ROCHESTER, NY – Senior forward Matt Garbowsky (St. George, Ontario/Powell River Kings) and sophomore goaltender Mike Rotolo (Rochester, NY/Cedar Rapids Roughriders) of the RIT men’s hockey team earned Travel Team USA Atlantic Hockey Conference weekly honors on Tuesday, for the week ending March 1, 2015. Garbowsky was named the Player of the Week, while Rotolo earned Goaltender of the Week accolades. Garbowsky earned weekly honors for the third time this season and fifth in his RIT career, while Rotolo garnered the first weekly accolade of the season and fourth of his RIT career.
Garbowsky, a Hobey Baker Award candidate, recorded his second hat-trick of the season and RIT’s ninth in 10 seasons of the Division I play, while adding an assist and was plus-4 in an 8-0 win over Mercyhurst on Friday. He also won 20 of 24 face-offs. Garbowsky opened the scoring in the first period, scored a brilliant shorthanded goal early in the second period, and recorded the hat-trick with an even strength goal later in the period. The next night, Garbowsky won 25 of 36 face-offs in a 2-1 overtime win. Garbowsky is second in Division I with 24 goals, tied for fourth with 46 points and leads the nation with 594 face-off wins.
Rotolo stopped 47 of 48 shots in a weekend sweep over Mercyhurst lifting the Tigers to the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic Hockey Tournament. On Friday, Rotolo stopped all 25 shots he faced for his first shutout of the season and third of his career in an 8-0 win. On Saturday, Rotolo made 22 saves and earned his first collegiate assist on Myles Powell (Courtenay, British Columbia/Cowichan Valley Capitals)’s game-winning overtime empty net goal in a 2-1 victory. Rotolo is 8-1-1 over his last 10 starts and has a 9-6-1 record with a 2.51 goals against average and .908 save percentage this season.
The third seeded Tigers received a first round bye in the Atlantic Hockey Tournament and will face the highest remaining seed from the winning first round teams next weekend from the Gene Polisseni Center. The quarterfinal series will run from March 13-15.
