ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men’s hockey team begins its defense of the Atlantic Hockey Conference title by heading to American International for a pair of games on Friday, Oct. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 31. Both games from the Olympia Ice Center get underway at 7:05 p.m.
RIT (0-4-1) enters the weekend looking for its first victory of the season. Last weekend, RIT dropped a pair of non-conference games to Colgate, falling 5-2 at Starr Rink on Friday and 4-3 in front of a sellout crowd of 4,300 fans at the Gene Polisseni Center on Saturday. Friday, Gabe Valenzeula scored his first collegiate goal and added an assist, while Greg Amlong (O’Fallon, MO/UMass Lowell) scored his first goal in a Tiger jersey. Goaltender Christian Short (Vaughan, Ontario/Surrey Eagles) made his collegiate debut, stopping 23 of 26 shots. On Saturday, Mark Golberg (Ottawa, Ontario/Cumberland Grads) had two assists, as RIT fired a season-high 46 shots.
RIT President Bill Destler challenged the RIT community to sell this game out and they did. Destler had his hair dyed orange between the second and third period.
Valenzuela leads the team in scoring with three points on a goal and two assists, while Todd Skirving (Thunder Bay, Ontario/Sioux Falls Stampede) has two goals to pace the squad. In goal, Mike Rotolo (Rochester, NY/Cedar Rapids Roughriders) has played in four games with a 4.18 goals against average and .870 save percentage.
Like RIT, American International (0-6-0) enters the weekend looking for its first win of the season. On Tuesday, the Yellow Jackets fell to Sacred Heart by a score of 4-1. Austin Orszulak leads the team in scoring with three goals and six points. Brandon Lubin is tied for the team lead with three assists. American International has allowed 37 goals in sseven contests this season. In goal, Hunter Leisner has a 5.39 goals against average and .870 save percentage, while Alex Murray has a 6.79 goals against average and .837 save percentage.
RIT is 25-3-3 all-time against the Yellow Jackets, including a 22-3-2 mark since the 2005-06 season. The Tigers have a 12-game unbeaten streak against American International dating back to the 2011-12 season. Last year, RIT went 1-0-1 against the Yellow Jackets in Rochester.
The Tigers play 28 of their final 29 regular season games against league foes.
Video for both games will be available online, along with audio from WITR 89.7 FM and live statistics.
