Men's Hockey | 10/28/2011 9:39:00 PM

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ERIE, PA – Despite firing a season-high 50 shots, the RIT men's hockey team (1-3-1, 0-2-1 AHA) suffered its third consecutive loss, falling to Mercyhurst (1-4-0, 1-0-0 AHA) in an Atlantic Hockey Association contest, 2-1 in front of 955 fans at the Mercyhurst Ice Center on Friday.

Nolan Descoteaux (Dallas, TX/South Shore Kings) scored RIT's lone goal, converting a rebound off his own shot with 4:52 remaining in regulation after Mike Colavecchia (Maple, Ontario/Lindsay Muskies) caused a turnover at the Mercyhurst blue-line.  Colavecchia tipped the puck to Mitchell, who found Descoteaux streaking into the Mercyhurst zone.  The goal was Descoteaux's second of the season, snapping a 170:49 scoreless streak for the Tigers.

RIT kept pressuring and nearly tied the game with under a minute to play, as a shot by Chris Haltigin (Oakville, Ontario/) found its way through, with the rebound coming to Matt Garbowsky (St. George, Ontario/Powell River Kings), who just missed converting.

RIT out-shot Mercyhurst, 50-27.  Lakers goaltender Max Strang stopped 49 shots to earn the win.  RIT goaltender Jordan Ruby (Tavistock, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) made 25 saves in defeat for the Tigers.

RIT's penalty-killing unit was excellent, killing off all four Mercyhurst power-play attempts.  RIT was scoreless on three power-play attempts.

RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson thought that his team's effort was good, but knows his team needs to bear down on its chances.

“We tried to get pucks to the net, had plenty of traffic, and fired 50 shots, but couldn't get a lot of puck luck,” said Wilson.  “Mercyhurst blocked a lot of shots, but we still had our share of chances, just couldn't get the puck in.”

The Tigers at times dominated play in the opening first period, but went to the locker room down 2-0.  RIT had several good chances, but the Lakers did a good job clearing out the front of the net and keeping the Tigers to the perimeter.

Adam Hartley (West Vancouver, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles) had a golden chance early on, as Strang kicked out a big rebound off a shot by Haltigin, but the puck bounced over the junior forward's stick.

Cameron Burt (Detroit, MI/) had a breakaway moments later, but missed wide.

Mercyhurst got on the board twice in a span of 1:49 late in the period.  Chris Bodo cleaned up a rebound off a shot by Zac Frischmon, batting the puck cleanly out of midair while driving to the corner of the net.

Misiak gave the Lakers a 2-0 lead, once again converting a rebound past Ruby after he made the original save on a shot by Daniel O'Donoghue.

RIT was by far the dominant team in the second period, out-shooting the Lakers 16-6, and carrying the play, but could not get a puck past Strang.

Ruby made a huge save for the Tigers just 21 seconds into the period, as he robbed Daniel Bahntge on a breakaway.

Taylor McReynolds (Sherwood Park, Alberta/) had a great chance later in the period, as he deked a defenseman, and had a point blank chance on Strang, but the Mercyhurst goaltender made a strong pad save.

RIT is now 27-14-5 all-time against the Lakers and are 11-5-2 against Mercyhurst since moving to Division I in 2005.  RIT had its eight-game unbeaten streak spanning five years at the Mercyhurst Ice Center snapped.

RIT has now scored just two goals over its last three games.

The Tigers return to action next Friday and Saturday, as Army comes to Ritter Arena for a two-game series.  Both games get underway at 7:05 p.m.