By Kevin Dillon/DFP StaffNo. 15 Boston University men’s hockey coach David Quinn now has his first loss as head of the Terriers, as BU fell to No. 17 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 3-1 Friday night at Agganis Arena.A sluggish first ten minutes gave the Engineers (2-1) the only lead it needed, and RPI goaltender Scott Diebold did the rest — making 31 saves in the RPI win.“We played for 50 minutes instead of 60,” Quinn said. “If we came for 60, it might’ve been a different story. …I didn’t think there was any anticipation in our game. I thought we were puck watching, which makes it difficult to anticipate plays.”The Engineers got things started quickly, as forward Matt Tinordi shoveled a bouncing puck in front of the net between sophomore goaltender Sean Maguire’s pads to give RPI the 1-0 lead. Senior Brock Higgs had attempted a wraparound before the puck bounced out to Tinordi, so Maguire was already down before Tinordi cleaned up the rebound.It did not stop there though, as RPI capitalized on a power play less than two minutes later. Soon after freshman defenseman T.J. Ryan was called for an interference penalty, forward Ryan Haggerty received a feed from linemate Jacob Laliberte at the point and fired it past Maguire for his third goal in as many games. Suddenly, BU (2-1, 1-0 Hockey East) was rushing to recover.“When you go down 2-0 that early, it puts you on your heels a little bit,” Quinn said. “The thing that I did like was I thought after about the 10- or 11-minute mark of the first period, I thought we found our legs and the tide started to turn a little bit.”One thing the Terriers struggled with on the night was keeping Engineers’ forwards away from high-percentage scoring areas. Tinordi’s goal came from a short distance outside of Maguire’s crease, while RPI had several other chances in front of the goal.“I just thought they were bigger and older and stronger,” Quinn said. “I thought it really showed the net-front. They went to the net, they were hungry, a little bit more physical than we were at the net-front.”The flow of the game began to even out at around the halfway point in the first period. By the end of the first, BU only trailed RPI in shots 10-9.Things shifted even more into BU’s favor at the midway point in the second period though, and the Terriers finally cracked RPI’s Diebold with less than a minute remaining in the second frame. Freshman wing Kevin Duane took a long breakaway pass from sophomore defenseman Ahti Oksanen through the neutral zone, and flipped a wrist shot off Diebold’s shoulder and into the back of the net. It was Duane’s first collegiate goal, and Oksanen’s fifth assist in the first three games.The Duane goal appeared to be a momentum-shifter, as the Terriers headed into the locker room at the intermission only down by one. However, the Engineers shut down that momentum quickly in the third, when Haggerty ripped another wrist shot past Maguire off of a faceoff win by Laliberte.“Maybe I saw a little bit of heads go down on the bench, but I thought we picked it up,” MacGregor said. “When a goal is scored like that, it takes a lot of courage for a team to pick it back up and try to do whatever they can. I thought we did an OK job doing that tonight.”There were several chances for the Terriers — who only had two power plays on the night — to come within one goal during the final two minutes with Maguire pulled. However, Diebold stood tall and handed BU its first loss of the season.The Terriers have another tough test ahead, as it will face No. 2 University of Wisconsin Saturday night. The Badgers lost to No. 6/7 Boston College, 9-2, Friday night, which was an even bigger goal differential than RPI had in its 7-2 loss to BC last Sunday.