Except for some glaring mistakes, Rensselaer had the better of the play during the first period of their deciding Game 3 in the ECACH playoffs this evening.
Chase Polacek's pass from the point was deflected by Colgate's Austin Smith, to teammate Austin Mayer, who skated in alone on RPI goalie Allen York and beat him with a backhander for the game's only goal.
Late in the period, RPI's Nick Bailen gave the puck away in the RPI zone and York had to come up with two big saves on Smith, making a sliding stop of Smith's own rebound after York made a stick save on the first shot.
Should the Engineers lose, they will have gone 2-6-1 over the final nine games, 1-5-1 in their final seven home games.