Men's Hockey | 2/9/2012 9:33:00 PM

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BUFFALO, NY  – The RIT men's hockey team (16-10-3, 13-6-3 AHA) moved back into a tie for first place in the Atlantic Hockey Association standings, after defeating Canisius College (9-16-4, 9-10-3 AHA) 3-1 at Buffalo State Ice Arena on Thursday evening.

RIT dominated play throughout, out-shooting Canisius 36-16. The 16 shots allowed are a season low. Chris Haltigin (Oakville, Ontario/), Taylor McReynolds (Sherwood Park, Alberta/), and Matt Garbowsky (St. George, Ontario/Powell River Kings) scored for the Tigers, who moved to 9-1 in their last 10 games against Canisius. Ben Lynch (Blaine, MN/Lincoln Stars) added two assists and was named the third star. McReynolds also recorded an assist and was named the game's first star.

RIT goaltender Shane Madolora (Salinas, CA/) picked up his 14th win of the season, stopping 15 shots. He was not tested often throughout the first two periods, but had to make some big saves over the final 10 minutes to preserve the win.

Canisius goaltender Tony Capobianco was stellar in net for the Golden Griffins, stopping 33 shots, including at least a dozen from point-blank range to earn the game's second star. Taylor Law scored Canisius' lone goal, 8:50 into the third period to cut RIT's lead to 2-1.

Both teams were 0-for-6 with the man-advantage. RIT has now killed off 52 of its last 54 attempts while shorthanded.

RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson was happy to get back into the win column.

“I thought we had a pretty good effort tonight, although we left three or four more goals on the table and didn't capitalize on lots of chances,” said Wilson. “We got the job done tonight. Canisius has done a good job keeping themselves in a lot of close games and I am sure Saturday will be the same.”

After a slow first seven minutes, RIT jumped all over the Golden Griffins, firing 15 of the final 17 shots on goal over the last 13 minutes of the first period, scoring the game's lone goal for a 1-0 lead.

The Golden Griffins had one great chance early, as Kyle Gibbons waltzed in alone after a turnover in the RIT zone. Fortunately for RIT, Madolora was there to hold his ground and make a great blocker save, keeping the game scoreless.

Capobianco made a handful of huge saves to keep it scoreless. His first big save came on Haltigin at the side of the net, as took a backdoor feed from Cameron Burt (Detroit, MI/). Moments later, Burt was then stoned on a rebound at the side of the net, as the Canisius goalie put his glove and blocker up in desperation to make the stop. Capobianco then made a big save on Mark Cornacchia (Unionville, Ontario/) on a rebound from point-blank range.

Brandon Thompson (Vancouver, British Columbia/Handsworth) had three great chances in the first, but could not get the puck past Capobianco. Overall, Thompson fired a game-high five shots on goal.

RIT finally got on the board with 3:44 left in the period, as Haltigin fired a low wrist shot through a maze of bodies in front for his third tally of the season. Lynch took a shot that was blocked with the rebound coming to Adam Hartley (West Vancouver, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles) at the left wall. He shoveled a pass back to Haltigin, who was able to survey the collection of bodies in front and fire the shot past a screened Capobianco, just inside the right post.

McReynolds scored his second goal of the season 2:44 into the second period after hard work by the Tigers inside the Canisius zone. Lynch forced a turnover down low, then fed McReynolds at the left face-off circle, and the senior forward backhanded a shot through the legs of Capobianco for the goal.

Trevor Eckenswiller (Lions Head, Ontario/) nearly made it 3-0 moments later on a shorthanded rush, as he received a pass in the high slot and fired a hard slap shot that Capobianco snared out of midair.

Madolora was barely tested in the period, but he did rob Law with a sprawling pad save in tight after a giveaway behind the RIT net.

Brad McGowan (Langley, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles) was robbed by Capobianco in the final seconds of the period, as Garbowsky fed him a nice saucer pass on a 2-on-1. McGowan redirected the pass, but Capobianco was able to get across and keep it 2-0 Tigers.

Law cut RIT's lead to 2-1 with 11:10 left in regulation, when he fired in a shot past Madolora just under the crossbar after a bad RIT change. Mitch McCrank caused a turnover at the RIT blueline and came in with Kyle Gibbons on a 3-on-1. Gibbons fed Law, who was all alone in front for the goal.

RIT responded, 4:05 later, when Garbowsky crashed the net and jammed in a rebound off a shot from McReynolds for his sixth goal of the season. Daniel Spivak (Thornhill, Ontario/) also assisted on the goal, making a nice feed through the neutral zone to find McReynolds.

RIT had to kill off 12 seconds of a 6-on-3 Canisius man-advantage in the final minute. On that kill, Cornacchia did great work to clear the puck, out race the defender down the ice, and draw a slashing call, while hitting the post from a tough angle on the left side with the empty net seconds later, essentially sealing the win.

Tonight was the second of three meetings between the two schools this season. Canisius won the first meeting between the two teams in Buffalo on Oct. 20, 3-1, snapping RIT's eight-game winning streak against the Golden Griffins dating back to the 2008-09 season. 

RIT is 54-15-1 all-time against Canisius and 15-5-0 since moving to Division I in 2005-06.

RIT returns to action on Saturday, as they will “Make the Rink Pink” in its final regular season match-up against Canisius at 7:05 p.m.