Men's Hockey | 1/10/2009 11:09:38 PM

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ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men's hockey team won their seventh straight game, the longest streak since joining Division I, with a 7-4 win over the University of Connecticut (4-16-1, 3-9-1 AHA) in front of a sold out crowd on Saturday evening at Ritter Arena.

RIT scored five-second period goals, the most goals in a period since 2006, to break a close game open. The Tigers have outscored their opponents 33-18 during the current winning streak and have won five straight home games.

“Tonight was the good the great and the ugly,” said RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson. “We're happy with our scoring depth and it's good for our lockerroom when everyone is playing so well and contributing.”

Junior captain Dan Ringwald (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Blades) (Oakville, ON) had four assists on the game, three coming in the second period. Anton Kharin (Twin Lake, Mich./Bay State Breakers) (Twin Lake, MI) scored a pair of goals and Tyler Mazzei (Kelowna, British Columbia/Nanaimo Clippers) (Kelowna, BC) had a pair of assists. Brennan Sarazin (Nepean, Ontario/Nepean Raiders) (Nepean, ON) had a goal and an assist and Andrew Favot (King City, Ontario/Aurora Tigers) (King City, ON) extended his point-scoring streak to seven games with an assist.

Louis Menard (Chicoutimi, Quebec/Ottawa Senators) (Chicoutimi, PQ) picked up his fourth win of the season, making 21 saves and allowing four goals. Sophomore #Jan Ropponen (Espoo, Finland)# saw his first action as a Tiger, making seven saves.

RIT out shot the Huskies 38-32 and went 2-for-5 with the man advantage. The Tigers held UCONN to 2-for-9 on the power play.

RIT took a 1-0 lead on Mike Janda's (Glen Ellyn, IL) third goal of the season. Off a face-off in UCONN's zone, Janda, parked in front of the net, poked home a rebound off a shot from Tyler Mazzei (Kelowna, British Columbia/Nanaimo Clippers) giving the Tigers an early lead. Dan Ringwald (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Blades) had the second assist on the play.

The Huskies tied the game at 10:08 on a goal from Sean Erickson. He skated and beat Louis Menard (Chicoutimi, Quebec/Ottawa Senators) on a sharp-angled shot from the side of the net, scoring his third goal of the season.

The Tigers exploded for five goals in the second period, the most goals scored in a period since October 20, 2006 versus American International. Anton Kharin (Twin Lake, Mich./Bay State Breakers) had two of the Tigers five goals narrowly missing the hat trick when a shot whistled wide late in the period.

Three of RIT's five goals came in a 1:29 span. Matt Crowell (Kelowna, British Columbia/Williams Lake Timberwolves) (Kelowna, BC) started the scoring run at 6:20, tallying his ninth goal of the season. Anton Kharin (Twin Lake, Mich./Bay State Breakers) tallied his second goal of the season at 7:32 on assists from Ringwald and Trevor Eckenswiller (Lions Head, Ontario/Oakville Blades) (Lionshead, ON) and Scott Knowles (Riverside, Ontario/Surrey Eagles) (Riverside, ON) rounded out the run with his first collegiate goal at 7:49, making it 4-1. Ringwald had three assists in the period.

Kharin and Brennan Sarazin (Nepean, Ontario/Nepean Raiders) scored after a goal by Chris Ochoa, making it 6-2 RIT. The Tigers fired 14 shots in the second and went 1-for-1 with the man advantage.

Connecticut scored two straight goals to open the third period to cut RIT's lead to 6-4. Brad Cooper tallied a power play goal at 3:51 of the third on assists from Jeff Saphieha and Matt Turner.

Matt Pedemonti made it 6-4 with a power play goal at 7:24 on assists from Chris Ochoa and Jordan Behler.

The Tigers put the game away when #Cameron Burt (Detroit, MI)# scored at 10:19 of the third on a nice feed from Brennan Sarazin (Nepean, Ontario/Nepean Raiders).

RIT, now 12-9-1 overall and 11-4-1 in the AHA, will host American International College next Friday and Saturday in a weekend series at Ritter Arena.