All season men’s hockey coach Rand Pecknold has praised sophomore forward Eric Lampe for his hard work on the ice for the Bobcats. That hard work showed up in the form of a hat trick for Lampe Friday night against RPI as Quinnipiac downed the Engineers 3-2.

The Bobcats were coming off a pair of disappointing losses to Niagara University, but bounced back to earn three points on their trip to the Capital District to play RPI and Union.

Rensselaer jumped out to a 1-0 lead midway through the first period on a power play goal by Andrew Lord. The Engineers entered the game converting only seven percent of their power play chances. It was only their 10th goal on the man advantage this season.

The score remained 1-0 in favor of RPI until Lampe netted his first goal of the night six minutes into the second period. Dan Henningson, who returned to action for the Bobcats after missing last Saturday’s game against Niagara with a leg injury, registered his 13th assist of the year on the tying goal.

Lampe gave the Bobcats the lead for good just under four minutes later. Linemate Mike Atkinson assisted on the goal, his seventh of the season.

With five minutes to go in the game and the Bobcats looking for an insurance goal, Lampe showed off the grit and determination that has earned him praise from his coach throughout the last few months.

Henningson sent a pass to Lampe, who slapped a one-timer that was stopped by RPI netminder Mathias Lange. Lampe followed his shot and sent the rebound past Lange to give the Bobcats a two goal margin. David Marshall also assisted on the goal.

With 58 seconds left in the third period, RPI cut the deficit in half on a goal by Bryan Brutlag, who beat Bud Fisher for his third goal of the year. Fisher made 21 saves on the night.

On Saturday night, the Bobcats fell a few minutes short of avenging a disappointing loss to Union earlier this season and had to settle for a 3-3 tie.

Jamie Bates had two goals and an assist and Bryan Leitch scored his 100th career point on his third period goal, but the Bobcats could not hold a third period lead.

The teams skated to a scoreless first period before Bates’ fifth goal of the year gave the Bobcats the lead.

Neither team was able to solve the opposing netminder until a flurry of goals in the third period.

With 17:44 to go in the third, Bates scored his second goal of the game on a deflection off a shot from freshman Zach Hansen. Henningson also registered an assist on the goal, his third of the weekend.

Goals by Brendan Milnamow and Mike Schreiber 1:22 apart quickly tied the game at 2-2.

Leitch put the Bobcats back in front with a little over eight minutes to play. Bates and Ben Nelson assisted on the goal.

The Dutchmen tied the game one last time with 2:07 to play on a goal by Adam Presiniuk.

Fisher made a season-high 36 saves in net for the Bobcats.

Quinnipiac returns home this weekend to face Yale on Friday night and Brown Sunday afternoon. Friday’s game will be televised on WCTX/MyTV9 and Sunday’s matchup can be seen on NESN.