New ECAC

After a year in which Rensselaer set a new program record with 32 wins and reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in 20 years,^[2] RPI found themselves scrambling to adjust their schedule. All Six teams from the East Region of ECAC Hockey, along with newly admitted Lowell, broke away to from a new conference. While many of the higher-profile programs left, the reduction to 12 teams allowed the remaining ECAC members to play an even schedule for the first time in league history; all teams played one another twice, once at home and one on the road, except for Army who only played other ECAC members once. As part of the new scheduling arrangement, Rensselaer was paired with Vermont and the two teams would travel at the same time to visit the same region. For example, RPI's first conference road game was against Yale in Connecticut while at the same time Vermont played Brown in Rhode Island. The next night Rensselaer and Vermont swapped opponents which allowed all teams to reduce travel time while still fulfilling their new scheduling guidelines.

Early season hiccup

The Engineers began the season with two strong home wins against Canadian teams but then immediately stumbled against St. Lawrence in their conference opener. The team recovered with a win over Clarkson the following night then hit the road for a set of games against North Dakota. RPI returned to the northeast after another weekend split and was able to finally win a weekend after getting a tough fight from Brown. Rensselaer ended the first part of their season with a fairly easy pair of games where they seemed to find the consistency that had served them well the year before.

Holiday Tournament

For the 34th annual Rensselaer Holiday Tournament, RPI dominated Miami in the semifinal before facing their third Canadian team of the season and managed to down Toronto in the final to take their third consecutive tournament title. When the team returned to its regular schedule the following weekend they fought a series of close games, including a surprising strong effort from Division III Union, but RPI escaped an embarrassing fate to raise their record to 13–2.

ECAC dominance

After that scare the Engineers didn't have another close game for almost two months, winning every game by at least 3 goals until their final game of the regular season, a 5–4 win over Cornell. After opening their conference schedule with a loss Rensselaer had won its final 20 conference games, the second best streak and the second most wins in conference history (both behind only 1970 Cornell) and the third highest winning percentage in ECAC history. Leading the way for the conference's top offense was junior center Adam Oates who had already set a new program record with 83 points the previous season and was well on his way to improving on the mark. RPI also possessed the #2 defense in the country, allowing only 54 goals in 21 conference games and were backstopped by Buffalo Sabres draft pick Daren Puppa.

ECAC tournament

Searching for their second consecutive ECAC crown, Rensselaer ran through Princeton in the quarterfinal series and then headed to Boston where Puppa stifled the opposition, allowing only one goal in each of the final two games which the Engineers ended triumphantly. Puppa was named as tournament MOP and with their 32–2 record Rensselaer received the #1 eastern seed to go along with their automatic tournament berth.

NCAA tournament

With the higher seed, Rensselaer played host to Lake Superior State in the Quarterfinals and opened by setting a new franchise record, with their 33rd win of the season, taking the contest 7–3. Because the Quarterfinal series was a total goal affair RPI would advance so long as could keep the second game close and a 3-3 tie was well within their margin for error. Because the Lakers could not win the series regardless of an overtime result no extra time was played and the game ended after regulation along with RPI's 30-game winning streak.

Rensselear headed to Detroit for the Frozen Four and met the previous season's runner-up, Minnesota–Duluth. In what became one of the more memorable games RPI and Duluth began fighting one another almost from the drop of the puck; the two teams got into a scrape then ended up with double matching minors and both teams played 3-on-3. during that time the Engineers opened the scoring with Tim Friday's fifth goal of the season. Afterwards RPI got into trouble with two consecutive penalties to give UMD a 5-on-3 advantage but their defense was able to hold the fort and prevent the Bulldogs from evening the score.^[3]

In the second period Mark Baron scored twice in 30 seconds to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game. John Carter tied the game with a power play goal off a rebound before George Servinis gave the lead back to Rensselaer. The game was then tied for the fourth time when Brett Hull scored a breakaway goal and the two teams headed into intermission.

In the third, while killing a penalty, Servinis found himself on a partial breakaway but the puck got too far in front of him. Duluth goalie Rick Kosti charged out of the net to knock the puck away but Servinis reached it first and deflected the puck just enough for Kosti to miss it with his stick. Kosti's momentum carried him into Servinis but the RPI forward was able to stay on his skates, the same could not be said for Duluth defender Jim Johnson who went tumbling head over heels into the boards and allowed Servinis to shoot the puck into the vacated net. Duluth tied the game again when 1985 Hobey Baker Award winner Bill Watson shot his own rebound in behind Puppa. UMD's second lead of the game came from a Bob Herzig shot in the high slot that went under Puppa's glove. With regulation winding down and their chances dwindling, RPI fought to keep the puck alive in the Duluth end and, after a pass from behind the net, the puck pinballed off a Duluth skate right to Ken Hammond who slid the puck into the net.

The two teams continued to battle for the first two 10-minute overtimes but at the end of the second tempers flared and the teams ended up with a slew of penalties. The third overtime period began 3-on-3 and after two minutes the teams played 4-on-4, but because Duluth had taken one additional penalty, the Engineers found themselves on a power play from a penalty that had happened 4 minutes earlier. The Bulldogs were able to survive most of the disadvantage but with only 15 seconds left in the penalty Carter fired a shot from the point that deflected off a Duluth stick and into the net, ending the game that saw RPI setting a new Frozen Four record with 16 penalties (followed closely by Duluth's 14).^[4]

Awards and honors

Unsurprisingly Chris Terreri was given the tournament MOP, the last player to do so who did not play for the championship team, but four Engineers did make the All-Tournament team: Tim Friday, Ken Hammond, Adam Oates and George Servinis. Oates finished the season third in the nation in scoring with 91 points and first in points per game (2.39), narrowly outpacing Bill Watson's 2.36 ppg mark. Oates' scoring prowess earned him a spot on the AHCA All-American East First Team along with Hammond while John Carter made the Second Team.^[6] All three made the All-ECAC First Team^[7] while Daren Puppa, despite finishing second in the nation with 30 wins and third with a 2.56 goals against average received no further mention beyond tournament MOP.

While the national championship in itself was the main goal for the Engineers, the fact that they won against one of the Hockey East teams that had broken away from ECAC Hockey over the previous summer probably made the victory just that much sweeter.

(E1) Rensselaer vs. (E4) Providence

1985 NHL Entry Draft

† incoming freshman

Adam Oates, undrafted by his 22nd birthday, was able to sign a professional contract after forgoing his final year of eligibility. The $1.1 million deal he inked with Detroit was the most lucrative contract for a rookie at the time and the arms race for Oates' services led directly to the NHL instituting the Supplemental Draft.^[12] The secondary draft was used for players who were otherwise ineligible for the standard NHL Entry Draft.

^[13]