Men's Hockey | 1/7/2009 9:50:55 AM
ROCHESTER, NY - The RIT men's hockey team takes on the University of Connecticut Huskies at Ritter Arena on Friday, Jan. 9 and Saturday, Jan. 10 at 7:05 p.m. in a pair of exciting Atlantic Hockey contests. The Tigers hold sole possession of second place in the AHA standings with 19 points.
Zwiegle's is sponsoring Friday's contest. There will be a hot dog eating contest between the second and third periods. Saturday is youth hockey night sponsored by Tim Horton's. Any youth hockey player in eighth grade or below who wears their jersey gets in free. In addition, members of the Tigers will be signing autographs in the RITz Sports Zone after the game.
RIT (10-9-1, 9-4-1 AHA) is riding a five-game winning streak, and are outscoring their foes 21-12 over that span. Last weekend, the Tigers opened 2009 by sweeping a road series at Bentley, 3-2 and 4-2. The line of
Matt Crowell (Kelowna, British Columbia/Williams Lake Timberwolves) (Kelowna, British Columbia),
Andrew Favot (King City, Ontario/Aurora Tigers) (King City, Ontario) and
Jesse Newman (Kelowna, British Columbia/Trail Smokeeaters) (Kelowna, British Columbia) each had four points over the weekend. Goaltenders
Jared DeMichiel (Avon, Conn./Chicago Steel) (Avon, CT) and
Louis Menard (Chicoutimi, Quebec/Ottawa Senators) (Chicoutimi, Quebec) both earned wins in goal. DeMichiel stopped 28 shots on Friday, while Menard made 27 saves in Saturday's victory.
The Tigers lead all of Division I with seven shorthanded goals.
Connecticut (4-14-1, 3-7-1 AHA) is looking to snap a five-game winless streak. On Tuesday, the Huskies fell at Sacred Heart, 6-1. Before that, Connecticut lost to Air Force, 4-3 on Saturday. Jason Krispel leads the team in scoring with 14 assists and 15 points. Andrew Olson has seven goals. Goaltender Beau Erickson has played 16 games in net, recording a 3.73 goals against average and .886 save percentage.
RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 7-5-1 and is 2-3-1 against Connecticut moving to Division I in 2005. Earlier in the year, the two teams split a pair of games in Storrs. Connecticut won 2-1 on Nov. 21, while RIT battled back to win 5-4 the following evening. The Tigers scored two third period goals to rally from a 4-3 deficit and earn the win. It will be the first meetings between the two schools in Rochester since Jan. 19-20, 2007.
Tickets are available for this weekend's games at the Gordon Field House and Activities Center Box Office or by phone at (585) 475-4121. Fans can also purchase tickets via ticketmaster.com. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for RIT faculty, staff and alumni and $5 for students with ID.
Both games will be aired live on Time Warner Cable Sports channel 26, with Gene Battaglia and John Ditullio bringing you the action.
Hope to see you on Friday and Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
