Let me set the scene for you.

It's Game 1 of the ECAC Quarterfinals, and the RPI Engineers men's hockey team is playing on the road, against Harvard, after beating Dartmouth in Round One. There's 1:17 remaining in the third period, and after jetting out to a 3-0 lead, the Engineers' have allowed two straight goals, and their current lead is 3-2.

RPI winning the Mayor's Cup / RPI Athletic Communications
RPI winning the Mayor's Cup / RPI Athletic Communications
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As any coach would do during a timeout, RPI's head coach, Dave Smith is drawing up a play for his players on the white board. He is diagramming the team's strategy in their defensive end, with the ultimate goal of clearing the puck, or scoring an empty-net goal.

Then, up above, a staff member notices something watching them. From there, things begin to unravel.

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Watch as RPI Head Coach Dave Smith Tells Harvard They're No. 1

While drawing up a play in the waning moments of regulation, assistant coach Chuck Weber looked up, and noticed that a camera was watching his team. The angle of the camera, coming from center ice, was positioned in such a way that you could faintly see the game plan on the board.

Weber notified Smith, who was drawing the play, and Smith decided to show the camera how he felt about the invasion of privacy.


Harvard, and its cameras, had officially been put on notice.

Now, not to play the conspiracy theory game, but Harvard would go on to tie the game with 15 seconds remaining in regulation, and win the game in overtime. RPI would take Game 2, coming back from a deficit of their own, but would drop the series in the deciding Game 3 this past Sunday.

We're not sure if anyone from Harvard was able to gain an advantage off of the camera angle, but it's not completely impossible.

With that theory in mind, though the gesture itself wasn't the right call, can you blame Dave Smith and his staff for how they felt?

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