| 1/8/2005 9:50:11 PM
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ROCHESTER, NY - The #7 RIT men's ice hockey team had its five game unbeaten streak snapped on Saturday night, as they fell to the SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinals 5-4 before a sell-out crowd at the Ritter Arena.
Paul Kemp broke a 3-3 tie with a shorthanded goal with just 2:32 remaining for the Cardinals (8-6-0), who won their second consecutive game over a nationally-ranked team. David Friel added an empty-netter to give the Cardinals a 5-3 with 1:16 left. Junior forward Darren Doherty (Duoro, Ont./Cobourg Cougars) (Douro, ONT) made it 5-4 with just nine seconds later, setting up a wild final minute, in which RIT had several scoring chances but could not find the back of the net.
Senior Michael Tucciarone (Richmond Hill, Ont./Stouffville Spirit) (Richmond Hill, ONT) led the Tigers offensively with two goals and an assist. The fourth-year forward is now just a point shy of becoming the 45th player in Tiger history to record 100 points in a career.
Tucciarone opened the scoring 4:18 into the game, converting a feed from Jason Chafe (Stoney Creek, Ont./Burlington Cougars) (Stoney Creek, ONT) for his fifth goal of the year. Matt Smith (Toronto, Ont./Kitchener Dutchmen) (Toronto, ONT) also recorded an assist on the goal.
SUNY Plattsburgh scored the next two goals before the end of the first period. RIT goaltender George Eliopoulous (Markham, ONT) kept it at 2-1 by making a handful of great saves before the period ended.
Freshman Ricky Walton (Hamilton, Ont./Hamilton Kilty Bees) (Hamilton, ONT) scored his third goal of the season 1:48 into the second period on the power-play to tie the game at 2. Walton received a great pass from Ian Fazzi (San Jose, CA) and deposited the puck into a wide open net. Tony Bifulco (Falmouth, Maine/Tulsa Crude) (Falmouth, ME) added an assist on the tally.
Tucciarone gave RIT its second lead of the night with his second goal of the night at the 9:42 mark of the second period. On the power-play, Chafe fed a pass to Tucciarone, who wristed a shot past Cardinal goaltender Craig Neilson. Chafe recorded two assists on the evening and now leads the nation with 1.45 assists per game (16 in 11 games). He leads RIT with 20 points on the season.
SUNY Plattsburgh out-shot RIT 35-28 in the contest. Eliopoulous stopped 30 shots for RIT, while Neilson made 24 saves for SUNY Plattsburgh.
RIT finished 2-for-5 on the power-play and killed off all six SUNY Plattsburgh man-advantage attempts.
RIT (7-3-2, 3-1-0 ECAC West) returns to action on Tuesday night, as they host SUNY Fredonia at 7 p.m.
