The Rutgers Scarlet Knights looked solid in their first weekend of the ECRHA season, as the Division 1 team battled to a 2-0-1 record, while the B team went 1-2-0 against stiff B division competition.

The D1 team exacted revenge on Boston University for last season's defeat at Regionals, crushing the Terriers with a 12-1 victory in the opening game of the weekend. The game featured 7 different goal scorers for the Knights, highlighted by a hat trick by junior Jeff Grabowski. James Novak potted two goals, including a shorthanded tally, while Brendan Soffientini also added a pair of goals.

In their second game of the weekend, the Knights took on the highly-touted new club from Nassau Community College. Earlier in the day, Nassau lost a heartbreaking 8-7 game to ECRHA Division 1 defending champion Towson University, so going into the game the Knights would have their work cut out for them. In a fast-paced battle, the Knights hung with Nassau, but despite 3 goals by sniper Andrew Brodsky and stellar defense by Rob Fulton, they still trailed 5-3 late in the game. Senior goaltender Joe Tsigourakos held off Nassau's barrage of third period shots and gave the Knights a chance to get back in the game. The penalty kill, led by assistant captain James Novak, looked extremely solid as it killed off multiple penalties through the second and third periods.

Rutgers continued to work hard to get back into the game, as sophomore Aaron Thorburn drew a crucial power play for RU with two minutes remaining in the third period. Andrew Brodsky made the most of it, as he buried his fourth goal of the game with a quick wrist shot under the crossbar with a little over a minute remaining. Still, the Knights trailed by a goal, and opted to pull the goaltender for the final minute. With the man advantage, assistant captain Rob Fulton hit captain Anthony Tsigourakos with a quick cross-court pass, and Tsigourakos buried the puck with a quick one-timer to tie the game at 5 with 17 seconds remaining. The Knights had tied the game in dramatic fashion, and the game ended in a 5-5 tie.

RU took this momentum into it's final matchup of the weekend against Penn State and cruised to a 5-2 victory, highlighted by a 22 save performance by Joe Tsigourakos and a 5 point game for Rob Fulton (1g 4a). Linemates Andrew Brodsky and Anthony Tsigourakos each tallied two goals apiece, and the power play functioned like a well-oiled machine, scoring 3 times in 4 chances. The RU defense, solidified by sophomores James Kinosian and Aaron Thorburn, was very sharp, allowing only 1 even strength goal with only one minute remaining in the game.

RU returns to action next weekend (Oct. 21-22), with ECRHA regular season games at the Center Circle in Rahway, NJ. Game times for RU's only regular season event of the season are TBD.