Men's Hockey | 1/30/2010 9:53:54 PM

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ROCHESTER, NY – Bentley defenseman Bobby Preece recorded a hat-trick, including the game winning goal with 12:11 left, lifting the visiting Falcons (11-12-3, 9-9-2 AHA) to a 5-4 win over the RIT men's hockey team (15-10-1, 15-4-1 AHA) in front a pink-clad, sellout crowd at Ritter Arena on Saturday night.  It was RIT's first AHA home loss of the season.

Preece, who also added an assist and was plus-4, gave Bentley a 5-3 lead, banking a bad angle shot off a Tiger defenseman and past a bewildered Jared DeMichiel (Avon, CT/). Earlier in the period, Brendan Harrison snapped a three-all tie in the opening minute of the period on the power-play off a rebound from a shot by Preece.

The Tigers cut the Bentley lead to 5-4 with 6:50 left, as Chris Tanev (Toronto, Ontario/) ripped a slap-shot past Bentley goaltender Kyle Rank on the power-play off a rebound. Andrew Favot (King City, Ontario/) and Cameron Burt (Detroit, MI/) assisted on the goal.

RIT applied the pressure from there on, and had a furious rush over the final 1:05 with DeMichiel pulled, but could push the equalizer past Rank. Rank stopped 36 shots to earn the win.

RIT out-shot Bentley, 40-23, in what was a very physical game. The Tigers were 2-for-8 with the man-advantage, while Bentley was 1-for-4. Rank stopped 14-of-15 third period shots.

DeMichiel, who had been on an amazing run in goal for RIT, fought the puck all evening, and stopped 18 shots. Burt scored two goals and added an assist. Favot and Tanev each had a goal and an assist. Tyler Brenner (Linwood, Ontario/) added his first two assists of the season.

RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson thought his team played pretty well, but was also impressed by the way Bentley played.

“I thought our power-play did a good job tonight, but I was also very impressed by the way they (Bentley) played not only tonight, but all weekend,” said Wilson. “They played tough and their goalie came up big tonight. The puck bounced funny tonight, some weird bounces got past us, and we had a few that did not find the back of the net.

The Tigers implemented “Make the Rink Pink” in an effort to cure cancer, working with Zeta Tau Alpha sorority to raise money for cancer. The Tigers donned special pink jerseys that will be auctioned off in the fund-raiser. The Tiger jerseys are currently available for bidding online. The bidding ends at 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31. Jersey proceeds will go to Rochester General Hospital's Lipson Cancer Center.

The first period featured a plethora of hard hits and end to end action.

Unlike last night, Bentley jumped out to the early lead on a pair of goals by Preece. His first goal came seconds after DeMichiel was interfered with by Aaron Stonacek. Demichiel took exception and took a run at Stonacek after the whistle, negating the RIT power-play. On the ensuing face-off Dan Koudys won the draw right back to Preece, who took a few steps in and blasted a slap-shot that beat DeMichiel from 50-feet out at the 6:51 mark.

Preece tallied his second of the period five minutes later, taking a feed from Joe Campanelli and wiring a shot past a screened DeMichiel just under the crossbar.

The Tigers got on the board just 1:18 later, as RIT took advantage of a Bentley giveaway in the defensive zone. Mazzei corralled the loose puck in front and fed Favot who fired the puck into the gaping net from in tight for his sixth goal of the season. It was Favot's first goal in 13 games, going back to Nov. 20, 2009.
The goal seemed to spark RIT for the rest of the period, as they took control of play, and out-shot the Falcons 15-7 over the opening 20 minutes of play.

Bentley retook its two goal lead just 1:24 into the second period, as Stonacek crashed the net and buried a rebound off a shot by Joe Campanelli.

Burt cut the Falcons lead in half with his first of two second period goals at the 6:19 mark, gloving down a blocked shot by Alan Mazur (Burnaby, British Columbia/), wheeled around and slid a shot past Calvi for his 10th of the year. Scott Knowles (Riverside, Ontario/) also assisted on the goal.

Just three minutes later, Burt tied the game on the power-play taking a feed from Brenner in the slot after Tanev dug the puck out of a scrum. Brenner found Burt in the high slot and Burt made no mistake, rifling a slap-shot over the glove of Calvi for his team-best 11th goal.

Bentley had two goals disallowed in the period. At 7:52, Jeremy Robert slammed into DeMichiel, just a puck was going towards and past the Tiger net-minder. At the 13:50 mark, Marc Menzione deflected a Bentley point-shot past DeMichiel on the power-play, but it was ruled the puck was played with a high stick.

The loss snapped nine-game home winning streak against AHA foes. It was the second time RIT has allowed five goals in a conference game this season. RIT had allowed just five goals over its previous five games before tonight.

RIT is 10-4-1 all-time against the Falcons and 8-3-1 since 2005. RIT has won six straight at home against the Falcons. Last season, the Tigers posted 4-2 and 3-2 wins at Bentley.

Last night, RIT defeated the Falcons, 4-1. Mazzei, Adam Hartley (West Vancouver, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles), Sean Murphy (Owatonna, MN/), and Mark Cornacchia (Unionville, Ontario/) scored for the Tigers, while DeMichiel made 30 saves.

The Tigers are back in the road next weekend, as they travel to play AHA foe Sacred Heart. Both games begin at 7:05 p.m.