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COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – The RIT men’s hockey team (3-4-1, 3-1-0 Atlantic Hockey) dropped its first Atlantic Hockey Association contest on Friday night, falling to Air Force Academy 3-0 before 953 fans at Cadet Ice Arena.

 

The Tigers had their chances throughout, but hit three goal posts and were unable to solve Ian Harper, who made 24 saves to record his first shutout.

 

Jocelyn Guimond (Quebec City, PQ/Williams Lake) (Quebec City, PQ) was sharp in net for RIT, stopping 33 shots, many of which in spectacular fashion. 

 

RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson was not pleased with the outcome and most importantly, with his team’s play.

 

“We gave a poor effort and did not compete tonight,” said Wilson.  “We were beat to every loose puck and were not nearly as sharp as we were in the past few games.”

 

The Falcons out-shot RIT 19-10 over the first period, as the Tigers came out not nearly as sharp as they had over last few games.

 

Guimond was sharp early, stopping nine shots in the first five minutes, including a sensational save on Mike Phillipich on a rebound while the Tigers were shorthanded. 

 

RIT had an apparent goal by Al Mazur (Burnaby, BC/Langley Hornets) (Burnaby, BC) taken away with 5:18 left in the first after Matt Smith (Toronto, ON/Kitchener Dutchmen) (Toronto, ON) was whistled for tripping right before Mazur got the shot off.

 

During the ensuing Air Force power-play, Jesse Newman (Westbank, BC/Trail Smoke Easters) (Westbank, BC) had a partial breakaway, but was turned aside by Falcons goaltender Ian Harper.

 

Guimond was huge again early in the second, as he made a great save on Michael Mayra, who split two Tiger defenders and found himself all alone, but could not get the puck past the Tiger goalie.

 

Simon Lambert (Ste.-Therese, PQ/Cumberland Grads) (Ste. Therese, PQ) had a great chance on a Tiger power-play a few minutes later, as he corralled a blocked shot at the side of the Cadet net with Harper out of position.  Unfortunately for the Tigers, Lambert rang his bad angle shot off the right post, as the game remained scoreless.

 

Brad Harris (Winnipeg, MB/Leamington Flyers) (Winnipeg, MB) rang a shot off the post for the Tigers right after they finished killing off a penalty.  Harris had Harper beat, but his shot over the blocker rang off the left pipe.

 

The Falcons got on the board with just 2:38 left in period two, as Matt Fairchild shook loose of a check right in front of the Tiger net and put home a shot that was originally blocked for the 1-0 lead.  Josh Schaffer and Greg Flynn assisted on the power-play tally.

 

Guimond kept the Tigers down just one a minute later, as he made a tremendous pad save on a 2-on-1 break.  Eric Ehn feathered a perfect pass to Phillipich, who tried to go low, but Guimond was up to the task.

 

RIT had several good scoring chances, but could muster just five shots on goal in period two.

 

Air Force upped its lead to 2-0 a minute into the third, as the Falcons caught RIT on a bad line change and Schaffer roofed a shot on a breakaway over the shoulder of Guimond.

 

Theo Zacour closed out the scoring for the Falcons on a power-play with 1:44 left, as he was all alone in front of Guimond and roofed a backhander into the top corner.

 

Air Force out-shot RIT 36-24.

 

This was the fifth meeting in the last two seasons between the two schools.  Overall, Air Force leads the all-time series 5-4-1.  This was just the second time RIT was shutout in a Division I game.

RIT is back action on Saturday, as they close out the two game series against the Falcons at 9:05 ET.