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FAIRFIELD, CT – Brent Patry (Ottawa, ON/Cumberland Grads) (Ottawa, ON) and Rob Tarantino (Oakville, ON/Oakville Blades) (Oakville, ON) scored two goals apiece and goaltender Jocelyn Guimond (Quebec City, PQ/Williams Lake) (Quebec City, PQ) stopped 30 shots for his first collegiate shutout, leading the RIT men’s hockey team to a 4-0 win over Atlantic Hockey leader Sacred Heart on Friday evening.

 

The win pulls RIT to within one point of Sacred Heart with two games in hand.  The Tigers are now 12-7-2 overall and 11-3-1 in Atlantic hockey play, good for 23 points.  Sacred Heart, ranked 21^st in the nation, has 24 points in Atlantic Hockey play with a 10-3-4 conference record.  The Pioneers are 13-5-4 overall.

 

This was the first time Sacred Heart has been shutout at the Milford Ice Arena in five years. 

 

RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson thought that the Tigers played a tremendous game on Friday.

 

"This was a real nice win for us," said Wilson.  "We played solid in all areas.  Jocelyn (Guimond) played great and our defense was great.  We got strong contributions from Rob (Tarantino) with his first two goals of the year.  This puts us in a great position, but we still have a long way to go."

 

RIT jumped out to the 1-0 lead after one period.  Patry scored his third goal in the last two games, drilling a shot from just inside the blue line through a maze of bodies in front of the Pioneers net.  The goal was Patry’s fifth of the season, coming at the 14:36 mark. 

 

The Tigers killed off 1:36 of a Sacred Heart 5-on-3 power-play late in the first period to preserve the lead.

 

Sacred Heart out-shot RIT 14-10 over the first 20 minutes of play.

 

Tarantino picked an opportune time to score his first two goals of the season, both in the middle frame to put RIT up 3-0 after two periods of play.

 

He tallied his first goal at the 15:17 mark of the period, putting home a rebound off a slap-shot from Matt Smith (Toronto, ON/Kitchener Dutchmen) (Toronto, ON) to make it 2-0 Tigers. 

 

Just 2:24 later, Tarantino, who had not scored in the first 14 games of the season, put the Tigers up three goals with his second of the night, taking a feed from defenseman Al Mazur (Burnaby, BC/Langley Hornets) (Burnaby, BC) in the neutral zone, skating into the Pioneers end a ripping a slap-shot over the blocker of goaltender Jason Smith.

 

RIT out-shot Sacred Heart 13-8 in the period.

 

Patry completed the scoring with his fourth goal in the last two games and second of the night on the power-play.  He jammed home a rebound off a shot from Anton Kharin (Moscow, Russia/Bay State Breakers) (Moscow, Russia).  Justin Hofstetter (Bright, ON/Cambridge Winterhawks) (Bright, ON) also assisted on the goal.

 

RIT out-shot Sacred Heart 32-30.  The Tigers went 2-for-11 on the power-play, while killing off all 10 Sacred Heart chances with the man advantage.

 

This was the first win for the Tigers over Sacred Heart.  Last season, Sacred Heart handed RIT an 8-5 defeat in Fairfield in the first ever meeting between the two clubs.

 

The same two teams face-off on Saturday night at 7 p.m., this time with first place in Atlantic Hockey on the line.