Prior to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's 3-2 hockey defeat to Army on Dec. 30, I stated herein that a loss to the 1-9-6 Cadets could be one from which the Engineers couldn't come back, that the season could be getting away from them.
Perhaps that was a bit overstated but ... a dismal loss it was.
Coach Seth Appert and any of the players will readily agree.
Tonight, Rensselaer hosts American International College, which is basically tied with Army near the bottom of the Atlantic Hockey standings.
If the Engineers don't end their seven-game losing streak tonight, will they be able to recover and win enough ECAC Hockey games to finish within the 12-team league's top eight teams and thus, open the preliminary round of the playoffs at home instead of on the road?
Doubtful.
The Engineers need a victory, desperately, albeit against a weak team. They MUST win.


Did Appert call out his seniors during the University of Connecticut?
That depends on the definition of "call-out" and to a lesser extent, to whom you speak.
He did bench several of them and last weekend against Dartmouth and Harvard, forward Joel Malchuk and defenseman Mike Bergin were outstanding.
Each was, well, less than good at UConn.
Tonight, all the seniors are in the lineup except Alex Angers-Goulet, who's injured, and Justin Smith, who hasn't played since October.
We'll twitter highlights of tonight's game at troyrecord.com.