Know Your Enemy: The Engineers Edition

The Boys From Troy Come to Agganis


Tonight's almost sure let-down will be televised for all of New England to see on NESN.  That's nice considering the Terriers have been a constant disappointment, and it seems the rest of the Western World just caught on this past week.

ESPN  and the New York Times both took a minute to say, "Hey, those guys who played that exciting game last April.....Remember them?  They really suck!"

Tonight BU has a chance to feel a little better about their sucky season when they play a home game against an average ECAC team.  Like Harvard.  That was easy right?

But these guys are names after physics students, and their mascot is something called puckman.

To be fair, it appears that puckman's presence around RPI has been scaled back in recent years, but embarrassing nonetheless.

This will be BU's last non-conference match-up of the year, unless you count the Beanpot, which I don't, even though they don't count toward the standings.  Call it a tune-up before the whip cracks and BU basically has to win out if they want a chance to not get laughed at all summer.

RPI started the season hot, but there hasn't been much good news in Engineer land.  They started out 7-3-1, and since that they've won just 1 out of their last 7.  RPI has dropped four consecutive games including losses to Cornell, Colgate and two to Union.

That doesn't mean there aren't bright spots on the RPI roster.  Chase Polacek leads the team in points, and he's actually put up pretty impressive numbers this season.  He's a natural goal scorer, and he's also the king of the Engineers' power play, with 6 goals on the advantage this season.

He grew up playing hockey, and he seems like a good kid.  More or less, get ready for him to drop at least a hat trick on whoever Parker chooses to play miserably in net tonight.  Look for him wearing #21 tonight.  Maybe if we cheer for him, we can convince him to stick around and suit up for us, because lord knows we could use some goals.

Next in line for the Engineers are a pair of freshmen phenoms.  Forwards Brandon Pirri and Jerry D'Amigo have combined to put up 31 points for the Engineers so far this season.

Pirri is a 2009 second round draft choice of the Chicago Blackhawks, and D'Amigo is a sixth round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Pirri on Draft Day

D'Amigo on Draft Day


Be sure to remind D'Amigo how terrible the Leafs are, and what a miserable experience it will be to play for them.  Or you can ask him how awful it was to grow up in Binghamton.  Or how brutal it is to live in Troy.  Any of those would work.

The goaltending hasn't been terrible for RPI either.  Sophomore Allen York has got most of the time in net, putting up a 2.93 GAA and a .895 save percentage.  Freshman goalie Bryce Merriam has been even more impressive, allowing just 6 goals in three games.

More importantly, Troy is not only the home of RPI, but is also the birthplace of Uncle Sam.

So they've got patriotism on their side too.  I'm starting to think we may be screwed.

Last time BU saw the Engineers was in the first round of last January's Denver Cup.  The Terriers beat RPI 6-2.  Rollie the Goalie got the start and the win for BU in that game, and Zach Cohen, Luke Popko and Kevin Gilroy all scored to add to scores for Yip and a two goal night for J-Lo.

Let's hope it's that easy tonight.