The Capital Region’s biggest hockey rivalry took center ice Saturday.
Fans of Union College in Schenectady and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy are packed into Albany’s MVP Arena with the coveted Mayor’s Cup on the line.
RPI graduate Rick Case has been a season ticket holder for 40 years. He used to come with his wife but now he enjoys spending time with his fraternity brother.
Case says in 1985 RPI was selling red fedoras, the year the team won the national championship in Detroit. Ever since, he’s collected RPI pins that now cover the hat.
“These things are mostly free to just pick, people passing them out from time to time. So, I got enough.”
“Do you have a favorite?”
“Probably this one NCAA championship and it's got Puck Man, Puck Boy on it too,” Case said. “You know, so, how can you object to that? I'm just glad I went because I got married in ’84. And this was in ’85. So, we didn’t have any kids yet so we're still able to go. And I figured this was my one and only chance to see any team from my alma mater play for national championship in any sport. And so, I said ‘if I missed that I'm, like, I'm gonna hate myself forever.’ So, we went.”
“What keeps you coming all these years later?”
“A glutton for punishment. I mean, I love hockey,” Case said. “I never saw a hockey game before I came to RPI because it was pretty scarce in those days.”
Case says win or lose, he’s having fun.
“We go and then we go down to Brown’s after the game and, and have a couple of pints whether we win or lose. Either to celebrate or drown our sorrows one way or the other, it's something to do in the winter,” Case said.
RPI uses a last-second save to win the women’s matchup 1-0.
RPI goalie Amanda Rampado helps the Engineers notch their third-straight Mayor’s Cup.
“Of course, they had a few really good chances right at the end there but I was just trying to stay calm do my thing I knew that the other players out there had my back,” Rampado said.
It’s Carmella Mantello’s first Mayor’s Cup in the titular role.
“This is awesome as a girl and played hockey on the pond behind my parent’s house,” Mantello said. “I couldn't play hockey as a girl so to see our women's team kicking some true you know what?”
9-year-old Cooper Ollari is cheering his cousin Riley Walsh, a forward for Union’s women’s team. Ollari says he wants to be like Walsh when he grows up.
“They played a really good game. She got hurt. And then she came back but yeah, they did good,” Ollari said.
Taking in the men’s matchup, some students are getting creative showing off their school spirit.
Ryan Nowak, a senior studying biology and environmental engineering, says hockey games are a weekly tradition for his friends. Despite the January chill, they’re shirtless — using body paint to spell “UNION!”
“Hockey means like the life of the weekend. Like, it's what I look forward to every week, I get so hype for it,” Nowak said.
“Do you and all your friends go together?”
“All of my friends go every weekend, we get so pumped for it, like once it hits Thursday and my classes end that's all I think about the Friday, Saturday game.”
On the men’s side, the Garnet Chargers pull off a 5-3 win. This is the program’s third straight cup and eighth overall.
Union senior Nathan Kelly senior netted his first goal.
“To be honest with you guys, it's just a surprise to everybody else,” Kelly said. “But at the end of the day, it's really good feeling and, you know, just being part of the boys in the way to cheer me on and there's nothing like it.”
Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy, in office since before the rivalry’s inception in 2013, is glad to be going home with the hardware.
“Great hockey tonight. Two very competitive programs,” McCarthy said. “We're glad the men were able to bring the trophy back to Schenectady and it was a great game by the women’s also, came up a little bit short.”
