Men's Hockey | 12/7/2008 12:55:54 AM

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COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – Andrew Favot (King City, Ontario/Aurora Tigers) (King City, Ontario) scored a nifty goal with 38 seconds left in overtime, vaulting the RIT men's hockey team (6-9-1, 5-4-1 Atlantic Hockey Association) to a dramatic 3-2 win over #10 Air Force Academy (14-2-0, 11-1-0 Atlantic Hockey Association) at Cadet Ice Arena on Saturday evening.

The #10 Falcons are the highest ranked team that RIT has defeated in their four seasons of Division I. 

Favot took a feed from Matt Crowell (Kelowna, British Columbia/Williams Lake Timberwolves) (Kelowna, British Columbia) in the neutral zone after Jesse Newman (Kelowna, British Columbia/Trail Smokeeaters) (Kelowna, British Columbia) blocked a shot inside the RIT zone. Favot sped in with Crowell on a 2-on-1 break, went to the middle of the ice after getting the defenseman to commit and roofed a wrist shot over the glove of Air Force net-minder Andrew Volkening into the top of the net for the goal. 

The Tigers tied the game with two minutes left in regulation, as Brennan Sarazin (Nepean, Ontario/Nepean Raiders) (Nepean, Ontario) slammed home a rebound in front of the Falcons net for his team-leading eighth goal of the season. Cameron Burt (Detroit, Mich./Green Bay Gamblers) (Detroit, MI) sprung #Dan Ringwald (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Blades)# (Oakville, Ontario) into the Air Force zone. Ringwald took a bad angle shot that was stopped by Volkening, but the rebound came right to a streaking Sarazin who beat his man to the net and deposited the puck into the empty goal.

Jared DeMichiel (Avon, Conn./Chicago Steel) (Avon, CT) was tremendous in net for RIT, stopping 39-of-41 shots, including many big saves in the third period and overtime. He earned his fourth win of the year.

Jeff Hajner's controversial fluke goal 22 seconds into the third period gave Air Force a 2-1 lead. The puck was centered out from behind the net and tipped to the blue-line, where Kevin Wright's chip shot was tipped in by Hajner, possibly by a high stick past a stunned DeMichiel who never saw the shot in on goal. RIT protested the goal to no avail.

Right after, Air Force was awarded a full two minutes of 5-on-3 power-play time, but were unable to convert thanks to strong goaltending by DeMichiel and excellent work by the RIT penalty-killers.

Minutes later, RIT had to kill off another 5-on-3 and a full 4-on-3 and were up to the task. Bobby Raymond (Lucknow, Ontario/Owen Sound) (Lucknow, Ontario) had a great chance while the Tigers were a man-down, streaking through a pair of Air Force defenders and coming in alone on Andrew Volkening. Raymond went to the backhand and was denied to the short side.

RIT's penalty-killing was tremendous, allowing just one Air Force power-play goal in eight attempts. The Tigers killed off five third period Air Force power-plays.

Air Force out-shot RIT 41-32 overall.  It was the second straight night RIT fired 30 shots on Air Force, known as one of the stingiest defenses in the country.

RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson was very happy to earn a big win.

”It was a gutsy effort, and I am happy we responded to the challenge,” said Wilson. “This was a very meaningful game for us, we had our backs up against the wall, such a big win for us. Air Force is a tough team to play against, we are very happy to get the win.”

RIT got on the board at the 3:58 mark of the first period, as Justin Hofstetter (Bright, Ontario/Cambridge Winterhawks) (Bright, Ontario) came down the right wing on the rush and slipped a low wrist shot past Volkening for his second goal of the season. 

The rush happened due to a phenomenal save by DeMichiel, who robbed Scott Mathis with a right pad save on a breakaway attempt seconds before. Hofstetter picked up the puck in the RIT zone and skated the length of the ice for the goal. DeMichiel picked up the lone assist, his first of the year and third by a Tiger netminder.

Both teams fired nine shots on goal over the first 20 minutes of play.

DeMichiel was the story of the second period, stopping the first 14 shots of the frame he faced, including a handful in spectacular fashion. He stopped a pair of odd-man rushes early in the period to keep RIT's lead.

Air Force out-shot RIT 15-12 in the period to hold a 24-21 edge in shots after two frames.

Unfortunately for RIT, Air Force got on the board with 42 seconds left in the frame, as Jacques Lamoureux tipped in a point shot from Mathis into the left corner of the goal. Brent Olson also assisted on the power-play goal.

RIT had their fair share of chances over the second half of the frame, including 28 seconds of a 5-on-3, in which #Chris Haltigin (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Blades)# (Oakville, Ontario) ripped a shot off the right post from the high slot.

A minute later, RIT came into the zone on an odd-man rush and had three great chances, one each by Burt, Sarazin and #Tyler Brenner (Linwood, Ontario/Elmira Sugar Kings)# (Linwood, Ontario) from in close, but Volkening came up big all on all three shots.

That was RIT's first overtime win of the season.  They are 1-0-1 in the extra session this season, and 5-1-7 dating back to the start of the 2007-08 season.

RIT kept its streak alive of never being swept in a weekend series against Atlantic Hockey foes. RIT has now lost on the first night of a weekend series during conference action 15 times and won 12 and tied three on the second night.

Air Force came into this weekend's contests as the highest scoring (4.79 goals per game) and top defensive (1.43 goals per game) team in all of Division I. The Falcons also entered this weekend with the nation's best power-play (26.7 percent). They opened the season with 13 straight wins.