Men's Hockey | 11/18/2012 5:31:00 PM

Box Score

WORCESTER, MA. – The RIT men's hockey team (2-7-2, 1-4-2 AHA) skated to a 3-3 tie at Holy Cross (7-2-1, 6-2-1 AHA) in an Atlantic Hockey contest at the Hart Center on Sunday afternoon. Brad Reid (Delta, British Columbia/Coquitlam Express), Adam Mitchell (Crofton, MD/Baystate Breakers) and Jeff Smith (Spokane, WA/Tri-City Storm) scored the Tigers' goals with Smith's goal giving RIT a 3-2 lead late in the third period. The Crusaders would draw even with a goal with under two minutes remaining in the third period.  
 
Holy Cross wasted little time getting on the scoreboard in the first period. Kyle Fletcher fired a shot that beat Josh Watson (Lititz, PA/Powell River Kings) only 48 seconds into game. Less than three minutes later, Rob Linsmayer gathered a rebound and put it into the open net. Neither team would score the rest of the period as Holy Cross took a two-goal advantage into the first intermission. The Crusaders held a 13-7 lead in shots and both teams were 0-for-1 on the man-advantage.
 
The Tigers came out of the locker room on fire to start the second period. At the 3:32 mark, Reid cut the deficit to one with his second goal of the season. Greg Noyes (Lucan, Ontario/Salmon Arm Silverbacks) and Alexander Kuqali (Pittsburgh, PA/Sioux City Musketeers) were credited with the assists for the Tigers. 2:54 later, RIT drew even as Mitchell stuffed in a shot on a breakaway after recieving a pass from Noyes. Minutes later, the Tigers, despite being shorthanded, had a 2-on-1 but Ben Lynch (Blaine, MN/Lincoln Stars) couldn't settle the puck on his stick. Watson made 11 saves in the period as the teams went into the break tied at 2. The Tigers killed both of Holy Cross' power play chances in the stanza.  
 
Each team had power play chances in the early stages of the third period but neither side could cash them in. There were two 4-on-4 sequences in the period and the Crusaders nearly took the lead on the second one. With just over nine minutes to play, Holy Cross skated out to a 2-on-1 break but Watson made a tremendous sliding glove save to keep the score even. The game would remain even until the 16:36 mark when Smith would jam home a rebound to give the Tigers their first lead of the game. The lead wouldn't last long as the Crusaders answered at the 18:17 mark when Shayne Stockton whistled a shot that hit the post and deflected off Watson's back to just trickle over the goal line, sending the game into overtime.  
 
Neither team would break through in the overtime period. The Crusaders put four shots on goal, while the Tigers had none.
 
For the game, Watson finished with 35 saves to move to 1-2-2 on the season, while Matt Ginn added 25 for the Crusaders. Both teams finished 0-for-4 on the power play.  
 
Head Coach Wayne Wilson saw his team moving in the right direction.
 
“This game will make us better,” said Wilson. “That's all we can do at this point, is continue to work hard and get better. I saw some positive signs with the power play and the penalty kill today.”
 
The Tigers return to action on Friday night when they host Clarkson at 7:05 p.m.