TROY -- Allen York is among the nation leaders (sixth) is saves percentage at 95.0 percent (132 of 139 shots).
He was unaware on Friday night after beating RIT, 4-1.
"No, I don't look at stats," Rensselaer Polytechnic's junior goalie said. "As soon as you start looking at stats, pucks start going into the net."
If York were to ascend to the top of the nationwide list in saves percentage or goals against average, "I wouldn't know it," he said.
"The D-corps (defensemen) have been unreal, especially with three freshmen (Bo Dolan, Guy Leboeuf, Patrick Koudys)," York said.
Well, the defenseman give you most of the credit he was told.
"I give it right back to them," he said.
WILL MERRIAM PLAY TONIGHT?: It's doubtful backup goalie Bryce Merriam will play tonight against Niagara. However, RPI coach Nate Appert knows he has to get his backup some playing time at some point.
"Allen has been outstanding," Appert said after Friday night's victory. "But at the same time, Bryce has been pushing. He's been great in practice, really good in practice. He's really fighting to earn ice time. I haven't made any decisions on that, over the next couple of games but at some point, I think with what Bryce means to our program, how hard he works, the kind of teammate he is, he deserves an opportunity to get in there, I just don't know when that's going to be."
HOW ABOUT CULLEN?: Will junior left winger Patrick Cullen, a 14-goal scorer as a freshman two years ago, sit for a third straigt game tonight.
Appert was non-commital after Friday night's victory.
"We'll play our best 12 (forwards)," he said.
How will he know if the best 12 for tonight will be different than Friday night's 12 best?
"We'll look at tape and see how we match up against Niagara and then decide," Appert said.
BRUTLAG STANDS OUT AGAIN: Right winger Bryan Brutlag scored is second goal of the season in the third period Friday night, building RPI's lead to three goals.
In addition to the goal and three other shots on goal he totaled, Brutlag was once again a physical force in the neutral and defensive zones.
As a former defenseman, he takes it as his responsibility to be one of the most physical forwards on the team and one of the top backcheckers.
Well, the guys I'm playing with now (Joel Malchuk, Alex Angers-Goulet)with are (among) the best at that.
"Defensively, I feel as good as I ever have," he said. "It is something I put a lot of pride in."
Brutlag also said that "if I do something wrong, the D-men really get mad at me."
FINALLY, SOME EQUAL-STRENGTH GOALS: The Engineers tallied just two equal-strength goals over their first four games and scored more than that -- three -- on Friday night.
Still, seven of their 12 goals have come on the power play, in 32 chances, an efficiency rating of 21.9 percent.
Even though the Engineers' string of 21 consecutive killed penalties was ended, they are 32 of 35 in killing penalties, a mark of 91.4 percent.
Tyler Helfrich (3-3-6) and Chase Polacek (2-4-6) are leading the team in scoring, followed by soph defenseman Nick Bailen (1-3-4), Brutlag and Brock Higgs (2-1-3) and C.J. Lee (1-2-3).
Repeated computer problems (virus on one, dead hard drive on another) prevented us from twitting Friday night's game.
Hopefully, we'll be able to do so tonight against Niagara.