Men's Hockey | 11/6/2009 9:43:43 PM

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ROCHESTER, NY – The line of sophomores Scott Knowles (Riverside, Ontario/) and Cameron Burt (Detroit, MI/), along with Sean Murphy (Owatonna, MN/) combined for nine points to lead the RIT men's hockey team (3-5-0, 3-2-0 AHA) to its third consecutive win, 6-1 over Army (1-5-2, 0-2-1 AHA) in front of a sellout crowd at Ritter Arena on Friday.

Knowles scored his first two goals of the season and added an assist, while Burt and Murphy tallied a goal and two assists apiece. RIT held a 34-25 edge in shots and scored a power-play goal for the sixth straight game, going 1-for-4 with the man-advantage.

Senior goaltender Jared DeMichiel (Avon, CT/) was strong in net for the Tigers, stopping 24 shots for his third win of the season.

Defensemen Dan Ringwald (Oakville, Ontario/) and Chris Haltigin (Oakville, Ontario/) also scored for the Tigers, who have tallied 19 goals in its last three wins. RIT has out-scored its foes, 19-3 over the three-game winning streak.

Owen Meyer scored in the third period for Army. That goal snapped a scoreless streak of 128:13 dating back to the second period of Friday's Connecticut game.

Head Coach Wayne Wilson liked his team's effort tonight.

“I thought our first two periods were nearly flawless,” said Wilson. “We were hungry around the net, did a great job killing penalties, and were strong defensively. I was happy with all four lines tonight. Everyone did a good job.”

Despite a fairly evenly played first period, RIT rocketed to a 3-0 lead. The Tigers out-shot Army 15-12 over the opening 20 minutes.

Knowles opened the scoring 3:13 into the contest with both teams a man down.  Chris Tanev (Toronto, Ontario/) scooped up a loose puck in the neutral zone, skated over the line and dropped a pass to Knowles. Knowles had some room to move and snapped a wrist shot over the blocker of Clark and under the crossbar for his first goal of the season.

Ringwald potted his fourth goal in the last two games, while on the power-play, as he found a loose puck in the slot and put the puck into the open side. Burt found Andrew Favot (King City, Ontario/) all alone in front. Favot went to the backhand and put the puck over the cage. Favot redirected the carom off the boards to Ringwald who was all alone in front.

The power-play goal was the first conceded by the Black Knights in three Atlantic Hockey contests this season.

The Tigers went up 3-0 with 3:59 left in the period, as Knowles jammed in a loose puck from the right side of the net off a wild scramble. Chris Saracino (St. Louis, MO/Green Bay Gamblers) fired a shot from the point that Clark stopped, but the rebound came to Burt. Burt had a shot blocked that bounced to Murphy. Murphy also had his shot blocked, but the puck came to Knowles who redirected it home from in close.

DeMichiel made some tough saves in the period, as Army generated some good chances down low.

The Tigers picked right up where they left off in the second period, scoring just 28 seconds into the frame. Murphy took a big hit at the Tiger blueline, but fed Knowles, who came flying in with Burt on a 2-on-1. Knowles found Burt in front, and Burt went high to the blocker side over Clark to make the score 4-0 RIT. The goal was Burt's fourth of the season.

From there, both teams settled down defensively. RIT ran into penalty problems midway through the period, but were able to kill off the Black Knight power-plays.

Both teams fired seven shots apiece during the period.

Meyer got the Black Knights to within 4-1, exactly four minutes into the final frame. He received a pass from Eric Sefchik inside the RIT blue-line, made a nifty move around a defenseman and ripped a shot to the far side past DeMichiel.

Haltigin put RIT up four goals at the 9:29 mark, as RIT did a good job cycling the puck inside the Army zone. Stevan Matic (Burnaby, British Columbia/) and Brent Alexin (West Seneca, NY/) worked the give and go down low, and found Halitigin in the slot. Haltigin blasted a shot over Clark's glove for his second goal of the year.

Murphy completed the scoring with 6:53 to play, slapping a shot from the right circle on the rush past Clark. Adam Hartley (West Vancouver, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles) and Saracino drew assists on the play.

Clark made 28 saves in defeat for the Black Knights. Army was 0-for-5 with the man-advantage.

RIT enjoys the friendly confines of Ritter Arena, as they have scored 19 goals in three games this season, after tallying 91 goals in 18 games last season (5.1 per game).

Ringwald, Favot, and Burt each have six-game point-scoring streaks.

The Tigers lead the all-time series between the two schools, 4-2-3. RIT won the season series 2-1-1 last season, and are now 2-1-2 against the Black Knights at Ritter Arena.

The Tigers and Black Knights complete their weekend series on Saturday at 7:05 p.m.