PITTSBURGH, PA – The RIT Men's Hockey (3-5-1) team squandered a three-goal third period lead, allowing three goals in 1:15, but rallied with a goal by Simon Lambert (Ste.-Therese, PQ/Cumberland Grads) (Ste. Therese, PQ) with just 11 seconds in regulation to earn a 5-5 tie versus Robert Morris in a battle of the two newest Division I programs on Saturday night.

 

Leading 3-1 after two periods, the Tigers started the final 20 minutes of regulation with a power-play.  RIT upped its lead to three goals, as Matt Smith (Toronto, ON/Kitchener Dutchmen) (Toronto, ON) ripped a shot over Robert Morris goaltender Christian Boucher's glove from the high slot just 59 seconds into the third after a tic-tac-toe passing play from Marc Hyman (Thornhill, ON/Thornhill Rattlers) (Thornhill, ON) and Simon Lambert (Ste.-Therese, PQ/Cumberland Grads) (Ste. Therese, PQ). 

 

The Colonials (2-4-1) cut the Tiger lead back to two, as a centering pass from Sean Berkstresser deflected off a Tiger in front of the net and eluded RIT goaltender George Eliopoulous (Markham, ON) with 15:51 left.

 

Robert Morris tied the game with two similar goals just 48 seconds apart.  With 5:08 left, Steve Bandurski made it 4-3 Tigers, slipping a shot over Eliopoulous in front of the Tiger net.  Jace Buzek then tied the game with 4:20 remaining, roofing a shot into the top of the goal from in front of the RIT net.

 

Then, just 27 seconds after Busek's tally, Chris Margott gave the Colonials their first lead of the game, beating Jocelyn Guimond (St.-Edouard-de-Lotbiniere, PQ/Williams Lake) (Quebec City, PQ), who replaced Eliopuolous after the fourth goal, cleanly through the legs on a breakaway making the score 5-4 Robert Morris.

 

Marc Hyman (Thornhill, ON/Thornhill Rattlers) (Thornhill, ON) was robbed by Boucher off a clean face-off win by Darren Doherty (Douro, ON) with 44 seconds left, as Boucher stuck out his glove to foil the RIT captain's blast from the blue-line.

 

On the game tying goal, Darrell Draper (Tigard, OR/Cowichon Capitals) (Tigard, OR) dug the puck out of the corner and dished the puck to Doherty behind the net.  Doherty then feathered a pass to Lambert, who roofed a shot earmarked for the upper left hand corner of the net that Boucher seemed to have stopped, but it deflected off the goaltender and into the net.  The goal was Lambert's fifth of the season.

 

Matt Smith (Toronto, ON/Kitchener Dutchmen) (Toronto, ON) broke in with Lambert on a 2-on-1 with 3:45 left in overtime, but his shot the face-off circle was gobbled up by Boucher.

 

RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson thought that overall, his team played well.

 

"I thought we were the better team tonight'" said Wilson.  "Although I was disappointed to see us give up those late goals, we showed a lot of character coming back to get the tie, especially in an opposing arena."

 

After a tentatively played first five minutes by both squads, play picked up, and RIT opened the scoring at the 6:28 mark, as Tristan Fairbarn (Innisfill, ON/Newmarket Hurricanes) (Inisfill, ON) slammed home a rebound off a shot from Doherty.  Robert Morris tried to clear the zone, but Brennan Sarazin (Nepean, ON/Nepean) (Nepean, ON) intercepted the pass in the corner, and fed Doherty in the slot.  Doherty's shot was stopped by Robert Morris goaltender Christian Boucher, but his rebound slid right to Fairbarn at the side of the open net and the third-year forward buried it in for his first  goal of the year.

 

RIT made it 2-0 with 9:23 left in the opening period, as Doherty skated in on a 4-on-3 rush and wristed a blast over the goaltender's glove from just behind the left face-off circle for his third goal of the season.  Steve Farrer (Belle River, ON/Chatham Jr. Maroons) (Belle River, ON) and Brent Patry (Ottawa, ON/Cumberland Grads) (Nepean, ON) assisted on the tally.

 

The Tigers got themselves into penalty problems late in the stanza, but were able to kill 1:30 of a Robert Morris 5-on-3 power-play.  Eliopoulous made a handful of big saves for RIT while shorthanded.

 

RIT out-shot the Colonials 10-9 over the first 20 minutes of play.   

 

Farrer gave RIT a 3-0 lead just 1:26 into the second period.  Brad Harris (Winnipeg, MB/Leamington Flyers) (Winnipeg, MN) won a face-off in the Colonials zone and fed Patry, whose shot was blocked to the side of the net.  Farrer scooped up the loose puck in the right corner, walked out in front of the Colonials net and floated a shot into the upper left hand corner of the net for his first goal of  2005-06.

 

Robert Morris cut the Tiger lead to 3-1 with 1:47 left in the second period, as Jake Sparks fired a wrist shot past Eliopoulous from the high slot on the power-play.  The goal was the second of the year for Sparks. 

 

Robert Morris out-shot RIT 16-13 in the second period.

 

RIT set a season-high for shots in a game with 39, out-shooting the Colonials 39-36.  RIT went 1-for-7 on the power-play, while Robert Morris finished 1-for-4 with the man advantage.

 

"I thought all four lines played aggressive tonight," said Wilson.  "We have to be ready to go tomorrow night and show the same effort."d 

 

The same two teams face-off on Sunday evening at 5:30 p.m.  The game will be broadcast on 89.7 WITR-FM and WYSL 1040 AM.