ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men’s hockey team plays a home-and-home series this weekend against non-conference foe Colgate University of the ECAC. On Friday, Oct. 23, the Tigers travel to Starr Rink in Hamilton to play Colgate at 7 p.m. The following night, the two teams complete the weekend series at the Gene Polisseni Center with a 7:05 p.m. start.
On Saturday, RIT president Bill Destler is challenging members of the RIT and Rochester community to fill the Gene Polisseni Center for the regular season home opener. If the game is a sellout, Dr. Destler will dye his hair orange between the second and third periods. The Polisseni Center holds 4,300 fans.
RIT enters the weekend looking for its first victory of the 2015-16 season. For the sixth straight season, RIT sold out Blue Cross Arena downtown as part of Brick City Homecoming and Family Weekend. The capacity crowd of 10,556 fans was treated to an exciting contest, as RIT and No. 10 Bowling Green skated to a 2-2 tie. Todd Skirving (Thunder Bay, Ontario/Sioux Falls Stampede) scored a pair of first period goals, while Mike Rotolo (Rochester, NY/Cedar Rapids Roughriders) made 27 saves. The Tigers out-shot Bowling Green, 35-29.
Skirving was named the Atlantic Hockey co-Player of the Week on Tuesday.
Colgate enters the weekend with a 1-2-0 record, having played just once over the last 18 days, a 2-1 loss at Northeastern on Oct. 10. In that contest, the Raiders lost despite 41 saves from Charlie Finn. Colgate has 13 goals in three games this season, as Tyson Spink leads the squad with six points on a goal and five assists. Derek Freeman and Mike Borkowski have three goals apiece to lead the squad. In net, Finn is 1-2-0 with a 3.25 goals against average and .905 save percentage. Last season, Colgate finished 22-12-4, falling to Harvard in the ECAC Championship, just missing a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Colgate leads the all-time series between the two schools, 8-1. They have met three times since RIT moved to Division I in 2005, with Colgate winning all three meetings. The two teams last met on Oct. 10, 2013 at Ritter Arena, with the Raiders winning 4-1.
After this weekend, the Tigers play 28 of their final 29 games against Atlantic Hockey foes, starting with consecutive road series at American International on Oct. 30-31 and Army West Point on Nov. 6-7. The last non-conference game is at nationally-ranked Boston College on Nov. 28.
Both games will be broadcast over the airwaves on WITR 89.7 FM and witr.rit.edu. Live stats are also available for Friday and Saturday. Online video is available as well for Friday and Saturday.
