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.