ECAC Hockey Website

TROY, N.Y. – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) head men's hockey coach Seth Appert is one of three finalists for the ECAC Hockey Tim Taylor Coach-of-the-Year Award, as chosen by his peers. Yale University's Keith Allain and Quinnipiac University's Rand Pecknold are the other two finalists.

Appert, who is in his seventh season, led the Engineers to second place in the league standings with 27 points. They were 12-7-3 in ECAC Hockey and are 17-12-5 overall. RPI, which is 16th in the latest USCHO.com Poll, earned a bye through the first round of the league playoffs and hosts seventh-seeded Brown University in a best-of-three series beginning Friday night.

Rensselaer played one of the most difficult schedules in the nation, facing 17 nationally-ranked teams (7-8-2).

Among RPI's accomplishments to date are a 16-7-3 record since mid-November and an 11-3-1 mark since January 11. RPI closed out the regular season with 9-1-0 record in its final 10 games and an overall home mark of 12-2-0.

The Engineers average 2.85 goals, while allowing 2.35 per contest. They gave up two goals or fewer in nine of their last 14 games. Rensselaer's goals against average is the fourth lowest in school history for a single season and ranks 13th in the nation this year. RPI is 15th in Division I in scoring margin (+0.50) and 16th on the power play (20.5%).

Individually, senior Nick Bailen is second in the country in defensemen scoring (0.94 points per game) and eighth overall in power play goals (7). Freshman goaltender Jason Kasdorf is third in the nation in winning percentage (.778), fourth in goals against average (1.51), sixth in save percentage (.940) and 12th in shutouts (3).

Academically, the Engineers posted a Fall 2012 grade point average of 3.54, which is the highest among all of Rensselaer's men's teams and third overall. Of the 27 student-athletes on the team, 26 earned Dean's List recognition (3.0 or better GPA), including four who had perfect 4.0 term GPAs.

Appert, who is two wins shy of 100 in his career, is assisted by Bryan Vines and Nolan Graham.