Union vs. RPI: Dutchmen romp past Engineers (with videos)

PHOTOGRAPHER: Ken Schott

The pucks finally started going in for Union sophomore forward Daniel Carr. Only one got past Dutchmen sophomore goalie Troy Grosenick. And junior forward Jeremy Welsh snapped out of his even-strength funk.

It added up to a dominating effort by the 13th-ranked Dutchmen over their Capital Region college hockey rival.

Carr collected his second career hat trick, Grosenick made 21 saves in a bounce-back performance and Welsh scored his second even-strength goal of the season Tuesday, lifting Union to a 5-1 ECAC Hockey victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Houston Field House.

The victory ended a two-game losing streak for the Dutchmen (3-2 ECACH, 6-3-3 overall), who had come into the game with a scoreless streak of 119 minutes, 28 seconds.

Carr, Grosenick and Welsh had various reasons to snap out of personal slumps.

Carr, who scored 20 goals last season, had just two in Union’s first 11 games. Grosenick was pulled early in the second period of Saturday’s Yale game after allowing four goals on 18 shots. Of the six goals Welsh had, only one came at even strength. Plus, he was suspended for the Yale game after getting a game disqualification penalty at the end of Friday’s Brown contest.

They all came through.

“It was real big for them, just to come back and have a big game,” Union coach Rick Bennett said. “Hopefully, we’ll feed off of this.”

After RPI had taken a 1-0 lead on Nick Bailen’s power-play goal 5:34 into the game, Carr set up Kelly Zajac on a two-on-one break just under three minutes later. Carr passed the puck from the left wing to Zajac on the right, and the senior center one-timed it past helpless goalie Bryce Merriam.

Then Carr went to work on scoring. He broke the tie with a power-play goal, poking a loose puck past Merriam at the lucky time of 7:11 of the first.

It wasn’t luck on his second goal midway through the second. Again, it came on the power play. Carr skated to the net, something Bennett said the team needed to do more of, and tipped a Mat Bodie left-point drive past Merriam to make it 4-1.

Carr completed his hat trick, his first since Dec. 11, 2010, against Army, when he scored an empty-net goal late in the game.

“It hasn’t been so much struggles offensively,” Carr said. “I’ve been getting chances. The puck hasn’t been going in the net. Today, it just managed [to go in the net]. I had two open nets, and one Mat Bodie shot off of me and into the net. I didn’t have to do too much. Having good linemates makes it easy.”

After giving up the Bailen goal, Grosenick was sharp. The quick glove hand was back. And even when he was down on the ice and seemingly out of position, Grosenick made saves. Patrick Cullen was robbed late in the game with a pad stop.

Grosenick knew he didn’t play very well against Yale.

“It wasn’t a so-so performance,” Grosenick said. “You’ve just got to get that out of your head as soon as possible. Obviously, you go home, you think about it and it’s a rough night’s sleep that night. You turn the page, and just go out and work hard. Luckily, that paid off tonight.”

Welsh was in the slot when Max Novak missed an open net. Shayne Gotisbehere got the puck behind the net and sent in front to Welsh, who fired it past Merriam at 5:29 of the second to give Union a 3-1 lead.

“I think when you miss your first game in your college career as a junior, you want to come back,” Bennett said. “I think he had a different perspective, and he played the game hard tonight. That’s the Jeremy Welsh that we know.”

For RPI (1-4, 2-10), its effort frustrated coach Seth Appert. The Dutchmen won most of the puck battles, and dominated the physical play.

“Every loss is disappointing, and to Union more so,” Appert said. “I didn’t like our team tonight. Credit to Union, though. I want to give full credit to Union. They deserved to win. They outplayed us.”

Union 2 2 1 — 5

RPI 1 0 0 — 1

First Period — 1, RPI, Bailen 2 (Laliberte, Haggerty), 5:34 (pp). 2, Union, Zajac 3 (Carr, Simpson), 8:32. 3, Union, Carr 3 (Jooris, M. Bodie), 12:49 (pp). Penalties — Jooris, Uni (hitting from behind), 4:49; Bailen, RPI (interference), 12:06; Bergin, RPI (slashing), 18:17.

Second Period — 4, Union, Welsh 7 (Gostisbehere, Novak), 5:29. 5, Union, Carr 4 (M. Bodie, Jooris), 9:13 (pp). Penalties — Rogic, RPI (delay of game), :28; Jooris, Uni (facemasking), 3:38; Bergin, RPI (facemasking), 3:38; O’Grady, RPI (boarding), 7:33; Yanovitch, Uni (slashing), 10:19; Bergin, RPI, misconduct, 20:00.

Third Period — 6, Union, Carr 5 (Coburn, Jooris), 17:45 (en). Penalties — Leonard, RPI (boarding), 1:46; Mingoia, Uni (hitting from behind), 5:36; Yanovitch, Uni (slashing), 7:40.

Shots on Goal — Union 10-14-6 — 30. RPI 7-6-9 — 22.

Power-play opportunities — Unio 2 of 5; RPI 1 of 4.

Goalies — Union, Grosenick 5-2-2 (22 shots-21 saves). RPI, Merriam 2-8-0 (29-25).

A — 3,533. T — 2:10.

Referees — Peter Feola, Kevin Graber. Linesmen — Mike Emanatian, Andy Petrus.