Three-Point Nights for Kozlak and Alvarez
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Rookie Cole Burns made 33 stops between the pipes, while seniors Joe Kozlak and Maurice Alvarez recorded three points to lead the Army hockey team to a 4-2 win at RIT on Friday night at the Polisseni Center.
The win snapped the Tigers’ five-game winning streak over the Black Knights and ended a 13-game unbeaten stretch.
The Black Knights (6-17-2, 6-13-2 AHA) saw Kozlak get his three points with a goal and two assists, while Maurice Alvarez netted two goals and had an assist in the win. Blake Box and Conor Andrle potted goals as well, while Clint Carlisle added two helpers in the win.
“This was a great team win,” head coach Brian Riley said. “The guys really played for each other tonight and our penalty kill was huge all night long. However, our best player tonight was Cole. He made some unbelievable saves at critical moments. When they made a push at the end of the game, the guys on the bench were still confident that we were going to get it done.”
The Tigers (9-12-4, 8-7-4 AHA) got both their goals from Alex Perron-Fontaine, who came into the game with no goals in his first 44 career games. Jordan Ruby made 11 saves before being relieved by Mike Rotolo after Army took a 3-0 lead in the second period.
Alvarez gave the Black Knights the early lead with a sneaky wrist shot from the slot 2:44 into the game. Kozlak dropped the puck to the defensive on an odd-man rush and he roofed it on the stick side of Ruby for the 1-0 advantage. It was his fifth of the season and Carlisle was given a helper on the play as well for his 10th of the year.
Army increased its lead to 2-0 with Andrle scoring his fourth of the season. He collected the puck on a turnover at the side boards and drove to the net on the left side. He was able to slip the puck under Ruby’s pad for the two-goal advantage with 11:40 left in the second stanza.
Box extended the Army advantage to three goals with his second of the season, coming at the 9:44 mark of the middle frame. Kozlak won a loose puck back to Box and he wound up and let a laser go from the point that got by Ruby to make it 3-0. The goal chased Ruby from the game as Rotolo came on in relief.
The Tigers got one back with 4:48 remaining in the middle frame with Perron-Fontaine scoring his first of the year. He got the puck in the high slot and wanted for traffic to form in front. He let a wrist shot go and it beat Bruns on the stick side to cut the Army advantage down to two at 3-1.
RIT got within one goal with 4:14 left in the game on a fluke goal that Bruns couldn’t do much to stop. Perron-Fontaine scored his second of the night off a deflection from an Army stick. He was throwing a cross-ice pass and the Army defender went to stop it and the puck redirected on net and Bruns couldn’t get to it.
The Black Knights responded with an empty net goal from Kozlak with less than a minute to go, to put the game out of reach for the Tigers and Army won 4-2. Both teams went scoreless on the power play and Army came up big in the third period on the kill with three of the five power plays for RIT coming in the final 20 minutes.
The two teams are back on the ice tomorrow at the Polisseni Center with puck drop at 7:05 p.m.
Ice Shavings: This was the 21st meeting between RIT and Army since 2006 … first visit to the Gene Polisseni Center for the Black Knights … this was the second game during a five-game road swing for Army … the Black Knights have played in Rochester for two-straight seasons … Cole Bruns made his 10th start of his rookie campaign and earned his second win … Carlisle has now scored a point in six of the last eight games … Kozlak has points in four of the last six contests and had a multi-point game for the 11th time in his career … Army scored first for the ninth time this season … Army’s rookies have scored 24 of the 54 goals this season … Alvarez tallied three points for the third time in his career and first time since Feb. 15 of last season against Bentley.
