| 1/19/2007 9:39:18 PM
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ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men’s hockey team let a three-goal, first-period lead slip away, losing to visiting Connecticut 4-3 in overtime in front of a packed house at Ritter Arena on Friday night.
Matt Scherer scored the game-winner for UCONN just 39 seconds into overtime to give the Huskies the win.
The loss drops RIT to 13-8-2 overall and 12-4-1 in the Atlantic Hockey Association. Connecticut improves to 9-14-0 overall and 9-8-0 in the AHA.
“Connecticut worked harder than we did tonight,” said RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson. “We played sloppily and with very little effort.”
RIT got out to a fast start, scoring three goals in the first period. Brad Harris (Winnipeg, MB/Leamington Flyers) (Winnipeg, MB) gave RIT a 1-0 lead at 4:37 of the first period on a short-handed goal. He intercepted a pass at center-ice and skated in alone, beating Beau Erickson on the short side.
Stephen Burns (Newmarket, ON/Newmarket Hurricanes) (Newmarket, ON) made it 2-0 at 12:52 of the first on a slap shot from the point. Ricky Walton (Hamilton, ON/Hamilton Red Wings) (Hamilton, ON) fed a nice pass to Burns who ripped a shot that beat Erickson low and to the right giving RIT a 2-0 lead.
Dan Ringwald (Oakville, ON/Oakville Blades) (Oakville, ON) made it 3-0 late in the period on the power play. The Tigers worked the puck beautifully around the umbrella moving from Steve Pinizzotto (Mississauga, ON/Oakville Blades) (Mississauga, ON) to Al Mazur (Burnaby, BC/Langley Hornets) (Burnaby, BC) over to Matt Smith (Toronto, ON/Kitchener Dutchmen) (Toronto, ON) who flicked a wrist shot that Ringwald deflected past Erickson.
RIT out shot the Huskies 14-9 in the first period as Jocelyn Guimond (Quebec City, PQ/Williams Lake) (Quebec City, PQ) stopped all nine shots he faced.
Connecticut got back in the game with two goals in the second period, out-hustling the Tigers. Chris Myhro scored a short-handed goal at 5:43. The Tigers failed to clear the puck and Myhro gathered the loose puck and poked a shot past Guimond.
Charles Solberg made it 3-2 with a goal at 12:43 of the second. B.J. Crum took a shot the Guimond blocked down, but the rebound came right to Solberg who shot the puck into the open net.
The Huskies tied the score at 11:08 of the third on a goal from Chris Myhro. The Huskies caught RIT off guard and Myhro and Michael Coppola broke in two-on-one. Coppola fed a pass over to Myhro and one-timed a shot into the open net, tying the score at 3-3.
The Tigers had to kill off a 5-on-3 power play midway through the third period to keep the score knotted at 3-3.
In the overtime, Scherer took a pass from Scott McDougall and beat Guimond between his legs for his 13th tally of the season.
These same two teams will face each other tomorrow night at 7 pm at Ritter Arena.
