TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10)  – Four first-period goals were enough for the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men’s hockey team to clinch the No. 8 seed in the upcoming ECAC Championships with a 6-4 victory over the Princeton Tigers at the Houston Field House Friday night. With the win, RPI improves to 14-18-1 overall and 9-12-0 in ECAC Hockey, while Princeton moves to 12-16-0 and 8-13-0 in league play.
 
Princeton opened the scoring 6:50 into the game, as the Tigers struck on the power play to make it 1-0. Ian Murphy collected the goal, scoring from the left wing circle off a feed off the boards from David Jacobs. Adam Robbins added a helper on the goal as well. The Tigers lead didn’t stand long, as 18 seconds later Jakob Lee re-tied the game at 1-1. After a puck was dumped to the right wing corner, Lee fell, got up off the ice, skated in, and finished the play on his backhand. Austin Heidemann earned the assist on the play.
 
At the 11:06 mark, a hooking penalty assessed to Jack Agnew awarded Princeton’s Murphy a penalty shot. However, Watson came up big for the Engineers, making the save and pushing momentum to RPI. The momentum caught on, as the Engineers proceeded to score three times before the end of the period, starting with a strike from the blue line from Heidemann with Nick Strom and TJ Walsh in on the action for the assists. Walsh assisted on the next goal as well, sending a puck in toward the net from the right wing boards that was tipped in by John Evans to make it 3-1 Engineers. Lee earned his second point of the night on that assist as well.
 
Mahshie capped the first period scoring, as Sutter Muzzatti found him wide open slot for a one-timer that found the upper right corner of the net to make it 4-1 Engineers. Jack Brackett continued the offensive output in the second period, scoring off a long stretch pass from Jack Agnew and wristing a shot off the right post and in to five RPI a 5-1 lead. The goal came at the 12:19 mark of the period. Mahshie added his second of the night with 57 seconds left in the period, poking in a puck thrown toward the net by Sertti to give the Engineers a 6-1 lead heading into the third period.
 
Princeton held the Engineers off the scoreboard in the third period, as the Tigers scored three times in the period. Murphy scored the first two goals of the frame to collect a hat trick on the game, while Jayden Sison scored with 11 seconds to play to make the game 6-4.
 
RPI’s Jack Watson made 38 saves in net as Princeton outshot the Engineers 42-20 in shots on goal. Princeton’s Aidan Porter made 14 saves while allowing the six tallies. The Engineers return to action tomorrow, February 25 at 7 p.m. when they host No. 2 nationally-ranked Quinnipiac at the Houston Field House in the regular season finale.