Rensselaer senior defenseman and team captain John Kennedy is quite hopeful that he'll be able to play in this weekend's important games against Brown and Yale despite a sore ankle. The Engineers were able to beat Dartmouth without Kennedy on Saturday and have won five other games.
Putting a number on his chances, he said, "95 (percent)," even though he hasn't skated since he banged the ankle late in Friday night's victory over Harvard.


"Shooting for Thursday (to skate)," Kennedy said prior to Tuesday's practice. "Conditioning really isn't a problem this time of year. We're taking care of it and it's getting better. As long as the swelling's gone down ... there was no real damage."

The Engineers have won six of seven games without Kennedy this season, including a 4-1 victory at Brown. Kennedy was humored a bit by that stat earlier when he missed six games with a wrist injury but he hates missing games.
And having to win without their captain isn't something the Engineers want t continue with.
Kennedy and the other RPI seniors want to end their three-game, Freakout! Night losing streak -- their last chance for a Freakout! victory -- against Yale, the nation's No. 1 team.
Appert not worried about big heads: Their weekend sweep -- especially the 5-1 trouncing of Dartmouth -- shot the Engineers back into the No. 10 slot in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll.
The last time they Engineers crashed the Top 10 -- you all remember -- they played one of their weakest games of the season, falling to Clarkson, 3-2 in overtime. Despite the tight score, the Engineers were thoroughly outplayed. The loss dropped them to No. 14 in the poll.
When RPI hit the 10 spot again on Monday, head coach Seth Appert didn't mention the Top 10, didn't mention the Clarkson game.
"No, did not," he said. "Not worried about it. "We have a mature team and we've shown all year that we respond to adversity and that we respond to learning lessons ... and not having to apply the same lessons over and over and over and over and over. The teams or individuals who have to learn the same lessons (again and again) end up being losing teams or non-successful (players). And I think that's been a strength of ours this year, that we've learned a lesson, we've applied it and we've moved forward. I don't worry about that at all.
"I think we're going to have a very good week of practice," Appert said. "I don't guarantee success on Friday night, because we don't look at it in those terms but I do feel very strongly that we're going to come out and play the game the right way, play a physical, hard brand of hockey which has given us success and be prepared for a physically tough game that's going to be thrown at us by a tough Brown team.
Honors for Polacek, York: Chase Polacek was named Player of the Week by ECAC Hockey on Monday, Allen York was tabbed as Goaltender of the Week.
Polacek scored two goals in RPI's 3-2 victory over Harvard and with his 14th goal, and an assist in the 5-1 triumph over Dartmouth.
He's the top scorer in ECACH with 34 points (14-20-34).
York gave away the puck behind the net for an open-net goal against Harvard and the Crimson's other goal came on an extended 5-on-3 power play.
He allowed just one goal against Dartmouth and combined for 54 saves in the two games.