Men's hockey clinches spot in AHA semifinals with win over Holy Cross
The RIT men’s hockey team advanced to the Atlantic Hockey Association Tournament semifinals with a 9-5 win over Holy Cross in game three of the best-of-three quarterfinal series. It’s the second year in a row that RIT has eliminated Holy Cross in the quarterfinals.
The nine goals scored by RIT sets a Division I team record for most goals. The Tigers nine goals also tied an AHA Tournament record for goals in a game and the 14 combined goals was also an AHA Tournament record. The 32 total goals scored in the three-game series is an Atlantic Hockey Association Tournament record.
RIT advances to the Atlantic Hockey Association semifinals for the second straight season. The Tigers will play Mercyhurst on Friday in the second semifinal game at 7:35 p.m. at the Blue Cross Arena in downtown Rochester.
Stevan Matic (Burnaby, BC) led RIT with three points on a goal and two assists. Tyler Brenner (Linwood, ON) and Anton Kharin (Twin Lake, MI) each had a pair of goals and Matt Crowell (Kelowna, BC), Brennan Sarazin (Nepean, ON) and Andrew Favot (King City, ON) each had two assists.
Jay Silvia had two goals for the Crusaders. Everett Sheen had a goal and an assist and Kyle Atkins and Brodie Sheahan each had two assists.
Louis Menard (Chicoutimi, PQ) picked up the win for RIT. He allowed five goals and made a season-high 38 saves.
Ian Dams took the loss for Holy Cross. He allowed seven goals in 39 minutes of action, making 14 saves.
Holy Cross was the aggressor early in the first period, out shooting the Tigers 7-1 in the first nine minutes.
The Crusaders had a great chance with 7:56 to play when J.P. Martignetti had a shot from beside the net, but Louis Menard stuck out his toe and kicked the shot aside keeping the game scoreless.
RIT took a 1-0 lead on their twelfth short-handed goal of the season. Stevan Matic stole the puck from behind the Holy Cross net and fed a cutting Brent Alexin who fired a backhanded shot over Ian Dams’ shoulder at 13:59 of the first.
Cameron Burt (Detroit, MI) gave RIT a 2-0 lead with his second goal of the series. Dan Ringwald (Oakville, ON) dug the puck out of the corner and fed Burt at the point. He ripped a slap shot over Dams shoulder.
RIT broke the game open with five goals in the second period. The five goals ties a Division I team record for goals in a period that was set back in January versus Connecticut. The eight combined goals breaks an AHA playoff record for combined goals in a period set last year by Air Force.
The Crusaders began the scoring just 1:36 into the second period on Everett Sheen’s eleventh goal of the season. That cut RIT’s lead to 2-1.
Tyler Brenner made it 3-1 on his first of two goals in the period. Brennan Sarazin fired a shot that Dams saved. The rebound came right to Brenner who was driving to the net and he one-timed the puck into the open net.
Jay Silvia made it 3-2 at 4:57 of the second on assists by J.P. Martignetti and Brodie Sheahan.
Brenner tallied his second goal of the period with a power play tally at 10:08 of the period. Sarazin fed Burt at the side of the net and he fired a nice cross-crease pass to Brenner who he one-timed it into the open net for RIT’s first power play goal of the evening.
Holy Cross’ Jordan Cyr made it 4-3 just 23 seconds after the Tigers scored on assists from Sheahan and Kyle Atkins.
Andrew Favot set up RIT’s fifth goal. He intercepted a pass by Matt Clune and raced into the Holy Cross zone. He checked up and found Chris Haltigin (Oakville, ON) at the left point. Haltigin fired a well-placed wrist shot that beat Dams for his second goal of the series.
Mike Janda (Glen Ellyn, IL) jammed home a shot from the side of the Holy Cross net at 16:32 to give the Tigers their first three-goal advantage of the weekend. That goal by Janda proved to be the game-winning goal.
Anton Kharin rounded out the scoring in the second period at 18:07. Matt Crowell fired a wrist shot from the face-off dot. The rebound came to Kharin at the side of the net. His shot deflected of a Holy Cross skate and just snuck into the net for a 7-3 RIT advantage.
The Crusaders came right back, scoring the first two goals of the third period to cut RIT’s lead to 7-5. Jay Silvia tallied a power play goal thirty-five seconds into the period on an assist from Kyle Atkins.
Ryan Driscoll scored an even-strength goal at 7:15 of the third with the assists going to Matt Celin and Everett Sheen making it 7-5 RIT.
Stevan Matic made it 8-5 Tigers at 8:14 of the third. Brent Alexin had the puck in the corner and spotted Matic cutting to the net. Matic one-timed a shot over Adam Roy’s shoulder for his third point of the evening.
Anton Kharin tallied an empty net goal with one minute remaining to salt the game away for the Tigers.
Holy Cross out shot the Tigers 43-29. The 43 shots allowed by the Tigers were the most shots allowed by RIT in a game this season.
RIT was 2-for-6 on the power play. Holy Cross went 2-for-7 with the man advantage, but allowed a short-handed goal. The 12 short-handed goals scored by RIT lead all of Division I.
Head Coach Wayne Wilson won his 188th career game, tying him with Eric Hoffberg for most coaching victories. Wilson is now 188-90-24 in his ten years on the bench at RIT.
The Tigers will face #3 Mercyhurst College in the second semifinal at the Blue Cross Arena. Face-off is at 7:35 pm.
Story from RIT Athletics.