RPI capitalized on the power play when freshman forward Josh Rabbani scored his first career goal, making the score 2-1. That stopped Matt Hoyle's bid for his first shutout in college.

With the game coming to an end, RPI began pressing and forced Harvard to take another penalty. This allowed RPI to pull Lange and get an extra attacker on the ice. Through great work on penalty-kill, Harvard’s line held strong.

Reading the play, Michaud was able to pick off the puck from an RPI defenseman and shot the puck into the open net for a 3-1 Harvard lead with only 35 seconds remaining in the period. After the game, Donato said, “I’m happy to get the win, I give RPI a lot of credit, they worked hard.”

Harvard’s next game is another one against RPI on November 8 at Rensselaer. Harvard returns home on November 14 where they will face another ECAC foe, Clarkson.