WATERTOWN, MA — The RIT men’s hockey team (3-3-1, 3-1-0 AHC) finished its first weekend sweep of the 2016-17 season with a 6-3 victory over Atlantic Hockey Conference rival Bentley University (2-4-1, 1-3-0 AHC) Saturday at the John A. Ryan Skating Center.
Erik Brown (Keene, Ontario/Kemptville 73’s) recorded a career-high four points on two goals and two assists, while Myles Powell (Courtenay, British Columbia/Cowichan Valley Capitals) scored a pair of shorthanded goals in the first period. Powell becomes the first RIT player in the Division I era to score two shorthanded goals in a game. It was also the fourth time RIT tallied twice with a man down in the Division I era, first since Nov. 21, 2014.
Liam Kerins (Caledon, Ontario/North York Rangers) scored a goal and added an assist, while Abbott Girduckis (Belleville, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) dished out two assists and Gabe Valenzuela (Brampton, Ontario/North York Rangers) also scored. RIT goaltender Mike Rotolo (Rochester, NY/Cedar Rapids Roughriders) made 23 saves for his third win of the season, as the Tigers out-shot Bentley, 40-26.
Drew Callin, Andrew McDonald, and Tyler Deresky scored for the Falcons. Jayson Argue would get the start in net, stopping 21 shots over the first two periods before Aidan Pelino stopped all 13 shots he faced in the third period.
RIT was 1-for-6 with the man-advantage, while Bentley was 0-for-4. The Falcons did score a shorthanded goal.
“I thought we were very aggressive tonight,” said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. “On the penalty kill, we didn’t sit back. That’s always been our forte and we have to stick with that to keep building confidence.”
The Tigers found the net three times in the first period to build a commanding 3-0 lead. RIT converted on its first power-play opportunity, as the Adam Brubacher (Elmira, Ontario/Powell River Kings) tipped a pass to Caleb Cameron (Sundridge, Ontario/Listowel Cyclones), who flipped a loose puck into the slot that was knocked home by Brown for his fifth goal of the season 5:39 in.
The Tigers continued to find opportunities in special teams play, as Powell scored two short-handed goals in a span of 3:52. The second came on a 2-on-1 rush as the period was dwindling down. Girduckis fed Powell the puck back-door and Powell ripped fired it in the open side of the net with six seconds left in the period to make it a 3-0 game.
The second period began with the Tigers killing off the remaining 25 seconds of a penalty, but Bentley cut the lead to 3-1 right after, as Callin would score off a feed from Connor Brassard in front.
Back and forth play would continue for the rest of the period, until the Tigers took control with a pair of goals just 28 seconds apart to make it a 5-1 game. Valenzuela tapped the puck across the line as a rebound off a shot by Brown that sat just inches from the goal line for his fourth goal of the year. Kerins, who also assisted on Valenzuela’s tally, knocked his own rebound in for a 5-1 lead on the ensuing shift.
The Falcons came out pressuring hard in the third period, as McDonald and Deresky scored 1:36 for Bentley in the first 4:09 of the period, cutting the RIT lead to 5-3. With Pelino on the bench for Bentley and the extra attacker on the ice to make it a 6-on-5, Brown added an empty net goal, his sixth of the season, with 8.1 seconds left, sealing the win for the Tigers.
Brown recorded three goals and five points over the weekend to lead the Tigers. He now has five goals and eight points over a four game point-scoring streak and leads the team in scoring with 10 points in 2016-17. Girduckis now has five assists in the last three games.
RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 21-11-2. RIT has now won five straight contests against the Falcons at the John A. Ryan Skating Center dating back to the 2014-15 season.
RIT will return to action next weekend with a home-and-home series against AHC foe Canisius. Friday’s game will be played at 7:35 p.m. at HARBORCENTER in downtown Buffalo, while Saturday’s matchup will be back at the Gene Polesseni Center at 7:05 p.m.
