Men's Hockey | 10/30/2009 10:53:00 PM
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ROCHESTER, NY – Senior defenseman #
Alan Mazur (Burnaby, British Columbia)# scored his first collegiate hat-trick, as RIT Head Coach #
Wayne Wilson# became the all-time leader in coaching wins at RIT, earning his 189th career victory, as the men's hockey squad (1-5-0, 1-2-0 AHA) picked up its first win of the season, 6-2 over the Connecticut Huskies (0-4-0, 1-2-0 AHA) on Friday evening before a crowd of 1,839 at Ritter Arena.
Wilson broke the record of 188, held by Eric Hoffberg, who coached at RIT from 1989-99. Wilson is now 189-96-24 in his 11th season at RIT.
Mazur, who came into the game with 20 career goals in 102 games, tallied three power-play goals, which is a Division I team record. He also added an assist. It is the fourth hat-trick for RIT since the Tigers moved to Division I in 2005. #Matt Smith# had hat-tricks in back-to-back games against Holy Cross in the Atlantic Hockey playoffs two seasons ago. Last season, #
Matt Crowell (Kelowna, British Columbia/Williams Lake Timberwolves)# scored three goals in a 5-2 win at Canisius. Mazur is the first RIT defenseman to record a hat-trick.
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Chris Tanev (Toronto, Ontario)#, #
Andrew Favot (King City, Ontario)#, and #
Mark Cornacchia (Unionville, Ontario)# also scored for the Tigers. Cornacchia's goal was the first of his collegiate career. #
Dan Ringwald (Oakville, Ontario)# added three assists for the Tigers, while #
Mike Janda (Glen Ellyn, IL)# had a pair helpers. Ringwald has seven assists ion his last two games against Connecticut, dating back to last season.
RIT, who had come into the game with three power-play goals in the first five contests of the season, exploded for four goals with the man-advantage in seven attempts. RIT is now 7-for-19 on the power-play over the last four games.
The Tigers dominated play throughout, out-shooting Connecticut 39-21. #
Jared DeMichiel (Avon, CT)# made 19 saves to earn his first win of the season. Jeff Larson stopped 33 shots for the Huskies.
Wilson was happy to have some bounces go the Tigers way tonight.
“It's been a really weird couple of weeks, because we've been really happy with our play, just not with the results,” said Wilson. “The power-play comes in waves, and we finally caught some breaks tonight. We got some good results tonight. Being at home gives us an edge. It is one win though, hopefully we can finish the series off tomorrow night.”
RIT led 3-2 going into the final period, but put the game away with three goals in the final frame.
Cornacchia made it 4-2 RIT early in the period, converting a pass from Janda in close for the goal. #
Taylor McReynolds (Sherwood Park, Alberta)# made the great play on the goal, diving at the blue-line to keep the puck in the zone. He found Janda in the slot, who fed Cornacchia in front.
Just three minutes later, Favot tallied his second goal of the season, roofing a rebound from in close over a sprawled Larson. Ringwald and Mazur assisted on the tally, making it 5-2 Tigers.
Mazur scored his third goal of the night while the Tigers were enjoying a two-man advantage with 7:41 left. He ripped a shot from the right face-off circle past Larson. #
Cameron Burt (Detroit, MI)# and Ringwald drew assists on the goal.
The Tigers came out flying, dominating play throughout the first period, out-shooting Connecticut 15-5, and holding a 2-1 lead.
Connecticut jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 7:39 mark of the first period, on its second shot of the period, as Corey Jendras circled the net, and surprised DeMichiel, beating the Tiger goaltender between the legs.
The Tigers used the man-advantage to tie the game at 1, 1:36 later, as Mazur converted a rebound from in front of the net. Favot fed Janda who was robbed by Larson in close. The rebound came to Mazur who beat Larson up high for her second goal of the season.
Mazur tallied his second goal of the period, once again on the power-play at the 13:14 mark. He took a feed from Ringwald in the slot and ripped a shot that was stopped by Larson, bounced off the back boards off the top of the net and Larson, then off a Huskies defenseman into the net.
Both teams traded goals in the second period, as RIT led 3-2 after 40 minutes of play.
RIT went up 3-1 midway through the period, as Tanev floated a puck from the right point that had eyes and went over Larson inside the left post, just under the crossbar for his second goal of the season.
Stevan Matic (Burnaby, British Columbia) assisted on the goal.
Connecticut came back with a power-play tally of its own with 4:33 left in the period, as Andrew Olson fired a fluttering shot off a rebound past DeMichiel for his first of the year. Jason Krispel found Alex Gerke, who fired a shot from the point that was blocked. The rebound caromed right to Olson, who was all alone in the slot.
The Tigers out-shot Connecticut in the period, 12-8, and held a 27-13 edge in shots after 40 minutes of play.
The win snapped a six-game losing streak for the Tigers, dating back to the 2008-09 Atlantic Hockey semifinals against Mercyhurst. RIT's 0-5-0 start to the season was tied for the worst in program history, with the 1987-88 squad.
RIT enjoys the friendly confines of Ritter Arena, as they scored 91 goals in 18 games last season (5.1 per game).
The Tigers lead the all-time series between the two schools, 10-5-1, and are 5-3-1 since moving to Division I in 2005. RIT won the season series 3-1 last season, and scored 12 goals in two wins at Ritter Arena.
The Tigers and Huskies conclude their weekend series on Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
