ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men’s hockey team (6-9-2, 6-4-1 Atlantic Hockey) used a strong team effort to win its second straight contest, 4-2 over league foe Mercyhurst University (8-9-0, 6-5-0 Atlantic Hockey) in front of 2,527 fans at the Gene Polisseni Center on Saturday afternoon.
Caleb Cameron (Sundridge, Ontario/Listowel Cyclones), Liam Kerins (Caledon, Ontario/North York Rangers), Brady Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers), and Alex Perron-Fontaine (St. Mathieu de Beloeil, Quebec/Chilliwack Chiefs) scored for the Tigers, while Chase Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers) added a pair of assists. In goal, Mike Rotolo (Rochester, NY/Cedar Rapids Roughriders) picked up his fourth win of the season, stopping 27 of 29 shots, including 21 over the final two periods.
Jack Riley scored a power-play goal and added an assist for Mercyhurst, while Josh Lammon also scored. Brandon Wildung was under siege all evening and played well in the losing effort, making 41 saves.
RIT out-shot Mercyhurst, 45-29. The Tigers were 1-for-4 with the man-advantage, while Mercyhurst was 1-for-5.
“I thought it was a pretty clean game for us, coming off the holiday break,” said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. “This is a good win for us to move up in the league standings. We have to come right back tomorrow night and complete the weekend series at their place and build off tonight’s effort.”
RIT played a strong first period, scoring the lone goal, while out-shooting the Lakers, 15-6.
RIT thought they had a goal three minutes into the game, when a shot from the point on the power-play caromed off Josh Mitchell (Osoyoos, British Columbia/Alberni Valley Bulldogs) at the side of the net right to Cameron in the slot, but he was robbed by Wildung, who was falling back towards the goal, but kept the puck from going over the goal line.
Cameron would atone and put the Tigers on top with his first goal of the season and first since Feb. 27, also versus the Lakers to make it 1-0 with 2:42 left in the period.
Michael Holland (Cambridge, MA/Chicago Steel) smothered a Mercyhurst clearing attempt along the right side boards and fired a high shot that seemed to handcuff Wildung, with the rebound coming right to Cameron in the high slot. Cameron fired a shot that deflected off a Mercyhurst player and past Wildung for the goal.
Mercyhurst had two great chances in the final minute of the period, both blocked by Gabe Valenzuela (Brampton, Ontario/North York Rangers) right in front of the RIT net.
Alexander Kuqali (Pittsburgh, PA/Sioux City Musketeers) just missed giving RIT a 2-0 lead in the final 30 seconds of the period, beating Wildung over the glove before going off the crossbar and out.
RIT continued its excellent play in the second period, scoring once, while also having a goal called back to lead 2-0 after 40 minutes of play.
The Tigers thought they had taken a 2-0 lead midway through the period, as Perron-Fontaine gobbled up a rebound after Wildung stopped Andrew Miller (Chicago, IL/Chicago Steel) in front and fired a shot from the side of the net into the open side of the cage. The play was reviewed and the referees ruled that Mark Logan (Calgary, Alberta/Brooks Bandits ) pushed a Mercyhurst goaltender into Wildung, impeding his chance to make the save.
Moments later at the 12:15 mark, RIT finally grabbed the two-goal lead, as Kerins rifled a shot from the slot directly off a clean face-off win by Gabe Valenzuela (Brampton, Ontario/North York Rangers) for his third tally of the season, making it 2-0 Tigers.
Rotolo had to make a handful of big saves late in the second period to keep Mercyhurst off the board. His best save came late in the frame, as he slid across to rob Taylor Best, as he got behind the RIT defense.
Riley would cut the RIT lead in half on the power-play just over five minutes into the final period, taking a perfect carom off the back boards after a shot by Lester Lancaster went wide and from the right side of the net, beat Rotolo, who slid across to the other side.
Just 2:28 later, Brady Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers) would respond with a power-play goal of his own to give RIT its two-goal lead back. The play started seconds earlier, after Wildung made an incredible diving save on Cameron, who was all alone in front. The puck came back to the left point, where Chase Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers) corralled it and fed Mitchell. Mitchell then sent a pass to the right point to Brady Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers), who took a few strides in and ripped a hard wrist shot past Wildung for his third goal of the season.
Perron-Fontaine would be rewarded just 1:09 after Norrish’s goal, crashing the net on a 2-on-1 with Logan and tapping in a rebound off the latter’s shot for his second goal of the season to make it 4-1 Tigers. Chase Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers) started the play with a deft poke check in the RIT zone, setting up the 2-on-1.
Lammon would complete the scoring, putting in a rebound off the rush after Rotolo stopped Riley with 1:51 left.
Today’s contest was the first of four meetings between the two schools this season. The two teams play tomorrow night at Mercyhurst and close out the regular season with a home-and-home series on Feb. 26-27.
RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 34-18-6, including an 18-9-3 mark in the Division I era. RIT has won the last four meetings by a combined score of 19-4. It was a rematch of the 2015 Atlantic Hockey Championship in which RIT won by a score of 5-1.
RIT heads to Mercyhurst to wrap-up the weekend series Sunday evening with the contest getting underway at 7:05 p.m.
