There were still plenty of hard feelings between the ECAC and Hockey East in 1990, just seven years after five teams – including Boston University – cut ties with the ECAC to form their own league.
But in 1990, with former Terrier Buddy Powers about to start his second year as head coach of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, BU coach Jack Parker hoped to heal some wounds.
“We always played Vermont [then an ECAC team] because Jimmy Cross was the coach there, a former BU guy too,” Parker said. “So when Buddy got the job, we decided to start every year opening up with [RPI], and we’ve done it ever since except for once or twice.”
They’ve played annually since then except for the 1995-96 season, even with current head coach Dan Fridgen taking over for Powers in 1994. Last year, BU won in Troy, N.Y., 4-1 in mid-December – extending its win streak against RPI to five. The Terriers (1-0, 1-0 Hockey East) hold a 10-4-1 edge since the rivalry was renewed.
Tonight, the Engineers (1-2, 0-0 ECAC) cruise into Agganis Arena (at 7 p.m.) for the first time, and with the University of Vermont joining Hockey East this season, RPI remains as BU’s only annual non-conference rival besides Beanpot foe Harvard University.
“The end of last year’s game was a little chippy, so there might be a little extra incentive there this year,” said sophomore center Pete MacArthur, who’s from Clifton Park, N.Y. (10 miles from Troy) and was recruited heavily by RPI. “It should be a barn-burner, I think.”
It better be, because non-conference games are pretty rare at Agganis these days – in fact, there will only be three this season after BU opened its season with a conference game last week for the first time since 1988. With Vermont joining Hockey East, there are now 27 conference games for all league teams, meaning three less non-league games for everyone. And with the Terriers annually committed to two non-conference Beanpot games, they only have five non-league games left.
“It’s really tough for us as far as Christmas tournaments and that type of stuff,” Parker said. “We already had Thanksgiving set up with [the University of] Denver and Colorado [College], so we couldn’t go to a Christmas tournament because of the Vermont thing. Next year, we are going to a Christmas tournament, but we won’t have a Thanksgiving doubleheader with Western schools.”
What they have left this year is Harvard, Denver and Colorado College over Thanksgiving, Dartmouth College in December and the Engineers tonight. And as Parker has been careful to remind his team, they better not be looking past the visitors, despite the fact that BU has beaten them by at least three goals each of the last four times the teams have played.
“This is not point night. This is a good team,” Parker said. “We haven’t had any blowouts with RPI. This isn’t like we’re playing Quinnipiac [University] or something.”
The Engineers, who finished 14-22-2 last year, were picked to finish ninth this season by the coaches in an ECAC that’s considerably weaker than Hockey East. But they did win 22 games the year before last and have consistently finished over .500 since their glory days, when they won the 1985 national championship with a 35-2-1 record behind Adam Oates’ 91 points.
So far this year, the Engineers have relied on a top line of sophomore Jonathan Ornelas, junior Oren Eizenman and senior Kevin Croxton that has scored half of their 10 goals. In net, the situation is murkier, with Austrian freshman Mathias Lange having gotten two of their three starts so far and allowing eight goals (1-1).
“I think there will be some goals in this game,” MacArthur said. “They’ve definitely got some firepower on the first two lines. We’re gonna have to bring the pace if we want to get the ‘W’ out of this.”
The Terriers will throw a deep corps of forwards back at RPI, with senior John Laliberte returning from his game disqualification to the first line alongside captain Brad Zancanaro and freshman Jason Lawrence. Chris Higgins will return to the fourth line, playing with Ryan Monaghan and freshman John McCarthy, who’ll suit up for the first time.
The rest of the lineup should look the same as it did in BU’s season-opening 3-1 win over UMass-Lowell last Saturday.
“I like a lot of things I see, but we still got a lot of things to do – defensive zone coverage-wise, discipline-wise, covering people one-on-one,” Parker said. “But we’ve got enough talent to be a good team.”
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