WALTHAM, MA – Mark Logan (Calgary, Alberta/Brooks Bandits ) scored his first collegiate goal, as the RIT men’s hockey team (9-10-2, 9-5-1 Atlantic Hockey) stayed perfect on the road in conference play, beating Bentley University (8-12-2, 6-8-2 Atlantic Hockey) 3-2 at the John A. Ryan Skating Arena on Friday night.
Logan, Todd Skirving (Thunder Bay, Ontario/Sioux Falls Stampede), and Alexander Kuqali (Pittsburgh, PA/Sioux City Musketeers) scored goals for the Tigers, who are 6-0-1 on the road in Atlantic Hockey play this season. Myles Powell (Courtenay, British Columbia/Cowichan Valley Capitals), Brady Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers), Andrew Miller (Chicago, IL/Chicago Steel), Matt Abt (Leduc, Alberta/Whitecourt Wolverines ), and Greg Amlong (O’Fallon, MO/UMass Lowell) each tallied an assist in a balanced scoring effort. In goal, Christian Short (Vaughan, Ontario/Surrey Eagles) was solid, stopping 32-of-34 shots to earn his team-best fifth win of the season.
Kyle Schmidt and Matt Bloomquist scored third period goals for the Falcons, 2:04 apart in the third period to cut RIT’s 3-0 lead to 3-2. Andrew Gladiuk, Jake Ahlgren, Drew Callin, and Tanner Jago each tallied an assist. In goal, Jayson Argue stopped 30 shots in the loss.
The Tigers were 0-for-3 on the power play, with the Falcons going 1-for-4. Bentley also edged RIT in shots, 34-33. The Tigers recorded their first win in the season series against Bentley, who beat RIT 3-2 in consecutive overtime games at the Gene Polisseni Center on Nov. 13-14.
“I thought our second period was our best period,” said RIT men’s hockey head coach Wayne Wilson. “We also did pretty well in the third. We got a bit relaxed there in the third period, letting them get back in it, but I thought we did a pretty good job shutting them down after. I thought this was a good win against a good team in this environment.”
The Tigers started the scoring 4:57 into the contest, as Powell fed Brady Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers) behind the net, who dumped it to Kuqali at the top of the faceoff circle. Kuqali took a step in and fired a rocket that beat Argue high for his second goal of the season.
RIT doubled its lead in the second period. Abt had control of the puck by the wall, got rid of it before he got hit along the boards to Miller, who quickly fired it to a streaking Logan who fired it in from the far faceoff circle between Argue’s legs for his first collegiate tally.
In the third period, the Tigers looked to have put the game away as Skirving, who was in front of the net, redirected a shot from Amlong, who fired a shot from the far faceoff circle past Argue for his fourth goal of the year.
But Bentley would not go away, scoring less than two minutes later with a shot from Schmidt from the top of the right faceoff circle, who got the feed from Ahlgren. After a penalty by Kuqali put the Falcons on the power play, Bloomquist scored just nine seconds after. He took a feed from Gladiuk, and fired a shot from just inside the blue line through traffic past Short.
With the game in its final seconds, Bentley pulled the goalie to try to tie the game, and got a few opportunities, but Short made a few key saves to preserve the victory and sent a RIT-friendly crowd to its feet when the final buzzer sounded.
With the win, RIT remains in third place in the Atlantic Hockey standings, one point ahead of Air Force and Mercyhurst, and two behind second place Holy Cross. RIT plays each of those three teams two times apiece later in the season.
The Tigers will finish the regular season series with Bentley with a matchup Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
