| 2/5/2006 5:15:56 PM
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ERIE, PA – RIT came back from a 4-0 second period deficit to get within one, put could not get any closer, falling to Mercyhurst College 4-3 on a snowy Sunday afternoon in the first meeting between the two schools in nearly seven years.
The Tigers found themselves down 4-0 midway through the second period, after goals 1:17, apart, but dominated the final 30 minutes of play, out-shooting the Lakers 24-9 over that span.
Wilson called a time-out to re-group the Tigers and they responded, cutting the Mercyhurst lead to 4-1 on a power-play goal by Tristan Fairbarn (Innisfill, ON/Newmarket Hurricanes) (Innisfil, ON) with 9:32 left in the middle stanza. Steve Farrer (Belle River, ON/Chatham Jr. Maroons) (Belle River, ON) won a battle at the side of the Lakers goal and got the puck to Matt Smith (Toronto, ON/Kitchener Dutchmen) (Toronto, ON), who had a few whacks at the puck in front. Smith’s rebound went right to Fairbarn, who slipped the puck into the wide open net for his fourth goal of the year.
RIT kept up the pressure, with a handful of good chances to score before the end of the period, but were unable to. RIT out-shot Mercyhurst 12-5 over the middle 20 minutes of play.
The Tigers received a golden opportunity to get even closer, as they received over two minutes of 5-on-3 power-play time right off the bat in the third. RIT took advantage, as Farrer slipped a rebound off a shot from Smith past Tyler Small for his fifth tally of the season. Fairbarn won the draw and got a pass over to Smith to also tally an assist.
As the Tigers kept pressing, they received another two-man advantage midway through the third period, and for the third time in the afternoon, scored a power-play goal to cut the Lakers’ lead to one. The RIT captains combined on the goal, as Marc Hyman (Thornhill, ON/Thornhill Rattlers) (Thornhill, ON) slipped inside the right face-off circle and slipped a puck past Small off a pass from Darren Doherty (Douro, ON/Cobourg Cougars) (Douro, ON) to make it 4-3. The goal was Hyman’s fifth of the year.
RIT kept coming, but could not get the equalizer, as they fall to 7-20-2 on the year, 6-19-2 in NCAA play. Mercyhurst improves to 16-10-0.
Smith had three assists for RIT, who went 3-for-9 with the man-advantage. Fairbarn and Farrer had a goal and assist apiece. Jocelyn Guimond (St.-Edouard-de-Lotbiniere, PQ/Williams Lake) (Quebec City, PQ) stopped 21 shots in the loss, as RIT out-shot the Lakers 33-25 overall. Small made 30 saves for Mercyuhurst.
Wilson thought the team came out very slow, but showed a lot of character in the comeback effort.
"We had a very slow start, very loose," said Wilson. "We were much sharper in the second and third periods, but showed a lot of character and pride in not giving up when we got down four goals. That would have been the easy thing to do, but we didn't and I was happy about that."
The Tigers came out sluggish, perhaps from playing less than 20 hours earlier and enduring a long bus ride from Bowling Green tom Erie.
Mercyhurst scored two goals in the final 3:15 of the first period to go up 2-0 into the opening intermission.
Guimond made perhaps his best save of the season with 11:02 left in the first, making an amazing stick save while Ben Cottreau was all alone in front of the Tiger net to keep the game scoreless. Cottreau deked Guimond in front and had almost the entirely open net to shoot at, but Guimond stuck his stick along the ice and while sprawling, and kept the puck out of the cage.
The Lakers got on the board first with 3:15 left, as Dave Borelli took a feed from Scott Champagne in front of the Tiger net and slipped the puck past Guimond for his 18th goal of the season.
Mercyhurst went up 2-0 in the final minute, as Chris Trafford was wide open in front of the Tiger net and deked Guimond on the backhand for his 10th tally of the season.
The Lakers out-shot RIT 14-6 over the opening 20 minutes of play.
Mercyhurst upped their lead to 4-0, scoring goals 1:17 apart in the early going of the second period. First, Mike Pochatek converted a nifty pass from Erik Johnson at the 6:24 for the 3-0 lead. Next, Champagne slipped a low shot just inside the right post off a won face-off to put Mercyhurst up four.
Today, the Tigers rekindled their rivalry with Mercyhurst, who was a ECAC West foe of the Tigers until they moved to Division I after the 1998-99 season. RIT is now 16-10-3 against Mercyhurst all-time.
This was the first meeting between the two teams since March 6, 1999 when the Tigers prevailed 6-1 at the Ritter Arena in the ECAC West Championship. RIT had a 7-0-2 mark in the last nine meetings between the teams before today.
Next season, RIT makes the move to Atlantic Hockey, joining Mercyhurst and nine other teams.
Last night, RIT fell to Bowling Green in Ohio by a score of 3-2.
RIT concludes its road portion of the 2005-06 schedule on Friday and Saturday, as they travel down to Huntsville, Ala. to play the University of Alabama-Huntsville Chargers. Game-time on both nights will be 7 p.m.
