Men's Hockey | 1/11/2012 1:51:00 PM
ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men's hockey team begins its stretch of 14 straight Atlantic Hockey Association games to end the regular season with a pair of contests at Sacred Heart on Saturday and Sunday. Both games will be played at Webster Bank Arena, home of the American Hockey League's Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Saturday's game gets underway at 4 p.m., while Sunday's game is a 12 p.m. start.
The Tigers come into this weekend's contests looking to get back into the win column after dropping a pair of hard fought road games against the University of Wisconsin, losing 6-3 on Friday and 2-1 on Saturday. On Friday, they played in front of an announced crowd of 11,741 fans and on Saturday, played in front of 12,453 fans. The two crowds broke the RIT regular season record for most fans in a game, snapping the previous mark of 10,556 fans set in 2010 and 2011 at Blue Cross Arena for Brick City Homecoming and Family Weekend.
On Friday,
Matt Garbowsky (St. George, Ontario/Powell River Kings),
Adam Mitchell (Crofton, MD/Baystate Breakers), and
Adam Hartley (West Vancouver, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles) scored for the Tigers, as both teams fired 33 shots on goal. On Saturday, the Tigers played one of their best defensive games of the season, allowing just 19 shots, including a season-low two in the second period of the 2-1 loss.
Chris Saracino (St. Louis, MO/Green Bay Gamblers) scored a power-play goal for RIT, while
Jordan Ruby (Tavistock, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) made 17 saves, including a handful of key stops in the first period to keep the game scoreless.
Cameron Burt (Detroit, MI/) leads the team in scoring with 16 points (4-12-16) in 19 games. Four Tigers have at least 10 points, including
Adam Mitchell (Crofton, MD/Baystate Breakers), who is a team-best plus-9. Goaltender
Shane Madolora (Salinas, CA/) is 8-4-1 with a 2.31 goals against average and .920 save percentage,
Sacred Heart (1-18-1, 0-12-1 AHA) is looking to snap an eight-game winless streak after losing twice at Mercyhurst last weekend, 9-1 and 3-1. The Pioneers, who are just two seasons removed from a spot in the AHA Championship game, have been outscored 108-43 in 2011-12. Matt Gingera and Brian Sheehan lead the team in scoring with 14 points apiece. Gingera has five goals and nine assists, while Sheehan has five goals and nine assists. In net, Steven Legatto is 1-13 with a 4.98 goals against average and .885 save percentage.
The Tigers lead the all-time series between the two schools, 10-4-2. Burt has 22 points (4-18-22) in 11 career games against the Pioneers. Last season, the Tigers went 1-0-1 against the Pioneers, winning 6-1 and playing to a 3-3 tie. The Tigers defeated Sacred Heart 6-1 to win the 2010 AHA Championship.
RIT is away from Ritter Arena for nine straight contests and do not play at home again until January 27. So far, RIT is 2-3 on its road swing.
