Men's Hockey Goes West to Play Two Games at #10 Air Force This Weekend

By: Joe Venniro - Associate Director of Sports Information

Taylor McReynolds and the Tigers will battle #10 Air Force this weekend

Men's Hockey | 12/2/2008 3:50:19 PM

ROCHESTER, NY - The RIT men's hockey team travels west to Colorado Springs, Colo. to play the two-time defending Atlantic Hockey Tournament Champion #10 Air Force Academy Falcons in a pair of Atlantic Hockey Association games on Friday and Saturday at 9:05 p.m. EST. It is the only time this season that the Tigers play outside of the eastern time zone.

RIT (5-8-1, 4-3-1 AHA) fell on the road to #17 UMass-Lowell on Saturday, 6-3. Junior forward Matt Crowell (Kelowna, British Columbia/Williams Lake Timberwolves) (Kelowna, British Columbia) netted a pair of goals and added an assist in the loss for the Tigers. Before that, the Tigers split a pair of Atlantic Hockey road contests at Connecticut. The Tigers are tied for 14th nationally in goals per game.

The Tigers have never been swept in a weekend series during Atlantic Hockey play.

Air Force (13-1-0, 10-0-0 Atlantic Hockey) comes into the weekend series looking to get back on the winning track after having its 13-game winning streak snapped by #8 Denver, 4-1 on Saturday. The night before, the Falcons defeated #5 Colorado College, 4-1.

The Falcons are out-scoring their foes 67-20 in 14 games this season. In 10 Atlantic Hockey games, Air Force has out-scored its opponents 50-13. The Falcons are the highest-scoring team in the nation, with 4.79 goals per game and are second in scoring defense, allowing just 1.43 goals per game. Air Force has the top power-play in the country and is fifth in penalty-killing. Eight players have at least 10 points this season. Jacques Lamoreux, Brent Olson and Greg Flynn all lead the team in scoring with 21 points apiece. Lamoreux has a team-high 11 goals. Goaltender Andrew Volkening has a 13-1-0 mark with a 1.35 goals against average and .942 save percentage.

The all-time series between the two schools is even at 8-8-2. Last season, the two teams continued their strong rivalry, playing five times, with Air Force winning three of the five contests. Both teams split on each other's home ice before the Falcons pulled out a 5-0 win over RIT in the Atlantic Hockey Association semifinals at Blue Cross Arena. Since RIT moved to Division I in 2005, the two teams have met 13 times, with Air Force holding a slim 6-5-2 advantage.