This weekend, Rensselaer's Men's Hockey Team traveled to our area for games with Yale and Princeton. On Friday night, RPI traveled to New Haven and defeated winless Yale, 5-2. This ended a three-game Engineers losing streak. Five different players scored for Rensselaer. Andrew Martin made 17 saves for the win.

Saturday night, many RCNJ members attended the game at Hobie Baker Rink. RPI never led in this game, and ended up on the short end of a 3-2 score.

Keith MCWilliams had two goals for the Engineers. Andrew Martin made 22 saves but got stuck with the loss. Princeton goaltender B.J. Sklapsky made 18 saves for his first collegiate win.

A bizzare element in the game came midway through the first period when referee Frank Murphy signaled a delayed penalty on RPI. Princeton goalie B.J. Sklapsky was pulled in favor of an extra skater. A Princeton defenseman inadvertantly hit an RPI forechecker in the shin pads with the puck while attempting a long breakout pass. The puck rebounded off the Rensselaer player directly into the empty Princeton goal. Referee Murphy ruled that there was no goal. An official must blow his or her whistle in a delayed penalty situation if the penalized team gains "posession and control" of the puck.

The question is whether the deflection off the RPI player should have resulted in an immediate stoppage. The NCAA Delayed Penalty Rule (4-9.a) states that a "rebound off the goalkeeper, the boards, or any accidental contact with the body or equipment of an opposing player" shall not be grounds for the whistle to be blown. An argument could be made that play should not have been stopped and that RPI should have been awarded a goal in that case.

However, later in the NCAA Ice Hockey Rulebook, the Interpretations Section states that no goal should be credited to the penalized team in a delayed penalty situation if the "impetus for the goal" comes from a player on the penalized team. Some people interpret this to mean that in a delayed penalty situation, the only time a goal can be scored against the non-penalized team is if a non-penalized team player shoots or passes the puck into his own goal without the puck stiking an official or an opposing player.

The reason this was a critical play in the game is because Princeton scored on the ensuing power play and ultimately won the game by one goal.