Finally.
Rensselaer swept Brown at Houston Field House over the weekend, giving the Engineers a home playoff series win for the first time since 2004.
RPI trailed the Bears 3-0 in Game 2, but a pair of goals by Milos Bubela made it 3-2 before Riley Bourbonnais and Jared Wilson scored to complete the comeback. Wilson’s game-winning goal came at 18:18 in the third period.
Brown had given the Engineers trouble in the playoffs before, knocking off RPI at home in 2010 and 2013. The Bears made it to the league semifinals in both of those seasons.
While much was made of the Engineers’ playoff struggles at home, RPI did win first-round series at Clarkson last year as well as in 2012.
Rensselaer will travel to face third-seeded Harvard this weekend, while Brown ends the year at 5-19-7, the worst record under seventh year coach Brendan Whittet.
Saturday was also the final game for Brown senior forwards Nick Lappin and Mark Naclerio. Both players should get plenty of interest as NHL free agents.
Here are the rest of the matchups for next weekend’s best-of-three quarterfinal series.
No. 9 Cornell at No. 1 Quinnipiac
No. 7 Dartmouth at No. 2 Yale
No. 5 Clarkson at No. 4 St. Lawrence
Dartmouth and Colgate go the distance
The lone series of the weekend that went to three games didn’t disappoint, as Tim O’Brien’s goal at 4:37 in the second overtime gave Dartmouth a 4-3 win over Colgate.
It was the first time in program history that Dartmouth played two overtimes in one postseason series, as the Big Green won the series opener in overtime on Friday. It was also the first time Dartmouth had played in a Game 3 that needed overtime.
Like Naclerio and Lappin, Colgate seniors Darcy Murphy, Mike Borkowski, and Tylor and Tyson Spink should attract attention from NHL teams. Those four were part of a big senior class that was missing two players this year, as defenseman Ryan Johnston and forward Kyle Baun signed professional contracts last offseason.
Union swept
For the second time in as many seasons following the program’s national title in 2014, Union won’t make the NCAA tournament.
The ninth-seeded Dutchmen’s season came to an end with a sweep at No. 8 Cornell. Union beat the Big Red 5-1 last weekend at Lynah Rink and knocked Cornell out in last year’s ECAC quarterfinals, but lost a pair of one-goal games this weekend. The Big Red won 2-1 in overtime Saturday, with junior Matt Buckles scoring the game-winning goal after not playing in the series opener.
Union finished the season with a record of 13-14-9, the first time since the 2006-07 season the Dutchmen finished with a losing record.
