TROY — RPI freshman defenseman Max Smolinski listed his top preseason goal last summer as securing a spot in the Engineers’ lineup for the 2022-23 season.
Seven RPI players have appeared in all 30 games this season. Smolinski is one of three competing at the collegiate level for the first time to play in every game for the Engineers, who are vying for home playoff position with four games left in the regular season.
RPI (12-17-1, 7-11-0) travels to Dartmouth on Friday with a game at Harvard on Saturday and enters the weekend in ninth place in the ECAC, three points behind Union and Princeton for the final two home-ice playoff spots in the opening round.
Freshman Sutter Muzzatti and defenseman Nick Strom are the other two appearing in every game. Muzzatti is a freshman who is second on the team in scoring and though Strom is listed as a sophomore, he missed last season with an injury while at Western Michigan.
RPI coach Dave Smith has counted on the young group of seven freshmen, in addition to Strom, many of whom have logged significant minutes and grown during the season.
“A lot of the first-year guys have become important in what we are doing,” Smith said. “Nick Strom plays a lot of minutes, doesn’t get the fanfare, Smolinski is running the power play, (John) Evans has four goals and three assists, playing important minutes and Sutter of course up on top of the scoring. I think there are still first-time things they are experiencing. This trip, they’ve never been to Dartmouth or Harvard, but not a lot is going to change at this point. I think they’ve learned a lot about themselves and college hockey.”
Smolinski has three goals and 11 assists this season, including an overtime game-winning goal against Clarkson in January.
“Coming in there, I wanted to make it known that I wanted to play every night,”…
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