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ROCHESTER, NY – Andrew Favot (King City, Ontario) scored a 5-on-3 power-play with 6:41 left in regulation to break a 2-2 tie to lift the RIT men’s hockey team (7-5-0, 7-2-0 Atlantic Hockey Association) to its seventh straight win, 3-2 over Sacred Heart in front of 1,459 fans at Ritter Arena on Friday evening. With the win, RIT moves into sole possession of first place in the AHA standings.
Favot poked home a rebound off a point shot from
Cameron Burt (Detroit, MI) from in tight.
Alan Mazur (Burnaby, British Columbia) also assisted on the goal.
The goal extended Favot’s point-scoring streak to 10 games. He has five goals and 13 assists for 18 points during the streak. He is one-game away from tying his own school record 11-game point scoring streak, set last season.
RIT’s seven-game winning streak is the longest current winning streak in Division I, and second longest for RIT since moving to Division I in 2005. Last season, the Tigers won 11 straight. The Tigers have outscored its opponents, 29-9 during the streak.
Favot,
Tyler Brenner (Linwood, Ontario), and
Chris Tanev (Toronto, Ontario) scored for RIT. The Tigers were 2-for-6 on the power-play, while holding Sacred Heart scoreless in four attempts with the man-advantage. RIT has now killed off 28 of the last 29 power-plays by its opponents.
The Tigers out-shot Sacred Heart, 29-23. Senior goaltender
Jared DeMichiel (Avon, CT) picked up his seventh straight win, stopping 21 shots.
Kyle Verbeek and Matt Gordon scored for the Pioneers. Olivier St. Onge made 27 saves.
RIT Head Wayne Wilson was not thrilled with the way RIT played, but was happy to get the win.
“I didn’t think we played very well tonight,” said Wilson, who is closing in on his 200th career victory at RIT. “We weren’t very strong offensively in the grade-A area, everything was on the perimeter. Our one plus was the penalty kill, which was great for us. We have to play a better game tomorrow.”
The game was tied at 1 going into the third period, before Brenner roofed a shot from the slot over St. Onge 4:31 into the period to give RIT its second lead of the evening.
Trevor Eckenswiller (Lions Head, Ontario) held the puck in the zone at the blue-line and fed
Scott Knowles (Riverside, Ontario) in the corner. Knowles found Brenner all alone in front, and Brenner, who had missed the previous seven games due to injury, went high for his first goal of the season.
Sacred Heart came right back 2:15 later, as Verbeek was left all alone in front and flipped a shot past a diving DeMichiel for his first collegiate goal. Verbeek is the son of former NHL standout Pat Verbeek.
Neither team tallied in the first period, as Sacred Heart did an excellent job limiting RIT’s offensive chances. The Pioneers out-shot RIT 12-8 in the first period.
Eckenswiller had RIT’s best chance in the first period, ripping a slap-shot off the crossbar two minutes into the game.
DeMichiel was called upon to make a few big saves late in the first period. His best save came on Nick Johnson with three minutes left, sticking the left glove out to snatch a shot marked for the top right corner of the cage.
Both teams traded goals in the second period, as the two teams went to the third period tied at 1.
RIT opened the scoring 9:01 into the period, on the power play, as Tanev ripped a shot from the slot off a broken play deflected off a Pioneers defenseman and past St. Onge. Chris Haltigin ripped a shot that deflected off Tyler Mazzei. Mazzei collected the puck in front of the net and fed a nifty pass back to a charging Tanev, who potted his fifth goal of the season.
Sacred Heart came right back, 2:10 later, as Matt Gordon came in over the blue line and ripped a shot that DeMichiel stopped. DeMichiel never gained full possession, while Gordon crashed the net and slid the puck in for his first goal of the season.
RIT had four power-play chances in the period, but Sacred Heart did a good job limiting high quality chances. RIT did out-shoot Sacred Heart, 12-5 in the period and held a 20-17 edge after 40 minutes of play.
DeMichiel and the Tiger defense have played superbly over the last seven games, allowing just nine goals over that stretch.
RIT is 6-3-1 all-time against the Pioneers, and 4-1-0 at home during that time. Sacred Heart went 2-1-1 against the Tigers last season, and was the only AHA team to have a winning record against RIT. The two teams will play at Sacred Heart on Feb. 5-6, 2010.
The Tigers have won seven straight at home dating back to last season, and are 5-0 at home in 2009-10, outscoring its foes, 24-7 this season.
RIT and Sacred Heart closed out the weekend series with a special 4:05 p.m. start on Saturday.