ROCHESTER, NY – The sixth-seeded RIT men’s hockey team (14-21-1) scored three first period goals en route to a 5-0 win over No. 11 seed Niagara University (4-29-3) in game two of the Atlantic Hockey First Round series at the Gene Polisseni Center Saturday night. This sets up a winner take-all game three, which will be at 7:05 on Sunday night from the Polisseni Center.
RIT took control from the outset, jumping out to a 3-0 lead while out-shooting Niagara 16-2 after one period of play.
Myles Powell (Courtenay, British Columbia/Cowichan Valley Capitals), Matt Abt (Leduc, Alberta/Whitecourt Wolverines ), and Ryan Kruper (Sherwood Park, Alberta/Sherwood Park Crusaders) had a goal and an assist apiece to lead RIT offensively. Adam Brubacher (Elmira, Ontario/Powell River Kings) dished out a pair of helpers, while Darren Brady (Lake Orion, MI/New Jersey Titans) and Danny Smith (Edmonton, Alberta/Sherwood Park Crusaders) also scored. Caleb Cameron (Sundridge, Ontario/Listowel Cyclones) led the Tigers with eight shots on goal.
Senior goaltender Mike Rotolo (Rochester, NY/Cedar Rapids Roughriders) stopped all 19 shots he faced for his second shutout of the season and sixth of his career. It was also his 40th career win. He made two big saves to preserve the shutout in the final moments, stopping Noah Delmas on a point-blank slap shot with 9:52 left and TJ Sarcona on a one-timer with 32.7 seconds remaining.
RIT out-shot Niagara, 39-19. RIT was 1-for-6 with the man-advantage, while holding Niagara scoreless on all eight power-play attempts. The Tigers also scored their third shorthanded goal of the season.
Jackson Teichroeb played the first 50 minutes, stopping 27 of 31 shots. Joe O’Brien played the final 10 minutes, making seven saves on eight shots.
“We did a better job tonight,” said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. “Thankfully, our penalty-killing was outstanding, as we took a lot of undisciplined penalties. We want to be aggressive but have structure and playa patient game.”
Powell would get RIT on the board 6:15 into the contest, stealing the puck from Teichroeb and sliding it into the open net for his third shorthanded goal of the season and 13th goal of the year. The puck was cleared down the ice by a RIT defenseman, while shorthanded. With Powell bearing down, Teichroeb fanned on his clearing attempt giving the captain an open net.
Kruper would give RIT a 2-0 lead just over seven minutes later, depositing a nifty, no-look pass from Shawn Cameron (Sherbrooke, Quebec/Cumberland Grads) past Teichroeb for his seventh goal of the season. Matt Abt (Leduc, Alberta/Whitecourt Wolverines ) would fire a long pass to Cameron in the neutral zone. Cameron broke in on the right wing and sped behind the net before spinning a no-look backhand pass back out front to Kruper, who beat Teichroeb to the far side.
RIT kept coming with numerous chances to go up 3-0. Caleb Cameron (Sundridge, Ontario/Listowel Cyclones) was denied twice in front by Teichroieb and Liam Kerins (Caledon, Ontario/North York Rangers) was stopped on a partial breakaway moments later.
Brady would give the Tigers a 3-0 lead with just 17.6 seconds left in the period, firing a wrist shot from the high slot through traffic past Teichroeb off a clean face-off win by Kruper.
RIT would hold serve in the second period, despite Niagara holding an 8-6 shot advantage in a evenly played period.
Rotolo would make a handful of quality saves as five of Niagara’s eight shots in the period came on two power-plays. His best saves came on a point-blank slap shot by Johnny Curran on a power-play and turnaround shot by Stanislav Dzahkov in the slot later in the period.
Girduckis just missed giving RIT a 4-0 lead midway through the period, getting Teichroeb to commit and slide out of position, as he tried to slide the puck inside the post, but Niagara’s Keegan Harper was able to block the chance right before it hit the goal line.
Smith would give RIT its 4-0 lead just 3:27 into the third period, walking out of the corner after taking a feed from Girduckis and fire a shot over the glove of Teichroeb for his fifth goal of the season.
Abt would complete the scoring on a 5-on-3 power-play with 8:16 left, ripping home a one-timer off a feed from Powell from the left circle for his third goal in the last three games and fourth of the season.
Abt now has eight points (3-5-8) over his last three games.
The two teams combined for nine third period power-plays.
Last night, Niagara scored three times in the final 3:55 of regulation, tying the game with 56.3 seconds left in regulation and scoring the game-winner with 10.5 seconds left to stun RIT, 5-4 in game one. Abt had three points to lead the RIT offensive attack.
The Tigers are now 2-1 against Niagara this season. Earlier this year, RIT won both regular season meetings at Dwyer Arena, 7-1 on Dec. 2 and 6-2 on Dec. 3. RIT is 7-2-3 against Niagara since the start of the 2014-15 season. Niagara leads the all-time series between the two schools, 16-10-12.
The Tigers are now 29-14 in the postseason at the Division I level and 4-3 all-time in Atlantic Hockey first round games. RIT last lost game one of a series on home ice in the 2012 quarterfinals against Bentley before rallying to win the next two games and advance.
RIT is 2-1 all-time in Atlantic Hockey Tournament game three contests, with both wins coming on home ice.
“We will need the best we can within our structure and that’s what we hope to do tomorrow,” said Wilson.
