ryan@fremen.DEC (12/07/84)
Here's some more info on RPI (from the Boston Globe, in a rare column on college hockey). I've added some [comments]: ****************** RPI, the defending ECAC champ, got off to a slower start than expected, according to coach Mike Addesa. "We weren't bad, but we weren't playing up to our potential," says Addesa. "I think we hit our normal stride when we played at North Dakota. We lost the first game, 7-6, in overtime, and I think that was one of the greatest college games I ever saw. Then the next night we won, 8-2, and we played very well." The Engineers' Adam Oates, a classy center from Schombero, Ont., is making a run to be a Hobey Baker Award winner as the best player in the country. Oates, who led his team [actually, he and Carter led the ECAC] in scoring last year with 83 points, is off to a torrid start. He teams with John Carter of Woburn at left wing and Bob DiPronio of Waltham at right wing to make up one of college's finest scoring lines. [One of?] Oates needs 20 assists to set an RPI career record which was set by Paul Midghall (1956-58) when Ned Harkness was the RPI coach. RPI looks solid in goal again. Sophomore Darren Puppa, who was 24-6 last year, is now a 6-3, 195-pounder and a shade quicker than a year ago. He has a 3.82 goals against average. ******************* By the way, in my last posting I mentioned RPI outshot St. Lawrence 39-21 - actually it was 49-21 (hey, what can you do when some freshman makes 46 saves?). Now, let me do some flaming on the Globe. This is how they allocate space to college hockey. First of all, all the college games are assigned an article buried somewhere near the racing results at the back of the sports section. Next, space within the article is allocated as follows: BC and BU: Get the headline and 2 paragraphs each. Other Hockey East games: 1 (short) paragraph each. ECAC games: Remaining space is filled with one sentence per ECAC game, extra ECAC games are ignored (only about half of RPI's games have made it). Other games: Other games??? I think Doug Flutie could spare a little of his space, don't you? Maybe they should give him his own section of the paper from now until the end of his first pro season. Mike Ryan