Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute right winger C.J. Lee was back at the Houston Field House rink late Saturday morning, out of the hospital and showing no sign of the head and neck injury he received on Friday night in a 6-5 victory over Connecticut.
"I just had a little headache this morning," Lee said. "I feel like I could play tonight but that's not going to happen. I have a little concussion."
Lee said sitting in the stands tonight and watching his teammates battle Bowling Green for the championship of the 60th Annual Rensselaer Holiday Tournament will be much more painful for him.
"Yeah, that will be tough," he said. "I want to play. I'll be wanting to jump over the boards and get in there. I'm just glad the boys came back and pulled it out last night.
Rensselaer twice trailed by two goals on Friday night, was behind 4-3 when Lee was injured -- the game was delayed 12 minutes while he was attended to -- and tied the game 38 seconds after play resumed.

hSorry for the late entry, folks, but we're shorthanded at the paper.
Rensselaer sophomore winger C.J. Lee, who incurred a neck and head injury in the third period of Friday night's 6-5 victory over UConn, was alert (though groggy) and chatting with his parents and coach Seth Appert at Albany Med late Friday night.
Lee was placed on a stretcher and carried off the ice.
Shortly after speaking with the media post-game, Appert met Lee's parents at Albany Med.
"He's a little groggy but he's in great spirits," Appert said. "All the tests were negative. There appears to be no brain injury."
Appert was asked if Lee had to be convinced his teammates rallied for the victory.
"Well, the guys scored so quick that he probably heard (the goals) on the radio in the ambulance.
Lee will be kept in the hospital at least through Saturday.
The Engineers battle Bowling Green for the Rensselaer Holiday Tournament on Saturday night.

TROY -- Upon returning to the pressbox, Appert told media members that Lee was "moving his extremities and gave me a thumbs up as he was carried off the ice.
He was taken to Albany Medical Center.
Just 38 seconds after tying the score, RPI took a 5-4 lead on Alex Angers' Goulet's second goal of the game.

Rensselaer sophomore winger C.J. Lee was taken off the ice on a stretcher midway through the third period of tonight's (11-26) game against Connecticut. As teammate Patrick Cullen skated in from the right circle and took a shot, Lee went down the slot for the rebound but collided with a UConn player and hit the ice hard.
A next brace was placed on Lee and RPI trainer Chris Thompson and paramedics worked on him.
The game, with UConn leading 4-3, was delayed for 19 as a Houston Field House crowd of 2,403 sat silent.
Lee did not appear to move as he was placed first on a brace board, then on the stretcher but the extent of his injuries was not immediately known.
RPI head coach Seth Appert, serving a one-game suspension, spoke with Lee as the stretcher.
The Engineers tied the score on a Chase Polacek goal 55 seconds (playing time) after Lee's injury.

Check back here at 3 p.m. on Sunday for a detailed account of Troy High's battle with Rush-Henrietta for the New York state Class AA football championship from the Carrier Dome.

Hi folks.
I've been under the weather since Sunday night but in I wanted to speak of Seth Appert's suspension by ECAC Hockey, and share some thoughts about the RPI/Union weekend.
Why did it take until near the end of the third business day for ECAC Hockey to assess it’s questionable one-game suspension of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute coach Appert?
If Appert’s conduct was so grave, why wasn’t he suspended on Monday?
If he really showed up referee Bryan Hicks, why didn’t ECACH commissioner Steve Hagwell suspend Appert on Saturday, forcing him to miss Saturday night’s rematch with Union at Houston Field House.
As it is, Appert will be sidelined for a non-conference game against UConn on
The action for which Appert is being told to “sit down” for one game happened on Friday.
Discounting the two weekend days, that’s still four business days ago.
The ECACH's short, terse, non-specific statement said:
“ECAC Hockey today announced that Rensselaer head coach Seth Appert has been suspended one game as a result of his post-game actions after a game at Union, Friday, November 12.The League action was taken in accordance with Section VI. (Conduct and Ethics) of ECAC Hockey Policies and Procedures.
Appert will miss Rensselaer’s game Friday, Nov. 26 vs. Connecticut.”
No listing of such policies and procedures appears on ECACH’s website and no direction to such a list is given.
Years ago, when ECAC Hockey was a part of the Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference, the policy for Divisions I, (briefly II) and III stated, as mentioned Wednesday by Tom Reale's Without a Peer blog, that, “the ECAC commissioner is permitted to assess penalties (i.e., suspensions) on coaches and student-athletes for abusive or racial language, physical action with the intent to injure, negative language toward officiating in public forums (i.e., media) or other incidents, which the Commissioner deems as detrimental to the image of the League.”
Rensselaer was not the only person(s) taping that game. All those video tapes became a matter of public record as soon as the game ended, if not sooner. How does that "show up" referee Hicks?
It was Hicks who totally blew that call. How does showing visible evidence -- if not total proof -- that he got the call wrong more detrimental to the league than Hicks actually getting the call wrong and depriving a team the chance to win -- or lose -- the game in overtime?
Seems to me, Hicks' horrible call -- and the manner in which he came storming out from behind the net -- brought more discredit to the league than what Appert did. You may or may not agree.
Obviously, either Hagwell, ECACH Supervisior of officials Paul Stewart or both felt that by showing a video tape of the play to the media was an action he/they found “detrimental” to the image of ECAC Hockey.
Question is, will the league hold Hicks accountable for his action as it did Appert.
More on Hicks and RPI-Union next time.

TROY -- Rensselaer senior defenseman and captain John Kennedy will be held out of tonight's game with Union.
The gutty Kennedy took took hard shots to the chest and ribs Friday night on the same Union power play, showing the same shot-blocking courage as he's done throughout his career.
With the lead and with the Engineers back on their heels, the point men on Union's power play kept coming further and further down the slot with the puck and those two shots Kennedy stopped were lasers.
Another hit teammate Tyler Helfrich in the shoulder pads and another grased Union forward Adam Presizniuk.
Freshman Bo Dolan replaced Kennedy in the RPI lineup.
Dolan had played in six of the Engineers previous 10 games, looking good at times, not so good at others. He had yet to score and had two minor penalties.
At forward, freshman center Johnny Rogic was in the lineup, freshman left winger Matt Tinordi was out.
Rogic, scoreless in eight games, centered for Marty O'Grady on the (off) left wing and Scott Halpern on the right.
The other lines were the same as Friday night, centered by Chase Polacek (C.J. Lee, Tyler Helfrich), Joel Malchuk (Alex Angers-Goulet, Bryan Brutlag) and Brock Higgs (Patrick Cullen, Marty O'Grady).
Something's got to give: Though the previous seven black jersey nights were on Black Friday (on the night of RPI's first ECAC Hockey home game), the Engineers were 6-0-1 on those games.
How that translates to Black Saturday, RPI fans were wondering.
On the other hand, the Engineers hadn't beaten the Dutchmen in Union's past seven visits (0-6-1) to Houston Field House, including last season's two gut-wrenching, one-goal defeats.

TROY -- Full days off on the road are rare in pro hockey and former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute star and current Toronto Marlies left winger Jerry D'Amigo spent part of his on Wednesday hanging out with his former Engineers teammates.

Visible right away is the remnants of a shiner over D'Amigo's left eye, suffered in a fight against Colton Gillies of the Houston Aeros on Friday night.

D'Amigo explained.

"The guy cross-checked from behind," D'Amigo said. "I wasn't going to take it, so I went back and chased him across the ice. He was bigger than me, so I didn't give him time to think. We got the helmets off, he got a hold of me and started going. Whatever. First pro fight.

"I thought I held my own though," said D'Amigo, who says he's never considered himself the least bit a fighter. (See a tape of D'Amigo's comments at www.troyrecord.com).

D'Amigo watched the Engineers practice this morning and liked being back in Houston Field House for a couple hours.

"Feels good," he said. "It looks nice, the renovations (new lighting, new facefront) and it's good to see the guys. I miss them a lot.

"Hopefully, they'll come to the game (Thursday) night."

Rugged road trip: The Marlies are in the midst of an eight games in 11 nights, road trip.

They played in Houston on Friday night, Fort Worth on Saturday night, then bused to Oklahoma City for a game on Sunday. The avoid extensive flight connections, they bused back to Dallas-Fort Worth International for a flight to Hartford.

D'Amigo scored his scored professional goal in the Marlies' victory at Hartford Tuesday night, had four shots on goal and was a plus-1.

After the game against the Phantoms Thursday night, they play at Hershey on Friday night, at his hometown of Binghamton on Saturday night.

It's no wonder D'Amigo appeared as if he was trying to relax at HFH today.

He said be bought 100 tickets for family and friends at Binghamton's Broome County Arena.

Though the Engineers will have a 50-minute drive afterward and have a big game (at rival Union) on Friday, D'Amigo said he hopes some of them can take in tomorrow night's game.

Throws some pucks at the net: Shots on goal can often be a misleading statistic. The Engineers, for example, scored four goals on just 21 shots.

The next night, though, they put only 19 on the Harvard net in an aggravating 1-0 loss.

You can only get by with 20-ish shots on goal for a game here, a game there.

Rensselaer forwards, other than Chase Polacek's line (Polacek 38 shots, C.J. Lee 21, Tyler Helfrich 14), need to start firing pucks between the goal posts.