Men's Hockey | 11/9/2012 9:58:00 PM

Box Score

ROCHESTER, NY - Tyler Shiplo scored with 10:45 left in regulation to break a 3-3 tie and lift the visiting Mercyhurst Lakers (3-2-1, 3-1-0 AHA) to a 5-3 win over the RIT men's hockey team (2-5-1, 1-2-1 AHA) in front of a sellout crowd of 2,100 fans at Ritter Arena on Friday evening. The Tigers have now lost two straight at home to start the 2012-13 season.

With a delayed penalty upcoming to the Tigers, Grant Gettinger carried the puck into the Tigers zone and had a shot blocked off into the corner. Nardo Nagtzaam wheeled around and fed Shiplo at the left point. Shiplo fired a shot through traffic past RIT goaltender Jordan Ruby (Tavistock, Ontario/Wellington Dukes), who never saw the shot.

Daniel O'Donoghue added an empty netter with one second left in regulation for the Lakers, who now have won three straight games.

RIT looked to have seized the momentum early in the period, as they killed off a five-minute major penalty given to Greg Noyes (Lucan, Ontario/Salmon Arm Silverbacks) for hitting from behind at the end of the second period. The goal by Shiplo quieted the sellout crowd, as RIT had a handful of chances late, but several shots came from the perimeter.

Before Noyes was ejected, he had a goal and an assist to lead the way offensively for RIT. Matt Garbowsky (St. George, Ontario/Powell River Kings) dished out two assists, while Mike Colavecchia (Maple, Ontario/Lindsay Muskies), and Adam Hartley (West Vancouver, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles) also scored for the Tigers. Alexander Kuqali (Pittsburgh, PA/Sioux City Musketeers) recorded his first collegiate point, an assist, on Hartley's first period goal. Garbowsky was named the game's second star. Ruby made 26 saves in defeat for the Tigers.

Daniel Bahntge led the Lakers with a pair of goals and was named the game's first star. Ryan Misiak dished out a pair of assists, while Nick Jones also scored. In net, Max Strang stopped 39 shots to earn the win.

The Tigers out-shot Mercyhurst 42-31. RIT was 2-for-3 with the man-advantage and is now 7-for-17 over the last five games after starting the year 0-for-14. RIT held Mercyhurst scoreless in four chances with the man-advantage.

RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson was happy with his team's effort, despite the loss.

"I am happy with the way we played, but we have things we need to work on," said Wilson. "We did a good job offensively, especially on the power-play, and our penalty-kill was great. We did turn a few pucks over that we shouldn't have, but we need to learn from this game and move on. The adversity will help us out in the long run."

Mercyhurst held a 2-1 lead after one period where not a single penalty was called and the two teams combined for 27 shots on goal.

The Lakers nearly got on the board at the 6:05 mark, as Charlie Carkin had Ruby beat with a shot from the high slot but fired it off the right crossbar.

Mercyhurst got on the board right after, at the 6:39 mark, as Bahntge found a seam in the RIT defense in the slot and took a feed from Paul Chiasson from the side of the net and beat Ruby, who had no chance on the goal. Ryan Misiak also assisted on the goal.

Mercyhurst went up 2-0 at the 12:26 mark, as Jones took advantage of another RIT defensive miscue, finding himself open in the slot, and potting a perfect pass from Trent Frey over the shoulder of Ruby for his second goal of the season.

Just 47 seconds later, RIT got on the board, as Hartley was cruising past the front of the net and deflected a point shot off his body from Kuqali and past Strang for his second goal of the year.  Kuqali and Noyes played catch off Hartley's face-off win before Kuqali's blast went off Hartley and in. The assist was Kuqali's first of his collegiate career.

RIT scored twice to erase a two-goal deficit in a wild second period in which the game was tied 3-3 after 40 minutes of play.

Mercyhurst hushed the Ritter Arena faithful just 13 seconds into the period, as Bahntge batted in a perfect feed from Misiak off a turnover in the neutral zone to make it 3-1. Misiak and Bahntge came in on a 2-on-1 and fed a saucer pass that Bahntge deftly bunted past Ruby for his second goal of the game and fourth of the year.

The power-play helped RIT get back into the game, as they scored twice with the man-advantage later in the period to tie the game.

At the 7:03 mark, Noyes batted in a rebound on the back door for his third goal of the season to make it a 3-2 game. Garbowsky crashed the net down low from the right side and was stopped by Strang, the rebound came to Adam Mitchell (Crofton, MD/Baystate Breakers) in front, who was stopped, then Noyes was there on the opposite side to put the puck in the empty net.

With 4:30 left in the period, Colavecchia took a feed from Garbowsky in front, made a nifty dangle around a defenseman's stick and put a shot past Strang for his second goal in the last two games. Chris Saracino (St. Louis, MO/Green Bay Gamblers) fed Garbowsky who ran a perfect give-and-go with Colavecchia down low for the tally.mbm,
 
RIT is 28-15-6 against the Lakers, 12-6-3 since 2005. The two teams will meet twice more, on Feb. 15-16 in Erie, Pa.

RIT has never lost more than two home games in a season in AHA play. They have matched that in just two home contests this season.

The Tigers return to action on Saturday evening with a home contest against AHA rival Canisius, which gets underway at 7:05 p.m.