Men's Hockey | 10/31/2009 10:33:19 PM

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ROCHESTER, NY – Senior defenseman Dan Ringwald (Oakville, Ontario/) scored a natural hat-trick in the first period, leading the RIT men's hockey team (2-5-0, 2-2-0 AHA) to its second straight win, 7-0 over the University of Connecticut (0-6-0, 0-3-0 AHA) on Saturday evening.

Ringwald, who came into the game with 10 career goals in his first 110 contests, scored three times in a span of 8:10 midway through the first period to give RIT a 4-0 lead. It is the first time a Tiger has scored three times in one period at the Division I level. He recorded three assists on Friday evening, and now needs just three points to become the first Tiger defenseman and second skater with 100 in a career at the Division I level. Ringwald is second on the team in scoring with nine points in six games this season.

It is the fifth hat-trick in the five seasons of Division I play, and second in two nights. Last night, senior defenseman Alan Mazur (Burnaby, British Columbia/) recorded the hat-trick in RIT's 6-2 win.

Freshmen Chris Tanev (Toronto, Ontario/) scored a pair of goals, while Bryan Potts (Niagara Falls, Ontario/Markham Waxers), and Tyler Mazzei (Kelowna, British Columbia/) also scored for the Tigers, who out-shot Connecticut, 38-27.

Andrew Favot (King City, Ontario/) recorded three assists, while Stevan Matic (Burnaby, British Columbia/), and Brent Alexin (West Seneca, NY/) each had two assists for RIT.  Tyler Mazzei (Kelowna, British Columbia/) added a goal and an assist.  Senior goaltender Jared DeMichiel (Avon, CT/) made 21 saves to earn his second win of the season, and 16th of his career.  Freshman Shane Madolora (Salinas, CA/) played the final 10 minutes and made six saves to preserve the shutout, RIT's first of the season.

RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson was happy with the outcome this weekend.

“We were able to get shots from up top last night, and we thought we could get some good chances down low tonight,” said Wilson. “Our players made good decisions with the puck tonight, and were able to get some nice goals.”

Potts scored his first collegiate goal to open the scoring, 6:16 into the contest. It began a barrage of three Tigers goals separated by 1:59.

Potts jammed in a loose puck at the side of the Huskies net, after nifty cycling of the puck down low by the Tigers. Matic and Chris Saracino (St. Louis, MO/Green Bay Gamblers) did the dirty work behind the net, as Potts found himself open in front for the goal.

Exactly one minute later, Ringwald tallied his first goal of the contest, jamming home a back-door feed from Jeff Smith (Spokane, WA/Tri-City Storm) at the left of the Connecticut net for his first goal.

Just 59 seconds later, Ringwald scored in nearly identical fashion, this time on a power-play, as he took the feed from Favot cross-ice and went top shelf for the goal.

Ringwald completed the natural hat-trick with 4:34 left in the period, on the power-play, as once again, he took a back-door feed, this time from Cameron Burt (Detroit, MI/) and slammed the puck under the crossbar from in close.

The goaltender shined in the second period, with each making a handful of excellent saves. RIT scored the only goal of the period with 1:07 left, as Tanev took a feed from Favot in the high slot and ripped a low shot past Larson for his third goal of the season. Mazzei also assisted on the goal.

Mazzei scored his first goal of the season, 5:13 into the third period, as he converted a nifty feed from Alexin on a 2-on-1.

Tanev scored the final goal of the contest, his third of the weekend, and fourth of the season, at the 11:34 mark, just as a Connecticut penalty expired. He finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play from Alexin and Matic, with a shot from the slot that deflected off a Connecticut defenseman and past Larson.

RIT, who had come into the game with three power-play goals in the first five contests of the season, scored two goals with the man-advantage this evening, and six overall over the weekend. RIT is now 9-for-28 on the power-play over the last five games. The Tigers killed off all four Connecticut attempts with the man advantage.

The RIT defensemen shone brightly this weekend, scoring nine of the 13 goals.

RIT enjoys the friendly confines of Ritter Arena, as they scored 91 goals in 18 games last season (5.1 per game), and has 13 in two games this season.

The Tigers lead the all-time series between the two schools, 11-5-1, and are 6-3-1 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. RIT has scored 25 goals against Connecticut in the last four games, all at Ritter Arena.

The Tigers return to action next weekend, as they host AHA rival Army on Friday and Saturday at 7:05 p.m.