On Tuesday, January 29, the Men’s Hockey team competed in the seventh annual Capital District Mayor’s Cup contest.

The Dutchmen competed against their rivals, the RPI Engineers in a game for the books.

The teams were so evenly matched that it took an extra round of a shootout to crown a champion in the contest.

The Union Men’s Hockey team topped RPI 3-2 in six rounds of a shootout on Tuesday night at the Times Union Center.

The Dutchmen started the game off strong, earning a 12-5 advantage in shots during the first period. RPI fought back in the second period, as the Engineers out-shot the Dutchmen 12-7 in the frame.

In the third it was all Union. Goalkeeper, Darion Hanson ’21 only had to make two saves in the contest, as the majority of skating took place on the RPI end of the rink. Despite numerous grade-A scoring chances, the RPI goalie denied Union on every attempt to force the game to go into overtime.

Union out-shot RPI 43-20, including a 22-2 margin in the third period.

In the extra five-minute frame, neither team was able to generate much offense and a five-round shootout was needed to determine which school would be taking home the Mayor’s Cup.

Jack Adams ’21 scored the first goal of the shootout, putting Union up 1-0 in the second round.

However, Kyle Hallbauer scored for the Engineers to even things up in the third. Both Liam Morgan ’21 and RPI’s Shane Bear scored in the fourth round, and after stops by the goaltenders in the fifth, an overtime round was needed in the shootout.

Captain Cole Maier ’19 came through huge, scoring on his attempt in the sixth, before Hanson denied Jakub Lacka to secure the third-straight Mayor’s Cup title for the Dutchmen.

It was a historic game as Union claimed the Mayor’s Cup for a record third-straight year, and it was the first time that a shootout was used to decide the winner.

Hanson made 20 saves, including a game-high 12 in the second period, for his first shutout of the season. Union was 0-for-2 on the power play, but went 1-for-1 on the penalty kill.

The Dutchmen hosted No. 13 Cornell on Friday, Feb. 1, and Colgate on Saturday, Feb. 2. They lost to Cornell, but beat Colgate in a shutout.

The Dutchmen are on the road to Boston on Friday February 8, as they go up against the Harvard Crimson.