Men's Hockey | 1/17/2009 10:54:48 PM

ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men's hockey team (14-9-1, 13-4-1 AHA) used balanced scoring to defeat American International College (4-18-1, 4-13-0 AHA) 6-1 in front of 1,824 fans at Ritter Arena on Saturday evening. RIT's nine game-winning streak is the longest overall for the Tigers since an 11-game stretch during the 2000-01 season.

RIT broke the game open with three second period goals.

The Tigers are now all alone in first place in Atlantic Hockey.  The Tigers are now two points ahead of Air Force, who were swept by Canisius this weekend.  Air Force does have two games in hand on RIT.  The Tigers lead Atlantic Hockey with 27 points.

RIT scored its Division I leading eighth shorthanded goal and went 2-for-3 on the power-play. The Tigers out-shot American International 42-22. Twelve different players recorded at least one point for RIT.

RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson was pleased with his team's effort tonight.

”We broke our way through and capitalized on our chances in the second period,” said Wilson. "We didn't get out of hand taking penalties and when we did our penalty killing was excellent. We will take scoring shorthanded goals, but it is more important to stop their power-plays.”

Matt Crowell (Kelowna, British Columbia/Williams Lake Timberwolves) (Kelowna, British Columbia), Jesse Newman (Kelowna, British Columbia/Trail Smokeeaters) (Kelowna, British Columbia), #Sean Murphy (Owatonna, Minn./Green Bay Gamblers)# (Owatonna, MN) and #Bobby Raymond (Lucknow, Ontario/Owen Sound)# (Lucknow, Ontario) each had a goal and an assist. #Anton Kharin (Twin Lake, Mich./Bay State Breakers)# (Moscow, Russia) dished out two assists, while #Mark Cornacchia (Unionville, Ontario/Markham Waxers)# (Unionville, Ontario) recorded his first collegiate assist.

Tiger netminder Louis Menard (Chicoutimi, Quebec/Ottawa Senators) (Chicoutimi, Quebec) made 16 saves to pick up the win. Sophomore Jan Ropponen (Espoo, Finland/Espoo Blues) (Espoo, Finland) played the final 7:48 and stopped all five shots he faced. Dan Ramirez made 18 saves for the Yellow Jackets in two periods of play. Tom Fenton made 18 saves in relief in the third period.

RIT opened the scoring at the 7:26 mark of the first period, as #Cameron Burt (Detroit, Mich./Green Bay Gamblers)# (Detroit, MI) jammed in a pass from Tyler Brenner (Linwood, Ontario/Elmira Sugar Kings) (Linwood, Ontario) in close for his seventh goal of the year. Brenner stole the puck from a Yellow Jackets defenseman and fed Burt, who was all alone in front of the goal.

The Tigers made it 2-0 with 1:53 left in the period, on the power-play, as a shot by Chris Haltigin (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Blades) (Oakville, Ontario) deflected to Newman,who found Crowell at the side of the net. Crowell was able to slip the puck into the open net for his 11th goal of the year and seventh in the last six games.

American International fought back and cut the Tiger lead in half with just 10.5 seconds left in the period, when Chris Campanale found Rody Selk streaking down the center of the ice on a 2-on-1. Selk one-timed the pass past a sliding Menard for the goal.

RIT upped the lead to 3-1 midway through the second, shorthanded, as Raymond sped through the neutral zone, spun around a defenseman in full flight and backhanded a shot through the legs of Ramirez for his third goal of the season. Raymond is now tied for the team lead with the shorthanded goals. Kharin and #Justin Hofstetter (Bright, Ontario/Cambridge Winterhawks)# (Bright, Ontario) also assisted on the goal.

Murphy added to the lead at the 13:39 mark, banging home a rebound off a shot from Raymond that was misplayed by Ramirez. Cornacchia also assisted on the goal. It was Cornacchia's first collegiate point.

Newman completed the onslaught with just four seconds left in the period, sliding a shot between Ramirez and the goalpost on the power-play from a tight angle. 

Stevan Matic (Burnaby, British Columbia/Langley Hornets) (Burnaby, British Columbia) finished the scoring for RIT with 2:26 left in regulation, banking a shot from in close off the skate of a Yellow Jackets defenseman for his fourth goal of the year.  

RIT leads the all-time series between the two teams, 12-2-1 and is 9-2-0 against the Yellow Jackets since moving to Division I in 2005. Last night, the Tigers scored three goals in a span of 2:53 late in the third period to erase a 3-2 deficit and win 5-3. The Tigers went 2-2 against American International last season. 

Favot and Crowell extended their point streak to eight games, while Brenner pushed his to seven. 

American International's winless streak has reached 10 games.

The Tigers will look to make it 10 straight wins on Thursday at Buffalo State Ice Arena against AHA foe Canisius.  The contest begins at 7:05 p.m.