| 1/21/2005 10:16:51 PM
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ELMIRA, NY - The #12 RIT Men's Hockey team scored four unanswered goals in the second period to take a 4-1 lead and hung on to defeat ECAC West rival Elmira College 4-3 on Friday night in front of 1,814 fans at the Murray Athletic Center.
RIT trailed 1-0 at the end of the first period despite out-shooting the Soaring Eagles 18-9 over the first 20 minutes. Senior forward Justin Siebold tallied the game-opening goal with 3:31 left in the period to give Elmira the 1-0 lead.
It took RIT just 20 seconds in period two to grab the equalizer, as sophomore forward Brad Harris (Portage La Prairie, Man./Leamington Flyers) (Portage La Prairie, MN) slammed home a rebound off a shot from Simon Lambert (Ste.-Therese, Quebec/Cumberland Grads) (Ste. Therese, PQ). Darrell Draper (/Cowichon Caitals) (Portland, OR) also assisted on the goal.
The Tigers grabbed the lead on the power-play at the 10:35 mark of the period, as Lambert picked up a loose puck at the side of the net and whistled it past Soaring Eagles netminder Greg Fargo, making the score 2-1 RIT. Harris and Marc Hyman (Thornhill, Ont./Thornhill Rattlers) (Thornhill, ONT) drew assists on the goal.
Just 24 seconds later, senior Roberto Orofiamma (Woodbridge, Ont./Vaughn Vipers) (Woodbridge, ONT) completed a sparkling tic-tac-toe passing play in front of the Elmira net to make it 3-1. The Tigers came across the EC line on a 3-on-2 rush. Brian Payant (Antioch, IL/Fairfield University) (Antioch, IL) fed the puck to Steve Farrer (Belle River, Ont./Chatham Jr. Maroons) (Belle River, ONT), who threaded a perfect cross ice pass to Orofiamma, who calmly slid the puck in the net from in close for his second goal of the season.
The Tigers completed the period with the second power-play goal of the night, scored by Draper with just 1:33 remaining in the stanza to make it 4-1. The goal would turn out to be the eventual game-winner. Lambert and Hyman assisted on the goal.
Elmira would not quit however, and made a furious rush in the third period. Michael Richard cut RIT's lead to 4-2 just 3:07 in, ripping a shot past George Eliopoulous (Markham, ONT) from the right face-off circle.
RIT had a golden opportunity to make it 5-2 when Lambert was awarded a penalty shot, after a Tiger was hauled down on a breakaway attempt around the halfway mark of the period. Lambert came in and went to the backhand, trying to put in the top corner, but Fargo was up to the task, making a sliding save to keep the score 4-2.
The Soaring Eagles seemed to feed off that save, putting immense pressure on RIT. After a tripping penalty to Orofiamma, and a five-minute major for elbowing that was assessed to Draper, the Soaring Eagles responded with a power-play goal of their own, as Jarrett Konkle tipped in a shot from the high slot, just as Orofiamma's penalty expired to make it 4-3.
RIT went down two-men again late in the period, but held off the Elmira onslaught to keep the lead, and went to win their second game in a row.
Both goalies played well, as Eliopoulous stopped 35-of-38 shots for his ninth win of the season. Fargo made 42 saves for Elmira. RIT out-shot the Soaring Eagles 46-38.
RIT finished 2-for-4 with the power-play, while killing off 9-of-10 Elmira man-advantage attempts.
This could very well be the final time that the Tigers play their arch rival at the Murray Athletic Center, as RIT will be moving to the Division I level next season. The Tigers lead the all-time series versus the Soaring Eagles 34-29-4. Elmira will travel to the Ritter Arena on February 12th.
RIT (9-5-1, 4-1-1 ECAC West) returns to the ice on Saturday, January 29th, as they play Curry College in Milton, MA at 4:35 p.m.
