Though the last seven games haven’t gone particularly well in terms of results, the big picture at RPI this season is pretty nice to look at, and that’s a welcome change following three difficult seasons mired in the bottom third of ECAC Hockey. A strong start to the season included a 7-3-1 record through the first 11 games. RPI won its first three ECAC Hockey contests as well.

“I think our fans feel it, I think they like the way we’re playing. I think we play a fast and aggressive physical style when we play properly, and so I think the fans and the community and the school are excited about it. More importantly than that, I think the guys are. I think the guys sense that this could be a pretty good season. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get there, but we could be a pretty good team,” RPI head coach Seth Appert said.

Chase Polacek leads RPI with 25 points in 18 games.

The Engineers have added talent to the roster every year and this year’s incoming class includes NHL draft picks Jerry D’Amigo (Toronto) and Brandon Pirri (Chicago). That duo ranks second and third on the team in scoring. Pirri’s seven goals and 10 assists trail only junior Chase Polacek (12-13-25). D’Amigo has five goals and 14 points and has played every game this year, despite concern about a recent knee injury and speculation that he could miss a couple weeks of action. They’ve provided an immediate impact, but also a sort of energy to some of the team’s veterans that have seen some lean times in their careers.

“It’s exciting. I think that’s the best word to use. The previous three years I think we’ve been a very good team but maybe not as talented. With the kids we’ve brought in this year, they are unbelievable hockey players,” senior forward Paul Kerins said. “Unbelievable talent. Watching them play, it’s just fun to sit back and watch them do what they do. They make guys like me better, learning from them, watching the way they play.”

John Kennedy, the team’s junior captain, encouraged the team to stay together to work out on campus in May, and to return to Troy in August for workouts and team building. Upperclassmen like Kevin Beauregard, Christian Jensen and Kerins have taken on more significant roles on the team and are setting a good example.

“I like the way our upperclassmen have handled things. They keep coming every day to go to work. Now you’re getting those older guys that are role players and they’re having a great attitude and working hard which sends a great message to the younger kids about what it’s all about,” Appert said.

Another reason for RPI’s renewed energy and confidence was last year’s playoff run, in which they earned a first-round series victory at Dartmouth on the road and stretched Cornell to three games in the quarterfinal series.

“It made guys believe. I think it gave them an understanding of how hard it is, and that was just to go 3-2. I think people underestimate how hard it is, and how hard it is to win in our league because the depth is so good and the disparity between top and bottom is tighter,” Appert said.

After getting that taste of success last year, RPI is poised to make a run later in the season, and it’s a rewarding feeling for the team’s elder statesmen, like Kerins.

“I think the program definitely has come full circle and to see it from year one to four now, it’s pretty awesome.”

THREE MORE THINGS WORTH KNOWING

• Yale has nearly a month off between games after sweeping league foes Quinnipiac and Princeton last weekend. The Bulldogs handed Quinnipiac its first ECACH loss of the year, and Yale is quietly putting together another impressive season. Yale is 7-3-2 through its first dozen games and two of the losses - at Vermont and at Massachusetts have come to nationally-ranked teams from Hockey East. Yale is also the nation’s highest-scoring team with 4.33 goals per game (52 in 12 games). Junior Broc Little’s 10 goals lead the team, and senior Sean Backman has eight. After that, sophomore Brian O’Neill’s six goals are noteworthy but it doesn’t illustrate how balanced Yale’s scoring has been. Nobody else on the team has more than four, but a nine more players have at least two tallies on the year. Yale faces nationally-ranked Ferris State in the opening round of the Badger Showdown hosted by Wisconsin on the first weekend in January, and could face the nationally-ranked hosts in the second round.

• Yale’s not the only team lighting the lamp with great regularity. Four of the nation’s top-10 scoring offenses are ECAC Hockey outfits. Quinnipiac is fourth at 3.88 goals per game, Cornell is eighth overall at 3.64 goals per night including a nation’s-best 32.1 power play conversion rate. Union is tied for 10th with Colorado College, averaging 3.50 goals per game.

• The Good: Brown’s five-game winning streak is the program’s longest since the 2003-04 season. Included in this run was four victories in eight nights. The Bad: Princeton’s philosophy under coach Guy Gadowsky has simply been to try to score goals. If the effort is there, the results are not, as Princeton ranks 53rd of 58 teams in the country with just 2.09 goals per game. The Ugly: Three of the five worst teams in penalty kill percentage nationally are ECAC Hockey teams - Harvard (54th, 73.6 percent), Union (56th, 72.4 percent) and St. Lawrence (57th, 71.6 percent).