Men's Hockey | 2/5/2010 9:44:57 PM

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MILFORD, CT – The trio of Andrew Favot (King City, Ontario/), Tyler Brenner (Linwood, Ontario/), and Cameron Burt (Detroit, MI/) combined for 10 points, leading the RIT men's hockey team (16-10-1, 16-4-1 AHA) to a 5-2 win over Sacred Heart (13-10-4, 11-7-3 AHA) on Friday. RIT snapped Sacred Heart's 12-game unbeaten streak in the process.

Favot set a career high with four points on two goals and two assists. Brenner added two goals and an assist, while Burt dished out three assists. Tyler Mazzei (Kelowna, British Columbia/) extended his point streak to seven games with a pair of assists. Chris Haltigin (Oakville, Ontario/) also scored for the Tigers.

RIT extended its lead to three points in the AHA standings over idle Air Force.

RIT's penalty-killing was excellent, allowing just one power-play goal in 11 attempts. The Tigers were 3-for-8 on the power-play.

The Tigers out-shot Sacred Heart, 34-30. Jared DeMichiel (Avon, CT/) stopped 28 shots to earn his 15th win of the season.

Matt Gingera and Erik Boisvert scored for Sacred Heart, who lost for the first time since Dec. 5, a span of exactly two months. Stevan Legatto made 29 saves in defeat, snapping his personal 12-game winning streak.

Both teams came out firing in a penalty-filled first period, which saw the two squads combine for 32 shots and three goals.

Sacred Heart came out hard early, but the Tigers were able to keep the Pioneers off the board.

Haltigin gave RIT a 1-0 lead 6:50 into the contest ripping a bullet of a wrist shot past Legatto on a four-on-four for his fourth goal of the year. Favot carried the puck through the neutral zone and found Mazzei at the blue-line. Mazzei fed Haltigin, whose high shot from the high slot went over Legatto.

Just 58 seconds later, Favot blasted a shot through a screen from the high slot on a power-play that eluded Legatto, giving RIT a 2-0 lead. Dan Ringwald (Oakville, Ontario/) and Chris Tanev (Toronto, Ontario/) assisted on the goal, Favot's seventh of the season. Tyler Brenner (Linwood, Ontario/) was the man with the screen in close.

Sacred Heart got on the board at the 11:09 mark, as Gingera wheeled from behind the net and roofed a wrist shot past DeMichiel off the crossbar and in from a tight angle to cut the RIT lead in half.
The Tigers had a golden chance to get back on the board, with just over a minute of 5-on-3 power-play time, but could not tally.

Both teams tightened up defensively during the period when there was 5-on-5 play. Special teams ruled however, as RIT scored a pair of power-play tallies and Sacred Heart responded one man-advantage goal, as RIT led 4-2 after 40 minutes of play.

Favot scored his second power-play goal of the game 5:07 into the frame, tipping a point-shot by Burt to give RIT a 3-1 lead. Brenner drew the second assist on the goal after digging the puck out of the corner and feeding Burt at the point.

From there, RIT ran into several penalty problems, having to kill off five Sacred Heart power-plays in the period.

The Pioneers cut the RIT lead in half, as Erik Boisvert slammed home a perfect cross ice feed from Paul Ferraro on a 5-on-3 power-play with 7:44 left in the period.

Play got physical, as DeMichiel was run by Gingera, then RIT's Taylor McReynolds (Sherwood Park, Alberta/) leveled Sacred Heart's Dave Jarman with a clean open ice hit minutes later.

Brenner gave RIT its two goal lead back with 2:26 left in the period, jamming in his own rebound from in tight for his seventh goal of the year. Burt and Tanev assisted on the goal.

Brenner iced the game with 1:06 left, slamming home a loose puck in front of the net after Favot won a face-off deep in the Pioneers zone.

Sacred Heart pulled Legatto with the man-advantage with just under four minutes left. He stayed out until about 1:20 left.

RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 8-3-1. Tonight's contest was the third of four meetings between the two schools this season, as RIT improved to 3-0-0 against the Pioneers this season. On Nov. 20-21, RIT swept the Pioneers by scores of 3-2 and 5-3 at RIT. In the first contest, Favot broke a 2-2 with a late power-play goal. The next afternoon, Brenner broke a 3-3 tie, scoring with 3:37 left, and Shane Madolora (Salinas, CA/) picked up his first collegiate win in the second game.

Ironically enough, one year ago to the day, Sacred Heart traveled to Ritter Arena and broke RIT's Division I program record 11-game winning streak, 6-4.

The same two teams meet on Saturday at 4:05 p.m.